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[Silverionmox]

The underground caves are wonderful, but after a while they become a little ... predictable in their shapes, patterns and sizes.

So I suggest to put the mathematical formulas these are based on in raws. We can design new ones. (Or at least some of us will be able to The rest of us can tinker with the existing ones.) The game would then be able to pick (semi-randomly) between different styles, so different places in the world will actually look differently.

The same can happen for mountain and landscape shapes, vegetation patterns, ore distributions, shape of veins and mineral deposits, etc. City layout is also an obvious candidate, but there are other threads about that specifically.

[NW_Kohaku]

Obligatory link to Raw-editable Procedural Worldgen Cities, although I think I mentioned explicitly putting ways in which you could modify the caverns in that thread, as well.

I also mentioned ways of making specific "landmarks" that are semi-procedural, such as rock formations or abandoned cities or temples or the likes that could have some randomly altered elements, and modders could contribute large numbers of possible candidates to.  Even though a set of 20 "landmarks" might get boring eventually, a fan-generated list of hundreds might become quite quite fun and surprising to trip over in play.

Ore distributions should hopefully also be in the raws just as a percentage throttle of certain types of abundance, the way that we already have a non-functional token to control, already.

I'm not sure what you mean by vegetation patterns, exactly, however. 

[Silverionmox]

Obligatory link to Raw-editable Procedural Worldgen Cities, although I think I mentioned explicitly putting ways in which you could modify the caverns in that thread, as well.

You're welcome. What I had in mind was not so much generating landmarks and cities, but the generation of the shape of actual landscape they are in or carved out of. Mountains, hills, plains, rivers, etc.

Vegetation patterns: the way plants cluster in groups. As vegetation becomes more complex it will start to matter more. At the moment the plants are just randomly placed on suitable terrain, but they might grown in patches for example. How dense do trees grow, how much does height and moisture matter for species distribution etc. could all go there.

Maybe it's even possible to let the cave type vary with the type of stone (as soon as the layers get a bit more consistent). Certain types of stone would have jagged caverns with lots of loose stone (eg. slate), while others would form stalagmites (eg. limestone), and still others could be likely to be filled with mud.

[NW_Kohaku]

Hmm... We can have "crowding" rules fairly simply put into the game, which would make trees space themselves out more since they need more space to grow.  I'm wondering how much more complex you can go than that, however.  Grass growing in patches might be difficult to make grow in a non-square-like fashion without really just forcing the game to act that way in an unorganic method. 

Cavern formation based upon stone sounds like a fairly neat idea, although that might require exploration of what forces actually drive their formation, since I doubt it's just rainwater that creates The Underdark.

I'm not really sure I understand what sort of controls you want to give to players to actually manage the ways that hills form or the like, however.

[Granite26]

Hmm... We can have "crowding" rules fairly simply put into the game, which would make trees space themselves out more since they need more space to grow.  I'm wondering how much more complex you can go than that, however.  Grass growing in patches might be difficult to make grow in a non-square-like fashion without really just forcing the game to act that way in an unorganic method. 

Cavern formation based upon stone sounds like a fairly neat idea, although that might require exploration of what forces actually drive their formation, since I doubt it's just rainwater that creates The Underdark.

I'm not really sure I understand what sort of controls you want to give to players to actually manage the ways that hills form or the like, however.

funny numbers for diagonal expansion should do some good there.  (expansion vert and hor = 20%, expansion diag = 15%)

[Silverionmox]

Hmm... We can have "crowding" rules fairly simply put into the game, which would make trees space themselves out more since they need more space to grow.  I'm wondering how much more complex you can go than that, however.  Grass growing in patches might be difficult to make grow in a non-square-like fashion without really just forcing the game to act that way in an unorganic method.

Conway's game of life (a set of very simple rules that gives complex results) has been used in ADOM to simulate herb growth patterns. We'll want something more robust, naturally. Another example of growth patterns of plants are faerie rings. These are obvious, but there are notable differences between forests (large trees with empty trunks and mostly leaves on the bottom, or tightly squeezed and full of brambles etc.). It would give different places character. "Evil" areas would benefit from a thorny and tight vegetation, for example (cfr. the brambles of Mordor).

Cavern formation based upon stone sounds like a fairly neat idea, although that might require exploration of what forces actually drive their formation, since I doubt it's just rainwater that creates The Underdark.

I'm not really sure I understand what sort of controls you want to give to players to actually manage the ways that hills form or the like, however.

To start with, it's nice to have some variety. Finding out the exact relationship with cave formation is a later worry. (I suggest the worm Ourobouros and its kin, as a starting point.)
We already have ways to control the likelihood of cliff etc. in worldgen. This would go a bit further and allow bits of code (in the form of mathematical formulae, most likely) to be put in instead of just numerical variables into the same code.

[NW_Kohaku]

Conway's game of life (a set of very simple rules that gives complex results) has been used in ADOM to simulate herb growth patterns. We'll want something more robust, naturally. Another example of growth patterns of plants are faerie rings. These are obvious, but there are notable differences between forests (large trees with empty trunks and mostly leaves on the bottom, or tightly squeezed and full of brambles etc.). It would give different places character. "Evil" areas would benefit from a thorny and tight vegetation, for example (cfr. the brambles of Mordor).

Well, I talked about this in one of the recently added sections of the Improved Farming Rebooted thread...

Basically, the idea is that you have a set number of sizes for plants - let's say 7 just because, although this has nothing to do with the 7/7 fluids thing.  So, if a plant has 4 crowding, it occupies its entire tile.  If the plant is a tree or something, it might have a 5, 6, or 7.  If it's a 5, it blocks off anything but a 3 or less in the tile next to it, although diagonals might have up to a 5, as well.  Hence, a 5-crowding tree could be planted as a checkerboard of trees with smaller 3-crowding plants.  Then, a 6-crowder could have a 2-crowding plant nearby (which would be something fairly small that likes the shade, like a flower or vine) and a 3-crowder in the diagonals.  A 7-crowder would force nothing more than a 1-crowder adjacent, and 2-crowder in the diagonals. 

To start with, it's nice to have some variety. Finding out the exact relationship with cave formation is a later worry. (I suggest the worm Ourobouros and its kin, as a starting point.)
We already have ways to control the likelihood of cliff etc. in worldgen. This would go a bit further and allow bits of code (in the form of mathematical formulae, most likely) to be put in instead of just numerical variables into the same code.

I always thought of it as some sort of Zuggtomy-style giant mushroom demon that ate its way through the world's deeps. 

I guess I just don't see what sort of sliders you'd actually get to play with in regards to how a hill forms, though.  I mean, other than maybe something like gravity or plate tectonics.  Unless you want a "make more hills" button, I don't see what you could do to really change what a hill is.  Or am I thinking you are asking for something different than what I'm thinking you're thinking.  ("I think so, Brain, but if Jimmy cracked corn, and nobody cared, why does he keep doing it?")

[Silverionmox]

Well, I talked about this in one of the recently added sections of the Improved Farming Rebooted thread...

That I sadly haven't given its due attention yet due to lack of sufficient  time... But something as you describe would make that practically obsolete, since it the plant pattern will change constantly and form sui generis. On the other hand, newly entered areas and new forts will still have their initial plants generated by some kind of procedure.

I guess I just don't see what sort of sliders you'd actually get to play with in regards to how a hill forms, though.  I mean, other than maybe something like gravity or plate tectonics.  Unless you want a "make more hills" button, I don't see what you could do to really change what a hill is.  Or am I thinking you are asking for something different than what I'm thinking you're thinking.  ("I think so, Brain, but if Jimmy cracked corn, and nobody cared, why does he keep doing it?")

The steepness of the slope, the roundness of the shape, the way small crevices are realized, the amount of "boulders", the patterns and (possible) concentration of boulders and other small features, the frequency of small bumps, the smoothness, proliferation of cliffs, height differences, etc. etc.

For example, it's hard to confuse these three examples of hills.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beinn_dearg_torridon.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Judea_2_by_David_Shankbone.jpg
http://baytrail.abag.ca.gov/vtour/map4/access/CyteHils/Trail_to_Red_Hill_Summit.JPG

Ultimately, "The massacre of the smooth hills" or "The teeth of Id", could be more than just random names for battles or mountain ranges but really be relevant. If you're present there you should be able to see that in those places the hills really are smoother or the mountains really more jagged than elsewhere.

[Granite26]

Is that level of detail likely to have any effect on any other parts of the game?

[Silverionmox]

Military tactics, for one. What you can easily build on a given terrain as well. Terrain accessibility for wagons. Ease of farming. Initial wood supply.

Release 2
Villager/farmer schedules/activities
Work with 3D mineral veins and mine maps

The latter item is slated for the next release and is something similar (determining the pattern of terrain features).