[LE] Finally got my head around building cave systems!

[bongodoctor]

After two evenings getting very confused and frustrated I have finally got my head around building a cave system with perfect snapping. Before I started I watched a few videos and they all suggested that perfect snapping with cave parts isn't possible and you would have to use other parts like dirt, rocks or walls to cover these gaps. That certainly does work and if you are a hurry or looking to make unique cave systems might fit the bill. But with a bit of patience you can figure out which pieces fit to which. The name system is confusing and there are just so many cave parts that it can take hours of trial and error to get it right - checking their snapping in Creation Kit is also quite tricky, so I generally get it snapped as well as I can then jump into SE to test and make a note of any discrepancies. The first thing to note is many of the parts will not snap to identical copies of themselves or some other parts even if you flip them around - but there are mirror images of most parts - like a right and left glove so there will be a part that fits if you can find it - they often have the same name but are numbered 01 and 02 - which is confusing because parts that have four variations are numbered 01 - 04. So when I find them I rename them to include left or right, or north, south, east and west if there are four variations. If you stick to one set and size - for example for this test I only used Green Cave Large pieces (CaveGL) and although there are convertor pieces between the small and large pieces - there are 34 basic parts you need to be able to build corridors and rooms assuming you will use each of them at least once. Whilst most are in left/right mirror images or NSEW foursomes there is only one four-way crossroad which requires two different mirror images of pieces to connect to. Two really useful pieces include the word detwist in their names. Most of the corridor parts are taller on one side than the other, which is flipped in the mirror version - but these parts flip that tall part from one side to the other so that you can then connect the version you want rather than being forced to use a mirror part which may not allow you to build in the direction you want etc. The larger CaveGL room parts have walls, corners (inner and outer) and door parts - so you can build large complex caves connected by a maze of smaller passages etc. This makes building caves a lot more complex and time consuming than building ruins or dungeons, where you can use the same pieces in uniform patterns without it seeming unnatural. So whilst the number of cave parts makes it harder, it allows you to produce a lot more organic variation so that the caves look more natural. I haven't tested this with the ice caves but I am assuming it works in the same way. The hardest part of all was getting a cave system to connect to my Dwemer ruins as these parts are not designed to snap to cave parts easily. Having spent a few hours trying to get a large Dwemer door/frame and the cave system to play nicely - there were always some gaps either looking out from the door/frame or back into the corridor, I decided to place a large Dwemer facade around the door and this then allowed me to line up and embed a cave piece which was bigger than the door/opening but wasn't bigger than the facade. So I now have one of each piece lined up in a grid which I will duplicate and use to build my cave system - I will keep this file as a cave template - and then whenever I want to make a cave system I can start with the parts already lined up and named. Simples... :smile:

Edited July 7, 2022 by bongodoctor

[greyday01]

It will help later if while making your mod you make sure rooms have some separation by corridors. Add an extra hall piece or two if you need to. If you are working at different levels if you are not careful the roof of a lower level can stick through the wall or floor of a higher one. Then you have to move everything to space things out. Possible but tedious. Also makes putting in room bounds easier if there is space between rooms both horizontally and vertically.

[bongodoctor]

It will help later if while making your mod you make sure rooms have some separation by corridors. Add an extra hall piece or two if you need to. If you are working at different levels if you are not careful the roof of a lower level can stick through the wall or floor of a higher one. Then you have to move everything to space things out. Possible but tedious. Also makes putting in room bounds easier if there is space between rooms both horizontally and vertically.

I am planning to space out the caverns both horizontally and vertically so there shouldn't be any overlap. I am also planning to use extended corridors to give it a more complex structure and prevent direct line of sight into one cavern from another. I have noticed that to get perfect snapping you need to use the cave pieces in the orientation that start of in - rotating them breaks the snapping - but I can't really notice the repetition of parts facing the same way once in game - the caverns look square or boxy in the render window from above - but in game I can't really notice this - it seems quite natural and organic...