How long do you caveman?

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malicious_bloke

Over-Achiever
Jul 28, 2013
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Most of the worlds I start, my priorities after first night revolve more around acquiring cool machines, power and general *stuff* than actually building a house. Usually by the time I've satisfied all my basic requirements I have a large and well appointed machine-room and power setup somewhere inaccessible and deep undergound.

Then I realise how much of a faff it would be to transplant all my gear and my whole inventory to somewhere above ground, so I give up and live as a mushroom for most of the game.

Do you go into a world planning to build a nice luxurious palace above ground? Or do you flee from the sun and make your own underground kingdom?
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Waterloo, Ontario
Yeah this is always a toughy for me.

Personally, I try to go from cave-to-hut as quickly as possible to make the transition easier, even if it means my initial building is a tiny 9x9 or something. I draw the line at 3 double-chests full of resources: if I go past that, I'm procrastinating.

I really wish I could find a nice, generic, modular base design schematic I could follow. I'm terrible at laying out where stuff is gonna go.
 
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netmc

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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3 double chests is a pretty good cutoff. It tends to be right where I have to move, or always feel cramped.

I try and go for a igneous extruder along with an aqueous accumulator as quickly as possible, so I can start making stone brick. It looks better than cobble and you can get a lot cheaply. Extra utilities also has some nice bordered stone brick that you can mix in for some simple stone designs. Also, the paint mixer along with stencils from open blocks can add some really neat color options to your world.
 

Staxed

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I normally setup an empty shell of a base before I start getting into many machines...simply to prevent the exact issue you mention. I want to live above ground (or close to the ground...currently in a mountain with windows...), and I find if I go caving and building machines first...I end up as a subterranian hermit as well.
 

Hambeau

Over-Achiever
Jul 24, 2013
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I do what I have to until I find a 13 block diameter Natura Redwood tree, grabbing any and all resources from structures and villagers I find along the way.

Then I turn termite, hollowing out the tree for living space, getting tons of wood resource in the process to make charcoal if needed, and digging down to about level 50 for machine/magic/smelter rooms and a farm. After I have a food supply I start mining from there.
 

darkeshrine

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I like to find a village to set up in.
I used to do this. The villagers were a really good source of emeralds and starting materials. I came back from my first mining expedition and they were all gone. Next time, I built a medieval style castle town. Heavily fortified and lighted, so that mobs couldn't spawn in it and mobs couldn't get in. Came back from a mining expedition, and guess what. I used to live in villages. I won't live within 300 blocks of one now.

I also used to build above ground, but i was never satisfied with it. All my buildings looked ugly and i didn't want large ugly buildings all over my map.

I did always want to build a sky base, but having to travel down to the lower levels of the world took too much time. I eventually just started living at lower levels.
 

lucariomaster2

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Normally I only spend the first night in a world in a cave; after that, I build a house. This, of course, means that I generally don't make any machines for awhile.
 

namiasdf

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Yeah this is always a toughy for me.

Personally, I try to go from cave-to-hut as quickly as possible to make the transition easier, even if it means my initial building is a tiny 9x9 or something. I draw the line at 3 double-chests full of resources: if I go past that, I'm procrastinating.

I really wish I could find a nice, generic, modular base design schematic I could follow. I'm terrible at laying out where stuff is gonna go.
This is the hardest part, but adds the most to your productivity.
 

Bahnmor

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I'm finding that I compromise and do a similar thing to how I play Dwarf Fortress.
I live in a nomadic fashion for the first few days, sleeping in hastily dug nooks, until I find a mountain or large hill bordering on a relatively flat biome with an ocean, river and desert in easy distance.
Next I dig into the side, creating a 3*3*10 passage into a room network of one large central chamber surrounded by eight smaller chambers in a square. The room pattern duplicates up and down floors, with each floor having a specific purpose.
As time goes on I end up hollowing out the mountain, sculpting a facade on the front entrance and eventually excavating the rest until I am left with a modular tower system. Assuming the world lasts long enough between version changes.
 
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namiasdf

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Unless you're really good at golems, too bad you can't have a similar network of dwarves running around doing all your bidding, and all you really have to do is set priorities.
 

Feniks

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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It depends how I feel sometimes I stay in cave for ever and sometimes on day 1 I build house from cobble stone and progress from there. Recently I prefer building above ground as it is so much easier to expand sidways and up than down. I think if you start from building basic 9x9is and then expand it is easier to stay on surface rather than than move.
 

Fuzzlewhumper

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Hmm...

I first acquire food (any), wood, cobble, and torches my first day. Second day is digging down into the earth to get redstone, diamond, metals, and eventually obsidian. Third day is a trip to the nether to get glowstone, nether stuff, blaze rods if possible. After that is when i move into a middle home, make power and machines. So three days for me usually.

That changes if I get lucky and find a lake village. (water everywhere, houses sticking up from the water). In that case, I get myself a cobblestone generator and go to town half slabbing the place and making that my home town. It's easy to monster proof those villages. I guess in that case zero days since I move into their pre made home. :)
 

Softpotatis

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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In my current world I didn't really caveman at all, I just got some wood and cobble did some exploring, then I dug a hole and filled the walls with cobble. This ended up being the foundation of my storage/machine house, which is pretty neat.
 

YX33A

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I rarely caveman. Even if I follow the Direwolf20 approved housing layout, I try to stay above ground and make a cool house this way. Usually fail at the "cool" part, but that's due to not bothering to make it cool, or even better.

That being said, I'm not using a 9x9 layout anymore. I enjoy having a 3 wide passage way between sections now, so it's 11x11 per section.

My homes end up being borg cubes nowadays anyway, so I guess my next home will be a skyhouse that uses Chisel to make it look somewhat like a actual borg cube.
 

Strikingwolf

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Depends:
Situation 1: Finds village and proceeds to lock everyone up and steal their houses and then builds mega-base

Situation 2: Finds awesome mountain thing and digs small hole in it for first two nights

Situation 3: Finds nothing and lives caveman until...AE system so moving is easy with just some cables
 

DeadMech

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
6
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I don't often caveman but when I do it's a hobbit house for the first night. I try to make a small wooden hut that I can replace or expand later in the first evening though sometimes I don't quite have the time.
 

sleepyc707

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
8
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I just started a new world a few days ago and I made a point not to be a caveman at all this time. I died a few times but that's okay. When I spawned I got some wood and cobble to make some tool then I found a orchards biome and fenced off a cool 3x3 chunk next to a river and torched it up so I no creepers blew me up.

Now I am stuck on what kind of home I want to build.... I can never win lol