Bay 12 Games Forum

Dwarf Fortress => DF Dwarf Mode Discussion => Topic started by: DrCyano on February 12, 2020, 02:29:56 am

Title: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: DrCyano on February 12, 2020, 02:29:56 am
Greetings fellow Dwarf overseers!

I want to breach the caverns next to the ocean with a fortress in Fort Mode, then cross UNDER the ocean in Adventure Mode. However, this would only work if the caverns are contiguous underneath the seas. Anyone know if this is true?

The Dwarf Fortress wiki makes it sound like ocean biomes might not have caverns, but it's not clear.
Title: Re: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: PatrikLundell on February 12, 2020, 03:13:31 am
There are caverns under ocean tiles accessible via fortresses built on the shore and including ocean biome tiles. I've seen no difference between caverns under ocean and under ground. These caverns are open at the edges in the normal fashion, but I have no idea about how connected they are to adventurers.
Title: Re: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: DrCyano on February 12, 2020, 04:17:31 am
I'll give it a shot then.

I wonder if I can found a site in Adventure Mode underground or even under the ocean, but that's a question for Adventure Mode Discussion Dwarf Science!
Title: Re: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: vjek on February 12, 2020, 12:49:46 pm
It's possible.

In this world..
Spoiler: undersea1 (click to show/hide)
with this embark:
(https://i.postimg.cc/d0WR4xwK/image.png)
You can start from either side, dig down under, and then dig over and up to the other side, beach to beach.  8)
Embark level: 100
Seaside/waves: 99
Dry caverns from -9 to -13 (that is, down 109 Z-Levels from the embark is the top of the cavern.  Down 113 Z-Levels from the embark is the bottom of the cavern.
There is a continuous cavern under the ocean, at Z: -13, from one side of the ocean to the other.
The bottom of the ocean is at Z:0, so there's 10 layers between that and the top of the caverns, which is what [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:10] is in the worldgen parameters, I suspect. ( a.k.a. " Z Levels Above Layer 1 " in " Design New World with Advanced Parameters " )
I just did it in a single embark in fortress mode, so it should certainly be possible in Fortress + Adventure mode.
There's also a couple of candy spires along the way, in this case.  :o
Title: Re: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: Hyndis on February 12, 2020, 02:46:54 pm
Try embarking on a 3x3 embark, where only 1 of those world tiles is land. This gives you 9 tiles to work with, but 8 of those tiles are ocean. Only 1 land tile also forces all visitors to your fortress to show up on a walkable section of ground, meaning you can very easily funnel all visitors past your military.

Typically, this one walkable world tile will be a corner. Then you dig down from this under the sea and you built your fortress in either the silt or stone layers. Dig down deeper and you will encounter caverns and the underworld.

I'm very fond of these embarks for my own personal fortresses.
Title: Re: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: DrCyano on February 12, 2020, 06:08:02 pm
I originally wanted to make a bridge fortress, but unfortunately the islands in my world are separated by 3 ocean tiles, the middle tile of course has no land whatsoever. I'm playing with the challenge that I only embark to places I've first visited in adventure mode (I call it the "Dwarves without Boats" challenge).

Map in Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1w8q5VqMeBurYtd5_t45Ee3Z2dOF8R6BNyXeBTU87PKU/mobilepresent#slide=id.g6ef39e5d08_0_69 (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1w8q5VqMeBurYtd5_t45Ee3Z2dOF8R6BNyXeBTU87PKU/mobilepresent#slide=id.g6ef39e5d08_0_69)
My plan therefore is to visit and then embark on the coast, build an entrance to the caverns beneath the ocean, and then make an adventurer to use the caverns to cross the ocean and found an adventurer site in the other side to dig up to the surface.
Title: Re: Are there caverns underneath the ocean?
Post by: Paaaad on February 13, 2020, 02:11:08 am
Hell, I had one instance back in 0.31.25 where, best guess, the roof of the first cavern level tried to generate above the sea floor (or the other way around). Big hole, much lag.