I think we should try to get together some ideas for different underground buildings… especially so that ‘fallout mode’ could eventually be implemented, like mentioned in another thread.
Im not much one for coming up with ideas, but I know where I live there are many secret de-activated missile silos that were used for posturing during the cold war. most are filled with concrete or water, but in the lore the silos could have been planted in the north-east, and not decommissioned due to their proximity to… uhh… Cuba relative to their alternative placement here, in the Midwest.
How extensive are the basements in shopping malls in the game? IRL they can be pretty big and a lot of mall stores have 2 - 3 levels of basement beneath them to act as stockrooms.
Residential Underground City Space: essentialy, an apartment residential zone, underground. Lots of lack of space to run away and underground houses. At least, here darkness is a constant…
Catacombs: in Rome, any kind of underground building have to be stopped several times because of the findings of new ancient buildings hidden in the city. We could have these in some of the cities, complete with skeletons and Nether creatures, mutated survivors(mutations that would help underground), traps and relics to be found!
Underground Labs: secret labs, under cities. Can be reached through the unsuspected basement of a house, or through the sewers.
Underground Built-up Survivor Shelters: not all survivors died in the cities. Some went to the subways and are living there, getting supplies at night… are fighting against other subterranean residents.
[quote=“Wanderer, post:7, topic:7859”]* Underground Labs: secret labs, under cities. Can be reached through the unsuspected basement of a house, or through the sewers.
Underground Built-up Survivor Shelters: not all survivors died in the cities. Some went to the subways and are living there, getting supplies at night… are fighting against other subterranean residents.[/quote]
I’m planning on making at least these two, the first one I could make already, but for the second I think I need a reliable way to make things spawn with sewer/subway connections.
The underground world generation is even worse than the surface one.
[quote=“John Candlebury, post:8, topic:7859”][quote=“Wanderer, post:7, topic:7859”]* Underground Labs: secret labs, under cities. Can be reached through the unsuspected basement of a house, or through the sewers.
Underground Built-up Survivor Shelters: not all survivors died in the cities. Some went to the subways and are living there, getting supplies at night… are fighting against other subterranean residents.[/quote]
I’m planning on making at least these two, the first one I could make already, but for the second I think I need a reliable way to make things spawn with sewer/subway connections.
The underground world generation is even worse than the surface one.[/quote]
YEAH- yeah, heard about the subways being limited now because the connections between cities took too much time, so, i can guess how much worse
Also:
Underground Fungus Forest: ordinary fungus take nutrients from rotting matter. And if some spores felt at the sewers, where there’s a full disposal system that’s not working, leaving stuff clogged and accumulated? How the fungal spread would happen and develop? Considering the much less space available, it’s growth would be much more focused…
The main problem to this idea is the goo in the water, don’t know how the fungus would react to it.
As for more mundane things, how about parking garages? I’d imagine any cars left in there would, like on the surface, be complete and utter wrecks. Add in a couple zombies that never quite figured out how to get past the automated toll booth for paid parking (booth could involve a robot that gets mad if you try to steal the cash)? It’d still mostly be open space. Not that interesting I realize, but If future mapgen allows for it, have them attach to malls or other large buildings that might need one. Could turn into alternative (if populated) exits.
Only argument there is that vehicles can’t be moved across z-levels ATM. That’s why we haven’t done much with underground parking (the office towers have it, but other than fighting in the dark for a pile of damaged vehicles, not much point).
Oh shoot, that’s kind of integral to the whole point of a garage! Yeah, that makes sense to let that particular one slide until Z-levels are given more focus.
I was thinking of how entertaining it might be to secure one as a very large underground ‘bunker’ of sorts, and potential risk from the zombies upstairs.
Gotta say, I love the idea about the robo-toll taker.
As for other underground ideas: fallout shelters. I’m surprised they aren’t in yet. Granted, most I’ve seen IRL happen to be in courthouses which aren’t a thing yet…But they should really be in for the type of “neo-Red Scare” type theme Cata is set in. LMOEs and evacuation shelters are great, but what about the “protect the local government” type shelters? I’d imagine (from working in NE local government at one point) they’d be underequipped with outdated and expired gear, but it just makes sense lorewise if nothing else. Yet another thing to add to my growing list of stuff I want to add.
Honestly, there’s a tunnel that leads out of my highschool that ~supposedly~ used to lead to a bomb shelter under the football field. So they’re at least a possibility nowadays even without any neo-scares.
My own exploring hasn’t discovered any signs the school shelter still exists, but the backup passage out of it still does. It leads from an odd offshoot tunnel/hallway in the boiler room and exits out a sewer manhole cover on the street adjacent. Pretty cool, even if not a fullsize shelter. Potential “secondary exits” might be a thing for some buildings (houses owned by preppers?)
I’d like to see more work on sewers and subways, modify the mapgen to have walkways along the sides, more sewer areas under cities in general, side passages, etc. Subways already have the ability to spawn map specials, but the pickings are slim. It could be modified to include a set of underground only specials, and add some new ones there. Underground mapgen without aboveground structures is a little blah. Right now all mapgen occurs on the top level at first, then everything is built underground based on what’s on top. I haven’t tried doing overmap specials with purely underground z coordinates, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. It would have the same problem with other specials regarding placement in town and location selection in general. I laid the framework for connecting roadlike paths to specials, but never actually finished it off for anything but roads.
Only argument there is that vehicles can’t be moved across z-levels ATM. That’s why we haven’t done much with underground parking (the office towers have it, but other than fighting in the dark for a pile of damaged vehicles, not much point).[/quote]
In this case, a working subway. More specifically, some way to fix/build a vehicle able to travel on rails only. That would be a start to make a underground nomadic style more… underground.
All this talk of subway improvement makes me want to replay Fallout 3 to blatantly rip off content get inspired to revitalize the underground.
Seriously though, packs of feral hunters, smashing away at the subway car you’re holed up in, shady illegal waste dumps, nests of crazy drugged up junkies, a chasm opening into a lair of something that should not be in our world…there’s a lot that could be done, and the nature of underground exploration could make hiding cool stuff easier.
…Might be worth repairing/upgrading some of the existing underground structures before implementing new ones. I mean some of my biggest complaints are with the Labs, Nuclear Silos, and Military Bunkers.
Nuclear Silos are disturbingly empty for what they are. As it stands someone’s come along and stuck a rocket in a hole in the ground, not exactly accurate. There’s a lot of side-rooms, barracks, and more than a cave with a computer in it for launch control. Nuclear silos could stand to be a light version of a lab layout wise, with considerably more security. (We’re talking Roaming Secu-Bots, turrets, and maybe a special ‘military police’ robot.) Probably some rooms with functional lighting. Most importantly, some form of multi-person launch procedure. (of course with some kind of computer-related override.)
Military bunkers could stand to receive a slight change as well, more security, less six room loot pinata. Maybe even operational lighting.
Labs are a clusterfuck of mix-n-match pieces that come in a couple flavors. Don’t get me wrong, they’re pretty impressive as is but could stand a little work. Less couple hundred four rooms and a cross hallway, more lengths of hallways with a bit more decorations. More resident evil, less cave with tables in it. As it stands, the regional schools have better lab setups than the lab bunkers (What with sinks, and proper setups instead of assortments of storage rooms.) and of course, more operational lighting.
But yeah, there’s my complaints and ‘underground structure ideas’
