A21 Random Gen Maps are so great - One piece of feedback to improve them significantly

[Kyler133]

I've been using random gen maps for each alpha for a while now and the A21 maps are great.  These require the least amount of suspension of disbelief by far.  They really feel like they could be a world designed by game designers.

 

There is one aspect that has stuck out to me that I'd like to point out so you could potentially put it in your backlog.  When I am in a town/city, I have noticed that the road system is sometimes completely bisected or isolates parts of the town.  Just a few more roadway connections where the roads curve away from each other (even if it means that a POI needs to be removed to make space for the roadways to connect) would make it way more believable that people would have actually lived there without getting annoyed that they had to cut through parking lots and parks to get where they needed to go.  With the added damage to vehicles from going over curbs, it makes this much more noticeable.  I'm sure the complexity is MUCH higher than I can imagine but hopefully my request makes sense and helps you build the best random gen maps ever in future iterations.

[Catt]

Agree rwg is pretty solid.

 

Off topic, anyone know if rwg worlds have biomes kinda spawn in the same general location on each map unless you modify the advanced settings?

 

I'm trying to find a desert and snowy biome with towns in them but wasn't sure if they were guaranteed. I guess I can do a cheat to show all of the map (I think that's a thing) but like to play legit if possible.

[Kyler133]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

Agree rwg is pretty solid.

 

Off topic, anyone know if rwg worlds have biomes kinda spawn in the same general location on each map unless you modify the advanced settings?

 

I'm trying to find a desert and snowy biome with towns in them but wasn't sure if they were guaranteed. I guess I can do a cheat to show all of the map (I think that's a thing) but like to play legit if possible.

I'm not sure but I think it would be cool if N/S or even better, elevation would be the driver of biomes.  One REALLY COOL thing about Arizona, US is the diversity of biomes.  This diversity is driven almost completely by elevation.

 

Which leads to a pretty cool diversity in the state due to the huge elevation differences

The biomes of Arizona, USA: 1 = Alpine Tundra, 2 = Spruce Alpine Forest, 3 = Petran Montane Conifer Forest, 4 = Juniper-Pinyon Woodlands, 5 = Interior Chapparal, 6 = Plains Grassland, 7 = Desert Grassland, 8 = Great Basin Desertscrub, 9 = Mohave Desertscrub, 10 = Chihuahuan Desertscrub, 11 = Encinal and Mexican Oak-Pine Woodland, 12 = Lower Colorado River Sonora Desertscrub, 13 = Arizona Upland Sonora Desertscrub 

 

I think completely replicating all of these biomes is a stretch but taking the current 7-days biomes and applying them based on the elevations of the random gen maps would be a really cool feature and allow the player to have a decent idea of "how do I get to X biome?" as much as a normal person would if dropped in the world somewhere.  Up is going to be colder, down is going to be warmer (in a climate sense).  

 

[PoppaSmirk]

5 minutes ago, Catt said:

Agree rwg is pretty solid.

 

Off topic, anyone know if rwg worlds have biomes kinda spawn in the same general location on each map unless you modify the advanced settings?

 

I'm trying to find a desert and snowy biome with towns in them but wasn't sure if they were guaranteed. I guess I can do a cheat to show all of the map (I think that's a thing) but like to play legit if possible.

From My experience, every RWG that I have done, has an area that covers each of the biomes.  It can sometimes be hard to locate.  The biomes don't always seem to make sense  (Sometimes a snow biome is backed right up against a desert biome and makes me laugh that I can be riding through an area with an orange snowflake alert, and ten seconds later seeing a heat warning pop up as I have crossed into a desert).  I do 'think' that at least some of each biome type is guaranteed,  of course you might have accidentally tapped into a world seed that was custom generated,  but that has only happened to me once in years of play.

[theFlu]

9 minutes ago, Kyler133 said:

but taking the current 7-days biomes and applying them based on the elevations of the random gen maps would be a really cool feature

That actually used to be a thing. Snow-topped* mountains, desert valleys. Can't remember which alphas, but somewhere around 15 ..

 

* and flat-topped, as the world wouldn't generate above a certain height. It still can't, but now the generation is tuned better to not even suggest it ...

[Riamus]

4 hours ago, Kyler133 said:

I'm not sure but I think it would be cool if N/S or even better, elevation would be the driver of biomes.  One REALLY COOL thing about Arizona, US is the diversity of biomes.  This diversity is driven almost completely by elevation.

 

Which leads to a pretty cool diversity in the state due to the huge elevation differences

The biomes of Arizona, USA: 1 = Alpine Tundra, 2 = Spruce Alpine Forest, 3 = Petran Montane Conifer Forest, 4 = Juniper-Pinyon Woodlands, 5 = Interior Chapparal, 6 = Plains Grassland, 7 = Desert Grassland, 8 = Great Basin Desertscrub, 9 = Mohave Desertscrub, 10 = Chihuahuan Desertscrub, 11 = Encinal and Mexican Oak-Pine Woodland, 12 = Lower Colorado River Sonora Desertscrub, 13 = Arizona Upland Sonora Desertscrub 

 

I think completely replicating all of these biomes is a stretch but taking the current 7-days biomes and applying them based on the elevations of the random gen maps would be a really cool feature and allow the player to have a decent idea of "how do I get to X biome?" as much as a normal person would if dropped in the world somewhere.  Up is going to be colder, down is going to be warmer (in a climate sense).  

 

In case you're interested, Teragon can make maps with elevation-based biomes.  There is a testing version available for A21 and a compatible official release should be soon.  It works very well, however you need to understand that having snow only on mountaintops means you're less likely to have towns in the snow biomes because there's usually no good place to put them on a mountaintop.  You can adjust the elevations and make it so snow gets far enough down to where you can get towns in the snow biome more easily, though.