Looking for advice/tips for building underground

[Niruk 1]

I really want to make a big base under a mountain. Do you guys have any tips? Like if I want to dig out a big space should I dig out the ceiling then mine the floors to go lower?

[Zenity 728]

Digging out the ceiling and then mining the floor down is usually the way giant caverns are created, careful planning is always essential, taking into account Wurm’s unique cave systems, making use of dropshafts.

 

might want to take a look at some of the things players have already done underground. nadroj’s place on Exodus springs to mind.

 

Good luck, and take plenty of screenshots to record your own descent into madness 😁

[Alpengeist 86]

SImply tunnel in somewhere, then start mining the way you want things. Mine the ceilings up, or drop or raise floors. Build bridges, buildings, underground lakes, and more. Like Zenity said though, it can get tricky when you start running into other players' work. That usually then requires some tactical re-routing and alterations to get around or fix. Don't forget support beams in order to avoid collapse, but know that beams installed off-deed will then require a priest or subsequent deeding to remove.

[Nadroj 3,554]

16 hours ago, Zenity said:

Digging out the ceiling and then mining the floor down is usually the way giant caverns are created, careful planning is always essential, taking into account Wurm’s unique cave systems, making use of dropshafts.

 

might want to take a look at some of the things players have already done underground. nadroj’s place on Exodus springs to mind.

 

Good luck, and take plenty of screenshots to record your own descent into madness 😁

 

Always take screenshots! When i started mag's rest i had absolutely noooooo clue where it would go but i'm eternally thankful that i chose to start taking pictures from day one. It's made the whole journey so much more awesome to chronicle. Also i'm happy to answer any questions about the madness of making underground cities

[Niruk 1]

39 minutes ago, Nadroj said:

 

Always take screenshots! When i started mag's rest i had absolutely noooooo clue where it would go but i'm eternally thankful that i chose to start taking pictures from day one. It's made the whole journey so much more awesome to chronicle. Also i'm happy to answer any questions about the madness of making underground cities

 

I'm just not sure how the mining mechanics work exactly. Currently I just have a straight tunnel into the mountain and want to make a big empty room (like a giant cube) below the level of my tunnel. Do I mine out the top of the cube then stand on top and mine down?

 

Part of the problem I have is I think to myself that the world is made up of blocks (like in minecraft or something) when that is not the case.

 

Also how did you make those big pillars? Just by not mining that area out?

Edited August 7, 2020 by Niruk

[Nadroj 3,554]

10 minutes ago, Niruk said:

 

I'm just not sure how the mining mechanics work exactly. Currently I just have a straight tunnel into the mountain and want to make a big empty room (like a giant cube) below the level of my tunnel. Do I mine out the top of the cube then stand on top and mine down?

 

Part of the problem I have is I think to myself that the world is made up of blocks (like in minecraft or something) when that is not the case.

 

Also how did you make those big pillars? Just by not mining that area out?

Basically you have to consider wurm's world as 2 layers. Underground and overground. The game technically considers a lot of this as two dimensional which is why you can't have tunnels overlap each other. For your start point in any tunnel you've got a 33 dirt slope clearance which you can increase by 30 by mining the ceiling and then you're capped. At this point you're basically totally stuck on making it larger unless you mine the floor. This is why my entire cave was started out at the level i knew i wanted the entry and ceilings to be at and then i mined a giant 3 tile wide ramp down. You can get.....god my brain is failing me here on specifics but its about 270 slope before you hit the absolute cap and the game tells you that to mine the floor further would make the cave unstable. When i did this i had a fair bit of trial and error using magranon priests to cast strongwall and collapse out my mistakes. That's because when you're working near the max cave height cap any deviation in the ceiling height could cause you to accidentally be over that limit. You don't ever want that because you want your base level 100% flat for buildings. Best bet really is to just accept that with a standard cave + heightened ceilings you can mine a 9 tile 20 slope ramp. That means you're taking a 33 slope that became a 63 slope and adding 180 to it for a cool 243 height cave. You should be able to easily fit another tile but its just not fun fixing mistakes later unless you have a mag priest on hand so that's a nice safe height to go with.

 

Think of it like minecraft but instead of blocks you're working with a 2d world presented in 3d space. All you're doing is manipulating the slopes of the tiles to whatever limits the game allows.

[Niruk 1]

17 hours ago, Nadroj said:

Basically you have to consider wurm's world as 2 layers. Underground and overground. The game technically considers a lot of this as two dimensional which is why you can't have tunnels overlap each other. For your start point in any tunnel you've got a 33 dirt slope clearance which you can increase by 30 by mining the ceiling and then you're capped. At this point you're basically totally stuck on making it larger unless you mine the floor. This is why my entire cave was started out at the level i knew i wanted the entry and ceilings to be at and then i mined a giant 3 tile wide ramp down. You can get.....god my brain is failing me here on specifics but its about 270 slope before you hit the absolute cap and the game tells you that to mine the floor further would make the cave unstable. When i did this i had a fair bit of trial and error using magranon priests to cast strongwall and collapse out my mistakes. That's because when you're working near the max cave height cap any deviation in the ceiling height could cause you to accidentally be over that limit. You don't ever want that because you want your base level 100% flat for buildings. Best bet really is to just accept that with a standard cave + heightened ceilings you can mine a 9 tile 20 slope ramp. That means you're taking a 33 slope that became a 63 slope and adding 180 to it for a cool 243 height cave. You should be able to easily fit another tile but its just not fun fixing mistakes later unless you have a mag priest on hand so that's a nice safe height to go with.

 

Think of it like minecraft but instead of blocks you're working with a 2d world presented in 3d space. All you're doing is manipulating the slopes of the tiles to whatever limits the game allows.

 

Thanks for the info. A lot of it went over my head lol... Seems like there were be a lot of experimenting for me.

[Nadroj 3,554]

It's all about those tile borders my dude, long as your pickaxe is active you'll see the slope when you highlight it. Can also examine to see. Everything in wurm's terraforming/cave manipulating comes down to changing the tile border slopes from the corners of the tiles. Everything above was just me letting you know where the upper limits on that lie.

[Ohana 907]

no advice, just a picture 😛 https://prnt.sc/u5siod

 

[Niruk 1]

On 8/7/2020 at 4:32 PM, Nadroj said:

Basically you have to consider wurm's world as 2 layers. Underground and overground. The game technically considers a lot of this as two dimensional which is why you can't have tunnels overlap each other. For your start point in any tunnel you've got a 33 dirt slope clearance which you can increase by 30 by mining the ceiling and then you're capped. At this point you're basically totally stuck on making it larger unless you mine the floor. This is why my entire cave was started out at the level i knew i wanted the entry and ceilings to be at and then i mined a giant 3 tile wide ramp down. You can get.....god my brain is failing me here on specifics but its about 270 slope before you hit the absolute cap and the game tells you that to mine the floor further would make the cave unstable. When i did this i had a fair bit of trial and error using magranon priests to cast strongwall and collapse out my mistakes. That's because when you're working near the max cave height cap any deviation in the ceiling height could cause you to accidentally be over that limit. You don't ever want that because you want your base level 100% flat for buildings. Best bet really is to just accept that with a standard cave + heightened ceilings you can mine a 9 tile 20 slope ramp. That means you're taking a 33 slope that became a 63 slope and adding 180 to it for a cool 243 height cave. You should be able to easily fit another tile but its just not fun fixing mistakes later unless you have a mag priest on hand so that's a nice safe height to go with.

 

Think of it like minecraft but instead of blocks you're working with a 2d world presented in 3d space. All you're doing is manipulating the slopes of the tiles to whatever limits the game allows.

 

 

So, is that 270~ slope limit from the start of the cave to anywhere connected to it?

[Niruk 1]

On 8/27/2020 at 5:19 AM, Ohana said:

no advice, just a picture 😛 https://prnt.sc/u5siod

 

Really cool. Can the boat go anywhere?!

[Ohana 907]

The carval can not, we only made the canal that connects from west to east shallow boat depth.

That picture I showed you is at the deed at the purple arrow.

https://prnt.sc/u7kjjs

[Nadroj 3,554]

6 hours ago, Niruk said:

 

 

So, is that 270~ slope limit from the start of the cave to anywhere connected to it?

 

The height limit is based on slope which is always 1dirt/1stone per and it will affect any corner of a tile, or more to the point a corner in the middle of a 2x2 of tiles between the floor and the ceiling. So the start of the cave could easily be 1000 slope away from where you eventually choose to have your "big cavern" because the game only cares about the height difference of each tile corner.

Any normal start point for a cave you've just mined out flat is going to be 30, or 33 can't remember someone may correct me, "slope" height from floor to ceiling on all 4 corners. If you mine the ceiling you'll take that up by another 30 before you get the "you cannot reach the ceiling message". Then you basically can only get the height difference between floor and ceiling higher by mining the floor from then on. This is why it's best to really plan out where your entrances are as they'll likely need a big ramp down into the cavern unless you start from above then make a new entrance at the lowered floor level later. 

 

Eventually you'd hit a point where the game tells you that it would cause the cavern to become unstable if you mined the that corner of the floor any further, that'd be the 270~ cap. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Nadroj