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[femmelf]

I don't know if it's just me or not, but it seems like mountains in this game are like living on the moon. There are hard ground areas and rocks but that's about it. Most mountains I've seen (American) have valleys and meadows. Basically there are places where trees grow below the tree lines and it's kind of beautiful in summer.

Does anyone think this could be something we could do? Maybe someone could mod it in without bugging Toady even?

[praguepride]

If you gen enough worlds, you'll see valleys form, but almost by accident it seems. If you embark at points where rivers meet mountains, they'll have "tunneled down" into the mountain a bit.

I think a possible issue is that after mountains are formed, there isn't a chance for soil levels to be added on top of the mountains, so mountains end up being very barren. There might be a few random scraps of dirt here or there, but even in sunken areas where soil would accumulate as it's blown around, it stays barren.

So, factor in wind/soil movements to "fill" in valleys with a layer of soil?

[Mel_Vixen]

I suggest that you increase the erosion-cycles to something like 750.

Anyway df knows at this moment only erosion from flowing water-bodys aka rivers. Erosion by, rain, cold/heat changes, salt and Glaciers etc. arent in yet. Toady on the other side said that he wants to improve the World-gen so if you really want meadows the best way to ge them would by describing how the formation of them can be modelled.

[lucusLoC]

you could try by having low lying areas filled in with soil and aggregate, you will also have to some how model plants growing up past the tree line, or simply raise the tree line in the elevations and forgo the giant peaks (or "raise the roof" a bit). this will hopefully allow for shrubs and stunted trees to grow at a higher elevation.

here is a thread that talks about plant biomes on how the edges of a biome could be softened.

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=49370.0

if soil types were allowed to adjust the various levels (like moisture) of individual tiles then you could model the lower lying soil having higher moisture retention than the surrounding rocks. this would let plants grow there despite the "mountain biome" having high drainage. . .

[NW_Kohaku]

I suggest that you increase the erosion-cycles to something like 750.

Anyway df knows at this moment only erosion from flowing water-bodys aka rivers. Erosion by, rain, cold/heat changes, salt and Glaciers etc. arent in yet. Toady on the other side said that he wants to improve the World-gen so if you really want meadows the best way to ge them would by describing how the formation of them can be modelled.

From what I've observed, erosion (as it stands now) doesn't help.  Erosion will whittle down elevations, but that doesn't seem to matter when it comes to the boundaries of biomes on the map upon embark.  The game does a good enough job making the boundaries of biome soil and rock types look naturally formed, and not just large 48x48 tile blocks, but they look like they are formed without regards to the lay of the surrounding land. (It is basically a map of tiles "painted" with biomes, and their soil and rock layers, which is then raised or lowered according to the elevation map, which is an entirely seperate calculation.) 

My mountains will have sand going up their cliffs multiple levels up, and trees and grass and plants will grow anywhere there is sand or other soil.  Meanwhile, anywhere it is granite or rhyolite at the surface, nothing grows. 

The problem is, as Gazz likes to point out whenever he gets a chance, that it is possible for there to be massive amounts of stone exposed to the elements without any of it being eroded down into sand.