This is about the options for world generation that I, 'we' once other people voice input, think should be available.  I have a few suggestions/requests for how the worlds are handled in the game.

/* note: this is not a duplication of the world idea thread I saw floating around.  There is a discussion of world ideas, since we shouldn't limit ourselves to the light/dark of master of magic or surface/underground of HoMM 3, we should come up with new ideas.  Perhaps elemental themed worlds.  Perhaps the gates of hell and the kingdoms of heaven.  Ice worlds, or a world of nothing but floating continents that are connected by magical gateways (flying creatures would be able to fly between them).   Such ideas are great, but that is not upon what this thread is to be focused. */

First off:   custom creation (its been said, and it'll be said again)   There needs to be a world builder.  Something that lets you modify a world/worlds to to what you want.  I'm pretty sure this will be included, but I want to post it just in case.  The world creator I think should also have the random generator built into it or able to export to it.  This will let lazy people that just want a certain theme let a map generator do the hard part for them and then modify to create what they want.

2:  world numbers:   I'm about the biggest fan of Master of Magic around (and that is saying something considering the cult following for that game) but I do not think that we should be forced to use the multi-world system if we don't want.   We should have the option of playing on a single plane of existance if we so want and lock out the other plane.  truely epic games/tournements/or whatever should include both/all of the worlds, but for fun casual play options are the spice of life.

Along these lines, if lets say there are 5 worlds (life/light, dark/death, fire/hell/chaos, ice/sorcery, andy nature/foresty/earthy) and the player wants only 3 worlds in his game.  It should NOT be something like a check box system. He should be able to define each world on a per-world basis.  For example:  He should be able to play with 3 default light (arcana) worlds if he wants.  While this seems very simple in concept, I can see how it would be easily overlooked depending on how the world system is created.

3:  World ordering or levels (like, having the worlds layed down in an order.  I'll try to explain).  I think there should be a map of the planes.  I like the idea of several planes existing all in each other. (world 1 can reach worlds 2-5 with no problem.  all the planes are on "the same level") 
Alternatively, it would be cool to have a master plane that can reach all the others, but the others cannot reach each other.  (lets call world 1 'arcana".  Arcana can reach the world of fire, the world of ice, and the world of earth with no problem.  However, the world of fire cannot reach the world of ice without first going through the world of arcana.  They just arn't close to each other.  All the natural wizard towers or other gateways go to the arcana world and plane shift moves to the arcana world.)   

Lastly, straight up ordered worlds.   World 1 can reach world 2, but not 3.  World 3 can reach world 2 and 4, but not world 1 and 5.   My initial desire comes from a turn-based game called "cave wars" where there are many different levels but must be crossed in order.   The heaven and hell idea works well for this (heaven and hell can't touch directly, they must fight through earth) or other ragnarock style levels would still be cool. (old RPG, not to be confused with MMO)

This would of course require a UI feature to let players choose which world they plane shift into, and certain worlds just would be locked off from each other.

4:  Plane shifting: the option...  the ease of it should be editable.  I like playing games like heroes of might and magic 3 where you have set gateways or whatever that you use to pass between areas.  At the same time I like where once you reach a certain tier of gameplay you can pass between worlds with little trouble.  Certain limitations should be able to be set that make it harder/easier for other-worldly travel.  Teleporting is really powerful unless everybody can do it, and then its a very different game from when only the high level life-wizard can do it.  Different still is when there are a few select gateways that are used as bottle-necks and nothing short of dumping your economy into a pit will allow you to get around them.

I'm rambling a bit here I think, but the point is that I want choices.  I like the idea of everybody being able to plan shift in same games, only a few specilized or only in the end-game high-teir. 'plan shift" could be a universal spell that everybody gets.  Or it could be a really expensive 'super-weapon' like creation.   I think it should be an option.

This one might be tough to balance because I'm basically asking for you to create several balanced ways to handle it, but I'd like you to try (even if you note which are not balanced options).

/* note: I understand that some things suggested here might not work with the engine you are creating/have created.  They are only suggestions */

5:  Multi-sized worlds.  I don't just mean "large world" or "huge world", I mean litterally multiple sized.    Like world 1 is a small world.  World 2 is a huge world.  and world 3 is a normal sized world. 

The game would have to scale the system a little to figure out where plane shifting happens.  This would also create the effect where it would be easier to cross world 2 by shifting into world 1 walking 20 spaces and then shifting back (since that would be scalled to like 60 spaces in the "huge" map).   (I have more about this in the view options thead that should appear a few hours after this one.)

6:  cross-world worlds.  Multiple worlds are awesome, each with their different features. But wildly diverse worlds are awesome too.   So both ways should be available.  At map creation, it should be an option to have single theme per world (all fire and chaotic world) or multi-climate worlds.

do not have something to be "unique" to the dark world or "unique" to the light world, per se.   I mean that I am just as happy having them all one 1 world!  I've seen from screenshots terrain like heroes of might and magic where you have the evil lands that shift into happy land. This is great. A world that has hell on one side and heaven on the other side would be awesome.  It would still be one world though. 

I haven't figured out how the world generator UI would describe the different elements/climates/whatever that would be in each world but I figure with some brain storming somewhere here could.