Suggestion for Caves Layout / Ruins Implementation

[SageOfLegend]

This week on Klei's Rhymes With Play stream we learned more about caves in Don't Starve Together. Initially, caves will require two separate dedicated servers, one to run the overworld and another to run the caves (a way to play with caves using non-dedicated servers is in the works, but coming later).

 

Currently the ruins are not included at all, but are in queue to be implemented after the caves are stabilized and released. The implication seems to be that they are planned to be yet another, third dedicated server/shard to be run simultaneously with the overworld and the caves. I'm no programmer, but this seems like it might be a shard too far. I have an alternate suggestion that might be simpler. Based on these issues and also some design concepts for cave layouts that Klei shared in a previous podcast, I propose a biome-based solution to combine both the caves and the ruins together into one world.

 

 

Klei's own cave layout plans were similar to this, making the center of the caves more dangerous, with the outsides less difficult to traverse and containing many exits to the surface. But we don't need to make a more difficult version of the caves to place in the center, we already have that! They're called the ruins. I suggest placing all of the ruins biomes and content in the center and surround that with the caves biomes, as pictured above.

 

I know there are mods which have added most of the ruins content to the overworld, so the technology to combine these elements seems to be there. The rest seems to be mostly a matter of world generation, which may be simpler to solve than figuring out how to smoothly run yet more simultaneous world shards, either with multiple dedicated servers or without. I'm all for anything that gets the ruins content released faster! Without the rewards for spelunking deep enough to get to the ancient alters, a lot of the appeal of braving the caves is lessened.

 

Thanks for all your hard work Klei! This has been an excellent beta and I can't wait to see what else is in store for the future.

[GuyNamedChris]

How about being able to only access this via ruins entrance. But instead of it acting as a world gen hole, it works as a wormhole. Because frankly, I don't like monkeys stealing all my stuff so i tend to avoid the ruins and combining both would kinda ruin it for me.

"Ruin" yes, yes, much funny.

[Michi01]

ruin

Pun intended?

[Johnny5isAlive]

Seems like a pretty good plan, just have the two generate as separate things in an island inside an island type of way and connect them  

via ruins entrance. But instead of it acting as a world gen hole, it works as a wormhole.

Seems like a pretty fool-proof plan that should save a lot of effort and get Ruins into the game sooner.

[Nickolas2600]

How about being able to only access this via ruins entrance. But instead of it acting as a world gen hole, it works as a wormhole. Because frankly, I don't like monkeys stealing all my stuff so i tend to avoid the ruins and combining both would kinda ruin it for me.

"Ruin" yes, yes, much funny.

That would work actually. I think I am no programmer.

[GuyNamedChris]

Pun intended?

Pun intended.

[DarkXero]

I like that the image has a faint image of a mod character of yours. Nice reference.

[SageOfLegend]

How about being able to only access this via ruins entrance. But instead of it acting as a world gen hole, it works as a wormhole. Because frankly, I don't like monkeys stealing all my stuff so i tend to avoid the ruins and combining both would kinda ruin it for me.

"Ruin" yes, yes, much funny.

 

That's another good idea that could potentially help with the simultaneous world shard issues. I like it. However, I'm not going to cave on my original suggestion. I like the idea of having a few connecting land bridges to the center ruins where you can choose to travel if you're brave, but also just walk around the outside and avoid those dangers if you don't want to deal with splumonkeys and such.

 

I like that the image has a faint image of a mod character of yours. Nice reference.

 

 

Thanks! That space felt kind of empty and it seemed like a nice touch. I loves me some detail. I was wondering if anyone would really notice!

[GuyNamedChris]

That's another good idea that could potentially help with the simultaneous world shard issues. I like it. However, I'm not going to cave on my original suggestion. I like the idea of having a few connecting land bridges to the center ruins where you can choose to travel if you're brave, but also just walk around the outside and avoid those dangers if you don't want to deal with splumonkeys and such.

  Yeah, but what about the nightmare cycle? When the spoopy times happen the nightmares can cross from the ruins 'biome' to the caves. Same thing with other enemies (slurpers, monkeys and the like) nothing's stopping them from crossing the land bridge and leaking into the caves region. I think having a wormhole separating the two would be best. 

I couldn't think of any more "caves/ruins" jokes. ;-;

[Nickolas2600]

  Yeah, but what about the nightmare cycle? When the spoopy times happen the nightmares can cross from the ruins 'biome' to the caves. Same thing with other enemies (slurpers, monkeys and the like) nothing's stopping them from crossing the land bridge and leaking into the caves region. I think having a wormhole separating the two would be best. 

I couldn't think of any more "caves/ruins" jokes. ;-;

WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS!