[Freeciv-Dev] Re: mountains versus plateaus

[Gregory Berkolaiko <Gregory.Berkolaiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004, Jason Dorje Short wrote:

> http://freeciv.org/~jdorje/mountainous.png
>
> This gen5 continent is full of mountains.
>
> In real life though these wouldn't be mountains.  A flat plateau is
> still flat, no matter how high it is.  SMAC had a reasonable model of
> this with altitude being a measurable and visible part of the terrain.
> But even with a simpler model we can do better.
>
> Terrain placement depends on rockiness (or perhaps slope), temperature,
> and moisture.  However none of these are independent values.
> Temperature depends on lattitude but also on altitude.  Moisture depends
> on nearby bodies of water, nearby wind blockers (mountains), prevailing
> wind direction, and pure altitude.  Rockiness/slope can perhaps be
> determined solely by comparing the altitude of this tile to that of
> adjacent tiles.

Ross' mapgen did something along these lines.

> In some cases altitude itself _might_ be a factor in terrain placement.
>   Swamp and grassland _may_ be limited to lowlands.  Of course ocean

I also thought that swamp can only form on level ground, before I went
hiking in Scottish Highlands.

G.