Cave Traversal/Abyss Pillars

[-Variant]

So here's an idea that's been on the mind for a while now.
Something that's a real chore when it comes to the cave is simply getting around or exploring everything... there's a lot of dead empty space for one... but something far more cumbersome to me is the sheer amount of holes and cuts splitting everything up!

The Sanctum puzzle and concept arts regarding it had me thinking... why not have more abyss pillars around the cave map? They'd be simple one-way paths between chunks of land. They could be found naturally, or possibly even be player made?

I honestly feel like this'd be a perfect way to help encourage people to explore a bit more of those winding paths.
My reasoning here is that... having a quick way to shoot over, explore an area, and then see if its worth making a far more permanent path over with bridges sounds like a wonderful boon when it comes to exploration.

If we're able to spend a full stack of 40 rocks to make a pillar to hold up the cave ceiling, I think being able to make a "bundle of Rocks" that we can deploy into the abyss to quickly hop over sounds reasonable enough to me!
Here's a rough mock up, ahaha.

I think their crumbling nature would make them a fun middle ground between walking all the way around cave gaps, and having a more permanent bridge set up!

Anyways that's it! It's a small idea I feel could change things up really well. I think gathering a bunch of rocks and building makeshift bridges to hop across with friends sounds really fun!!

[Mayson71]

They were talking about something similar on the stream

[Captain_Rage]

It could definitely spice up the cave and be of benefit to the player if such formations would show up at random places intermittently after activating the shadow rift. While it would introduce convenience it could in theory also cause a peril, if the player decides to take a shortcut that happens to disappear a moment later and gets cut off from their safe route back. These pillars wouldn't appear and disappear too often though. More like the rifts themselves. Overall it is a nice suggestion to make the caves more dynamic and lively. I approve of this idea.

[Wumpair]

1 hour ago, Mayson71 said:

They were talking about something similar on the stream

Yes, Klei mentioned it in the update review stream; the idea of adding these stones across cave gaps all around. They explained that they were unsure what to do with beefalo/woby and followers like pigmen/bonnies: The creatures despawning and respawning next to the player (e.i. what happens when you use telolocator staff on land with eyebone in invetory, and chester just hopps to you off screen) felt unatural. So maybe they will bring this in the 2nd half of the update if they find a proper solution to it.

[Jakepeng99]

3 hours ago, -Variant said:

So here's an idea that's been on the mind for a while now.
Something that's a real chore when it comes to the cave is simply getting around or exploring everything... there's a lot of dead empty space for one... but something far more cumbersome to me is the sheer amount of holes and cuts splitting everything up!

The Sanctum puzzle and concept arts regarding it had me thinking... why not have more abyss pillars around the cave map? They'd be simple one-way paths between chunks of land. They could be found naturally, or possibly even be player made?

I honestly feel like this'd be a perfect way to help encourage people to explore a bit more of those winding paths.
My reasoning here is that... having a quick way to shoot over, explore an area, and then see if its worth making a far more permanent path over with bridges sounds like a wonderful boon when it comes to exploration.

If we're able to spend a full stack of 40 rocks to make a pillar to hold up the cave ceiling, I think being able to make a "bundle of Rocks" that we can deploy into the abyss to quickly hop over sounds reasonable enough to me!
Here's a rough mock up, ahaha.

I think their crumbling nature would make them a fun middle ground between walking all the way around cave gaps, and having a more permanent bridge set up!

Anyways that's it! It's a small idea I feel could change things up really well. I think gathering a bunch of rocks and building makeshift bridges to hop across with friends sounds really fun!!

My question is how they would interact with earth quakes, and I feel like they should despawn at some point because in multiplayer it won’t work well when.

1 hour ago, Captain_Rage said:

It could definitely spice up the cave and be of benefit to the player if such formations would show up at random places intermittently after activating the shadow rift. While it would introduce convenience it could in theory also cause a peril, if the player decides to take a shortcut that happens to disappear a moment later and gets cut off from their safe route back. These pillars wouldn't appear and disappear too often though. More like the rifts themselves. Overall it is a nice suggestion to make the caves more dynamic and lively. I approve of this idea.

Why riff exclusive?

 

Having it locked after fuelweaver kinda nullifies their design.

[Evelo]

At this point, I just assume Klei doesn't want to update old biomes.

[Captain_Rage]

6 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

My question is how they would interact with earth quakes, and I feel like they should despawn at some point because in multiplayer it won’t work well when.

Why riff exclusive?

 

Having it locked after fuelweaver kinda nullifies their design.

Yeah, not having them available until that late would feel counterproductive. It also feels a bit goofy to have such potent potential shortcuts available right off the bat exploring the cave for the first time. Maybe they could start appearing and disappearing after the player activates the Archives for the first time (at the same time those Nightmare Ramparts appear next to the Lunar Grotto).

[Jakepeng99]

25 minutes ago, Captain_Rage said:

Yeah, not having them available until that late would feel counterproductive. It also feels a bit goofy to have such potent potential shortcuts available right off the bat exploring the cave for the first time. Maybe they could start appearing and disappearing after the player activates the Archives for the first time (at the same time those Nightmare Ramparts appear next to the Lunar Grotto).

No. 

[Milordo]

Yes!

A lot of people already said here about the stream and all, so I'll just add my 2 cents. 

1) They shoudn't be craftable. Naturally generated like wormholes and tentapillars (since they occupy that design role), otherwise what's the point of bridges in balance. 

2) They obviously should appear on day 1. Like, why people are suggesting after Rifts? It's non-sensical. 

3) Just spawn them few of them in the Caves. Too many and it would make the bridges unbalanced.