The Underground City

[DokimiCU]

The city is currently one of the biggest features that needs improvement. It lacks dynamism (e.g. surface has changing weather). It's grindy and repetitive.

The main roadblock I faced: The original code (geomoria etc) had the ability to add decorations. I could never get this to work. Fixing this will allow adding decorations (e.g dead bodies, loot), plus mobs inside structures (spawn eggs), and maybe some stuff to add dynamism??

Lore, and the kind of features that might belong down there: This is what I had in my head... The city is an ancient highly advanced civilization that destroyed itself. All the modern cultures of the world trace their ancestry to this city. So the question is... what happened? I never settled on an answer to that, and like the idea of keeping it ambiguous, but this is where I was heading... Some kind of failed transhumanist revolution took place. Everyone who didn't join in was massacred by the those who did join. Some people escaped, exiled from the city. Those who joined gained superhuman powers, but ultimately the technology failed - the city was destroyed... perhaps some still remain, husks, lurking in the dark... Possible features:

• a remnant population of severely damaged transhuman people
• long-term effects of using metastim... it will turn you into one of the remnant.
• a rogue security system, unless you take the metastim it will attack you.

Anyway, that's where I would have taken it. You all may have other ideas. But this is an area that needs improving.

[MisterE123]

for decorations, try just defining a decoration to spawn on a node that is only found in the city. I believe ( from my experience modding the nether) that decorations will be placed just with a normal minetest decoration definition. When I defined decorations in the nether and placed schematics, sometimes decorations even spawned on top of other decorations that placed nodes that the top decorations spawned on.

[DokimiCU]

Some more thoughts...

My biggest issue with the Undercity is the way loot works.

It's currently an gambling addict process of running around checking chests. It's an unhealthy and unpleasant kind of behavior that this creates. This feature is only in there because the original code had it, I needed something down there, and it gave me an excuse to add absolutely anything I wanted to the game.

This original loot chest feature was copied no doubt from the many games that have this feature - Exile should get away from cliches, especially harmful ones.

The aim of going into the undercity should be more fulfilling than merely grabbing loot. Indeed, I added the golden statues so you would face this dilemma: "why am I risking my life for pointless golden statues?" (I still grab them anyway!)

I wanted Undercity to be a place where you can wrestle with this kind of madness, compulsion, and greed, but then overcome rather than succumb to it. Currently it lacks the "overcoming".

Getting stuff out of the chests and making them decorate the city would be nice.

In general the rewards from playing Exile should intrinsic (creative expression, sense of accomplishment, discovery..) rather than extrinsic (high scores, access to items, leveling up ...)

[DokimiCU]

My inner sadist had an idea for a possible solution to the loot issue above.

Compulsive chest checking is a real-world unhealthy thing for the player to be doing. Currently the game rewards this unhealthy behavior. Anytime the player engages in real-world unhealthy actions the game could reflect that by also making their in-game character sick.

For undercity loot chests it might work like this...

The first time a chest is opened it risks triggering a health effect:

• A common but mild illness: e.g. "Inhaled Noxious Vapors". Coughing fits, occasional vomiting, etc.
• A rare lethal illness with immediate consequences: e.g. "Rouge Nanobot Infection". Player gets digested by nanobots, vomiting up puddles of infectious nanobots until they die. Creates a contaminated infectious zone.
• A rare lethal time delayed illness. e.g. "Rouge Biotech Parasite". Similar to nanobots, but the aim is to encourage the player to return home first, where the parasite hatches and contaminates their home. Perhaps the early stage gives them enhanced jumping powers, while late stage makes them sensitive to cold so they seek shelter (helps with #40 end game - advanced players risk screwing up their fancy mansion).
• All the above could be curable by metastim.

Something like this would make grindy loot checking into a high risk activity. You'd think twice about if you really need to open the chest. Undercity becomes about dealing with temptation, and taking sensible risks.

[Shadow8472]

[The city] lacks dynamism.

Here are my thoughts. I already know some of them are bad.

• Lava pools down low bubble (already implemented).
• Farm ceilings are made of nodes that mimic the day/night cycle.
• Doors have a random chance to be open based on what the area is. (ex: apartments ~1%, civics 70%) Some doors should be opened/closed together, like double doors or sets of doors across a single-activity room.
• Chance of earthquake (proper tectonic plates would be a nightmare to code!)
• Moon lamps grow stronger/weaker with the phase of the moon/through out the season,
• Strange machinery to watch.
• Require the player to continue developing beyond a climbing rope to explore deeper into the city. It was interesting rushing rope ladders, only to discover a large drop to the upper floors of the city. Thatch spam can overcome this, but consumes resources for surviving the first year. Already partially remedied by lightweight clothes to increase temperature tolerance for deeper levels, it would be nice to require some additional tricks for those unwilling to risk an early metastim for it.
• Arcade with unclear objectives. (3D game of life in pillar room)
• Cryptic notes to loved ones/exiles to player homelands.
• Spread loot into rooms (as mentioned in above posts)
• • Make your own Meta-Stim in a lab with resources found around the city.
• • Shops have wares out as if for sale.
• • Dilapidated Airboat rentals (Who needs an airboat when you can fly?) Similar to Meta-Stim idea, Airboats can be made from different parts you have to earn like the teleporter. Would be nice to have some storage or a place to stash/access a backpack or two.
• • Damaged teleporter rooms with salvageable parts.
• • Probes should each be found in rooms where they would have been used. Go ahead and leave them in chests to allow the player a chance to evaluate the risk.
• • Centers for the arts can host all sorts of toys.
• • Museums housing player-craftable tech should totally be a thing.
• Power cores should be used to power more than just teleporters. Many of these would require a % depletion instead of using it all at once.
• • Airboats
• • Recharging stations
• • Meta-Stim medbays
• • Meta-Stim god mode/powerup god mode
• • Room/district-wide lighting
• • May-as-well-be Rue Goldberg Machines
• • Smelting/food cooking machines

Basically, I liked the vibe I got that the ancients were not all that different from us. They just built way bigger and had more toys until they collapsed.