Hellevators still by far the best way of spelunking?

I seem to remember reading that Chucklefish didn't want a hellevator to be the best way to explore underground areas and so far I (23 hours on Steam) it is exactly that.

In my experience a majority of caves are just teasers that end about 20m (relative to character's height) down and may contain a pixel container or two. Because of lack of directional fighting getting 12 pixels from 2 containers is (especially in 2nd sector and on) not worth the risk, since you get about 100 from a single surface creature. I'm still on the fence about the pixel requirement change, containers were a good incentive to explore.

Some caves are deeper and more spread out, but end at about 100m depth, not connecting to anything and yielding no reward, other than pixels (read 2nd paragraph) and the vines for organic matter, but there are better ways of obaining that (flower trees, jungle floor...). So far I've maybe found a chest or two in such caves, and 30+ chilling above ground. In my experience there doesn't seem to be more ore in those caves than on the surface.

Now, I like the deeper cave systems, they seem reasonably expansive and are filled with lots of ore and tougher creatures. The problem is that you have to mine a long vertical shaft to reach them. The way Terraria did caving was not optimal either, that game was 75% mining, but the shape of cave systems seems better to me there. On the other hand Starbound's caves are prettier and more immersive (when you find one), with all sorts of cave-y features and an awesome ligthing system. The way Starbound does the planet's core so far hasn't impressed me either, but it's the early beta and this may be a topic for another thread.

Since i'm more of a nomadic player I don't even bother with caves anymore and solely walk across the surface, every surface cave is a dissapointment and i don't feel like drilling a massive tunnel downwards to reach the actual cave systems.

Me & my friends have made a shaft to the core on the server an the digging wasn't nearly as fun as spelunking (except for digging trough sand, i love sand). Also the way SB does platforms makes it an ever bigger pain.

Disclaimer & TLDR: I know this is an early beta, this is just my opinion so far (possible i was unlucky with the worldgen, it applies more in the 2nd sector and on since you don't need the pixel containers so much - you still need the ore but I think deeper caves should be accessible from the surface without massive shafts.

P.S.: I'm shit with short and constructive writing, excuse the messy rant.

 

they probably are.

i've found many cave systems so far that have lead to more massive cave systems, so there is alternatives to hellavators, but generally, i make a hellavator anyway because the more important ores, like silver/gold (even iron in some cases) are found deep beneath the surface...so i just need to get there quickly and that's a way of doing it.

i don't know whether the generation of ores above copper should be increased towards the surface or the amount in which it produces in the areas it spawns or not, but IMO, it seems almost fine as it is now (i just think the spawn rate of silver/gold should be increased slightly, it can be tedious finding this). i have a feeling if too much spawns, the progression will happen to fast and that really kills the fun of games unless there's plenty other content to make up for it (lots of enemies/bosses/items).

 

I found that the fastest way to gather ores is to find a desert planet with a pit of fine sand. Just dig in, let it collapse around you, since as it does, it dislodges all of the ores and they'll start cascading towards you. Large enough pits produce so much ores that they start to despawn before you can dig your way to them, so friends may be a good thing to have to keep you safe from stray monsters and to collect the ores around. You can dig really deep this way too, as many sand and gravel pits reach far and wide.

 

Hellevators only half exist in this game. In terraria, the hellevator is literally a shaft that ends in the underworld. In Starbound, it'll end as soon as you reach a larger cave, and move off to explore it. At least that's what I do, when I do need to connect caves I'll dig straight down, but I won't dig straight down instead of exploring. You just miss out on so much delicious silver ore.

 

Definitely, i managed to get enough gold for full armor in about no time at all. Now, i may have got lucky but the secret is use the hellevator(or whatever the hell you want to call it) to find large underground areas and explore. Will lead you to fortune beyond compare

 

I agree, this is the way I did it, it's just the term i used. I just think it would be better for gameplay of the deeper caves would be accessible on foot, even if i had to traverse chasms, spikes and other dangers on the way.
P.S.: The forum is dying.

 

Have you tried using your manipulator to dig out spaces at the edge of your reach? The torches will illuminate an entire area despite being enclosed. Those caves that run out prematurely might not be as short as you think.

 

The fastest way I've found to mine underground resources is to find planets with large pockets of sand, fine sand, wet dirt, moon dust, gravel, and tar. I then mine under the blocks that fall, resources embedded in (sand, fine sand, gravel) will often fall out with the rest of the blocks. The wet dirt, moon dust, sand, and tar mine in one hit with the gold pick. I just swing wildly like a mad man trying to hit invisible pixies. I do burn through a lot of torches on my mining runs. Also, all the tar areas I have found have been loaded with ore, they really seem to be the ticket right now.

 

I would have to agree with you here. I haven't found anything underground that is interesting enough to warrant the amount of digging required to find it; if you find it at all. Then again I haven't really been above the first tier of planets so it could get more interesting as the game progresses.
I think it would be considerably more interesting if there was a reason to dig underground rather than just finding the ore. I'm not talking about masses of loot or epic caches of legendaries, but more akin to the avian burial grounds I've seen once in the 30+ planets I've explored and dug into. Things that give the planet flavour outside of just natural cave systems, even if it is just to raid for building materials.

 

Agreed with everything you said.

Exploring caves doesn't seem to be worth our time at all. Yes, there's a chance you might find a dungeon or chests, but the chances of that (from my 15~ hour experience) are so slim it's not even funny. Without knowing the base base parameter for chest and dungeon generation (aka a planet spawns at LEAST 2 underground dungeons, etc) I don't feel like wasting 2 hours digging through the planet's underground to not find anything worth it.

A map is kinda important for that. And so is something similar to a Spelunker potion in Terraria. Maybe we could get a "compass" like tool that lets you know how close you are to a dungeon, or something like that?

 

My experience is that the hellevator is the only good way to get ores right now. While it seems to me that ores spawn more frequently near a cave, any cave in the upper half of the planet doesn't contain any ores you couldn't get at the surface while still requiring you to defeat all the local enemies while it's only when you're getting nearer to the lava that the rare ores (such as Gold/Silver/Platinum/Uranium) start spawning in proper veins and getting that far down requires a hellevator as the caves never go that deep.

So I agree that surface caves need major changes to be worthwhile ever entering.

 

My experience is that the hellevator is the only good way to get ores right now. While it seems to me that ores spawn more frequently near a cave, any cave in the upper half of the planet doesn't contain any ores you couldn't get at the surface while still requiring you to defeat all the local enemies while it's only when you're getting nearer to the lava that the rare ores (such as Gold/Silver/Platinum/Uranium) start spawning in proper veins and getting that far down requires a hellevator as the caves never go that deep.

 

Yes, the game could use MUCH more expensive cave systems. Please, don't let the game make that same mistake as Terraria. I personally find the concept of digging straigth down not fun at all. I want to actually explore complex and deep caves, and I recall Terraria never having that, really. Its actually worse so far in Starbound.

There should much more often be caves that go from the surface to the bottom somehow. I don't know if the game can even generate those at all, right now.

 

very well written actually, well said sir o7

 

I've just found an insane complex of massive open caves and structures with frog statues in a small forest plant "Beta 72 Leo 22 II" (x:-73980458,y:50644480) which was in fact connected with a cave and was a joy to explore.
Just wanted to give credit where credit is due, the worldgen is capable of some amazing stuff underground. Overall i still think the "normal" caves could have been a bit more connected.

 

I think Hellevators are awesome, but they're too easy to dig at the moment. They should be more of an industrial tool, late game. Like, you get some amazing digging tool and just make a mineshaft straight to the core. That should be something we work for. If the caves were more accessible from the surface, you wouldn't feel incentivized in early game to just plowing away right beneath your spawn point.

 

I admit I've been using a hellevator until I reach a larger cave system, it's just the most efficient way of getting to the better ores deep underground. I don't see a way around that. Unless they make cobblestone ridiculous hard to mine and have it everywhere underground, it's still going to be more convenient to just dig a hole straight down. Even in minecraft with 3d, I still just dig straight down to layer 15 and start digging for redstone (tekkit).

I think it's part of the logic in mining. You dig down!

 

i have found some pretty big ass cave systems on 2 starter planets. One had Flesh and bone blocks 3/4 of the way down for some reason.
And the frog statues mentioned before i found those as well which eventually led to a frog merchant who sold bombs and gold pickaxes