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[SirHoneyBadger]

Simply dding veins into glaciers would absolutely fill them with veins due to how it works right now. Candy cane glaciers shouldn't be the norm

Well, possibly the different colors of ice could be very rare, like aluminum, or done by Toady as a one-off situation (adamantium).

[catoblepas]

It would be nice to see salt flats on occasion, as opposed to all of the rock salt mountains I seem to get. Also, it would be interesting to see ponds/brooks/rivers/sinkholes that go more than one z-level down. Just my two cents on the subject.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Yeah, I second the deep, deep lakes. If the environment for them were made interesting enough, it'd suddenly be a lot of fun to play as a water-breathing critter.

One thing it would be great to model--and this is the same issue with colored glaciers--would be different "layers" of water (strata): with different concentrations of oxygen, different depth pressure, levels of visibility, levels of salinity, temperatures, etc.

If those were in-and if critters had the appropriate tolerance levels-you could-with reasonable accuracy-model many different types of sea life, in their own biomes, instead of making them homogenous, like most games tend to do.

[Pilsu]

or done by Toady as a one-off situation (adamantium).

That sounds more like it

[Heron TSG]

Well, main post updated!

About the iceberg stripes, would there be a way to make the vein extremely rare and narrow, though very long? that sounds like it would suit.

Added some biome enhancements, and some random suggestions.

@Catoblepas: Currently rivers CAN be deeper, but brooks are meant to be shallow. The lakes suggestion covers the pond idea, and I'll modify the sinkhole one.

PS: Thanks for the suggestion Othob, looks more professional now.

[Silverionmox]

Swamps should also get better treatment. Right now they're pretty much identical to forests. I'd like to see more streams and ponds filling up a swamp biome. It could also have hazardous mud pits (like quicksand), giant carnivorous plants, huge insects, and the like.

Swamps should have an aquifer in at least the two top soil layers.

It would be great if there was a non-arbitrary way to let biomes be generated by setting world-wide variables like temperature and moistness, and let them be influenced by local variables like latitude and height. The generator would then automatically be limited in its choice of biomes, so there wouldn't need to be an arbitrary composition of climates. That also has the advantage that for example magically shifting an island south would make its climate warmer (in the northern hemisphere at least), prompting a change in creatures, agricultural practice, clothing, etc.

[Granite26]

That also has the advantage that for example magically shifting an island south would make its climate warmer (in the northern hemisphere at least), prompting a change in creatures, agricultural practice, clothing, etc.

Therein lies the rub...  When would the creatures change, and how?  Sure, the clime should change, but not the creatures (or the agricultural practice and clothing, overnight).

When does it determine what lives in a place?  How do the new animals get there?

[Silverionmox]

Large predators - and the largest herbivores- will probably be kept track of individually, and they would migrate individually; smaller animals in herds or vermin even as an abstract number indicating how common they are.

Eg. Ice bears wouldn't migrate far south because they disllke the temperature. Toads wouldn't migrate into the desert because they dislike dryness. That would require to put that information into the creature raws, but a lot of variety can be attained with only a few tags, and the information is readily available in most animal compendia. The migration checks only need to be performed every season or so, it's a long-term trend.

Clothes and the like would be corrected rather quickly: presumably dwarves will notice their body temperature (environment temperature + exertion + clothing) and take off clothes when they're too warm. Coats would rapidly go out of fashion if iceland was moved to the equator.

Plants need to check their environment too; if a place got colder, palm trees and grapevines would die off, what remains is adapted to the climate. They would need to try other plants from trade contacts too.

[Heron TSG]

Nice ideas, silver. Added many new ideas to the meta-game suggestions.

[Heron TSG]

So does anyone have Ideas for surface lava or surface rock formations?

[Vattic]

One thing that might be cool to see are natural archs.

I would like to see tides in the game, in fact a more interesting ocean environment would be interesting, caves that flood in the tide, stacks, coves, peninsulas, spits, Tidal Islands, River Deltas, An Oceanic trench would be interesting for an underwater civ.

In fact scroll down to the bottom of this page and there are a number of good ocean landforms that could be nice in game.

[Heron TSG]

thank you vattic, I think we can use some more ideas like that, as I never would've thought about sea caves, much less their blowholes that shoot up water and pressurized air.

[SirHoneyBadger]

I don't think anyone's mentioned glacier deposits.

I'd like to see masses of jumbled stone being pushed forward incrementally, in front of glaciers, and then "devil's garden" type debris areas, where glaciers have melted.

Also, how about (regular sized) termite/ant/gopher/etc "cities"? Places where normal animals have, themselves, significantly altered the landscape?

How about archaeological sites/structures,
and sites where intelligent beings have left paintings/graffiti?
Such as the one at Tsodilo (contains over 4500 rock paintings, and is the site of the oldest known ritual--70,000 years ago).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsodilo

It'd be cool if our dwarfs occasionally find flint arrowheads, old statues, bronze coins, etc. buried slightly in the soil. Maybe even an amphorae filled with ancient wine. These could be turned up by our farmers.

Speaking of lava, and farmers, are there different types of soil in the game? How about lava transforming into rich soil over time?

Occasionally having huge bodies of fresh water (great lakes)--as opposed to salt water--might be interesting. Also, areas of water with a high level of salinity (great salt lake, dead sea, etc.), and small pools of alkaline (etc.) poison.

How about caravans that travel with a significant population? Like a sort of nomad/gypsy town, or just a huge caravan-train. Might arrive with a herd of pack-animals (camels, dogs, other).

[zchris13]

I would rather not be swarmed by a massive caravan with a population greater than my fort.

[catoblepas]

Speaking of caravans, how about squatters? Perhaps a group of human settlers might arrive on map and you would have to compete for resources with them (or kill/drive them off). As it is, we can already embark on forest retreats, dark towers, and cities, although that doesn't affect much at the time, but what if the reverse would happen? the squatters might leave after mining out all of the surface veins of gold/silver etc, or might attract more immigrants over time, causing even more problems. Killing the squatters might cause war between dwarves and whatever faction the deceased belonged to.