Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26149161-20170306212544

Mae govannen, mellon nin! This short suggestion focuses upon the reduction of the unrealistic amount of caves and pits across Middle-earth.

Currently, whenever one wanders Middle-earth, the ground is pockmarked by ravines, caverns, and other earthly features that look like they come from a moonscape. As we all know, in real life such things are uncommon and inconspicuous. While I am aware that this is a game focused on Mining, it is absurd to see so many pits across the world. As well as this, it is a great pain to building, and looks unrealistic to boot.

(Note: In the suggestion I use several terms, Tall Mountains and Geologic Regions. Tall Mountains refer to all mountains except Mordor, Blue, and Iron Hills. Geologic Regions are those with intense geology, meaning Gorgoroth, Mordor Mountains, Emyn Muil, and Morgai)

1.) Ravines

Ravines are perhaps the most Vanilla-Minecraft feature in the game. And they're a terrible idea for Middle-earth. While, yes, ravines are present in several areas, they are usuallly far shallower and less ridiculous than what we have in-game.

Ravines should therefore be removed or severely limited (to the point of practical nonexistence) in all biomes save the ones mentioned below, where they would be wider and shallower than those currently present. They would be much rarer in inhabited biomes.

- (Fairly Common) Geologic Regions

- (Rare) Tall Mountains

2.) Aboveground Caves

Caves as well are prolific in Minecraft, but they are not in Middle-earth. Aside from being generally ugly, they cause massive problems in beach and other sandy biomes. Therefore, Cave generation should be severely limited, to the point of great rarity, in all biomes save those specifically mentioned. As with ravines, inhabited biomes have far less.

More common in the following:

- (Fairly Common) All Mountain regions

- (Uncommon) Geologic Regions

- (Rare) Woodland Realm

Nonexistent in the following:

- Rohan

- Lindon

- Vale of Anduin

- Rhovanion

3.) Underground Caverns

The occurence of caves underground is also overabundant. I propose that the number of caves present underground be divided by three, which is not game-breaking and not as unrealistic as the current amount. It should be very hard to go underground in a cave and reach lava-level.

4.) Lava

Lava is also a pretty common feature, which it shouldn't be. This isn't the Formation of the Earth, and lava was not present above low levels in most areas. It should be brutally nerfed, *and removed aboveground* in Mordor. Why? Because if it were present in Mordor, Frodo would chuck it into the nearest pit and be done with it.

5.) Replacement Features

Some of you may find the above additions game-breaking. Therefore, I propose the following natural features.

- Gully: A two-to-six-block deep landform, found rarely in most Wilderness regions. It is a natural trap for players, so beware ambushes while within!

- Ditch: A very shallow (one block deep) feature, ditches spawn uncommonly in most Wilderness regions.

- Chasm: A feature found rarely only in Tall Mountains and Geologic biomes, this is like a very wide ravine that causes a natural break between hills.

- Cliff: Found in hill/mountain biomes, cliffs are exactly what one would expect-sheer ledges that go down into nothing. They can be part of Chasms or found alone.

- Pits: Found only in Geologic biomes, these are strange holes in the ground, with a rising lip about the edge.

Thank you for reading this suggestion! As always, comments, Kudos, and constructive critiscism is most welcome!

Ithilion, Discussions Moderator (Auta i lome) 21:25, March 6, 2017 (UTC) 