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Author Topic: how to get a very steep world?  (Read 1922 times)

Pvt. Pirate

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how to get a very steep world?
« on: May 15, 2019, 04:28:48 am »
i need a world with more cliffs for some projects and so far the general worldgen never produced such.
i'd like ~30% of the coasts to be steep cliffs, random tiny steep mountains, but also mountainranges - less shallow hills.
is there a way of getting that?
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PatrikLundell

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2019, 06:54:15 am »
I can think of 3 methods:
1. Playing with the advanced worldgen parameters for elevation;
2. A PSV world;
3. Generate a normal world and then DFHack the future embark world tile together with the 8 surrounding world tiles, and/or the mid level tiles within the future embark world tile immediately prior to embark (without changing the focus from the tile, or those hacks are lost as the original data is re-generated when the tile comes into focus again).
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NordicNooob

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2019, 07:42:09 am »
Getting mountain ranges AND tiny random sheer cliffs is not possible, but I've actually got a param set that should work nicely for your needs. There is very little actual ocean, but lakes are very common and with a few worlds you're very likely to find a sheer cliff face that drops right off into a lake.

I do have quite a few of personal touches, like removing megabeasts (they mess with civs too much to be worth the pain, although in hindsight this world could handle a few) and of course things like cavern settings and mineral rarity that don't connect to any other settings. You may also wish to turn secrets off, as it's pretty likely you'll get a necro tower somewhere in the world which, combined with the small size of the world, means that the majority of the world would be in range of it.

Also note that changing the world gen time is not suggested: I've set site and pop caps to the max and am using the length of world gen as the population limiter. If you've got a non-crappy computer you could do 100 years but I wouldn't see any reason to go past that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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daggaz

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2019, 10:13:25 am »
Use advanced world gen.  Turn all the minimum squares requirements to zero.  Then put elevation variance on x and y to 3200, turn the elevation weighting on to 8 x 8 (assuming a normal size world), and turn off all forms of erosion.  Put in lots of starting rivers, set sub regions to 5000 and generate a world.  You can play with the elevation weighting parameters as well but you won't have as much control as you think.  Oceans need the lowest weight to form, mountains need the two highest.

These settings will give you many wide swings in elevation, the lack of erosion will give you more sheer cliffs.  Cliffs can often be found in hills next to mountains, or on waterfalls which typically only form in world map squares that are entirely hills or forest (mid elevations).  I've yet to find seaside cliffs but you might be able to force them by using the weighting and turning the variance down. The world building algorithmic has some underlying hidden logic that you can't really mess with, but which becomes apparent as you mess with worlds,  for example volcanoes overwhelmingly spawn such that rivers are forced a minimum 4 tiles away from them, etc .

One way to force the algorithm and learn the effects is to build tiny worlds with 100% weighting and zero variance on the respective parameter.   
« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 10:37:34 am by daggaz »
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vjek

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2019, 11:51:24 am »
Quote from: Pvt. Pirate on May 15, 2019, 04:28:48 am
i need a world with more cliffs for some projects and so far the general worldgen never produced such.
i'd like ~30% of the coasts to be steep cliffs, random tiny steep mountains, but also mountainranges - less shallow hills.
is there a way of getting that?
It depends on what you mean, exactly by cliffs.  Do these satisfy some of the requirements?
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2019, 12:16:38 pm »
thanks for the replies, i'll see if i get those working for me.
vjek, yes, those are the kind of cliffs i mean.
i've seen them sometimes, but only on mountainranges, never on the shore or elsewhere.
even most mountains were not steep at all, they had ramps everywhere and all their tiles were reachable without any work.
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vjek

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2019, 12:42:55 pm »
Well, try this parameter set, it should give you an idea of what to start with, if nothing else.  It's what created the world that made those embarks.
Spoiler: Seaside Cliff Parameters (click to show/hide)
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2019, 12:45:21 pm »
thx. will that work on 44.09 too?
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vjek

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2019, 12:54:53 pm »
It should, but I haven't tested it.  The seeds might not be valid or produce exactly the same world, but that doesn't matter, really. 
It will, in general, produce the sea cliffs you were asking about.
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2019, 03:33:26 pm »
i'll try tomorrow.
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vjek

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2019, 04:49:42 pm »
It's also worth noting it's possible to get this with lakes, as well.
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2019, 02:39:26 am »
looks awesome :)
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #12 on: May 18, 2019, 04:23:19 am »
Quote from: NordicNooob on May 15, 2019, 07:42:09 am
Getting mountain ranges AND tiny random sheer cliffs is not possible, but I've actually got a param set that should work nicely for your needs. There is very little actual ocean, but lakes are very common and with a few worlds you're very likely to find a sheer cliff face that drops right off into a lake.

I do have quite a few of personal touches, like removing megabeasts (they mess with civs too much to be worth the pain, although in hindsight this world could handle a few) and of course things like cavern settings and mineral rarity that don't connect to any other settings. You may also wish to turn secrets off, as it's pretty likely you'll get a necro tower somewhere in the world which, combined with the small size of the world, means that the majority of the world would be in range of it.

Also note that changing the world gen time is not suggested: I've set site and pop caps to the max and am using the length of world gen as the population limiter. If you've got a non-crappy computer you could do 100 years but I wouldn't see any reason to go past that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
how can i get these parameters into the game?
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PatrikLundell

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #13 on: May 18, 2019, 04:34:21 am »
@pVT. pIRATE: By pasting them into <DF>\data\init\world_gen.txt and then select the pasted set of parameters from the advanced world gen selection (which takes its parameter sets from this file). You can also enter them manually one by one in advanced world gen, but that's going to be a lot more work.
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to get a very steep world?
« Reply #14 on: May 18, 2019, 04:41:22 am »
thanks :)
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