Dungeon thoughts

zfoxfire · Jan 11th 2017

So I must first say that the new underground dungeons look awesome!!! Very nice for a first release. There are some improvements that I think should be made. Not sure how difficult this is to fix in code but something to consider

Entrances

So I've noticed that with caves turned off, there's no way to really discover dungeons. At present there seems to be no ground access... Trillnar came across something interesting but the more I look at it, this seems to be a bug. It appears to be a staircase room sticking out of the ground:

http://steamcommunity.com/shar…filedetails/?id=839635519

I was hoping to see some kind of surface structure in the grassy fields or maybe a standard dungeon entrance on the side of the mountain or perhaps something more decorative on the side of a mountain. A standalone structure in the middle of a field or obvious straircase like below might work:

http://runescape.wikia.com/wik…rley_Dungeon_entrance.png

Something like this but perhaps not as fancy would work for fields, jungles or maybe even a swamp (whenever that biome comes):

http://gerberc.deviantart.com/art/Jungle-Temple-I-172757741

Depth

So I've surprisingly found lots of dungeons spread about and spawning from just below the surface to just above hell. It leads to some interesting effects. I feel that the deeper you go, there should be less individual dungeons and they should all be part of a massive connected structure. Smaller dungeons should be closer to the surface. The massive underground complexes deep in the earth should be like the strongholds and rare (but certainly more than 3 in a world).

http://steamcommunity.com/shar…filedetails/?id=839954762

http://steamcommunity.com/shar…filedetails/?id=839726463

http://steamcommunity.com/shar…filedetails/?id=839701239

Visibility from within Caves

I'm sure his along with anything else I've mentioned can be improved. In the first one, entrances should be closer to the bottom of a cave, not so high up. Or perhaps add a different type of entrance face for this scenario. In the second one ofcourse, the outside of the dungeon should not be visible passing through a natural cave opening. Simply padding the dungeons with stone might help this or add additional structure in this scenario. Perhaps a room type with wooden stilts supporting it as it passes through the cave tunnel. Perhaps windows with iron bars in the room to look out would be appropriate in this scenario.

http://steamcommunity.com/shar…filedetails/?id=839664043

http://steamcommunity.com/shar…filedetails/?id=839627819

ArcticuKitsu · Jan 12th 2017

Yeah, the dungeons are like those in Minecraft. The Strongholds, not the single-room dungeons. But yeah.

I'm feeling frustrated that no surface entrances were added into this version, even though I warned of Minecraft's sloppy mistakes and such. A long many month warning that Minecraft at first advertised surface entrances to later be like this update. It howver does what it does right by adding a visible entrance to the dungeons,even well thought out rooms & plans. Hidden traps, and chests.

Land generation without tunnels & caves make dungeons a troublesome task to get to, something I had to cheat on my Niska world, yet did properly in my new Arcticu server.

I'm favouring the bug that Zork showed of Trillnar's experience. That's the way to do it. Sit a temple, some ruins, or whatever above dungeons, or connect them below until they reach the surface. That 'Taverley Dungeon Entrance' is something to consider. Try for a two-part castle (fort or etc) type ruins on top to lead down below via that staircase as it also feeds you into other floors. Small ones are still welcome though, just make sure they connect somewhere.

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