Digging up and moving ground (soil) blocks, raise land, make earth tiles

Comments: 115

• 16 Jul, '21
  Zam!

  I would make distinction to not make dynamite useless - hydrated soil can bu dug up, dehydrated hardened soil needs to be blasted.

• 21 Aug, '21
  Kenji

  I think that's more of a skill for a species of beaver of its own

• 22 Aug, '21
  SirMichael

  Would be interesting if the ground dug up came from river bed, giving the beavers the option to "dredge" the river. And storage would seem to need limitations. Would a block of soil dug out = a block of soil in storage, or would there be loss, so that you only get a portion of the soil block when dug out, 2/3rds, 4/5ths. Having a limit would prevent stockpiling too much as it would consume so much space.

• 01 Sep, '21
  Jaqui

  If implemented why not being able to use the soil for ramps to change levels for different ground levels only.
  No need for stairs, a low slope ramp ( takes more space but easier to move loads up or down ) if carts added then carts can change levels as well.

• 16 Sep, '21
  Nathan

  I wasn't sure I wanted this until I read "...and also takes long time to transport and tamp down."
  
  I now demand this be added, with an animation of the Beavers tamping the gound with their tails! :D

• 17 Sep, '21
  Dusty

  This would be really cool if it was a faction-specific trait.

• 17 Sep, '21
  James Yang

  Soil can be used as a key resource in the mid- and late-game. For example, clay can be made out of soil, and it is a common material used in making water containers. So it is more reasonable that large water tanks need clay to be built. Also, clay pots as a type of products can be consumed by the beavers, so that they can hold longer to be thirsty (you can understand it as keeping water in the bottle with them). Soil pile is also common in making better houses, which means beavers living in soil houses are more *comfortable*. IF there is a winter season in the future, soil houses are also warmer than wooden houses. Lots of possibilities with soil.

• 18 Sep, '21
  Adam J Lloyd

  I think this would be great for all factions. this would greatly help with my game atm. one other thing is a small animation of the beavers using their tails to smack the ground solid would be cute for this action

• 19 Sep, '21
  MinkuSama Merged

  Might sound similar to "moving soil blocks" but here we would be able to create that ground with excess food and rocks (they're not rocks, they're minerals), it would function as the exact opposite of dynamite

• 19 Sep, '21
  DJWolf-3 Merged

  I would love to have Terraforming in Timberborn because it would help with maximizing the area over a long period of time such as when we first play the game we choose a map that we like but depending on what we do we either level areas or build up to fill in gaps.
  
  I imagine when Terraforming there would be a few new things such as...
  1) Terraforming Beaver - Digs up Ground that is Marked for Demolition & Builds Ground that is Usable and Natural
  
  2) Terraforming Workshop - A Building that Hires around 4 beavers similar to the town center that also stores Dirt/Rock that can be used to build up the ground around the area
  
  3) Dirt/Rock Resource - Used for Building Terrain and also gained when Demolishing Terrain
  Example: Terraform Beavers Dig up the Terrain and Gain the Dirt/Rock Resource in which each block of terrain would give around 25 Dirt/Rock and When Building Terrain Each Block of Terrain would cost around 100 Dirt/Rock or so.
  
  Hope this Sparks Interest & Ideas

• 19 Sep, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "[Terraform] - Ability to Change the Area & Build Usable Ground" (suggested by DJWolf-3 on 2021-09-19), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 20 Sep, '21
  Thaina Yu

  Maybe require dynamite to do so
  
  I have an idea that, maybe dynamite will not just make hole, but instead it would make a soil pile as resouce and you need to collect it
  
  And to make a soil block it might require berry maybe?
  
  We could also make a planter box, that we could make a farm or plant tree over platform
  
  Another idea is to just have soil block as production, you can't dig it, only remove or create new one. Maybe require wheat, potato, berry, paper and wood log to create soil brick, and require 64 soil bricks to create one soil block

• 20 Sep, '21
  MINIMAN10000

  I gotta say that terraforming is a major one for me. Explosives bring a cost to removing dirt. I'd like to see a similar cost associated with adding dirt.

• 20 Sep, '21
  Thaina Yu Merged

  Even though I like this idea more it still should be merged with https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/suggestions/198054/ because it solve the same purpose

• 20 Sep, '21
  Merkhadia

  I wanted this feature as well, after thinking about it in the gam however I would like to add to the discussion that I do think it would heavily impact the game difficulty and push it to a much easier state.
  The only limited resource in the game right now is arable soil. This is the "puzzle" that the game provides to solve every map.
  
  
  If you want to terraform, you can already do that with levees.
  Realistically, the only thing you cannot do is "create farmable land", which for me ties in very heavily with the core puzzle/experience that this game provides.
  
  
  I realise that this is the unpopular opinion, but "moving soil" should be very limited imho.

• 20 Sep, '21
  pmduda Admin

  "Ground Creation" (suggested by MinkuSama on 2021-09-19), including upvotes (5) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 21 Sep, '21
  Kenju

  I love this idea and would love to see it (especially the beavers tamping down the soil lol) though there does need to be some balance involved to keep it from shifting the pendulum too far into making things too easy.
  
  If the 'cost' of dynamite is resources, then the 'cost' for soil would have to be time and space. I.E it doesn't just take time to do, but you must have dedicated space to store it to move it to. Given the way this game handles building I would also say it would be limited to a single square in elevation up or down, meaning it requires the same mechanics as building if you want to go down or pile up more than a single square in elevation at a time so you can't just dig a bottomless pit or make an infinitely tall pile of one square diameter.

• 22 Sep, '21
  Alyssa

  this would be amazing as a building (late game) with a loss 2/3 4/5
  and for a faction could have no loss of soil and a way to create soil (wheat berries carrot and potato (so that feature is late game))

• 22 Sep, '21
  cpt_murphy

  I think a balanced option to this would be to have a block that must be placed in flowing water and that over time fills up to become a solid ground block. Kind of like how actual real-life beaver dams eventually silt up.

• 22 Sep, '21
  traicere Merged

  can't we take away the dynamite from the folkstale because they are nature friendly And to be honest dynamite isnt realy nature friendly so it would be nice if the beavers could dig it away or dig a tunnel true mountains

• 23 Sep, '21
  Birat Shrestha Merged

  i was thinking of digging where u can dig and may your path for water or make a lake or river or for some other purpose. Right now only explosives is the way to do it but this will also be cool. It can be balanced by making the digging time more or maybe more no of beavers should be used to do it.

• 23 Sep, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Folkstale ( replace Dynamite With natural digging ," (suggested by traicere on 2021-09-22), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 24 Sep, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "New In Game Feature" (suggested by Birat Shrestha on 2021-09-23), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 25 Sep, '21
  David Underwood

  I've seen some threads about mining in the forums and wasn't sure about it. Thought it defeats the purpose of have a beaver community that builds everything with wood.  However in sure I'm not the only one that thinks Dynamite is almost to much late game to be useful.  Instead of adding removable rocks just have your miners be able to remove ground segments.  You store those in storage areas like logs.  Then that material can be used in mid to late game buildings.  I will put building ideas in comments.

• 25 Sep, '21
  David Underwood

  In order to mine you would need a mining station, that has an area like forester tower/ farm house.  Balance wise I think it should have Gears.  The removed ground/ rock is put in a pile storage like logs that cost planks.  Make the mining take some time to get a block removed but with enough time can move the landscape.  First build able item would he a rock levee (2 rock & 4 plank construction).  Works basically like a normal levee but ground only buildings can be built on to of it (log piles, temple, etc.).  Rock objects can't be built on wooden objects, and while can be used to replace ground squares, will not grow trees or food.
  
  Second item is a 2 story storage building with entrance on second for like larger houses (something like 2500 room).  The foundation is made of rocks, solid on top for building on.  Good alternative to underground storage. 

• 25 Sep, '21
  David Underwood

  Third item I can think of for now is a rock column and wood platform.  2 rock squares for column and a 9 (3×3) square wooden platform.  Most of the time in this game to build vertical you have to have put solid platforms with not much room to build anything in the future underneath it.  Whether building over a river or establishing infrastructure it would give another way for players to build vertically.

• 25 Sep, '21
  Arko

  Would love to see that earlier way to dig without waiting for unlocking the dynamite. However it should be quite limitative (slow work and need to stockpile) so dynamite stay the ultimate weapon for digging.
  Construction out of dug land would be dikes/dam I guess.
  As suggested by someone, could definitely be some faction-specific thing, providing some clay/soil buildings (tumulus style temple), using additional soil for some cultures (like asparagus), digging stairs should also be a thing, maybe tunneling or even mining ?

• 27 Sep, '21
  Zeirlynn

  Yes please let us fill in holes with dirt. Digging for the dirt somewhere else first is fine, i just want to be able to fill in holes. :)

• 28 Sep, '21
  MatchstickMan Merged

  Instead of just being able to demolish ground with dynamite, it would be great to have a way of filling land back in.
  
  Mainly this could be used so you can control the depth to which you drain water with something like a pump. Since you can't control that depth by putting in a platform of levee.

• 29 Sep, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Fill In Ground" (suggested by MatchstickMan on 2021-09-28), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 29 Sep, '21
  Vincent Sanko Merged

  As of currently, you can destroy terrain but not just dig/mine. It would be quite a valuable thing to have if instead of simply destroying ground material, you excavated it. You could also be able to mine into the ground to make passageways or even buildings underground (possible new faction theme?).
  
  Some types could be:
  -Soil, Easier to mine, can use a shovel. Can only farm on this.
  
  -Sand, Easiest to mine, can use a shovel.
  
  -Rock, Hardest to mine, needs a pickaxe.
  
  Sand/Soil/Rock can support light/medium/heavy structure loads ontop. While needing light/medium/heavy supports underneath. More material = more support/weight.
  
  Tools would be equipped by beavers whenever they do a task that uses them. They break after sufficient use. Manufactured at a tool shop.
  
  Excavating the ground takes way longer than simply blowing it up but yields more material. You can use that material to place blocks of it elsewhere. Feel free to add or pick to my ideas.

• 29 Sep, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Terraforming/Ground Physics" (suggested by Vincent Sanko on 2021-09-29), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 29 Sep, '21
  Revengeance

  Like the idea, but the difficulty with this proposal is that it makes the game much easier and makes various technologies useless. If you can freely move ground tiles, you wouldn't need dynamite (and hence could avoid levees, metal scavengers, shredders, paper mills, explosive factories...)
  
  The obvious solution is to make dynamite produce "rubble" which has to be harvested/cleared before it can be placed as raw ground. This would have the benefit of allowing terraforming to be reversed.

• 30 Sep, '21
  Zeirlynn

  In response to Revengeance and a few others...
  
  Maybe do it this way...
  
  Have loose dirt mounds and/or rock quarries, similar to the metal building frames we have now. Spend science points to unlock a landscaping flag, or such. The beaver who takes that job then very slowly harvests the dirt and/or rocks and stores them in a warehouse, like how they currently very slowly harvest the scrap metal. Then it can take several dirt clods or rocks to fill a hole. So it's a possible thing, but not on a large/fast scale. It could even need a new building that refines the harvested dirt/rocks to make it re-useable first. This keeps dynamite and other current tools very useful, but lets us fix accidental kablooies with a little effort.

• 02 Oct, '21
  DonD13

  Would love to see an erosion mechanic as well as the ability to dig/place dirt. Dirt would eventually wash away with moving water, where wood levees don't.

• 03 Oct, '21
  Zorby

  I think a good solution would be for the landscaping flag to require explosives in order to work.

• 05 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  DonD13, https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/suggestions/203753/add-erosion-system

• 07 Oct, '21
  Alz

  This should be in the game, but restricted only to Folktails. Explosives should be restricted to Iron Teeth.

• 07 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  Alz, strongly disagree. it takes away everything: balance, possibilities, mechanics for more factions...

• 09 Oct, '21
  Rakaziel

  Maybe for a mole faction - it would be their way of building dams!

• 10 Oct, '21
  Talon

  Maybe instead, there could be a composter block which turns logs and/or berries into dirt. That way dynamite won't become useless.

• 10 Oct, '21
  Banana Boy

  How about when you dynamite a block it doesn't remove the block entirely but instead reduces it to a pile of "rubble".
  
  Then you can either destroy the rubble with builders (like with removing trees/stumps/debris/buildings) or harvest it with like a "landscaper" flag.
  
  This can then be stored/processed with various other resouces like logs and water to create a "soil block".
  
  A new facility may also be required.

• 11 Oct, '21
  Stephen

  This would be good early game as the time taken to get dynamite is extreme. If the cost was taking a beaver 5 days per block it would probably be balanced. It would make one or two blocks possible but something which really had to be balanced against other options

• 11 Oct, '21
  Joel Boqvist Merged

  A way to fill in holes with dirt or dirt like material that you can still plant on. One thought I had while playing a session today was sawdust as an option. You could get sawdust from either a new building (ex. sawdust factory, 1-2 sawdust per log) or from an existing one (ex. plank factory,
  1 plank + 1 sawdust per log). Then if you mix the sawdust with water (in another new building, ex. dirt factory or landfill factory) you get a landfill that you can fill in terrain with.

• 12 Oct, '21
  SirMichael Admin

  "More landscaping options" (suggested by Joel Boqvist on 2021-10-11), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 13 Oct, '21
  SirMichael Admin

  from the chat: Potentially have different soil ratios based on difficulty, So digging soil(or exploding) up only yields 1/x of a tile. that 1/x need to be stored somewhere. When taking out of storage for use, it again yields 1/y of a full tile. This would allow digging soil and terraforming for it becomes more expensive than just moving soil.
  So the beavers dig 3 tile to yield 2 in storage, 2 in storage becomes only 1 when terraformed. Possibly explosions yield less than digging. This could then be difficulty based. Easy 3/2/1 normal 4/3/1, hard 7/4/1, or something like that.
  Additionally letting it vary by factions would allow one faction to work better with the land than another. So folk tails move soil better than Iron teeth.

• 15 Oct, '21
  mjevans

  Expanding on SirMichael's post from Oct 13
  
  The idea of grinding a map down to nothing through loss seems wrong. If a powered pump (mentioned in other suggestions) is added, it might use paper filters to collect some sediment that would otherwise wash away. This could be used in a composter with excess crops to slowly generate new soil. The composter could be it's own tier of unlock. The beehives (and possibly improved worker efficiency with farmers?) would make the Folk-tales more adept at creating new land.

• 15 Oct, '21
  carpii

  Another idea might be to have gravel pits dotted around the map, but they are actually in the water so you have to build bridges and platforms to get there, and then a building which dredges it.
  
  The gravel then used to make land blocks, and the forester can 'plant topsoil' turning it into arable land
  
  IMO there should be a two or three tier production chain involved in order to create fertile land, otherwise the map is not a challenge since you can just create land from nothing and you've an infinite food source

• 16 Oct, '21
  Michael Merged

  When dirt is blown up to be removed instead replace it with loose dirt that must, can be hauled off to another location to build up an area.

• 16 Oct, '21
  SirMichael Admin

  "Dirt Removal, Dirt Compacting" (suggested by Michael on 2021-10-16), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 20 Oct, '21
  Derrick

  I think an early game "earthworks" option to create the ramps that are already in-game: Apply 20 water to a square of earth to create that stepped earth square for early game steps.
  
  Apply water to other squares to dissolve them and remove them.

• 20 Oct, '21
  Thefirewarde

  A central part of the game is space and labour management. I think any major excavation project should have to deal with the spoil or debris generated by the removed material. This would create far more haulage to handle and require more time invested than current dynamite, and beavers would have to slowly transport debris from one tile to be cleared into another tile to be filled. This creates an interesting conundrum (especially if combined with another composting or similar system before the removed soil is viable for growth - but that's outside the scope of this change).
  
  TL, DR: require removing a 1x1x1 tile to place a similar tile somewhere else, immediately, using substantial labor to accomplish. Later game tech may reduce the labor needed.

• 23 Oct, '21
  Kenneth Ferland

  I would recomend differentiating the ground into several materials, Stone, Gravel, Sand, Mud, Clay. All but stone can be dug and moved by hand and have interaction with water in that the material can be picked up and moved by water with the Gravel -> Clay spectrum havinging progressivly lower water speed they remain suspended in. Likewise once on the ground water will percolate and irrigate through Gravel fastest but also dry fastest as well as how well they host plants and uses as materials (glass, bricks, wattle and daub). Maps will have much more complex layering of these materials forming the ground and sub-ground to add more to the hydrology of irregating land.

• 23 Oct, '21
  goldenSTAME Merged

  As you can imagine,the soil is not enough ,because it is limited，I can spend all the metal。

• 23 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "It is possible to excavate and find the soil that exists in the soil layer" (suggested by goldenSTAME on 2021-10-23), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 25 Oct, '21
  John Carnett Merged

  Beavers could dig up tiles and terraform the landscape, allowing the flow of rivers into new zones and the fertilization of new zones V.I.A. new waterways. This, of course, comes with it own set of caveats: For example: The ground doesn't just disappear. While soil (And harder materials) can be stored in warehouses, you could be able to relocate the soil to other places. Along with this, the deeper you go, the harder the rock will become. At first, you may require a specific type of beaver or more beavers to do the same job one beaver could have down 5 blocks up. Then, deeper still, dynamite will be required. Certain special ore veins could be found and mined. The folk tails, since they are much more Earth-friendly, may be less efficient at extracting and processing these veins than the Iron Tooth. Thank you for reading.

• 25 Oct, '21
  SirMichael Admin

  "Mining Tiles without Dynamite (In most cases)" (suggested by John Carnett on 2021-10-25), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 26 Oct, '21
  Fox Merged

  Idea: add a way to fill in holes with land. It's super disappointing to get super far with a map, start TNTing an area, then realize that the way I'm doing it is...not great. Then I can only fill it back in with structures, not land. I quit a save over this because I want things to look nice.
  
  I think it would make the most sense if you could only place land fill right next to existing land of the same height, so it's best used to fill in holes, and you can't just add taller land wherever.
  
  However, because you use TNT to demolish land I'm not sure where you'd get the dirt from. Maybe there'd be a late-game device for digging rather than blowing up? Then you'd be limited to blocks that exist in the world, and TNT would still have consequences.

• 26 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Land fill" (suggested by Fox on 2021-10-26), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 27 Oct, '21
  WhiteRoo Merged

  I like playing around the flowing water, and reshaping the map, but the dynamite is way too late on the tech tree. It requires a very substantial setup just to be able to manufacture it, all built around the limitation of not being able to reshape the land.
  
  Either it should require less setup, or having an early version would help a lot.
  
  Here is my idea:
  
  Dirt Pile flag. A 2 by 2 building, employs 1 or 2 beavers. You can mark a dirt block, just like with the dynamite, and the workers will excavate it taking way longer than with dynamite, carrying dirt to Dirt Pile flag. This then fills the Dirt Pile, which then allows the player to build a single dirt block elsewhere, which then empties the Dirt Pile allowing another block to be dug out.

• 27 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Dirt Pile (early version of dynamite)" (suggested by WhiteRoo on 2021-10-27), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 29 Oct, '21
  Mathilda Merged

  Would be interesting if every tile of dirt that you dynamite has to be moved somewhere else within your district, instead of them just disappearing. Use it to either build up other parts of the map or you have to create somewhere to stockpile land.

• 30 Oct, '21
  Strikasful Merged

  Landscaping happens more towards the "end game" due the requirements to make dynamite, but adding dig (digging = destroying 1 tile) capabilities to the worker can actually be a way so in the early game beavers could reshape the soil, and dynamite is more like mid to end game feature to destroy several tiles for 1 dynamite.
  
  Dynamite can also have alternatives such as shaped charge to destroy tile horizontally (we can destroy tile which have tile(s) above it) so we can have a cave system, I think that would be awesome!

• 30 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Dynamited tiles has to be moved to another location" (suggested by Mathilda on 2021-10-29), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 30 Oct, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Digging, Tunneling, Dynamite Rework" (suggested by Strikasful on 2021-10-30), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 11 Nov, '21
  Sapioit

  A different relevant suggestion is giving a new faction the option to create new ground blocks from food and wood. I linked that other suggestion below:
  
  https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/suggestions/231950/suggestions-for-the-third-faction

• 20 Nov, '21
  Earth Dragon

  Not a fan of this suggestion in the game's current state. It honestly trivializes so much of what the game tests you on. Being able to just move dirt around versus using hard earned wood to do it. Building levies and damns, as well as stackable buildings and exploding areas with dynamite is the beaver's version of this.
  
  There is just too much of a "let me do whatever I want" suggestions in games these days that if implemented take too much of the heart and soul away from the game.
  
  Please do not implement this lightly if it is done.

• 24 Nov, '21
  SirMichael Admin

  "Plant dirt to fill holes" (suggested by Fran on 2021-11-24), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 26 Nov, '21
  Adro30

  I'd love to be able to place dirt back down. Make it end game like dynamite but it is a feature I want to see. I play because of the city building aspect rather than the fight to live.

• 24 Dec, '21
  Merlin Merged

  Hi, I would find it nice if we could also terraform by adding or moving ground blocks to shallow water. These blocks could be used to build/harvest on as usual ground.

• 25 Dec, '21
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "possibility to add/move ground blocks" (suggested by Merlin on 2021-12-24), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 28 Dec, '21
  Xinpai

  I’d like to propose a common building for all factions located on the labor button and I think it has its usefulness but I don’t know if it would change the game too much, are the sappers, this building has up to a maximum of 5 workers providing 20% efficiency each, its function is to be able to move blocks of earth from one place to another within the radius of action of this building, this makes not only dynamite is the only option, in this case we change a production line directly to labor and prerequisites to determine. The moment you start moving the block you can’t interact with it or with the one you start to form in the new location, you can’t destroy the building either, but you can pause it. I believe that being a specific building and not accumulating anywhere but that beavers have to dig it and take it to the site to leave it at the moment adds a small disadvantage to make it not so unbalanced the game.

• 28 Dec, '21
  simonsays476

  Most city builder games never implement terraforming or map manipulation usually because of engine limitations or for easy balance of its primary gameplay mechanic. This always severely limits creativity and takes away from the sandbox experience by limiting what a player can do.
  
  Timberborn shouldn't have the engine limitation with its voxel based map (in theory) and for balance, there's a few simple solutions:
  * Make moving dirt the most end-game capability possible.
  * Make moving dirt so prohibitively expensive that it is always preferable to build levies and such, and do so by orders of magnitude (make it a heavy resource sink even, especially given that a lot of resources are infinite anyway).
  * Make placing dirt only possible on other dirt patches.
  * Optionally make moving dirt require building expensive infrastructure (minecart, tracks, powered mechanical excavator)
  
  I hope this is taken into strong consideration, it would further position the game as one of the best.

• 31 Dec, '21
  bevos

  I highly recommend this feature. Beavers are natural terra formers in the real wild world -- they move mud and debris and even rocks as big as a person's head.

• 01 Jan
  Martin Hellwig

  This should require two more things, a storage for soil and a factory for tools (spade) requiring iron. This would balance it out to be late game. However this should be something specific to a new faction, let's call them the Holelanders, very adapt at raising grounds to build dams and reclaim waterlogged grounds :-)

• 02 Jan
  Mel

  create dirt
  building- composter
  
  instead of moving dirt, why not use a composting system.
  putting resource into a new building that will create dirt tile, fertiliser
  
  building would need need a time factor attached. for example, 2 seasons for fertiliser. 4 seasons for dirt tile

• 06 Jan
  Jo Bama

  One of the good things of timberborn is you aren't basically a god the beavers do the work you tell them what to do. bring able to plant soil should either be a VERY late game faction or just not come. if they do add it you should have to plant it and let it grow for a while otherwise you the player are getting to much control

• 09 Jan
  Rouilleur

  Overpowered in my opinion, this would break a lot of the challenges of the game and trivialize irrigation/water management.
  This should be faction specific or very late tech.

• 09 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  Rouilleur, how is it overpowered or have anything to change in irrigation? The only benefit is farming possibility, It hardly breaks any challenges

• 10 Jan
  Tazilon Merged

  We are all good blowing holes in the ground and lowering land. It would really be nice to be able to raise land, too.
  
  The way to do this is to make some land dirt and some rock. Dirt could be repositioned by shovel and wheelbarrow (hmmm - more tools we need to craft). If you dig it up one place, you gotta put it somewhere else!
  
  Rock could only be removed by dynamite. Of course, crops will not grow on rock. They will only grow on dirt. Either you have to remove the rock to grow crops if you find dirt somewhere beneath the rock - or you have to pile dirt on top of it!
  
  Such a change would let beavers terraform more and also have to interact with the land more in some areas in order to create arable ground.

• 11 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Allow Us to Raise Land! Rock vs Dirt." (suggested by Tazilon on 2022-01-10), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 13 Jan
  airoow Merged

  (Use dynamite to get dirt, then) beavers can build a mud block that can plant things on it and water-retaining.

• 13 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "suggestion : reclamation" (suggested by airoow on 2022-01-13), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 16 Jan
  BeaverDan Merged

  I would love to be able to add soil for visual purposes. I understand this could be over-powered as you can greatly expand planting/growing space, so this could be a late-game resource (soil or loose soil) gained from using dynamite and we could have a building for processing multiple prices of soil into “packed soil”. In terms of balance If this feels overpowered it could have a penalty to growing speed or not being able to build ground only buildings on top of this packed soil, or even treat it solely as a decorative item. Another penalty you could feature would be having it erode (doesn’t have to be visual erosion just think of a health bar type thing) if it had a certain water flow against it. Or if you don’t think it’s too powerful you could have no penalties and have it function the same as normal soil. I think this would be a great addition for people who want more of a nature vibe to their town. The option for soil stairs would be great too.

• 17 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Mid-end game packed soil" (suggested by BeaverDan on 2022-01-16), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 17 Jan
  Adrian Merged

  Ability to dig dirt and store it somewhere so you can add dirt blocks somewhere else. It's nice that you can explode stuff, but would be nice to add blocks with the 'ground' property as well.

• 17 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Ability to dig and/or move terrain." (suggested by Adrian on 2022-01-17), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 22 Jan
  Adam

  I had this on my wish list as well, but having a soil block and being able to gather soil to place in different places interferes with the whole explosives factory concept. I still think its a valid point though, if you can remove soil, it would be able to drop soil. will allow creation of beautiful farms and landscapes etc

• 23 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  Adam, I don't think it's really interferes that much with some balancing. Dynamite is just making explosives, by time you have built the factory process should be more or less streamlined, and then ploping charges. Digging could require long time and big workforce, say up to 6 beavers can work on digging one tile, taking them a whole day, where you could have better application of their work even in later game plus storage for dirt. Also Zam's idea about limitting digging only to irrigated soil (like other is too dry to dig) is also interesting and matches water manipulation gameplay.

• 24 Jan
  Dillan

  I would love the ability to dig 1 block down relatively early in the game. It wouldn't help much in a drought, but inbetween droughts it would give you more room to grow crops and prepare.
  
  Underneath the top soil could be rock that requries dynamite to break so dynamite is needed to go more than 1 block deep.

• 28 Jan
  cjslime

  idea for balance have it use 2 dynamite or 1 dynamite and another item to get one dirt

• 28 Jan
  EerKykdi Merged

  I would like that the beavers can dig the earth. That resources are won back when a building is destroyed (maybe half of them). Water well building possible. Catastrophes like floods and heavy rain. Waterpipes. The dirt should not become green before the water reaches it. Geysirs and volcanoes. Traders with outside world.

• 28 Jan
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "general improvements" (suggested by EerKykdi on 2022-01-28), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 29 Jan
  A.Bear

  The ability to dig and be forced to move the dug earth somewhere would be interesting, with the dynamite's functionality then becoming, destroy the earth. Possibly also used in scrap metal collection.

• 03 Feb
  Vas

  The way I see terrain modification working and some additional ideas towards it as well as balance considerations.
  
  Terrain will produce dirt when modified. This will be stored in a stock pile like the log and industrial log pile. Each terrain should give 25 dirt bags in total. A dirt bag can be used to make a new terrain tile or some other object such as plant pots or other decor.
  
  When you start a terrain digging project, this will start a construction site that takes 1 log 2 planks to work at. Once those are supplied, digging will take 6 hours to complete, as beavers remove dirt bags and place them in storage somewhere. Digging speed is increased by 25% if the spoil is currently fertile/irrigated. Once all dug out, you have 25 dirt bags and a hole.
  
  Digging a ramp, will instead give 13 bags of dirt, and take half the time.
  Breaking a barricade will result in a random variable of dirt bags between 5 and 10.
  
  Dynamite leaves between 4 and 15 dirt behind.
  
  --Continued--

• 03 Feb
  Vas

  Now you have dirt bags, and an empty tile where the dirt used to be. Now what can you do with these dirt bags? Well. You can build a new dirt tile with them, make some plant pots, perhaps a dirt ramp.
  
  Dirt Ramp: 12 dirt, 2 planks.
  Plant Pot: 4 logs, 5 dirt.
  Mud Bath: Could also take a certain amount of dirt bags to create. I don't remember its costs.
  
  New dirt block! This will take 25 dirt bags, 1 log, 2 planks, 3 berries, 3 carrots, 5 water.
  Reason? Well, you've been storing this dirt for who knows how long. If you just chunk it down in one spot, who knows how long it'll take before it gets enough nutrients to become fertile again. Of course, you could just crush some vegetables in with it and moisten it up a bit as you place it all, that'll restore its value as dirt pretty fast.
  
  Now, we have an early game method of picking up and placing dirt. However, one issue! You cannot place dirt inside water. The tile you place it on must be dry and work is disabled when wet.

• 16 Feb
  Ronnie Merged

  if you remove ground with Explosives i want to get dirt back as a resource so i can place/build the ground some where els on the map to give me more controle of building the perfect layout for my city.
  
  I LOVE the game!!!!

• 17 Feb
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Resource Dirt" (suggested by Ronnie on 2022-02-16), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 19 Feb
  RainS'Tol

  I propose the addition of terrain types be implemented.
  Dirt: What we already see, no change to its traits other than being collectible, with a building like the log piles for collecting the material. Can be directly replaced somewhere else.
  Gravel: Directly collectible by Beavers, Gravel put the building to store it. Can be replaced. if roads are built on it provides a travel bonus.
  Rock: Mountains & random map parts are rock, Nothing grows on it, and can't be directly harvested. Dynamite is required to blast it into gravel to be collected.
  FarmLand: Dirt and Nutrients (define however you want) to place farm soil for planting. Bonus production rate over Standard dirt.
  
  Jetties: now require gravel,dirt and logs to build, not just logs
  Late game building to be able to make dirt from food? Composter?
  
  Lots of possibilities to expand the options.

• 19 Feb
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  @RainS'Tol https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/suggestions/199374/different-soil-types

• 25 Mar
  Benji Merged

  It should be possible to readd/replace drit that you remove with dynamite, is kinda anoying that you can't do that atm, you use dynamite, but you do not get anything out of it, and if you remove som drit you have no chance to refill the hole you have made, aka use the hole again to plant trees, plants etc,

• 26 Mar
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "possible to replace drit that you remove with dyniamite" (suggested by Benji on 2022-03-25), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 11 Apr
  ISAWHIM

  Simple dynamics... To "dig" you need a place to "move it to". (Maybe after detonation only, which breaks-up the ground, instead of making it disappear.) A special storage, like the one for wood, would be most ideal. Also noted that the underground storage should demand digging, yielding fresh ground to use various tasks. However, it should be like a "sod brick", not just dumped back into a "ground block", which would just wash-away. Also maybe a requirement for planting to refresh fields or build top-soil for fields. A certain percentage of dug-up ground, or exploded and dug-up, would be top-soil and some would be gravel.
  
  Also, we need MUD from dried riverbeds in a drought. (Would only be mud until it dries, in an early evaporation period.) Then we can use what we "dig-up", as a component of "bricks" and "paths". Beavers use mud a LOT in everything they create.

• 22 Apr
  Rayne

  Wow. Really cool that this has an "On our radar" tag.
  The source of the soil block may be Spoil tip from the mine, besides taking it out after blasting with dynamite.
  But I am curious about something. How heavy is it ? Where can i dump the unwanted soil?
  Personally I would like to see a train or ship, but it will be a while before they are in the game.
  It seems to me that it would be very difficult for the beavers to carry the soil by hand.

• 30 Apr
  Lyn

  To make it harder so its more balanced, beavers have to build gabions.. (metal wire cages) to place soil. This would make it possible to build more farmland, but at a higher cost.

• 16 May
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "для карты и домов" (suggested by Бобер on 2022-04-03), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 16 Jun
  Full Queue Developer

  Farmland yes, but also, many folktales buildings are "ground-only".
  
  Now that mines are in the game, providing unlimited metal, the only non-reversible action is dynamite.

• 26 Jun
  Jon

  the expense of creating shapes (levees) and removing land (dynamite) is one of the most unique features of this game. I like that a major concern is dealing with the terrain on it's own terms.
  
  Please be careful not to make it simply another minecraft like mechanic!

• 04 Jul
  ZaZ

  If this happens I think that all soil manipulation should cost a good bit. to make it more a luxury end game item. Battling the landscape is great, but at the end I want to build my city to perfection.

• 24 Jul
  Gake

  Addon to this so I don't create a new suggestion:
  
  Topsoil: dirt/grass blocks only go 2-3 deep. Beneath that is Stone.
  Stone: Cannot be dug up with diggers; requires explosives and/or quarry workers to break apart. Unlike topsoil doesn't irrigate soil, but effect is limited. The sides control the direction of irrigation and the bottom would halve the effects; so stone on the left side would stop irrigation from spreading towards the left entirely and the bottom being stone would instead halve it. Upside is that water only dries from Droughts' bonus drying effect. This would be handy if Quarry is added.

• 25 Jul
  Sweetc00kie Merged

  making ground where we can growth plants and change scenario. Since we can wipe clean a map with dynamite, customizing the map would add quite a lot of opportunity.

• 28 Jul
  Tristan Merged

  Dynamite is quite necessary to remove land where you don't need it and/or want it. But it doesn't solve the problem of when you need MORE land. It only solves the problem of removing land.
  
  As of now, we are limited to using only platforms/levees/dams to "build" new areas when you need more space for certain buildings. But what if you don't have enough land for plants and trees?
  
  Instead of only using the dynamite to "remove" the land, let's have a new job for beavers. A "Land Miner" or "Excavator". The builder beavers will build the land-mine after achieving 'X' science points. Once built, beavers will be assigned the land-mining job and start digging out an area of land that you select. The land will be stored in new/different kind of storage. Either builder beavers (or a whole new job) will take the land from the storage and use it to build out the land where you tell them to. Now you have more land to plant resources such as food and trees. TIMBERBORN IS THE BEST!

• 29 Jul
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Making ground" (suggested by Sweetc00kie on 2022-07-25), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 29 Jul
  Gin Fuyou Admin

  "Build Plant-able Land | New Job: "Land Miner" or "Excavator"" (suggested by Tristan on 2022-07-28), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 02 Aug
  Tom

  Add a recipe to the mine: soil.
  Soil being a resource that can be accumulated, stored and placed like a levee by a builder.