Re: [Freecol-developers] Too many mountains in TerrainGenerator

[Ryan R. F. <ric...@gm...>]

Hi all,

> Olivier Schmitt wrote:
- temperature:
Currently, the map generator creates 4 horizontal slices of latitudes
between the equator and the poles.
As a short term implementation I am thinking the temperature parameter
could influence the height of each slice.
A colder map would have the effect of moving the pole region limit more
toward the equator.
Similarly, a warmer map would reduce the thickness of the polar slice,
but increase the equator slice latitude range.
What do you think about this?
Ideally I think we should not use 4 slices because it is not enough
precise, we should have a smoother transition between climate zones, but
I do not have any concrete implementation in mind.

I would go with using the slices, but not as a hard dividing line. As
it approaches the line the boundary is blurred. Say our magic divide
is an arbitrary 50 and X is the current latitude. When X = 50-10, it
is all zone 1, when X = 50+10, it is zone 2. In between 50-10 and
50+10, the probability of zone 1 = 50% + (50-X) * 5%.

So when we've decided which 'temperature zone' the current tile should
be, then we can choose the tiletype to place.

Well if we move away from slices, we could always have each tiletype
with a temperature range, say plains from 0 to 30, desert from 20 to
50. Then build a 3D temperature gradient map where we could seed low
temperature points (ice/tundra/etc) and high temperature points
(deserts/swamps). Couple the temperature gradient map with a humidity
map and we'd get a rather dynamic map system that has some arid areas,
some wet, some hot, some cold. It would be a grander scheme of things,
but overall it's doable...

> Michael wrote:
Another approach would be to allow the player to select the maximum
northern and southern latitude of the map. The standard map (from pole
to pole) would have the parameters 90, 90. A map with 90, 0 would only
include the northern half of the western hemisphere, a map with 20, 20
would be limited to the tropics and sub-tropics.

I figure that would be for a random map? We wouldn't allow that with a
fully defined map like the Americas or so (or then again we could.. it
would be a much shorter game). It could be interesting to have a map
that has no extremities or is played out in a 45, 90 range.

Cheers,
Ryan