random map generator (a request for specs)

[LDiCesare]

I played a bit more with the map generator.
I realised that the plcament of the initial seeds is very important. Grouping the land seeds together results in better results for instance. This means that land plates and sea plates shouldn't be distributed randomly over the map. Land plates should be grouped together in order to avoid weird lakes or inner seas to be too common.
I also tried to add some vegetation based on wind patterns and humidity (drier after rugged terrain), but my algorithm is not very good, as you may see.
If someone has detailed algorithms to propose, they're welcome.

[Lord God Jinnai]

True, but hey its getting better We don't expect perfect results this early.

It appears your doing a general west-to-east flow of winds and that may be one the reasons. (But that's for a more advanced model).

One thing that may make it a bit better would be just to factor in the relative position on the earth in latitude (trade winds and sunlight). That IMO would a good next step, but that's just my opinion.

[LDiCesare]

It appears your doing a general west-to-east flow of winds

Actually, there are several stripes east-west and west-east, but it doesn't show much here.
The code uses 8 zones for wind directions, which alternate EW/WE, and equal zones for polar/temperate/tropical/equatorial bands. In each band, there are 3 types of terrain (wet/normal/arid). I use random numbers to decide if I get drier after rough terrain (mountains blocking humidity) and also if I go drier/wetter just at random, starting wet near water under the wind.

[Gary Thomas]

I just discovered this thread (see the other one I bumped).

What stopped me from completing the random map scenarios (apart from RL) was the difficulty of placing water based (or lack of it) terrain such as swamps, forests and deserts. I did try to find a model for the type of wind patterns that would realistically generate terrain with these features. Without success.

I am not actually convinced that a fractal model is the best way to go - it was just the quickest.

Laurent - I would be interested to see the alternative code you used.

After save/restore and polygons I might attack this again.

Of course if someone else does it I will be delighted. I very rarely play any of the Civ versions in any mode but a random amp.

Cheers

[LDiCesare]

Laurent - I would be interested to see the alternative code you used.

Well, you should have got it if my mail reached you. Check the classes in game.geography.generator :VoronoiMapGenerator and VegetationGenerator.
I won't pretend the code is nicely formatted, and there's probably a lot of things that could have been shared with your initial class. But I did this mostly in one evening when I had nothing better to do, so at that hour I mayn't have given the best out of myself.

Mostly, the map is generated by a set of seeds, with a setting that let you choose to group land seeds together (I found this got better results). The number of seeds depends a lot on the size of the map if you want good results. Plates are built using a Voronoi cell like program, hence the name of the class. Then I move plates once, and adjust the sizes.

More interesting is the vegetation part. To have stripes of vegetation (polar/temperate/tropical/equatorial) requires a really big map (each stripe needs at least 2 y's in order for the isometric view to prevent tropical to touch polar), and probably 4 or 5 in order to be seen by the player. With both hemispheres, this makes about an height of at least 30, better 40 or 50, if you want to see good results. The code generates wind patterns, which probably double the figures, as wetlands are under the wind from the sea until you reach a higher altitude, afterwards you tend to get dryer.

Removing most (or all) of the random factors gives a better idea of the capabilities of the algorithm but slightly less interesting maps.

[yellowdaddy]

maps looking nice... do you need some terrain graphics doing? overlays? post your requests on the "Clash Graphics - New Thread" here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11989

}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

..carrying on from the primemover posts..

i'd happily work on a whole world scenario if i knew how... i don't know anything about xml, but if i can get some simple instructions i can cope with a repetetive task like that, as i'd quite ike to play it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so you're talking a map of only 50x100 ?

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

how will altitude/depth be shown on the polygon map?
(ooops, wrong thread?)

[LDiCesare]

so you're talking a map of only 50x100 ?

You can generate a map of any size, but since I haven't put any people on the map after creating the geography, it's not very useful to make huge maps. Anything less than that size would likely not be realistic in terms of climates.
The point in terms of map size is what economics, unit, etc. are on the map, as these are what drives the performances (speed and memory consumption) of the program. It's hard to give any figures about size and speed until everything is coded and then optimised if needs be.

[yellowdaddy]

how long will this civ-style map be used for? when is the polygon map due? will it bear and resemblence to the Sim City 4 style of map?
i'm thinking about doing some terrain overlays which blend into each other a bit... is it worth the effort? what plans are there for terrain overlays? (including with the polygon map)

[LDiCesare]

You've got to ask Gary for the polygons.
Overlays are needed for vegetation.
The map generator I made uses altitude and soem vegetation thing. River overlays would also be needed, though for the moment we could reuse the coast overlays if needed.
There is a problem with terrain, which is I'm not sure of the while set of terrain we want. Also I'm not sure that all vegetation can be an overlay (forest is, plains/desert is not).

[yellowdaddy]

well, when you know, please post your requests on the Graphics "To Do" List thread.

plants seem like the main kind of overlay... swamp too.

On the subject of Rivers. (and Canals?!)

Do we want wispy tributaries, joining a medium size river, fnially becoming a wider navigable waterway leading to an estuary, waterfall or delta?

Meaning - do you want 3 sizes of "river", and then 3 kinds out "rivermouth"? (plus Canals?)