Resource distribution

I have a question that is more for curiosity than anything else. Apologies if this has already been answered somewhere else on the forums.

Why the decision to put all the resources above ground? I can’t think of any reason why this choice was made. Aside from that, it makes exploring and going into caves almost pointless. They are so void of anything which is unfortunate because the caves are pretty cool to swing around in :slight_smile:

Is there plans in the pipeline to add stuff to the caves? I’ve really been trying to get used to digging above ground but it just feels so unnatural. When mining resources in real life, people dig into the earth, not look for giant mountain sides to dig into.

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Ancient tech stuff spawns well in caves including the rarer components, but I agree caves do seem a bit bare on the starter worlds.

The distribution works better on the ring planets/moons as gems/harder coal spawns in caves. But yeah gold doesn’t spawn well in caves no matter where you are it would seem.

I think resources are random-ish. If you dig straight down you may find resources under you. Gold is more common in dessert caves, but can show up other places.

Fossils are also common in ice caves.

I know things spawn in caves, but if your going out to mine resources, your going to look for a mountain instead of in the ground(unless hunting fossils specifically). You will bring in way more resources.

I guess I’m looking for a why from a development standpoint. Why spawn a majority of resources above ground?

Sorry yes totally forgot fossils! The most common thing found in caves dammit!

Resources arent all above ground. Barely a small percentage or resources are above ground! True, it is certainly easier to find surface deposits, but the greatest riches are still buried beneath your feet!

Maybe I need to clarify what I mean by above ground. The worlds crust sits between 60-70ish on the Y axis. I consider above ground anything higher than say 75 and everything else below.

Yep, I understood your meaning, but the resources go all of the way down to bedrock.

First off, while you’ll see mats in the sides of mountains and such, the seams are more abundant and bigger underground in caves.

As for why they’re also seen above ground, my thought is that it has more to do with the world regeneration mechanics. Remember, anything that has been touched and is not preserved by a claimed plot, will regenerate. However, it will not regenerate to exactly how it was before hand (many posts already covering this). This means, if I go tearing through a mountain side looking for ore but only come up with stone, after regenerating, there’s a chance that it’ll pop in some ore seams. Then you walk through, see titanium, dig it up, and leave. The next person might seen an iron node, dig into it, and the cycle continues.