Walls - do they shield buildings?

[psusi]

There seems to be a specific build command to surround a building with walls. Does this actually do any good? Can't enemy units just fire right over the walls? Or do they block certain kinds of fire, or splash damage?

[klapmongool]

Walls are mostly handy for blocking units from moving through. But you can also use them to block fire: that depends on the height of the wall / unit firing / distance between them. So, as an example; dragonteeth can block incoming missile truck fire but wont block artillery fire.

I don't think surrounding buildings with walls is worth the resources/buildtime/effort because of other reasons than whether raiding units can attack it. If walling buildings should save you you probably lost already.

[qray]

There seems to be a specific build command to surround a building with walls.

Can you tell me the command? I never noticed that this is available.

In general, I have to agree with klapmongool: in most cases it's not worth the metal. This is one of the things I miss from original TA, where a wall around your fusion did protect it very well from Bertha/Intimidator fire. In BA, the splash damage goes through the wall.

Still, in some cases like protecting an adv. fusion or a plasma deflector a bit better from air attacks, it can help a bit - depending on the kind of attack (talking here about the good 2nd level stuff: "Fortification Wall", not the Dragon's Teeth )

[Pxtl]

Select the wall unit and try combinations of ctrl/alt/shift while hovering over the building you intend to surround. One of those combos is "surround the unit under the mouse with this".

This command applies to *all* units, so if you want to surround your HLT with solars, you can do that too.

[knorke]

http://springrts.com/wiki/Balanced_Anni ... _Buildings

surrounding mex with solars is somewhat popular.

[qray]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply :)

[psusi]

So they don't block splash damage? It seemed to help a bit resisting bomb damage, but I wasn't sure.

I also had a radar tower up on top of a bluff and sometimes long range missile units would manage to fire some shots up the cliff and hit it. I tried surrounding it with some walls and again, I thought it helped, but wasn't sure.

[klapmongool]

I'm not sure if they block splash dmg. Maybe some real pro can answer that.

[Beherith]

Most AOE weapons have rate of diminishing damage further from the center of the explosion. If a bomb explodes on a wall, and not on the building, it will deal less damage.

Use CTRL+SHIFT to surround a building with another type of building.

[Johannes]

But you can also use them to block fire: that depends on the height of the wall / unit firing / distance between them.

Plus height of the object being shot, and possible height difference.

It's useful against flashes/gators to sometimes wall llts a bit (they can do no dmg through that), so they won't be in position to fire at it as fast, but that's mostly in situations where you don't have time to just build and complete another llt in time.
Or build a few to support your commander against a flash attack, they can't surround you as totally as otherwise and probably line up more to be dgunned.

When you want a wall that won't be shot over as much though, make a metal storage.

[Google_Frog]

Use Ctrl+V or Ctrl+B to check the hitsphere to tell you what can be used as a wall.