Monday, January 12, 2015

Hex Terrain Mapping Complete

Wetlands Added

The terrain mapping for my fractal world generation is now complete, with the addition of swamps and an occasional fungal forest.  I decided to take the simple approach to swamps, and set a terrain hex to swamp if its moisture level was close to the high end, and the ground was level.  Fungal forests can appear in these same conditions, but can quickly grow to cover over much of the surrounding terrain, so they add somewhat of a wildcard to the mix.

Sample World

Here's the randomly seeded world #1482326029 (yes, you can regenerate the same world by supplying the seed value) in snapshot.  I went with 40% land and a size of 768x300 hexes.  This world happened to have a good range of terrains, from ultra-lush jungles and swamps to arid deserts.  I'll highlight a couple area of note.


Fertile Delta

Here a river flows between two mountain ranges, creating a fertile area of lush forests and jungles amidst a generally arid desert environment.


Fungal Forest

There happened to be only one fungal forest generated on this world, in the red box below.  This bizarre terrain could form the basis of quests to retrieve rare spell components.


Campaign Start?

I've often used islands as a starting point for campaigns.  Their limited geographic area established handy constraints for low level parties.  Once the potential adventures on the island are resolved, its time to board a ship and head for new shores.  The generator produces worlds with many realistic islands and archipelagos to pick from.


What's Next

Next steps will be laying the groundwork for introducing cultures/races into the world, the birth of settlements, conflicts, expansion, etc.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, your work seems very interesting, compliments!
    I have also spent some time working on World generator (https://github.com/ftomassetti/lands).
    I was wondering if your code is available somewhere or if you plan to share it.

    I have been also working on a civilization simulator in the past (https://github.com/ftomassetti/civs). The idea was to generate different civilizations, with their languages and simulate history (like the discovery of agriculture, the transformation from nomadic societies to settles societies, etc.). Maybe it could help your project and we could work together on it.

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