Cavern - The rebirth of Cave
Designed by LadyShatana
The original Cave schematic pack was designed by the fabulous lady Luna. It was made specifically for a server pack that lived only within the deep earth, the surface was inhospitable and residents found a way to survive without venturing there.
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This set is a complete from the ground up redesign, and is replacing Cave entirely. The set includes the base "caverns" which are basically the roads and infrastructure guides. The huts themselves are based on a standard footprint, and fit perfectly together within the Caverns. Then there are a wide variety of "facades" to make everything look great, along with a selection of other fabulous decor items.
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It is now included n the 1.19 versions of MineColones, with the 1.17/1.18 packs still available here for download.
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Small mini vids will be added as LadyShatana figures out making them (she is NO YouTuber!)
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Here are some guides and Pro Builder tips to make this work best for you.
So you want to be a Cavern Dweller...
Well, you have come to the right place! The Cavern set has everything you need to move into into a nice cozy (not to mention well organized!) kingdom you can be proud of.
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Be aware - this style uses a LOT of stone! Once you find your chosen area, it is recommended to stockpile several chests of stone and stone brick to get a head start on things! This is not a task for the impatient ruler....building an underground Kingdom takes time, effort and perseverance!
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You may begin with any supply camp or ship, but there are options specific to this pack. The updated Supply Camp and Ship come equipped with a smelter setup to help get you going. Obtain your builders wand and Town Hall block, and off you go.
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You want to find a nice tall cliff or mountain to start your adventures. If it is a large mountain range that is best, but if it is not you can still work with that. A cliff at the edge of an ocean or lake always looks great!
Using the MegaHall - TownHall Entrance
The BEST method to get started is to use the MegaHall version! Find your location, hopefully a great cliff or mountain range and place down your Supply Camp/Ship.
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Use the Builders Wand and Town Hall block in the camp/ship and place down your town hall block centered in your starter area (you will pick it up and move it later) and claim your colony. Find a good spot near where your will enter your kingdom and build your first Builders Hut.
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Next, use the MegaHall schematics in the Infrastructure area of the Builders Wand, selecting "townhallentrance" to get things going. Please watch the Video Guide (the guide videos are linked above) to take you through the steps!
How to move underground - Option B
Say you started a colony on the surface, but dug into the earth with a few Cavern Halls, and decide to move into the depths entirely. But you don't want the huge entry version of the Town Hall, because you used a Gate Decor or a custom build as an entrance. Not a problem!
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You can deconstruct and pick up your existing TownHall and rebuild it below! Place the TownHall Alternative version the same way you would any other Hall, but with the build the size of a MegaHall. (See the MegaHall section for some tips)
How to begin your Kingdom - Option C
The Town Hall is designed to be an overwhelming statement of your Kingdom's might! If you have lots of patience and just want to build the full Town Hall, you certainly can. The standard version of the Town Hall does not include the Builder/Citizen huts and is simply decorative.
You will want to preview it at Level 5 and push it IN to the cliff/mountain. Dig in to clear a path to the block (highlighted in red) so you can actually start your build. To give your builder a head start, see the next tip right below. When you are ready, click the checkmark. Click on the Town Hall block and establish your site!
Starting in the right way
While you have the preview for your Level 1 of your Town Hall (or any future hut) up and before you hit that checkmark, it is highly recommended to do a bit of work.
Clear out at the very least the center area so you can see the Town Hall block, the signs, fences and lanterns at the back as seen in the screenshot. While in preview the outer walls will sort of glow as you reach them. This will make the next steps MUCH easier. The more you dig out yourself, the faster you colony will be on its way.
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Update the Stone Bricks to match the preview ones at the doorway to help line things up if you choose to hold off building the Town Hall right away.
Next Steps - The Builder and Tavern
Depending on which option you went with to start your adventure, you should have a Builder already outside or within the TownHall MegaHall setup. I personally use 2-4 builders in Cavern so one can be working on huts and one always digging out the next Hall/Intersection/Connector etc. So you may want to get another Builder in place.
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Once that is ready, you may want to build your Tavern (there is a regular Cavern version and a CavernAlternative version, make sure to select the Alternative one) into the mountain, attached to the rear of the Town Hall, overlapping 1 block. Again, always be sure to dig a path to the red highlighted hut block before hitting that checkmark! You can see in this screenshot what it will look like.
I like the Tavern right behind the Town Hall, leading further into the colony. Just sems friendly!
We have to go Deeper....
Let's move everything inside! From here you will have 4 main selections to build with: Intersections, Halls, Connectors, and Alternative Hut Connectors. Every part connects to create an organized whole.
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You have two options here: build the Full versions of the Hall, Connector and Intersection. Or choose the starter versions which will let you get started with a bit less digging right away, then replace them with a full version later
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Pro Tip: You can have the sections either just touch, or overlap 1 block. Whichever you begin with, you MUST do with each and every connection, or you will find things not lining up properly! In this screenshot you see a Plain Intersection connected to the end of the Tavern (Alternative) with the end overlapped by 1 block.
Let's Talk Big Picture
While you can't actually see inside your mountain, this is what your end result will look like. In this layout, each connecting piece is overlapped by 1 block.
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You will think in terms of "Trunk/Main Road" and "Branch/Side Street"
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The main "trunk" will consist of an Intersection -> Connector -> Intersection -> Connector etc.
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The "branches" will consist of an Intersection -> Hall -> Intersection -> Hall etc
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All of the lighter grey boxes are the huts themselves. Most of the huts available under CavernAlternative are interchangeable with the Connectors.
Move in, and make it yours
After placing your first couple of Infrastructure pieces, you may want to move your first builder inside. In your first hall, build the Cavern Builder. The Hall comes with guides in the walls to help your placement. The huts should overlap the wall block, though you don't have to. It just looks better if you do, and makes your placement easier! *Note* There is now an Alternative Builder that fits nicely inside an Intersection or one end of a Connector!
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Again, be sure to dig out a path to the hut block before clicking the checkmark! It may also be a good idea to have at least 2 builders, some for huts and others for the next Cavern.
Getting tired of plain old walls?
Now comes the fun part! The pack comes with a set of Facades. These are found under Decorations/CavernFacades and there are currently 50 to choose from, made from regular Stone, Blackstone, Deepslate, Beigestone and Brownstone. More will be added as they are made.
These facades fit snugly into the Halls to both spruce it up as well as give stairs up to the second level doors. They are to butt up against the Hall walls, do NOT overlap these ones!
Options, options everywhere!
When going through the Decorations menu under the Decor/Cavern and Infrastructure/Cavern sections you will notice that there are many options for Intersections and Corridors decor inserts. Feel free to mix and match these to bring life to your Kingdom.
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Some are designed for an actual use, such as the ConnectorGreens which works best placed as close to your Lumberjack hut as possible. You can plant trees here, so it looks nice and is functional. There IS a full building for Trees, but it isn't an optimal use of space.
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Others, however, are just built to impress!
Guard Towers - Keep your Citizens Safe and Happy
Guard towers are something that your citizens will ask for, and they want them everywhere! The ones in the Cavern pack are designed to fit snugly into the corner of any Intersection or plain Connector. No more building things and then learning you have no room for a guard. It is possible to fit up to 4 in a single Intersection, though things will feel a bit snug.
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*Note* There is now also a Courier Alt hut that fits in the same space as a guard tower. As well, there is a Alt Builder that fits in the space of 2 guardtowers in the Intersections/Corridors...see further down for more details!
But....what if I only have 1 mountain??
So you have a great cliff to build your Town Hall into...but it isn't a full range. What choice is there but to go DOWN?
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The pack comes with a special Double Stair in the Decor/Infrastructure menu. It is used in place of an Intersection, and will take you down to build a lower part of your Kingdom, below ground level. When placing, there are signs to guide your placement to let you know which level you are previewing :)
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*Note* If the Mine is built below level 40, you must upgrade it before it will start digging down and branching . If you build levels lower than the mine hut, take careful note of where it is so you do not try to build over the mineshaft. You will also want to specify in the Miner hut options which level the Miner should work on, choosing one below your colony lowest level.
Oops! I poked out of the mountain!
If you want to keep the natural splendor of your surroundings, when previewing a new section it is a good idea to pop outside to make sure you don't go outside the mountain. If you forget to do that and later see what happened, its OK! There are ways to hide it. You can spend some time covering and terraforming, or just add water! Waterfalls can hide many errors! Or lava.....lava is always fun ;)
But...I already have a Town Hall, I just want to build more colony into my nearby hill...
Well, we have you covered for that too! Under the Decorations menu there are a selection of Gates just for this. Or, if you reach the edge of your mountain range and want another entrance these are perfect.
I have a colony, no hills, but I want to go Deeper!
No worries! There is a special entrance just for that. This building is the top of a stair into the depths. From the lower level you can build using the caverns as already explained.
Help! I built 2 Halls in a row!
Obviously this is not ideal, but it is easily fixable! Simply place 2 intersections in a row, lining things up as usual, and because everything is standard sizing, you are fixed!
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You do now have some blank spaces, there may be some decorative things to put in there eventually, as well as a selection of decor pieces to cap the ends of halls.
Making the most of your space
We have told you about Guard Towers and Alternative Courier huts that snuggle into corners....now we have Alternative Builders Huts that do too! They fit into one side of a plain Intersection, or at either end of a plain Connector, line it up as shown here and off you go.
MegaHalls!!
Almost an entire Colony can be done in MegaHalls!
It is possible with the new Intersection design and lower Halls (see the Guide videos for details until the site gets an update) to build and ENTIRE COLONY in 10 Megahalls! The main Town Hall plus the 9 others.
Pro Tips, Building hints and other magical things
Make this the most glorious Kingdom MineColonies has ever seen!
Man, those caverns are huge, this is going to take forever!
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The Intersection/Corridor schematics have a 2 level upgrade setup. Starter carves out the minimum amount of blocks to get going, and later you can build in the same spot the full version to clear the rest.
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Don't be scared by the amount of stone etc blocks the build shows when you are placing it. The builder does not yet know how many solid blocks are already in the area until they really start!
What should I do while the builder is taking their time building the Town Hall or digging things out?
There is plenty to do! Explore the area inside your colony borders, gather wood and other supplies. Maybe do a little terraforming to make the whole area look great.
If you followed the tip about clearing back to the rear exit, dig a 5x5 corridor straight into the mountain! You will gather valuable supplies plus give yourself a head start into the next part of the colony. Still waiting? Preview the next needed cavern and get to work clearing the space!
Inside the stone it is so hard to see what the special Intersections and Connectors look like!
No worries! If you don't want to run out to an open space to preview them, just start with the IntersectionPlain or ConnectorPlain versions. Later you can replace them with fancier versions.
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*Note* This setup has been changed in the new infrastructure so the decor is an insert instead of a full hall*
You mentioned that some huts have Alternative versions that could be used instead of Connectors?
Yes we did! Using these will optimize the space your colony takes up. Here are the huts that currently have that version:
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Barracks
Restaurant
Graveyard
Hospital
Mystical Site
Tavern
Warehouse
What buildings will fit inside an Intersection or Plain Connector?
There are currently 3 huts that can be placed inside on empty Intersection or Connector:
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Guard Tower
Alternative Courier
Alternative Builder
What are the sizes of all the buildings?
Cavern is based on 4 main hut sizes: 1 wide x 1 tall, 1 wide x 2 tall, 2 wide x 1 tall, 2 wide x 2 tall.
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You can see a listing of the sizes here
:) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12lAjYtw9oz59bemzObr2N5lxcZrpZR45mW3Uv_PXg7g/edit?usp=sharing
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How do I get more fields for my Farmer?
Your Farmer starts with 1 field ready to go. It is recommended that in the same Hall across the way you build the Decor item "CavernFarm" which will provide the 4 other fields that will be needed at level 5.
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As a great alternative, go right for the Farming MegaHall, which will give you the 5 fields by level 5, as well as some of the other farming huts.
How do I protect my build from that crazy miner?
The miner is a very dedicated worker, and will dig their mineshafts without regard to what is in the way. You want to keep an eye on them and carefully manage their work. Once the main shaft is done and they start to branch out, manually assign them to specific levels that will not interfere with your colony.
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If you choose to go the MegaHall route, the Alternative Miner fits under a lower intersection to keep it safely out of the way :)
What is a MegaHall and how do I use it?
MegaHalls are a great way to combine multiple huts into a stylish and efficient use of space. There is a main "hall" decoration that you will build first, and there will be guide signs to show you where to place specific huts, such as all of the main Herders. Check out the Cavern - MegaHalls page to learn more!
What else is there?
Schematics are likely to be added as time goes on, but be sure to take a good look through the list! Currently there are things like a Portal Room (a Small version that fits into a hut space) Â a Dock and Courtyard to attach on to your Town Hall, and other small items.
I have an idea for more Facades
Awesome! There are 2 guides to use (suggested to play around in Creative) for the Single and Double wide facades. Please feel free to let LadyShatana know about them in Discord, maybe we can add them to the pack for everyone to enjoy
