Flooding Gaiamar

A true story of what happened in the pre-alpha testing last night in Stars Reach.

It began as an upwelling under a basement.

Oh, ever since the crater lake next door had overheated and spewed a geyser far into the sky, water was everywhere… condensing on every surface. But this was something more. It bubbled up from under Leric’s house, right there by the fountain in the middle of the settlement on Gaiamar.

Mayor BeanstalkHead was not pleased. Sinkholes were appearing in the expensively constructed cobblestone walkways. One had collapsed into a home under construction, leaving the foundation exposed.

We couldn’t find a source. All we could think was that as the lake had been emptied, water was forced into the soil and was now just welling up under there. Plus, we had an unsightly pit where the lake had been. We had to resort to requesting Servitor assistance to remove the water (and a stray ammonia dump that was contaminating it). But we were worried it would happen again.

So I carefully set about lining the entirety of the pit with nice black brick. Each side, and a floor, underneath where the dirt was. I source nice big boulders of granite and breccia to conceal what I hoped was a waterproof lining. Added in gravel and sand and made a lovely lake bed under there. By the time I was done, you couldn’t tell that it was an artificial lake now.

Even better, two citizens donated some of their land grant to make the refreshed lake private property! Until we formally claim the planet, we won’t have public spaces protected by Servitor suppression fields so this was a useful workaround to prevent someone else from superheating the lake and once again sending a mile-high column of steam into the air.

Then I grabbed the hose and started filling the lake — nanotech enabling instant fill up to a waterline. What I hadn’t noticed was the tree growing in the corner. The roots… right through the lining wall.

This is the story of how I accidentally put all of Beanstalk City under a meter of water and collapsed every basement into a mudpit.

The water flooded all of downtown, completely submerging the water fountain near city hall. It utterly filled a couple of basements that were in-progress homes, open pits vulnerable to the weather.

Mrgoshdarn’s famed bamboo grove house, with its interior underground walls made solely of compacted dirt and living bamboo trees, had its walls collapse and its pristine marble interior completely slimed with mud.

We set up water vacuums to clear the worst of it, and watched the dirty water whirlpool away. But the real issue was the erosion. The empty fields destined for parks by city hall became sticky muddy flats, slowing people when they trudged through. Sidewalks gave way and fell into caverns below.

A lot of recent construction had to be removed due to water damage. Beanstalk City survives, however, and we will endure.

All of this happened in the testing last night, and I haven’t actually embellished it much! We released homestead claims last week, and players promptly started collaborating on building a city. The geyser, the ammonia spill, and the flood all happened as described. The land ownership features, water erosion, and the rest, all actual stuff in the game.

It’s really cool to see this sort of emergence happening, and players diving in (no pun intended) and really exploring what a living virtual world can be.