What would you add to caves if you could?

[Dextops]

Caves are a very interesting concept and in DST especially, but to me there just seems to be the ruins and lunar grotto/archive (and some stuff sprinkled in between), but then just a lot of underutilized fluff, so if you were able to add something/change something about caves what would it be?

[BezKa]

Something that emerges from the abyss. We can't have walls for many reasons, so why not utilize the dark void? Tentacles trying to grow there but getting eaten by other cliff dwellings creatures that resemble blind geckos, strange underground birds that build their nests on the sides of rocky pathways etc.

And to fill the biomes a bit with maybe some more bioluminescence, or something that hunts fallen moleworms and rabbits. The possibilities are endless, honestly, as long as they're sufficiently creepy.

[gamehun20]

Water filled biomes i think it would be fun to boat around in the dark

[Empa505]

11 minutes ago, gamehun20 said:

Water filled biomes i think it would be fun to boat around in the dark

wanted some to be added in the lunar grotto biome, just tiny ones, would add so much atmosphere

[MadMatt]

Me three on adding boatable water in the caves. It'd help add some sort of levity to the constricting feeling the caves currently have. I get it that's part of the point, but it really does suck that EVERY part of the caves is filled with obstructions only aided through exceedingly annoying wormholes.

[00petar00]

Caves are lacking in content so much compared to overworld. I don't think that a few cave updates would make a big difference. Its not like there hasn't been good content added to  caves like Fuelweaver, lunar grotto/archive but it just isn't enough compared to how much content the overworld has.

Honestly I would be really happy to see more caves updates compared to overworld. Caves have so much potential and with enough content updates, there could be a lot more people deciding to make a base there.

Caves would need to be a big part of the yearly roadmap for me to actually believe that it could catch up to overworld.

[Brago-sama]

Bunny's have bunnymen

Moles should have mole people

Spoiler

I also wouldn't mind more variety in biomes. Not even new things, just something to change the monotony of cave biomes just having a lot of 1 thing. Ruins are so fun because they have so much stuff going on inside

[Tranoze]

1 hour ago, 00petar00 said:

there could be a lot more people deciding to make a base there.

I used make base in lunar cave biome, and for some reason klei decide "nope you cant base there", and add shadow + gestalt that attack you regard of sanity.
I used to make base in lunar surface and klei also decide "nope if you base there final boss gonna destroy it". Atleast there are counter play to celestial champion from destroy your base this time.
I tried to do dock base in water logged biome, and klei also decide "nope, you cant build dock there".

I dont think they want any of us to build any base in any new biome they added.

[Lardee]

I'd wish they could add a lava biome and puts stuff in it from shipwrecked like obsidian and dragoons.

[Mike23Ua]

Well.. to be fair most real life caves are empty with not much in them too..

that said, I’d like to see some SW/Ham & Forge stuff incorporated into the game. For example maybe an underground catacombs full of failed survivor skeletons that randomly animate back to life.. maybe even with some dangerous hamlet inspired booby traps Giant swinging pendulums of doom, buzzsaw blades launched across the ground etc..

Basically look at Resident Evil, Skyrim and the Riddlers Challenge rooms from the Arkham games for inspiration.

I just want something that feels.. dark, grim, slightly demented.. but at the same time- you can’t help but explore to reap the possible rewards.

and CAVES with undead boobytrapped catacombs could provide that..

[Dunk Mujunk]

They could expand on the Rock Lobsters. Not sure if people are still using them to fight stuff, I know moving them was always a pain in the butt. Aside from that, they don't drop any special loot, they aren't worth farming, they're just there. Maybe spruce up their biome along with it. It wouldn't re-invent the caves, but it would be a step in the right direction with less work than completely new content.

And yeah, water biomes/boating in the caves sounds cool. Way back I remember the idea of whirlpools being introduced to the ocean up top and basically acting as an ocean version of a sinkhole that could suck you down to the caves. I think initially the thought was it would wreck your boat and dump you in a random cave location, but it might be fun for them to act as a one way boat accessable sink hole to a new cave water biome. 

[Memetan]

I wish they add some magma biome, to add a reason to use summer stuff in caves or even use the fireproof tools that we have like scalemail armor, fireproof falsetto, tempering temperatures, Willow... Or even make the magma work like the ocean "visually" I don't want all caves full of lava. Even I heard that Klei before makeing the ruins they thought to make some magma biome inside caves.

[Yuuko]

I would ADD bridges that we can build over the abyss, but more importantly I would do a re-work of all biomes so there is at least a reason to go to most of them.  As it sits now there just isn't much reason to explore.  The grass is good for cave bases b/c natural light, the mud area for lightbulibs / glowberry harvesting, and the ruins obviously but like why go to the underground swamp?  Why go to the bat caves?

imo its not super important though.  The things that are useful in caves are useful enough.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

water in the caves opens a lot of cool and creepy possibilities

i'll repeat myself, i wanna fish for glow berries

 

[. . .]

an actual dungeon like the hamlet ruins, but it resets every season.

[-Variant]

6 hours ago, Brago-sama said:

Moles should have mole people

Reminds me of something I made years back.

 

Anyhow I'm not entirely sold on the idea of boating in the caves, it sounds like it'd have equally as poor reception of being "lifeless" down there than it already does on the surface. I'd rather they flesh out the topside ocean first.

If I could revamp the caves I'd finally add the Magma caves Klei has been dying to add for years.
That and/or take another shot at the concept for the Purple Mushroom forest, or something similar.

The caves are just very lifeless, I'd love for them to just expand on what's already there. More life like interactions.

[Frosty_Mentos]

Definitely more caves with elements like fire, magma, watery wetness, toxicity and other.

Having rocky emptiness while abyssal monsters lurk at any corner, ready to be woken up from their slumbers as cracking footsteps of the unsuspecting. Luring or smashing their prey as their death is near.

[nimzowitsch10]

a second layer to the ruins would be amazing. Like a really dangerous version of ruins that has better weapons, bosses, and more. Idk if they could fit that in the cave shard or they would have to make another shard to achieve that

[Atkvin]

Written up a bunch of silly ideas for caves in my own time, my favorite was shadow roads that players can only see and use for speed when insane, that would lead from the ruins to the giant tentacle leading to the atrium.

Just a bit of worldbuilding as a shadow road left by the ancient civilization that abused it to for a time, create a flourishing underground city, and ingame helping to point players to the two structures.

[dzzydzzy]

There should be a crystalline biome, that adds more direct way of getting gems. Perhaps a new boss with the biome. Other things like crystal rock lobsters, expanding upon their lure. And adding tons of treacherous dangers to balance the risk and reward of it all. Maybe this can be a biome that also regenerates stalagmites regularly due to its rapid changes in temperature. 

As other people have mentioned, a magma filled biome would be amazing. It'd be neat to have a biome with a unique ambient temperature. Think about an area of caves that is permanently illuminated, but requires summer gear to stay cool. It might be difficult to rush it which would gate-keep whatever content is inside, giving potential for some really epic loot.

[Datanon]

plenty of cool ideas in this thread already but i'd like to add that it would be cool if the marsh biome of the caves had stuff exclusive to it, maybe different merfolk or a miniboss of sorts. i remember seeing that biome in the caves for the first time and being scared because i was always so afraid of the marsh and now its darker and scarier... but nah it was just a normal marsh

[Ryusuta]

Personally, I'd be interested in a wider variety of mob types and risk/reward biomes. Right now there's basically the Ruins. Lunar Mushtree biome doesn't have much of note, and you need to go through the full moon gauntlet in order to make the archives worthwhile.

More biomes with a greater diversity of mobs (both hostile and non-hostile) would be deeply appreciated.

[Cheggf]

A biome that's never temperate would be interesting. Like a magma cavern that always requires summer protection. 

[Atkvin]

More ideas from my idea list for caves! A new Slimy turf generates and replenishes around Bat Caves. When players or mobs stand on this disgusting turf, they lose their appetite for food, and become unable to eat anything. Slows slightly, but not as much as webbed turf. Could maybe be useful for mob farms!

Nitre also has a 2x chance of dropping if a player is in the bat biome during earthquakes, for characters who need more to farm it more easily.

Rock lobsters now drop Rock eggs when killed. Rock eggs are like rock fruits but for meat instead, breaking open into a morsel-equivalent meat, allowing for storage and carrying of bulk amounts of meat without worrying about perishing or bunnymen if players put in the brain and resources to locate and farm the lobsters efficiently.

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i remember seeing that biome in the caves for the first time and being scared because i was always so afraid of the marsh and now its darker and scarier... but nah it was just a normal marsh

Also, in regards to cave marshes I think one end of big tentacles (maybe other than the one that leads to the atrium) should be clustered in the underground marshes, so they become a travel hub of tentacles you can use to just jump around the underground.

 

Also thought up some small ideas for integrating seasons into caves with positive benefits to help caves feel less disconnected from the surface:

Leaves stuff up the sinkholes at the start of a new autumn, causing the entrances to be sealed back up. Players can easily open them up again with a pitchfork/if they come out of that entrance, but this allows players the option to reseal unwanted sinkholes if need be.

Ice sometimes falls instead of rocks during earthquakes in winter. Mushroom trees become easier to chop when wet by cavewater in spring (also applies to Toadstool trees).

And last but not least, caves become completely illuminated during daytime in summer thanks to the light spilling in, slowly fading darker over the duration of daytime until it returns to normal pockets of darkness at evening.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

i think that is a good thing to have stuff from the surface in the caves like the grass+twigs biomes, swamp or spider biomes but i dont think is a good design to have it in +60% of the caves. Is a lot of space that most of the time isnt used and the players that ended up using it is because they want to try something new not because is a fun or useful thing 

would be nice if that part of the caves get reduced and compacted to a 50% atleast (in that way you also find less totally empty places which are common in the caves) and introduce maaany new biomes

has been suggested many times for islands but for caves is also a great idea to have biomes that requires certain gear independent of the season like the magma biome suggested. Sw's dragoons were so fun to fight, i wish klei releases more mobs that are fun to fight like dragoons or scorpions instead of just bosses... except for the ruins there arent places were fighting is important so we only have a place to fight the the stale clockworks and shadows (which is one of the funnier things in the game for me) and raid bosses... the game has potential for more. More areas like the ruins with other enemies would make the game so much fun and dinamic and more if those areas has unique mechanics like permanent weather, vines mazes like hamlet or whatever

i also would like if klei ends up deciding if the void is wall or void because right now is suppose to be a wall but bishops can hit you throw, items fall there, you can see and telepufd throw the imaginary walls, etc... breaks the immersion. Depending of what they end up doing (if they do) they could add rivers, instead of the rocky bridges that connects biomes (that are actually corridors like in the grotto cinematic but there are no walls in game), that connects land biomes to islands

another cool thing would be to add a biome inspired in "journey to the center of the earth" with ancient giants living there which could show how was the prehistoric time of the contant

also more and better ancient signs. I always find weird the ruins. There are random furniture with random statutes near random machines, they dont look like the ruins of a civilization