Why got the plains biome been removed in A17?

[Tank]

From the changelog:

The plains biome has been removed.

 

Why was it removed?

I liked it.

It was rather empty but it was useful because it allowed to see enemys miles away.

It also increased the diversity of biomes.

[herrpohl]

Texture limitations with the new shader:

 

Maple forest is just forest... plains is just basically desert nobody is losing anything really other than these can be sub biomes now. Anyhow the new terrain shader can only handle so many textures so something had to give and this will help the game run better. Trust me the new art will make you quickly forget about the old stuff. One gorgeous forest is better than two ♥♥♥♥ty ones.

[Kattla]

If they can be sub biomes, how does that save textures?

[Scyris]

Texture limitations with the new shader:

 

Maybe they need a better terrain shader I guess.

[gwhit]

Maybe they need a better terrain shader I guess.

 

Naw that just something all software devs say to people when don't want to bother doing something or trying to justify a change. It something that learn in CS-301

[Kam R.]

Never liked it, won't miss it. Most worthless biome of the game.

 

 

 

If they can be sub biomes, how does that save textures?

 

Don't think they'll be sub biomes, as its respective terrain block got deleted entirely.

[General Lee]

Well, plains biomes were useful to start out in, due to the abundance of cacti for yucca fruit, without the heat of the desert. I can live without it though.

[LuckyStar]

Never liked it, won't miss it. Most worthless biome of the game.

 

I like it for getting coal.

Tons of it there.

[nitnoid]

I always built my horde night defense there. It was easy to see what direction they were coming from and I could pick off the cops with the sniper. Also, more level than in the forests. I'd rather see the wasteland go away, personally. Never built anything there.

[Draz]

Personally I really liked the plains, the wide open fields and rolling hills with the occasional single house here and there.

[open6l]

Not to mention that the plains biome had some of the most soothing ambiance (sound effects, music) in the earlier alphas. Shame they keep doing away with some of the older features.

[Ld-airgrafix]

Wasteland is best for iron, but i just hate the eerie sounds, wouldnt mind seeing it dissapear either

[Fatal]

I am going to miss the plains but I have to point out the burnt biome is so much nicer now! i really have to give kudos on that biome. They did such a great job. I have not gotten to see the wastelands yet but I am sure its just as nice.

[Kam R.]

Wasteland is best for iron, but i just hate the eerie sounds, wouldnt mind seeing it dissapear either

The wasteland, besides offering a variety of good looting opportunities and as you already pointed out an excellent source of scrap metal, serves another purpose – Being a distinct area with unique dangers to face. So I'd say no, that one should definitely stay.

 

Plains was just plain boring. Nothing special there you couldn't get elsewhere (and usually in larger amounts too, like coal mentioned by LuckyStar. There's way more coal PLUS oil PLUS fertilizer in the burnt available). No biome specific enemies, no unique POIs. Just a lot of running and maybe a little higher spawn rates for stags.

 

I guess in PvP it was nice for visibility of human enemies. There's still the desert for that now.

In PvE you could achieve more than enough visibility around a well placed horde base anywhere. Just a matter of chopping down some trees. The spawn-in distance of Zs isn't that far that you need kilometers of clear sight.

I actually prefer not seeing them pop into existence (That awkward pop-in and standing up animation...blech.).

 

 

(...) Shame they keep doing away with some of the older features.

I would have preferred an overhaul to the biome and giving it more unique properties to add to the variety of biomes. Variety is good, agree on that point and agree this direction is a bit of a shame. But of the many features and content being cut, because it's the easier way for the devs to go, this is one I'm the least sad about.

[canadianbluebeer]

I prefer the forest area for my base. Clearing the trees/rocks for LOS gives lotsa goodies, the wood in particular.

Temps are better (usually).

 

I like seeing them spawn in on horde night, since after the initial rush, I'm looking for targets. (stupid crawlers).

 

Clearing all the GRASS out now, that is a chore. Stupid crawlers.

 

Btw, nothing says that down the road, sub-biomes cannot come back. The Unity engine will change again you know.

(whether TFP will want to do sub-biomes again, that's a different kettle of fish)