More realistic future maps

[bitza]

Dunno, but last night I was exploring one of the new supergrids and saw some new terrains. A lake, bigger than any I've seen before, with 5 or 6 small islands right in the middle, each containing a significant amount of sand. The really cool thing was, all of the islands were connected by shallow water (but not connected to the main land)

So I guess this means that new geographic features are being put in. Very cool

[Flame]

ok, we got the point. Why isn't a real world??XD

Because we have
1 - lakes
2 - rivers
3 - 3 or 4 type of ground
4- ...uhm..no. ther's not 4. if we wanna call Mountains the Grey lands of rocks..butt..well. it seems to me more like a Rock Desert.

So, the map is incomplete, yeah, but imagine the ambient where you are and suggest something with sense.

5 - Ice and Snow, cool also for keep food in safe.
6 - Sea
7 - Ther's a way to have mountains somehow more..mountains? Actually they are bit grey places, lonely. Usually they should follow a line. And if rivers spawn from mountains, should be more realistic.
8 - ...mmh...well..i think the things most importants, are those. There should be the argument "sea" more large but we don't have nothing near the sea, is premature. XD

I don't have any more to suggest about world, that is easy. There should be the "logic behind a desert or a grass land" but..i dunno if a Map Creator could handle it, at the moment.

OH! YEah!
Let caves be colonizable! i wanna create an underground city XD

[loftar]

I've mentioned it elsewhere too, but just for the record, I've long planned to scrap the current map generator and write a new one (and it probably won't be the last time, either). It'll just take some time.

[Potjeh]

Any chance of getting a quazi-z-axis? Not really full 3D, just something with a couple of discrete levels, connected by ramps a la Starcraft. It would solve the bridge issues and allow cool stuff like castle walls you can walk on.

[Flame]

in Ultima Online exist a Z that is simply the Priority of objects and you can cod that, in the line ov that Z, nothing can pass. (Example, a rok floating and you don't want allow the pass under - you deny passaility to all the z below since reach 0 z)

I dunno if this could help to build mountains and a new skill "CLIMB"

[JustasJ]

Any chance of getting a quazi-z-axis? Not really full 3D, just something with a couple of discrete levels, connected by ramps a la Starcraft. It would solve the bridge issues and allow cool stuff like castle walls you can walk on.

That's quite simple. Imagine that x marks a spot where you can't go while o marks a spot you can.

A cornerblock of wall:

xxx
xox
xxx

A long wall:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-stairs-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooox
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Plus mountains could be a series of cliffs gaining more upper and upper level. It's simple to understand but difficult to perform for a map generator.

[Peter]

I love to see screen-shots of my universe. It makes me feel all godly inside.

I'm all for better maps. While some would say that maps should generate uniform terrain, I disagree; towns with radically different resources will have more incentive to trade on a large scale, and when you travel, you will find places that are very different from your home.

This is not yet practical, since current industry is entirely reliant on resources that only appear in one terrain or the other.
Further, having several climates with several terrains in each (GRASSLAND [grass,woods,grassy gravel,dry grass...] FOREST [leaf mulch, needle mulch, dense woods, clearing, wooded scree] SWAMP [bog, marsh, rock...]) would allow interesting variation within climates and on a large scale. Such an attempt would require major efforts on the part of the Devs, so I'm not suggesting this lightly.