I made my own cave update concept for the Sunken forest

[Jakepeng99]

I wanted to make one for fun. In this post, i will focus on the Sunken Forest biome. This biome has no new critters, and is the first biome you see, so i wanted to tackle it first. I feel like in terms of looks and plants, it excels in, so i made some of the mobs fit that plant theme.

 

New mobs:

1. The golden Saladmander.

2. Green horned owl + Shady oak tree. 

3. The sprout mole. 

 

The Golden Saladmander

I looked at the caves, and realised there was no viable renewable source of gold. 

The golden saladmander is a somewhat rare mob in the sunken forest biome (I also plan for it spawning in some other biomes too, like with the rock lobsters). It randomly spawns into the world. It is skittish, and will run away from the player. It has 50 health and is hard to catch. Its the size of a bunny. It eats gold, and can be caught with traps.

Killing them makes them drop Gilded Scales. I plan for these to have other uses, but as for now they can be crafted into 4 gold. However, there is some benifits to having them alive. They give the most loyalty to followers out of all meat items. 

The reason they are rare is because they are so delicious. They can also be fed to rock lobsters. Feeding them to rock lobsters will give them a large amount of loyalty, and also make it gilded with gold for a day. Gilded rock lobsters move faster, deal a little more damage, and have some damage reflection. Slurtles will try eat them too, and will poop out a decent amount of slime. They also have interactions with the next mob.

Some ideas of uses for the scales:

1. 1 beefalo saddle, 8 gilded scales and 4 beefalo fur to make the gilded saddle. Same stats as the normal saddle, but it gives the beefalo a 6.3 sainity aura. The saddle is comfy, so the beefalo will lose obedience 2x slower while untamed, and 4x slower while tamed.

2. Gilded mask. 3 gilded scales, and 1 live golden saladmander. Its a clothing item that gives 8.3 sainity a minute, with the downside of all meat eating creatures being extra aggressive towards you. This also includes rock lobsters, slurtles and even moleworms. However, it also makes golden saladmanders less skittish for easier catching. You can give this to followers too, which can be useful for making them bait.

3. A new crock pot dish called golden delights. 2 gilded scale, 3 values of decoration (scales count as decorstion), 1 filler. It rewards you with 50 sainity, 75 hunger, and 10 health. However, it gives you the same status effects as the Gilded Mask for a day.

 

@Saladmanders (ironic name) also suggested adding normal Newts in the caves as well as a common critter, which i like the idea of. They also gave the idea of being able to make a mask using their scales.

In game, it will look kinda like this guys profile picture:

 

 

Green horned Owl + Shady Oak

These are technically the same being. The shady oak tree is a leafless, carniviours plant. Its method of gaining food is by utilising the Green Horned Owl to give it food. The green horned owl is based off the grey horned owl. The green horned owl will seek out nearby pickupable critters, such as spiders, rabbits, moles, and the Golden Saladmander. The green horned owl is a plant like creature, with leaves as feathers. It drops leafy meat.

You can find gold in their nests sometimes, as they collect it and use it to try and attract the Golden Saladmanders which is why the saladmanders like this biome. Stealing it wont make them happy, and the owl will attack you. Alternatively, you can befriend the tree by giving it live critters (golden saladmanders being the best by far). A befriended tree wont mess with you or any nearby sprout moles (more on them next) for the loyalty duration, and may help you in some way. I am not sure what way, maybe you can recruit the owl as a follower, and it will help you with stuff like combat and collecting items.

The owl will drop leafy meat. I am not sure if it needs to drop anything special. It doesnt have feathers, it is leafy.

 

Sprout Mole

Omori gave me the idea, though just the name. They grow in the ground like carrats, and are somewhat related. Picking them from the ground will scare them and will uproot some minerals. You can tend to the sprout mole while it is a sprout by watering it, fertalising it and such so they can grow in size. Different fertaliser increases the chance for different rewards. The bigger the mole, the more minerals created upon uprooting them. Although, maybe they should reset in size when uprooted? I am unsure. The location you farm them mah change some of the loot, for example the lunar grotto, mushtree biomes and ruins will have unique loot. Though, you must protect them from predators like the green horned owl, splumonkeys, spiders and other potentially new mobs. They will be the first mob in the game you will be able to ranch. Killing them drops leafy meat depending on the size. 

You can relocate them by picking them up with traps, though they wont live for long outside of the ground as they eat the soil in the ground, so you need to be fast.

They cant live long on the surface due to the type of soil, so they are cave exclusive. This mob may add reasons to explore all cave biomes if each has a decent loot table. The spalagmite biomes could have a chance of uprooting fossils. This ideas is the least developed out of the three, so its a raw concept. You can suggest stuff on it if you wish to balance or improve it.

 

This is what the sprout mole from omori looks like if you are curious, but no we wont plagorise. The only inspiration in this was the name which i built upon.

 

There are other biomes that could be improved and need improved much more, but this is my idea for improving the sunken forest. What do you think?