[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#10722) Not enough grasslands/plains

["(Eddie Anderson)" <saywhat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10722 >

"Mike Jing" <miky40@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
><URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10722 >
>
>> [mburda - Fri Dec 03 12:56:45 2004]:
>> abouy masive plain/grassland i think this can be done reducing the
>> wetness.  but this can push up a little the dessert, this is the
>> price for some realistic map. very difficult to do a good mix but
>> i think this will be very playable even with some extra dessert.
>
>I think 8-10% desert is way too much for normal gameplay.  I don't care
>if it's realistic or not.  The "broken" percentages generated by the old
>mapgen code worked fine for me and many others, and I would like to at
>least have the _option_ to play on a map with a terrain distribution
>that's close to what we used to have.
>
>> noturaly big zones of earth are forest but work of mens convert it to
>> plains, this is not so extraordinary to need some terraforming.... 
>> this point is if it is too mach for gameplay or not?
>
>One more time, yes, it is too much, at least to me.  I would like to
>have the choice to how much realism I want.  To that end, I suggest that
>two more parameters to be added: 1) Badness: controls the relative
>amount of bad terrain (Desert/Jungle/Swamp).  2) Greenness: controls the
>amount of forest relative to grassland/plains.  The default can be as
>realistic as you want, but please let me decide what is playable.
>
>And by the way, I want my Rivers option back.

    I'd like to cast my vote for the old mapgen code as well.  I
don't understand what changed "under the hood" a month or so ago,
but the maps I've been getting since then are less desirable (at
least to me).  The problems I have with the new maps are:

1) I can't get the mapgen code to produce proper islands on any map
   smaller than size 3.  Instead, when I specify size=1, gen=3, and
   landmass=60, I get these stringy arcs of land that are mostly
   connected to each other.

   And I know why that happens.  The problem is that, with those
   parameters, the mapgen code falls back to gen=2.  I don't know
   why gen=3 causes problems for the new code.  The old code worked
   just fine with those parameters.

   As a workaround, I've been playing maps generated with size=3,
   gen=3, landmass=15 or 20.  That gives me the islands that I want.
   Unfortunately, the AI seems completely baffled by them.  The AI
   seems to have no idea how to fight a war across a large ocean.

2) The size=1 maps produced with the old code may not have been
   realistic but they did make choosing a city site more interesting
   (because frequently there was a greater variety of terrain within
   a city diameter's worth of land).

3) The variety of terrain on the old size=1, gen=3 maps also seemed
   to help provide a greater variety of specials.  Larger maps under
   the old code tended to have lots of flat land and the specials
   tended to be mostly Buffalo, Wheat, and grassland with resources.
   But small maps, despite having less land, had more diverse
   specials.

4) I don't know what happened to rivers.  Since the new code was
   implemented, I can't remember a single game when I've had a river
   on my home island.

   
    That's my perspective.  Other players may prefer the maps
produced by the new mapgen code.  As Mike suggested, for those who
prefer the old maps, perhaps the old algorithms be reinstated as an
option?

    Thanks for listening.

Eddie