lava tubes

  • Starting a new thread here to expand on this idea.


    So I was chatting with Red51 on the water update and got an idea for lava tubes. I figured that since the "hell" world is basically like a giant air pocket between the mantle and the crust of Earth. This makes it seem more reasonable that "hell" is actually so deep below the surface because the Earth crust is only about 10 miles at its thickest! So I envisioned lava tubes coming up from hell. These tubes can be like cave structures going up with only a few branches reaching the surface. This should be the only reason why lava would be seen on the surface (unlike Minecraft where lava pools are random with no connection to the underworld.


    These lava tubes should begin from below the lava level in hell so the lava would be pushed up the tubes and to the surface. From within hell, the tube should look like some kind of nasty hellish twisty trunk connecting the ceiling to the floor of hell to make it look scary. The inside of the lava tube could be lined with some kind of lava stone which can be mined. The lava stone would be a layer between stone and gravel and the actual lava itself. I also added a water pocket to lead to a spring on the surface. Any areas where flowing water and lava mix will create obsidean ofcourse. :)


    Another idea with these lava trunks is that if you happen to be mining deep underground and you mine into lava then you know that you can potentially mine straight down and find a trunk where you could scale down from the outside. Currently when I enter hell, i either fly to the bottom or set up connecting ladders to reach the bottom (which looks as cheesy as floating blocks in Minecraft).


    I created an illustration to better explain the idea to Red51 plus to +1 on his art skill! ^_^


    Here's my illustration. I forgot to include the lava ocean currently in hell. Please excuse the inaccuracies


    https://drive.google.com/file/…EdXU4bmlVbkdoM0EwbjQ/view

  • Oh nice! I forgot about the giant geode idea i posted before. I'll have to update my "illustration". I'd also like a realistic way of finding gems. Diamonds are formed in the mantle so they'd have to be in or close to the hell chasm or near a volcano or lining a lava tube (making it very dangerous thus more valuable to mine). The more common ones are found closer to the surface and some can even be found in rivers (presumably from deep springs).


    Turquoise, for example, can be found as a result of water interacting with copper. so perhaps water near a copper vein would increase the likelyhood of finding turquoise.
    http://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2/wisc/Lect3.html

  • This sounds really cool.....or hot..........I would love to see this in the game, add in some geode formations around the tubes as well as the crystal caverns and maybe the gems could only be found inside the tubes?


    I'm linking your Steam post here since it has a lot of good ideas for minerals. Just incase Red missed it.


    http://steamcommunity.com/app/…ns/12/357284131789204808/

  • Yes exactly. the "pillars" seen in the deviant art image could be like lava tubes that transport lava from pressurized pockets further below hell and push them up to the surface. it would look creepy to see this twisty structure rising up in hell but would also move lava up through a tube.

  • Ah, I see. That would be a really eerie sight to see. Maybe some of them could be empty, perhaps eroded at some point and all of the lava gone or hardened, allowing the player to build tunnels in them. Could carry a risk; do I dig it out and find out if its empty and risk flooding the place with lava, or do I leave it be and go back the way I came?

  • actually if you come across a lava tube and you are not sure if it's pressurized or not perhaps even tell by feeling the heat behind it or by blowing it up from a distance. I imagine that you do not want to be too close to a lava tube trying to open it up with a pickaxe. So it would be safer to drop a stick of TNT from above

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