Cave Update Suggestion: Cenotes

[DegenerateFurry]

So, I've seen this idea floating around (pun intended) on the forum once in a blue moon, and I think it's a great one: add areas of the caves that are flooded, resulting in an ocean tile-like area that you need a boat to navigate, and which has unique caves-specific content. These areas could tend to generate near the various mushroom forests; mushrooms love moisture, so it'd only make sense. Alternatively (or additionally if they're multiple smaller lakes instead of one big one), it could be an area by the lunar grotto since there's a ton of water there already. 
The rest of the cave void areas would remain as-is, so these new water biomes would probably have waterfalls at their edges or something like the ocean's edge in the surface world. 

First off, it'd give us parts of the caves that we could cross directly and in a more fun way than just building a bridge or teleporting with a cane. It'd also make the caves feel a bit less empty, particularly if unique mobs were present in these flooded areas.
Maybe these freshwater cave-lakes are where Toadstool's tadpoles (Tadstools?) live as a new mob, trying to eat whatever they find, sort of like a caves-specific cookie cutter?
Perhaps we'd find parasitically-controlled cave crawdads crawling onto the shore of the red mushtree forest, with red caps on their backs, dropping mushrooms and fish meat (or a dead wobster) when killed? 
Maybe there'd be potato-themed cave saladmanders that have potato "eyes" instead of actual eyes, dropping both leafy meat and (uncommonly) a potato (or at least potato seeds) when killed. 
We could see pickable strands of lichen hanging from the ceiling like fig vines do from above-average trees, letting you get lichen somewhere other than the wilds. 
Since these cave lakes are caused by rain and aren't saltwater like the ocean, you could refill a watering can at them.

Fishing in these cave-lakes could also give some unique benefits. You could catch eels here using ocean fishing rods, which'd be nice for making eel-related recipes outside of ruins trips. Perhaps there could be unique ocean fish like a glowberry-themed anglerfish, which produces a dim light in-inventory (great for Wurt players) and counts as a glowberry in the crock pot (for us Warly mains).
There could be a mushroom-infested fish with one of each type of mushroom growing on its back, and it drops 1-3 random mushrooms when murdered depending on the fish's weight.
Mudfish are ugly enough to be present in caves as well, but I think the other cave lake fish should be cave-specific (it'd at least give more fish types to collect).
On the subject of Warly mains, how about an electric eel that'll shock you if you try to catch it normally, so you need special gear (an Eyebrella or a rain coat/hat) to catch them, but it restores WX-78's circuit charge when it zaps WX, and the caught eel works as an alternative to a volt goat horn in volt goat jelly's recipe? It'd be perhaps a more consistent way than volt goats, and it'd also be a way for cave-only Warly players to use one of his strongest dishes.

If anyone has ideas for cave lake-related content, feel free to share them here!

[Beetrice]

I would love to base near such a place.

[gaymime]

14 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

First off, it'd give us parts of the caves that we could cross directly and in a more fun way than just building a bridge or teleporting with a cane. It'd also make the caves feel a bit less empty, particularly if unique mobs were present in these flooded areas.
Maybe these freshwater cave-lakes are where Toadstool's tadpoles (Tadstools?) live as a new mob, trying to eat whatever they find, sort of like a caves-specific cookie cutter?
Perhaps we'd find parasitically-controlled cave crawdads crawling onto the shore of the red mushtree forest, with red caps on their backs, dropping mushrooms and fish meat (or a dead wobster) when killed? 
Maybe there'd be potato-themed cave saladmanders that have potato "eyes" instead of actual eyes, dropping both leafy meat and (uncommonly) a potato (or at least potato seeds) when killed. 
We could see pickable strands of lichen hanging from the ceiling like fig vines do from above-average trees, letting you get lichen somewhere other than the wilds. 
Since these cave lakes are caused by rain and aren't saltwater like the ocean, you could refill a watering can at them.

this would be an absolute nightmare to code, draw, organize and execute but hot damn would i love to see even half of these ideas made into reality~

[DegenerateFurry]

49 minutes ago, gaymime said:

this would be an absolute nightmare to code, draw, organize and execute but hot damn would i love to see even half of these ideas made into reality~

Yeah, this'd be quite a major content update, but I feel like the caves need one that big. 

[Well-met]

I want dark lakes like in harry potter

[Creatingabe1125]

I love the idea of an ocean like cave lake. It could maybe introduce a new water plant like kelp in the normal oceans.

[dnam]

iirc there was a river in the cave concept art

[Swiyss]

Just pasting here what I typed in another topic for Klei to see.
 

"making mushrooms not bright outside their season, and making them brighter at their season would be awesome. The added branches and spores could also make it a very beautiful place. The addition of fungal allergies tied to their season would also increase immersion.

I suggest that in Winter the bunnymen could get outside for longer. They could maybe roam around the entire cave in this season. You would find them anywhere but the ruins. They would roam in a group of 3 to 5 eating lightbulbs. If you find a roaming bunnymen in Winter, you could trade with him; Cut Stone for Snurtle Slime, Lesser Glowberries for Bunny Puffs, Boards for Grass and Twigs, Beard Hair for broken shells, any Veggie (except carrots) for spider glands, Lichen for silk and guano for 1 gold nugget. They would do 8 trades per day as to not be an infinite source of resources. They would roam around the muddy biome just like the deers would at the deciduous. In winter still, Bats could no longer leave the caves through the sinkhole. Inside their biomes, they would not leave their homes, and just stay inside. You could be able to give Nitre to their houses, and 5 to 7 bats would come out one by one, getting aggressive towards the player. This would make farming them more consistent, and less annoying in the surface In winter. They could also add a machine that could be attached to the stairs, sorta like a nitre salt lick that would glue to the stairs and it would prevent bats from coming out of the caves forever, however every time you go down to the caves you would find 5 to 7 bats around the stairs.

In Spring, the caves could receive a new plant, the Vinesplatter or Vinespitter which would be attached at most lightbulbs at fields, they would only spawn in Spring at 2 fields per spring. They are angry plants that swing left to right and is placed in the middle of the field. One Vinespitter could attach to around 20 lightbulbs. Picking lightbulbs that are locked by Vinespitters would make them angry, they will lock you in place like the spiny bindweed and deal 20 dmg. You have to hit the vines to unlock the bulbs. If you end up getting to the Vinespitter in the middle, they will start spitting at you like that Moon Bird, dealing 10 damage each (around 5 spits every 3 seconds). I'm imagining them dancing like a Cuphead boss and doing little plant laugh sounds. Killing it would drop 0 to 2 leafy meats, 1 to 3 lightbulbs and a 25% chance to drop a Vinespitter sprout. The Vinespitter sprout can be place at the surface, and it acts friendly or agressive there. The plant can only be placed in grass or forest and deciduous turf and it has 2 variants. The deciduous turf one would be aggressive towards everything and create vines around a 3.5 tile radius, around 15 vines and the grass/forest one would be peaceful and also have 15 vines but in a smaller 2.5 tiles. Each vine will have a chance to create something. The aggressive one will have spikes and the peaceful one will have lightbulbs. The aggressive one can survive every season but will wither in summer. The spikes serve as a protection for your base, just don't get too close to the core. You can expand the aggressive one's vines in a tile by placing a Lichen Meal (2 lichen, 1 bone shards and a filler) next to it. Enemies like Hound will walk over it and get hurt. It deals 20 damage. Giants will destroy the vines when they walk over it. You can upgrade the peaceful one's core by feeding it Lichen Meal for 5 more vines, totalling 30 vines (maximum 3 feeding sessions, they can only be fed in autumn). The peaceful one will not give bulbs if left outside of an Above Average Tree Trunk Canopy Shadow. In summer, it will not wither. As long as it has shades, it will provide 15 to 30 bulbs (1 per vine) every 3 to 4 days. In Spring, it will give bulbs every 2 days. In Winter, it will give bulbs every 5 days. The vinespitter is a helpful but deceiving plant that represents nature at it's best. It will try to survive no matter the circumstance, showing how nature really is.

In Spring still, the caves lichen will have glowing properties. Now, every 1 to 5 lichens will glow and wield a Gum Goop or simply Lichen Gum. The gum will have growth formula properties as to make Wormwood bloom and also be used as fuel in lanterns, it rots in 2 days. It's main use is to craft a gum in a bottle (2 gums, 1 gloomer's goop, 1 ashes, 1 bottle) that lasts forever and has 4 uses, it can be attached to anenemies to stick their tentacles together or add 16 growth formula to plant fields. The stuck anenemy will now work differently. The old one would work off-screen and reset automatically, while this new one now locks the bitten thing for 15 seconds. Icker bottles can now be attached to anenemies as well, locking the bitten mob for 4 minutes instead. It cannot lock giants, shadows or flying enemies. The gum bottle can also be applied to any plantable, and Brightshades will prioritize that plant. The lichen gum will make the plantable wield + 1x additional resource at a 25% chance. It will last until it needs to be fertilized again, cannot be applied to self fertilizing plantables. It can also be used in a maximum sized mushroom planter for 2 minutes of spore releasing."

[DegenerateFurry]

Gonna bump this suggestion with a new fish idea: Rockfish.

It's an ocean fishing-style ocean fish found only in a cenote, and you can't use it in a crock pot or murder it directly. Instead, you have to drop it on the ground and mine it, like a stonefruit. Normal weight ones will drop 1 big fish and 1-2 rocks, flint, or nitre when mined, while heavy ones give 1 big fish, 1 fish morsel, and have a chance of gems, gold, or thulecite instead of the usual rocks/flint/nitre. Think of it as a distant relative of the Rockjaw.

[WilsonHiggs]

I would love to fish anglerfish for glow berries

Making the boat crafting tab useful in the 2nd shard is the logical step after adding the ocean. Is wasted potential for an empty shard

[Frosty_Mentos]

Would be cool if caves had these things as seasonal threats.