Mushroom Cave, anyone?
Hi @Darkboii
I think i know where you are headed with this, but since you only write one three word question, it is hard to engage with you.
Maybe you could elaborate your vision and ideas a bit more, so there is a bigger chance for them to get picked up and come to life?
@BrunoSupremo do you have any coding knowledge so far on making caves?
I wonder what creatures would inhabit caves filled with mushrooms?
(Goblin mushroom armorset by @Stmpnk )
Yes, I made caves, it will be at least in the Archipelago in a24.
But let me explain that although everyone loves caves, there is a reason for that and that reason does not work in this game. We love caves in games like Minecraft and Don’t Starve because we are actually exploring it, be it in first or third person, it is us there.
In this game, this is impossible, we are just this entity looking over the hearthlings, and as such, we do not explore the caves, they do, and it is not fun.
There is also the problem of aesthetics. In Minecraft, although the world is made from blocks, everything is curve, round, smooth, so you have those windy/snaky caves, rolling hills, etc. We can’t have a cave like that in this game, it would look very jagged. We need to have flat floor and wall, straight halls, etc, and that will not look good either.
That is why caves (in my opinion) are not that good of an idea for this game. Sorry.
And that is why the caves I’m doing are just “pirate coves”. A small hole in the side of the mountain, with a very cube shaped big room inside, with stuff.
Great to see that you already have had some thoughts and work done on the matter
I think your points are valid and furthermore a great answer to OP.
The way you describe the “pirate coves” seems like a very cool way to make semi caves! Oh i imagine a swamp bear resting in such a hole in the mountainside, surounded by varanus bones and such…
Thanks.
This guy is amazingly adorable. Like… if Party Goblin had a long lost cousin… @Allie ?
Grow-Your-Own-Goblin
I’ll take two please. Wait…make that one in every color.
I went away for some immediate real life business, soz for late response.
Anyways, I do agree with @BrunoSupremo, and mostly the thought involves a cozy small cavern with some cute and cuddly mushrooms and maybe 2 small mushroom goblins chilling by a fire (@Fornjotr) .
(a food source at the beginning of the game, if you decide to begin way up in the mountains).
That mushroom Goblin looks really good!
A hole in the mountain side could probably be sufficient. Though in Bergen, Norway, I’ve seen quite a few jagged small caves, formed by people long ago.
I’m sure that there is a way to implement a lore for this of some kind.
Mushroom goblins doing the digging and therefore the caves look unnatural.
I have not yet tried any mods at all. Really looking forward to try what all of you have made.
Can’t understand why Stonehearth out of all thousands of games i’ve played. Stonehearth, is the game closest to my passion-bone.
In some ways I agree with you but… the more I think about it the more I disagree.
Even though you are not represented by a specific hearthling, you are still giving orders to a group of characters that you (are supposed to) care about. I’m thinking of and comparing to games like Baldur’s Gate. Sure, one of the characters in your party is your own character and there is more story, but at the same time, you knew your hearthlings before they stepped into that cave and you hopefully want them to return to their friends in town, which could make this just as engaging, if done right.
Definitely don’t agree. Most caves and dungeons in games are based on grids with rather large tiles. Classic rpg’s that Stonehearth base it’s design on has caves. To make them look natural you break up the flat surfaces, just like the cliff sides on the surface already are.
The two problems I see with caves are that the inside needs to be hidden until you explore it and that the adventure is ruined if you just mine directly to the treasure at the bottom, ignoring the challenges in the rest of the cave.
However…
Suggestion time!
If you don’t generate the cave at the start of the game you won’t need to hide it and there is no way to mine to the end of it. Instead you just generate the entrance and even that can wait until your hearthlings find it. You send your party to the entrance and when they have gathered outside you press a button marked “enter cave”. The first part of the cave is then generated (the first floor or the first few rooms) and the party runs inside. You fight whatever enemy is there, find loot, maybe solve puzzles, maybe get some part of a story and then you send your party to the entrance of the next, more difficult, part of the cave.
If you try to mine into an unexplored part of the cave you wont find anything, and if you mine out so much that there is no room for the next part of the cave then the “enter cave” button will only reveal a cave in.
There can still be the possibility of finding a cave as you are mining. When you reach a specific area underground a new entrance is generated at that spot. Gather your party. Enter cave. And so on.
Loved your suggestions.
I will wait a little before working on it cause I feel that I’ll not be able to finish it before a24 launch. And these recent unstables are giving me so much catch up work (to keep everything in line with the game).
So I will keep my original plan, simple caves in Archipelago for now, then I expand it to a more general “caves mod” for any biome later, considering your suggestions.
Out of curiosity, how would an underground Dome be?
example: Underground oasis w/palm trees and water
Guess that would be nice in a pirate type of biome.
Making a CoveCave, entry only by sea
A cave wouldn’t have to be deep if it came with a surprise good enough, like Varanus lair, Goblin camp or an NPC tent (e.g. a Neanderling offering a quest line which makes them join the town when completed).