Maze landscape

So I thought I would jot this idea down while I'm thinking about it.  In landscape design I plan on having 3 levels of caves which go from 1-20 meters from the bottom, 21-40, and 41-60 and then a surface level which is from 61 meters up to 100 meters.  So one possibility of the surface landscape would be similar to a hedge maze with occasional open areas where bases can be built.  While it might be frustrating for some, I think that others might really enjoy trying to navigate such a maze.  This could be in an area where there are higher quality materials, just as an additional challenge to get them back to base.

Data structures

So to start off this semester of study I am focusing a bit more on data structures, as well as learning more about Java and C# with the XNA Game creation code.  Before diving off into coding I have realized that it is much more important to understand the principles of effective and efficient programming.  In talking with a mentor about my proposed landscape system he brought up a good point.  If I am trying to render thousands of objects that share similar characteristics, like the triblock, that making each one it's own unique object will take a long time to process and will eat up tons of memory.  So finding an effective way to represent all of the landscape can be rather difficult to do.  This reinforces the decision I made earlier to have indestructible landscape that can be built on, even though that removes the possibility of tunneling under enemy bases and defenses.  If the only blocks that can be placed and destroyed by players are the ones that they have gathered the resources for and taken the time to craft then the total amount of memory usage should be considerably smaller.  I hope that through the course of this semester I will be able to find what data structures will be most appropriate for everything that I wish to put into this game.