Digging deeper holes

[Swato85]

So we started building a castle on a land that looked very flat, but on one edge when we cut down a dense tree line, we realised that the ground is going rapidly up, now when we dig up to this area we can no longer have a moat as the ground depth limit is not allowing us to dig to water level.
The whole plan got a hit, and the gro nd going above water is giving us a headache.

Is there any user friensly solution of how to force the depth to go to allow in any other way to dig a bit deeper? I dont want any cheats or something that will require others to download/modify their game. So is there any solution to this that would not imoact the vanila experience/setup? We only need few minutes to smooth out the moat. Any advice is appreciated.

[knighttemplar1960]

Base game has a limit of 8 meters up or down from the starting level of the terrain. The only way to change that is to use a mod.

If you want to stay completely vanilla a dry moat works just as well as a wet one. With several different terrain levels in your base a Motte and Bailey design can work well and be aesthetically pleasing.

[VulcanTourist]

You don't need to have water in the moat; a deep pit will suffice. Water doesn't drown anything, serves no purpose except a Medieval aesthetic. Don't count on getting a deep enough pit from the original terrain elevation: RAISE the terrain enclosed by the pit. A Motte and Bailey design is not necessary except for aesthetics; you can raise it all. Use the tools available - mods like Dirty Hoe make the process MUCH easier but again are not necessary. Making the deepest pit and raising the enclosure can create walls almost perfectly vertical that can't be scaled by anything with legs. It demands patience and possibly quite a lot of stone.

[Admiral Chowderpants]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Base game has a limit of 8 meters up or down from the starting level of the terrain. The only way to change that is to use a mod.

If you want to stay completely vanilla a dry moat works just as well as a wet one. With several different terrain levels in your base a Motte and Bailey design can work well and be aesthetically pleasing.

Wait... there is a mod that lets you dig deeper and add soil higher?

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by Admiral Chowderpants:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Base game has a limit of 8 meters up or down from the starting level of the terrain. The only way to change that is to use a mod.

If you want to stay completely vanilla a dry moat works just as well as a wet one. With several different terrain levels in your base a Motte and Bailey design can work well and be aesthetically pleasing.

Wait... there is a mod that lets you dig deeper and add soil higher?

If there is I haven't found it yet, but I think it might be theoretically possible.

[Mharr]

The mod is Heightmap Unlimited, hasn't been updated in years but it's so basic and fundamental it probably doesn't need to be? Unfortunately this is a setting you still can't adjust using devcommands so everyone downloading a mod is all you can try.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Heightmap Unlimited.
https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/359
It was last updated Aug. 26, 2023.

And the Posts and Bugs imply that people are still using it successfully... except for the guy who claims that it breaks/disables Valheim Plus.

[Swato85]

What if I implement this mod, dig the few problematic meters and remive it agan, will the game keep the deeper holes or will it revert or cause other bugs for players? Can anyone advise? Thank you.

[burn]

there is another mod that is more or less the same as heightmap unlimited but it is maintained and updated pretty frequently:

https://valheim.thunderstore.io/package/Crystal/DigDeeper/

as for your question... any changes made to the terrain should be visible to other players and the terrain should keep any of the changes made to it.

[Admiral Chowderpants]

Hightmap_unlimited_Remake by Digital Root in the thunderstore is working fantastic.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Swato85:

What if I implement this mod, dig the few problematic meters and remive it agan, will the game keep the deeper holes or will it revert or cause other bugs for players? Can anyone advise? Thank you.

I believe, tho i may be wrong on this, mods that change the world using things already in the game should be visible to other players even if they dont have that mod installed. Things like editing the height map or adding barrels or crates/ foliage thats already in the base game just not normally accessable to players. Mods that add new assets to the game, such as custom barrels/ crates or custom foliage and the like would require all players to have the same mod installed as their individual games would have to render that data, and if they just don't have that data bcs they dont have that mod then it wont render.

[avatar.zero]

In the case of Heightmap Unlimited, at least, anyone not using the mod will see the terrain as you would after uninstalling the mod (any terrain alterations will snap back to vanilla restrictions which could cause map issues if mixing modded and non-modded players, especially if they're in the same area).

It's buried a bit in the chat, but...

Originally posted by "Digitalroot":

Does removing the mod undo the terrain you created with it?

yes

[Admiral Chowderpants]

Originally posted by burn:

there is another mod that is more or less the same as heightmap unlimited but it is maintained and updated pretty frequently:

https://valheim.thunderstore.io/package/Crystal/DigDeeper/

as for your question... any changes made to the terrain should be visible to other players and the terrain should keep any of the changes made to it.

I installed this one as a test and, while it would let me dig, it did not let me raise the ground higher than normal.

Heightmap_unlimited is working even with its august update.

[Swato85]

Originally posted by avatar.zero:

In the case of Heightmap Unlimited, at least, anyone not using the mod will see the terrain as you would after uninstalling the mod (any terrain alterations will snap back to vanilla restrictions which could cause map issues if mixing modded and non-modded players, especially if they're in the same area).

It's buried a bit in the chat, but...

Originally posted by "Digitalroot":

yes

So its safe only for singleplayer, in multiplayer it can, and will lead to odditties... Ahh man.. With so much deformed tereain e erywhere, they could had made the depth to be drillable down to water level, or why not make biome depth/raise limit Biome based, not geneeic ±\-, that would allow a lot better planning. Even with current limit the world shape changes when out of interaction range is still pretty,... Low.

[Admiral Chowderpants]

Originally posted by Swato85:

Originally posted by avatar.zero:

In the case of Heightmap Unlimited, at least, anyone not using the mod will see the terrain as you would after uninstalling the mod (any terrain alterations will snap back to vanilla restrictions which could cause map issues if mixing modded and non-modded players, especially if they're in the same area).

It's buried a bit in the chat, but...

So its safe only for singleplayer, in multiplayer it can, and will lead to odditties... Ahh man.. With so much deformed tereain e erywhere, they could had made the depth to be drillable down to water level, or why not make biome depth/raise limit Biome based, not geneeic ±\-, that would allow a lot better planning. Even with current limit the world shape changes when out of interaction range is still pretty,... Low.

If both have the mod it still creates issues?

[Mharr]

The issue is that if anyone connects without the mod for whatever reason it could mess with any terrain they approach in game, and people often remove all mods for troubleshooting after game patches.