Foreword: I did search the forums and do research on previous cave-in calculation suggestions or ideas. My idea is somewhat different. Please just comment on my idea and don't derail the thread into a different suggestion.
Suggestion: -The current (31.18) method where disconnected sections immediately collapse stays.
-Once per season, perhaps at the beginning/ends of seasons where many players are used to a long pause/lag due to the game autosaving, the game runs a more detailed cave-in calculation.
-I am deliberately vague about the "more detailed cave-in calculation", as many people have previously imagined systems based on material strengths or overhang/unsupported distances. Something is used here. It doesn't cause natural landscapes or caverns to collapse.
-The detailed calculation doesn't grief the player by instantly caving in sections. It does mark the "weak" map tiles with an "unstable" flag. If the tile is found to be weak at the next detailed calculation, and it was already marked as "unstable" last season, it collapses. If the tile is no longer "weak", the "unstable" flag is cleared.
-When a group of tiles is marked as unstable, an announcement "A section of the cavern has become weak" is displayed, the game auto-pauses and zooms to the site, and the "unstable" flagged tiles flash red a few times and then stop flashing. Perhaps the warning is better phrased, to suggest that collapse will occur eventually.
-Similar to how trade depot wagon paths can be seen by pressing "D", pressing another key allows all unstable tiles to be viewed in flashing colors.
-New constructions or buildings will start stable. If you disassembled and reassembled an unstable overhang, it would be found unstable again next season instead of collapsing.
Examples:
-A new player is building a long bridge between two mountain peaks. They get the announcement that the center of their bridge is unstable. If they install a support pillar in the center, it will be safe next season. The game's help file or the wiki could suggest a "building code" that avoids collapses.
-An experienced player is building a giant dwarf megaproject. Since it will take years to complete, they need to turn off the "detailed cave-ins" in the init file, or use realistic scaffolding. The final giant statue could still be unstable, but that depends on the details of the calculation.
-The goofy "floating river" worldgen errors would collapse after two seasons unless you hurried to support them.
-A careless miner causes a block to be disconnected from the ground, and it instantly collapses like it does in 31.18 and before.
Ending word: Violations of common sense are swiftly or eventually punished, whereas simpler mistakes can be fixed quickly by carpenters or masons. The game only suffers a calculation lag once per season.
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Topic: Cave-in calculation with warnings for players (Read 920 times)