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Author Topic: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?  (Read 1794 times)

dleave

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Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« on: December 13, 2016, 11:12:50 pm »

So, I have cave fungus, moss, etc. growing already, and I haven't breached any caverns.  I have only dug from z-level 122, down to 119.  All sand and silt still so far.  I was under the impression that the only way to get the stuff to grow, was once you breached a cavern?  Is this a bug?  Am I missing something?  No complaints at all, breaching the caverns is usually one of the first things I try to do, just curious.
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Thisfox

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Re: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2016, 11:17:27 pm »

If you had a previous embark nearby, it's possible you breached that way, and then the spores have reached the embark site of your new fort.

Otherwise, perhaps you have a "natural opening"? Those can happen if you've got a crevasse on your embark site which reaches the level of the caverns. Pretty rare, but not impossible, I had one once when I was mad about multi-z natural waterfalls.
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dleave

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Re: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2016, 11:19:42 pm »

Ah, ya, I bet that's it.  I'm only a couple spots away from a past embark where I did breach the caverns.  Thanks much.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2016, 04:01:29 am »

Elaborating of Thisfox's "crevasse":

I experimented with embarking with caves in the embark a number of times in 0.40.X (you can specify that they should be displayed on the pre embark map), and in none of the cases did these "pre made" openings into the caverns actually provide spores: the spores were only released when the caverns were detected by digging dorfs (with the attendant message). However, I don't think I sent explorers all the way down to the cavern via the cave, so it might be possible to release spores by "opening" the cavern that way (critters from the cavern did not have any problem getting topside regardless of cavern detection status, though).

I've never seen a cave that did not reach the top cavern, although I believe those should exist.
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Sanctume

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Re: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2016, 05:22:52 pm »

My fort Sandalswims was new, on a sand dune and ocean biome.  I have fungus-tree sappling and cave moss growing on the first sand later I dug on day 1. 

There is a previous fortress at least 20 region tiles far away to the south across ocean.  I have not seen any discernable opening down the caverns. 

OAOGigmaster

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Re: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2016, 06:24:08 pm »

Maybe you can spawn in cave fungus as a floor tile somehow in DFHack?
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Re: Cave moss, fungus, etc., without breaching the caverns?
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2016, 06:36:47 pm »

Dunno about floor tile (yes, probably), but feature command should let you 'discover' caverns. I've used it for getting magma workshops on occasion.