Thoughts on arid shrubland and world creation

[rina_m]

This suggestion might come off as somewhat banal - as many have pointed out, world creation is essentially just a creative way of delivering a large set of start-tiles to choose from. Yet others who are more interested in the, let's say esoteric aspects of gameplay, may find what I have to say compelling.

As it is, desert and tundra seem to dominate the world map; as such, it strikes me that the arid shrubland biome is underutilised/underrepresented in terms of its climatic variability, which is a shame considering it's rather fun to play through, and is most reminiscent of the map-types I was playing in the much earlier alpha-stages of Rim development.

Consider that arid shrubland, in real-Earth terms, could encompass anything ranging from the arid and treeless steppes of central Asia, to the windswept plains of the Andean Altiplano, to the Sub-Saharan African Sahel. It seems to me that many "Cold + Dry" tiles maybe too often end up as blasted sand-desert, where a cold, arid shrubland map would do quite nicely. This provides more "natural"-seeming transitional regions between wet and dry regions (eg: between temperate forest and desert, between desert and tundra, in highland regions) and makes shrubland more variegated, thus giving the biome greater replay value.

It should be said, here, that I am totally unfamiliar with the technical development side of this game programming jawn, and can't anticipate how much of a pain it would be for developers to make the necessary changes in whatever makes the world-creation tool do the things it does; but I do make this suggestion humbly, from the standpoint of a rather naive but very passionate fan!

[SSS]

What exactly do you want changed? It sounds like you just need to look for world seeds with lots of arid shrubland, namely ones that are further north. I'd recommend asking in general discussion.

Also, the tundra should provide a similar gameplay experience, except it's much colder.

[rina_m]

it finally dawned on me

arid shrubland is determined by heat rather than humidity; it's qualified by its "aridity" anyway

so consider that a wetter piece of arid shrubland can sit next to a drier and cooler piece of temperate forest

[keylocke]

i think, i suggested before about having winter in arid shrubland biomes, but it kinda got shot down.

i like having 4 seasons, but i don't like having to deal with ponds or marshes or other bodies of water.

water is pretty useless right now. i might change my mind if the game actually utilizes water.