So, i found a cave entrance....

[DestructoMonkey]

...near a good area i think would be nice to settle in, a spot close to the river but just far enough that one wouldnt be able to spy a settlement by cruising along the river.
It's unclaimed.


Is it a wise idea to build a house next to and claim the area over the cave entry? I'm extremely new to the game, to the point where i've not researched yeomanry yet. And caves look like valuable assets to high lvl players for the ore and everything.

Would claiming the cave as a newbie just invite someone to kill me for it?

[Zampfeo]

Claim the outside and place round pole fence so no one can trespass into the cave where they can do whatever they want. If they want inside, they will then have to leave vandalism scents which are much more risky than trespassing scents. If there are no other ways into the cave system, you should be fine with leaving stuff inside.

[Sarchi]

Build a house and claim it. Then work on making a palisade around your little settlement. Eventually upgrade to brick, especially if you find iron veins inside the cave.

Make sure there are no other entrances into the cave. Take time to explore the cave system and familiarize yourself with it, and you should be good to go.

Also work on building a village idol in your settlement to keep people from trying to take it over.

[DestructoMonkey]

Thanks for the advice so far guys.

Well, i set up a house and was working my way toward palisade walls, but I have an issue.

The cave is actually part of a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge underground network. I mean extremely huge with paths splitting off ind different directions, to the point where it was useless to try and remember the paths i took and i just hearthed back after each excursion.

I'm worried because parts of the cave shows signs of prior exploration -- one paved square maybe two screens away from the cave entry at a crossroads and some exploratory dig squares deeper into the network.

What should i do?

*edit*
The thing is, i've explored the cave a bit extensively and i've run into nothing but dead ends *but* lots of paths taht split off where i don't have the stamina to keep exploring deeper.
So i can't conclude if the prior exploration came from the cave entry i claimed or some other entry yet...

The cave is just ridiculously large.

[Panopticon]

Related question, if you are set up in a cave, and someone builds a minehole above, will they drop down right into your cave?

[Pyre]

*edit*
The thing is, i've explored the cave a bit extensively and i've run into nothing but dead ends *but* lots of paths taht split off where i don't have the stamina to keep exploring deeper.
So i can't conclude if the prior exploration came from the cave entry i claimed or some other entry yet...

The cave is just ridiculously large.

Next time you go exploring take a bucket or 2 full of water and maybe some rations (berries/roast whatever) you should be good to wander around in it for a few hours with that lol.

[DestructoMonkey]

Alright i explored the cave network and there seems to be only one neighbor at the other end of the system that built a home inside the cave, not much more advanced than i am at this point (no crops grown outside his cave). no village has access or anything and he seems nice enough.

So now i feel ready to build things in the cave only to find out that there's a "clearance" issue? How laem. You cannot pave a cave square unless 2 tiles away from the edge of the cave? A long stretch from the entryway gives only a 2-square wide "pave access" in that case, and thus i can't build anything large in there...
Consequently the only spot big enough for, say, a kiln is all the way up to a crossroads...

Is there no way around it? Apparently you can't even mine for space nearer to the cave entry because you need it to be stable, which means i need a mine support, which means i can't do nothing because i have no metal to begin with...

[Pyre]

Maybe ask your friendly neighboor if he has any scrap metal about, can't hurt to ask. Barring that you should be fine mining a single tile out of the wall (maybe 3 seen some people doing 3 deep), so long as you leave space in between em, unless you have prospecting and rustroot your pretty much shooting blind for ore, so try a wall chunk or 2 every 20-30 tiles (if you see stone drop at your feet there's likely no ore in that tile, doesn't mean the adjacent tiles can't have it tho).

Without supports it's ill advised to mine tiles adjacent to each other out though, maybe zap in an alt to do the first exploration bit for you that way you only loose a few hours if you cause a cave in or win the trollottery.

[Quatolican]

Alright i explored the cave network and there seems to be only one neighbor at the other end of the system that built a home inside the cave, not much more advanced than i am at this point (no crops grown outside his cave). no village has access or anything and he seems nice enough.

So now i feel ready to build things in the cave only to find out that there's a "clearance" issue? How laem. You cannot pave a cave square unless 2 tiles away from the edge of the cave? A long stretch from the entryway gives only a 2-square wide "pave access" in that case, and thus i can't build anything large in there...
Consequently the only spot big enough for, say, a kiln is all the way up to a crossroads...

Is there no way around it? Apparently you can't even mine for space nearer to the cave entry because you need it to be stable, which means i need a mine support, which means i can't do nothing because i have no metal to begin with...

Wait someone built a house inside the cave? I didn't know this was possible, sorry im new to the game. Dammmmn, by the sounds of it, it sounds he's deep in it, must be lonely, but on the other hand he goes to sleep pretty confident nothing of his will be disturbed.

[Afroduck]

Maybe ask your friendly neighboor if he has any scrap metal about, can't hurt to ask. Barring that you should be fine mining a single tile out of the wall (maybe 3 seen some people doing 3 deep), so long as you leave space in between em, unless you have prospecting and rustroot your pretty much shooting blind for ore, so try a wall chunk or 2 every 20-30 tiles (if you see stone drop at your feet there's likely no ore in that tile, doesn't mean the adjacent tiles can't have it tho).

Without supports it's ill advised to mine tiles adjacent to each other out though, maybe zap in an alt to do the first exploration bit for you that way you only loose a few hours if you cause a cave in or win the trollottery.

Am new to the game but i have been lurking all around the forums and i've heard that even mining one square into a cave without support risks cave ins but am no expert just saying what i've heard from better players