I'm not confident the terraforming and tunnel systems will be fully integrated at start so it's not all quite set in stone yet I think.

The world isn't destructible per say. We can dig basements. However, terraforming itself is a stretch goal at best, and I would imagine that any terraforming that does eventually make it into the game will be limited so that the world isn't made an ugly mess. As for digging straight down, bedrock will eventually be reached, so no worries about building a basement that goes to the center of the world (or the other side, Elyrians don't know if their world is flat or round XD).

If I remember correctly, tunnels can collapse on you. I'd imagine that after some time, old and un-maintained tunnel would fill in or collapse.

Terraforming is a stretch goal. However, it's been mentioned that it'd be important to have for the game. But not a necessity. Hence, let's hope the kickstarter goes well! :)

Also, I believe tunnels will not collapse on you, I assume it's subject to change. But I can imagine a why it'd be bad if tunnels collapsed on players, unfair permadeath? :P

What stops anyone is the fact that its impossible, you would be forced to stop at some point, because the temperatures would make further progress impossible.

And as much as you don't want the terrain to be a mangled mess, if terraforming is a thing, people will do what they can to it. Nothing stops them.

I liked digging holes....

I imagine terraforming could work like architecture. You design the plot of land as you desire and then must provide the correct materials and labor and it will slowly fill in.

The architecture tool will likely work by the initial plan and then you build each modular wall piece up at a time with the materials nearby starting from the foundation up. So terraforming shouldn't work any differently.

Want to make a hill? Terraform the terrain in the landscaping tool that covers a certain radius around you to use the tool on. Push it up (think the Sims) and accept the changes. When you leave nothing will happen but instead a marker or icon will appear on your screen somewhere...maybe on the landscaping tool itself. Click it and it will ask for the needed materials. The materials must be on the land.

So you move a ton of dirt piles and rock piles (through wagons) to the land plot and then click the "Apply existing materials" button...your character will begin an animation and a bar will appear that shows the progress. The more people who help the faster the bar moves. If you run out of materials you can't continue until the materials are on the land.

When it's finished the land will poof into a big ball of smoke and then it will look like what you designed in the tool. It could be cliffs, it could be a ravine, it could be a waterfall, it could be a motte.

That is possibly the most epic thing I've heard.

Next D&D game I'm playing a Dwarf Bard for this song.

I really hope that someone starts a dwarf civilization in game.

It gets harder to breathe in deep holes.

You need food, not generally something in great abundance underground.

You need to deal with all the dirt you're moving.

It's a lot of work.

Unless it's pretty wide people can just build over it and ignore it.

If you plan on digging a gigantic ravine, of this nature, around a kingdom that is wide enough to keep people out then plan on doing that with every character you get for the next ten years because that's how long it will take.

Digging in COE is depths from 10-32feet deep I believe. Region dependent.

I would like to see is a mechanic of extracting and managing actual dirt while digging. Have four levels of secret rooms under your house? Better move the hill of dirt somewhere far away so other players don't suspect. THis would give us the tools to erect artificial land formations and that would be really fantastic to me.

They said for that exact reason dirt won't need to be managed. They want to encourage players to dig basements and secret rooms without having to find some way to hide all the dirt.

I agree with you though. I'd rather have all that excess dirt because it opens the doors to motte and baileys, building embankments or even just building terraced farms.

However, I think that falls under terraforming which will likely be a stretch goal or introduced later.

It opens up the realm for griefing, true. But it does take alot more effort to grief that way. You have to use a shovel to get some dirt, shove it in a wagon and cart it somewhere.

You would need a small army of griefers to actually get anything done. And if they manage to do something, hell at that point just let them, they deserve it.

More likely the terraforming system would be used by kingdoms. Reinforce embankments leading up to a castle on a hill. Or create a system of channels for commerce, allowing boats to travel down the streams faster and safer than via the roads.

Alot of medieval feats of engineering required people piling dirt into big hills to make engineering feats possible.

Terraforming adds way more to the world than it risks. But it would need to be bug tested by the Devs pretty thoroughly and probably won't be at launch.