Roots might be good under a jungle or huge elven forest around the surface.
But IMO What dwarves need are mushtrees.
They’re like mushrooms, but with trunks as sturdy as a tree. The Material would be on par with wood, maybe a little bit hardier to compensate for the difficulty of cultivating them.
Perhaps when a dwarf colony starts out they bring with them a Mushtree seed from wherever they’re migrating from to ensure that they have underground tree growing capability.
Or perhaps it is something very rare that only a select few dwarven colonies have - maybe they only grow naturally and aren’t able to be transplanted, in which case entire dwarven settlements will be built over an underground mushforest just because it’s there.
I would agree that the vast majority of what the dwarves construct is made out of stone but certainly they make some things from wood … crafts, beds etc.
lol true true stone beds would be uncomfortable… oh jeez. not sure ill be able to sleep tonight
Perhaps… a slightly different take on the issue. Maybe, instead of the usual harvesting wood, the dwarves would have a built in system to trade in the market- they would “order” wood in exchange for stone or gold. yeah this is a bit awkward because it might make the game unbalanced? but i like the image of the dwarves being shrewd traders.
Well, if there is a way to grow trees I think you could grow them underground, then you really would only need to be to the surface once. And like someone mentioned dwarves will come to the surface for battle every now and then so that wouldn’t be too hard. But I do like the root idea, I think that would be pretty cool having these massive root systems every now and then.
I’m reviving another Dwarf thread ! Its an important topic! Like Zendo said, large mushrooms could practically replace trees. Additionally Dwarves tend to have a surface entrance somewhere so they’d simply have to make trips to the surface to collect wood.
Eventually though, it would be ideal to have a river flowing through the underground city which could easily transport downed trees from the surface to the dwarven city below to be gathered in the stream.
Also, if you basing that off my username, then I think It’s a fine time to say that I really hate this Username. I don’t hate the faction. I just wish I chose something better.
Had a spout of honeydew fever or something ? Usually you can get your forum name changed if there is a moderator available. Dwarves are so epic though !
No, when I needed to create a username, I had no ideas. Then, I remembered an old member who used to semi-regularly post on the forums. His name was @DisposaDwarf. I just took his name and replaced “Disposa” with “Epic”. The name sounds so crappy and cheesy to me nowadays. and I wished I just chose a better one.
I used to have one of those crazy default patterned avatars that everyone used to have if they didn’t have an avatar. Those default avatars were later replaced by avatars with a random color with the first letter of their username in it. Anyways, I disliked it because it wasn’t that unique. My first real avatar with this one.
I disliked this one also, so I chose one off the internet. That one is the one I currently have, which at the time I didn’t know it was from the Yogscast. Speaking of the Yogscast, remember that failure of a game, the one which they were making with a company, but the project went bankrupt?
I don’t dispute that, but when the point of this topic is to discuss a possible mechanic for dwarves and we end up reading about your username, profile picture, and a question regarding Yogventures I’d say we’ve veered somewhat off track
Well, he did bring up the Yogscast, and they did partner with a game development company, which went bust, and it is an interesting conversation piece. Isn’t the forum about discussing topics? If you say make a topic for some small conversation piece, OK. But I don’t exactly see the use of making hundreds of topics that a few people will reply and discuss on it.
the mush-tree idea could work at the moment as well, as tree replanting is now a thing, but could the top of the mush tree be edible and that could be the basic food source for the dwarves. Or we could go all out and say dwarves make wood from beating the carp out of stone until it decides its now wood (because…magic)
omg. imagination overflowing … must… write:
…
So roots are some kind of an one way ticket as you can’t really ‘plant’ roots… root seeds? Whoot?
I would expect roots to be some kind of rare material. It spawns below surface in veins of 3-8 blocks below each existing tree (root length depending on tree age/growth). If the space below the tree is mined out the roots will grow back if tree is still there very very slowly… Eventually they grow straight down until stone surface is met again.
Imagine a mine shaft isn’t maintained and if you come back lateron there is a wall of roots! Moody!
Mushrooms are a much likelier source of wood-like material as posted a lot in this thread. They are a roundhousekick in many aspects:
source of building material (wood like…sort of.)
source of food (mushroom soup, mushroom stew, grilled mushroom, mashed mushroom, mushroom bread, delicious mushroom cookies, delirious mushroom cake… i could go on forever! )
place one seedling/mycelium piece (farmers cultivate this from mushroom block) anywhere and a whole bunch of mushrooms will grow in a circle.
don’t harvest all mushrooms of mentioned circle and they will grow back from nothing if space is still unoccupied.
Dwarven progression could go like this:
Dwarves start the game on/near surface and start to dig down. They first use wood from trees as other factions would do, building surface houses as others too (maybe implement some dwarven like building templates in vanilla?).
Right below surface they can start harvesting/chopping roots (automatically spawn as veins/vein-like underneath trees. Always! Period).
Further down there are sparcely spawned small caves with absolutely no premade way to the surface. Therein located are mushroom circles. (Small caves, please! I hated those far ranging cavernous systems in MC!)
Maybe the dwarven carpenter can make tools from roots. They work like upgraded weapons for footmen or even enabling the crafters equipped with those tools to make special recipes/blueprints. Mushrooms are the next step in upgraded tools for crafters. wood is sturdy but roots are more so and mushrooms even! Tools made from roots bring better results(AND enable certain blueprints); tools made from mushroom bring better results AND enable certain high lvl blueprints AND have lesser weight resulting in faster moving speed of the crafter.
As this roots and mushroom mechanic is bound to the dwarves; other factions could make other upgraded tools in combination with metal bars.
imagine it like in MC:
farmers hoe/pickaxe made from wood->stone->iron->steel->titan->mithril->adamantium
Additionally:
To make the dwarven tools something special and somewhat sought after… the dwarven carpenters could apply the metal bars as well to make their tools even better:
“Hm ! Feel this mushroom grip of my blacksmith hammer! Could work all day an not get tired!”
"Y’no lad? Dere’s no way a surface dwellas tool could mine stone and brittle as well as a real shroom pickaxe!"
Dwarven tools can NOT be bought at traders but must be instead traded directly with a dwarven faction! Special! RARE! EPIIIIICCC!
Working with those tools could improve the work of the crafters with various effects:
stats boosts
rarely result in an advanced item(adorned comfy bed instead of normal confy bed-> higher item value and higher shelter rating)
faster crafting speed
less fatigue: longer working until food is needed.
less weight-> faster moving speed
so… imaginations overflow averted!. Puh. Close one though. Need another ale! CU
i bet you’re excited about that too
)