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Random terrain changes


I'd like to be able to do random terrain changes with the terrain-density
table, without using the rest of the fractal terrain generator, so that
the result is basically a constant map I specified, but with a few random
surprises.  One way to implement that (not sure if it's the best) would be
to separate random terrain changes into a separate synthesis method which
can run independently of make-fractal-terrain.  Then it could be run not
only with a designer-specified map, but also with any of the other
synthesis methods.  Actually, that's how I thought it already worked based
on the way the documentation is laid out (each synthesis method in its own
subsection, and random terrain changes in a subsection of its own), but
from the code it's clear that at the moment random changes are actually an
inseperable part of the fractal generator.

I might try to write a patch to do this, but it's not my top priority
right now.  One disadvantage to moving it into a new synthesis method
would be that if someone was currently using terrain-density and also
specifying an explicit synthesis method list, then they'd have to add the
new method to the list.  As far as I can tell, Bellum Aeternum is the only
currently-shipped game that would be affected.  Presumably it would be
part of the default and so not require any changes to games that used the
default list.  A slightly less elegant solution would be to leave random
terrain changes in the fractal-terrain method, but also add a synthesis
method not part of the default to only do the random changes.  Then no
changes to existing games would be needed at all, but the result might be 
confusing to designers because you'd get random terrain changes always 
with fractal terrain, but only when explicitly requested with other
synthesis methods.
-- 
Matthew Skala
mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca                    Embrace and defend.
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/


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