was looking at some stuff i did last week. this was proof of concept for another project i imagined while i was doing that Spacesim prototypes. not much to say, the main concept around this was a 2D sidescrolling survival game, in the veins of terraria but a little bit more extensive.
so yeah, this was a concept for the world generation, the idea was that the planet could be large enough to contain at least 3 landmasses with variable geography like mountains, mesas, and even volcanoes. in terms of biome generation, the poles would be located at the edges while the tropics would be in the center. in terms of altitude, the world would be separated in several layer divided in set tiles in height, they are:
1. Space: this one is more like Starbound, gravity is really weak, and the atmosphere is nonexistant, most of the stuff floating there is composed of dead rock in the form of asteroids foarming some sort of ring around the planet. additionally, mana crystals can be found naturally here and in large quantities. (they are supposed to work like fallen stars on the surface where they are in small quantities, but in space they are found like ores).
2. Upper Atmosphere: think like Windforge, the upper atmosphere is the pass of transit between Space and the Lower Atmosphere, due to this theres danger from asteroids falling onto the planet. the atmosphere is weak but present, and the player may found less gravity than in the surface. there's not much lifeforms in the upper atmosphere outside and its floating isles are mostly barren wasteland.
3. Lower Atsmophere: the lower atmosphere works under the same atmospheric richness and gravity as the surface of the planet. much like in Terraria, it is full of aerial lifeforms and floating islands with plenty of vegetation and water. there's a lack of asteroid presence here since most of them burn when crossing the upper atmosphere
4. The Crust: the first ground layer extendes from the surface to a depth of 1000 tiles at most, it is mostly composed of dirt and a few rock and sand. caverns entrance can be found on the surface and these branch out further onto the ground from here. there's not much danger on the Crust Layer but there's not much ores down too. meaning the player has to dig deeper in order to find better sources.
5. The Underground: the largest layer, the Underground is divided by several layers of rock and other materials, rich in gems and ores, but dangerous. each subsequent layer becomes harder as you get to the core of the planet. like in DF, the Underground is home to many lifeforms that thrive on the few water sources, fungus, mosses and lichens that carpet the caverns.
6. The Mantle: at the lowest parts of the Underground the player will start to find chunks of impassable rock, too sturdy to perforate with a pickaxe or drill. the only entrances being spoiler material for now, the Mantle is a gigantic cavernous expanse of rock, with lava replacing water and strange caustic lifeforms. this isnt the end though, once the player reaches the mantle, the world would be updated with new challenges that would go far up to the surface (and beyond). much like how you unlock hardmode in Terraria.
7. The Core: i dont like how Terraria managed the bounds of the map, so this is my solution in this case. the core is the lowermost layer of the map. around 1 tile in height. its composed basically of the innermost layer of the planet's core, a pressurized region that cannot be traversed and serves as the bedrock layer in this game. its located deep under the Mantle, and it doesnt have any value.