[Beta5] Improving Terrain and World Generation
Elemental Forums
Unfortunately because of the terrain system in use by FE it has problems with making terrain and random worlds interesting over multiple games. Not that I don't like the system, it just has drawbacks. Right now the worlds created by FE seem more like golf courses to me then biological worlds. Large greens/purples with sand and water traps. I'm not calling for a huge redesign simply some changes to how existing assets are used.
Deserts and Wastelands both look and act the same.
What is the point in having both deserts and wastelands in the current system? I think wasteland needs to be differentiated from desert a little more by making it slightly greener/purpler. It just has to be unfertile land and distinct from fertile land, not completely dead land. Also small patches of desert are pointless. They need to be larger so that they stand out more. Deserts should be great natural barriers that reduce movement and expansion, not 4x4 patches of sand. Thus deserts would gain a unique purpose. Think crossing the great desert.
All rough terrain. Like Swamp and Desert are functionally the same.
While these terrain types look different and spawn different monsters they are basically functionally the same and are not diverse at all. You can't build on it and it reduces movement, the end. An attempt has to be made to differentiate different terrains from a gameplay perspective. This could be done by adding unique resources like marble and spices that spawn only in certain environments. Swamp could reduce vision, boost lightning damage, or etc. Cities built near certain terrains should get some sort of bonus. Swamps should have ponds in them, Goddie huts that look like ponds already exist, some ponds like these would look great mixed in with the trees in swamp terrain.
Swamps should be small areas that cluster together with fertile land between them. The mingling of swamp and Fertile land would be much more interesting then just blobs of swamps every once and awhile. Having a city surrounded by swamps would make for a nice change. As mentioned above Deserts should be huge sprawling things that act as natural barriers. A swamp map should play differently then a Desert map.
Not enough rough terrain types.
Swamps and Deserts are not enough. The game already includes other types of rough terrain in Wildlands. There is no reason map generation can't throw in a small random volcano or snow area. This has been called for many many times but again it would be awesome to have snow terrain at the poles on larger maps. Like a real world instead of a golf course. We have tons of snow monsters that never get seen because they exist only in a single wild-lands. Crazy.
You can only build on fertile ground and all fertile ground looks the same. Either purple or green depending on who owns it.
Fertile and unfertile land near desert could be yellowish like African plains. Near snow it could have white flecks. This would give the impression of climates and a real diverse world instead of one big uniform golf course. You could even add Oasis that spread fertile land to deserts so you could found cities in them.
Map Generation Options
I like the new world generation options but have one issue. The type of map like Swamp/Desert/Mountain should be a different option then the fertility. These are really two different categories and splitting them would allow much more customization.
If changes something like these are made then the randomly generated maps in Fallen Enchantress will feel much more unique and interesting. Right now it feels like players are constantly playing in one little area with only one climate. This hurts immersion and world building. More biological worlds with more differentiated terrain would add a lot to Fallen Enchantress.
