Idea for new structure

[Dunk Mujunk]

So forgive me if something like this has been suggested before, and im sure the general consensus will be a firm no, but I figured I would throw this out anyway.

I was preparing for a move out of cave base to main base up top last night. Summer was ending and me and my gf were planning on our first trip to the Lunar Island. As we sat there organizing our inventories and trying to figure out how many trips it was gonna take to move all the necessities (obviously a common undertaking) I had an idea pop into my head.

Elevators.

Now before anyone cries foul hear me out.

These wouldn't be elevators for characters, they would be for materials.

Construction costs would be say 2 gears, 6 rope, 4 boards, and 4 cut stone. It would be a 2 piece structure, a top piece and bottom piece. You would be required to place say the bottom piece first, after which the top piece would appear in the structures tab for placement. You would be required to place both pieces before constructing another elevator to avoid any weird connection mechanics.

Seeing as how cave entrances don't match up from top to bottom on the map, I don't feel the elevators need to either. This allows for productive placement depending on your needs.

The elevator itself would have unlimited uses, but each elevator could have to be loaded with an Elevator Chest that would have a durability value. It would last for maybe 10-20 round trips and take say 1 cut stone, 4 driftwood, and 2 boards. A spent chest would remain in the elevator, unable to be removed, with the elevator unable to be operated, until all items have been removed from the chest at which point the chest would "break". This would keep any items from being lost due to zero durability, and keep the elevator being gamed for more uses.

The elevator could only be operated from the end the chest is currently at to keep it from being too easy to use, requiring either 2 players to constantly move from top to bottom and back, or 1 player sending the elevator down, then traveling to the caves to unload and send back up.

I have a feeling people may not agree with the idea of say an elevator in the Ruins, so maybe the bottom piece could be unable to be placed in the Ruins or the Village. Aside from that, you could place either piece anywhere else you want.

I envision using elevators to move materials and gear from cave base to top base or vice versa, or to say ship rock from bottom to top once you have cleared the top map of all rock. Any other uses apply as well.

Just a thought. Material requirements are up for debate, maybe Klei could make use of some of the more worthless mats. Durability mechanics are flexible as well. Im also not sure if this is even possible in game, the travel of mats from top to bottom independent of a player.

Anyway, I'm sure i've forgotten some of the points I wanted to make, if they pop into my head i'll edit, but I think I got the bulk of them. What does everyone think?

[S19TealPenguin]

I think the biggest issue is that the caves and the surface aren't a 1:1 match. For example, you can walk 20 pitchfork tiles from one staircase to another in the caves, but their corresponding sinkholes on the surface could be 200 tiles away from each other. So there needs to be a way to connect elevators in a way that isn't based on location.

 

Also, I think that this kind of device seems right up Winona's alley, maybe make the set up of the elevators exclusive to her?

How I would do elevators, is that you would first need to dig a hole in the caves and a hole on the surface. This is accomplished by using a "down excavelevator" and an "up excavelevator"^[1] on the surface and caves. Each excavelevator costs 4 boards, two cut stone and one of each golden tool. Once an excavelevatoris placed, it will not begin work until it is given flammable fuel, nitre, or shadow fuel and also it's designation item. The excavelevator can hold 8 minutes of fuel, and needs to run for 20 total minutes for a hole to be dug. Fuel values are equivalent to an object's burn time in an endothermic fire pit. Before a excavelevator begins to dig, it must be given a designation item to link it to the other excavelevator. Once an excavelevator finishes, it will take the appearance of a bucket on a well, if the other side's excavelevator hasn't finished, it will appear to have caution tape around it.

 

The bucket holds 9 stacks of items (like a chest) and has no effect on spoilage. You an left-click on a finished excavelevator to open the bucket inventory, and right click to crank or uncrank the bucket, depending on where the bucket is. Cranking always brings the bucket to you, and uncranking sends it away. You can't crank while someone is using the bucket.

 

Designation items will let the player know which excavelevators are connected by showing a prefix in front of the name.

1. Red(y) - Red mushroom
2. Blue(y) - Blue mushroom
3. Green(y) - Green mushroom
4. Piney - Pinecone
5. Glowy - Lightbulb
6. Shiny - Gold Nugget
7. Toasty - Red Gem
8. Frosty - Blue Gem
9. Creepy - Purple Gem
10. Speedy - Yellow Gem
11. Lazy - Orange Gem
12. Hardy - Green Gem
13. Tasty - Meatballs
14. Healthy - Carrot
15. Funky - Gears

 

When a player hovers over an excavelevator with their mouse, it will display the prefix and excavelevator (e.g. Bluey excavelevator, Toasty excavelevator, or Shiny excavelevator). I think that this way will make them the most useful. For example, a player who is looking for a resupply for their Ruins base might ask "Can you please put pierogies and Armor in the Piney bucket?" while a Maxwell who is chopping down a mushroom forest might announce "The Funky Bucket is filled with blue caps".

 

Finally, surface excavelevators can be placed anywhere that is solid land, and that doesn't cause enlightenment (no boats, no lunar island).

Caves excavelevator can only be placed in areas that are unaffected by the nightmare cycle (no ruins).

 

You could even create fast item delivery between two points on the surface with two different wells. For this hypothetical assume that the frosty excavelevator is next to the pig king and that the Bluey excavelevator is next to the Oasis. Player one could fill the "frosty excavelevator" and crank it down to the caves, player two takes the contents of the bucket and puts it into the Bluey excavelevator, then cranks it to the surface, where player three then removes the items.

[Dunk Mujunk]

7 minutes ago, S19TealPenguin said:

I think the biggest issue is that the caves and the surface aren't a 1:1 match. For example, you can walk 20 pitchfork tiles from one staircase to another in the caves, but their corresponding sinkholes on the surface could be 200 tiles away from each other. So there needs to be a way to connect elevators in a way that isn't based on location.

 

2 hours ago, Dunk Mujunk said:

Seeing as how cave entrances don't match up from top to bottom on the map, I don't feel the elevators need to either. This allows for productive placement depending on your needs.

 

As I suggested, the top and bottom of an elevator set could be placed independently of each others location, you would place the top and bottom as seperate pieces wherever you wanted, other than nightmare cycle effected areas as we suggested.

[metallichydra]

suggestion: cheap one-way elevator

name: hole in the ground

cost: 1 shovel (surface part). 1 gunpowder (underground part)

use: players can drop items in it like a wormhole. the items would land in the caves at the target location.