"dont build in caves"

[Exgene]

Watching one of the community videos, a rather blunt statement was made: "just dont build in caves". period.

Some things rather lend themselves to trying to build in caves - for example, nuclear cells are significantly more resource-dense than raw uranium ore, and they are a lot less radioactive, to boot. Seemed like a shoo-in to just build a railway right up to the uranium node, and a processing plant right there.

Belting the nasty raw uranium all the way out of the cave, just so I can build the hazardous processing plant OUTSIDE the cave seems far inferior.

I get that the devs still plan to change the caves, but the blanket "just dont build in caves" seems somewhat tone-deaf, does it not? I guess I could try to glitch-build a mk5 belt or two up through the cave ceiling to the regular terrain above, but that seems even weirder.

How is everyone else dealing with (well, I guess uranium specifically), but caves in general?

[The Big Brzezinski]

Refresh my memory. Why not build in caves? Can't very well exploit resources node inside them without setting up something. Can't grab those collectables without building places to stand, either.

[curtyuiop]

my uranium cave has a train station beside the miner, gets shipped out to large factory for processing outside in clean, fresh air permeated with radioactive isotopes.

[Dreaminway]

They have said not to build in caves BECAUSE the caves are getting big overhauls so what is there and in them can be vastly different then what we have. Not all caves even as of Update 8 have been touched (though a good chunk have and the work is STUNNING) So that is why they are saying to not build in caves as the terrain and layout may change.

[kLuns]

The main reason not to build in a cave is space management. But that might sound like a challenge to build in caves.

In case of an update make a backup of the save without the cave build just in case and try the best you can in the mean time.

[The Big Brzezinski]

If changes to cave layouts are coming, then it's a good thing we'll see it beforehand in experimental builds.

[Shadow]

"Don't build in caves." really only applies while they are making changes to the caves. Outside when they make a change, you might get a building partly embedded in a cliff or discover a rock has somehow grown up through the middle of a constructor or something. But in a cave, even a minor change to the structure can have disastrous results for your factory layout simply because there's not much room for building to begin with. It would not take much at all for that train station to disappear into the cave wall.

[Dreaminway]

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

If changes to cave layouts are coming, then it's a good thing we'll see it beforehand in experimental builds.

They already have come. Trying out Update 8 has revealed a good number of caves already reworked and look breathtaking. But they haven't gotten to all of the caves yet.

[Exgene]

Part of the double-edged-sword of early access I guess.

I'm pretty proud of my encased cell factory built right on top of the uranium node - concrete & sulphuric acid in, cells out. And as previously stated, the cells are a lot less radioactive (and less volume) than train-cars hauling raw ore out would be.

- Uranium ore only stacks to 100, and has a "radioactive" value of 15.
- Encased uranium cells stack to 200, and have a radioactive value of 0.5! - much better for transport. Hence why I want to process it ASAP.

I may have to take a peek at update 8 and see if it murders my cell plant or not. Unlike the aboveground biomes, the caves aren't documented as to what'll be changed when.

[Snutt]

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

Refresh my memory. Why not build in caves?

Mostly because all caves are very much work in progress and might change quite drastically. It's a bit more difficult for players to fix factories underground with these changes compared to when we make changes to the environment on ground.

[The Big Brzezinski]

So it's a practical reality rather than anything intrinsic. Setting up a ladder or zipline platform to grab a power slug is no problem. A uranium mine and truck station is fine, just don't do a big refining setup down there. Keep up on experimental patch notes and check in a copy of your save if map changes are mentioned to see if any of your machinery and truck routes are affected, and prepare in the stable game accordingly.

For my part, I assume I'm starting over completely after early access is concluded anyway.

[NukeAJS]

Some caves have already been changed quite significantly in the new update. The cave upstream of "coal lake" on the western side of the map got redone and it looks nice and it loads properly (meaning you can see inside the cave from far away).

[Remnar]

In update 7, I have a train going through a small spider cave full of gas pillars. If caves are a work in progress, why not just hide and block them? Can't your world builder get it right the first few hundred times?

[cswiger]

Originally posted by Remnar:

In update 7, I have a train going through a small spider cave full of gas pillars. If caves are a work in progress, why not just hide and block them?

The answer to this question is that you should not have purchased a license to an early access game.

Can't your world builder get it right the first few hundred times?

Your question falsely assumes that world maps are created perfectly in one step out of nothing. Real game development of both the software and the game maps involves thousands of incremental changes, including regressions and rollbacks when experimental ideas don't pan out well.

[Alaskan Glitch]

It may have changed with Update 8 and the Unreal engine, but every time I got out of a vehicle while in a cave my vehicle would immediately disappear and reappear on top of the cave (often upside down).

This happened every time without exception. I could drive in caves just fine, providing I never got out of the vehicle, but if I stepped out of the vehicle while in a cave then *poof* the vehicle instantly appears above the cave where it was parked.