10 lines
4.3 KiB
JSON
10 lines
4.3 KiB
JSON
{
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"id": "world_generation",
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"name": "World Generation",
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"category": "world",
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"summary": "How maps are procedurally created from setup options, shaping continent layout, ecology, and resource placement before the first turn.",
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"body": "World generation translates a handful of setup options into a fully realized hex grid with terrain, deposits, ecology, villages, and wild creatures. The process begins with map size selection, ranging from Duel (40x24 hexes, 2 players) through Tiny, Small, and larger formats. Map type determines continental structure: Continents splits the world into 2-4 landmasses separated by ocean with about 40% water coverage; Pangaea creates a single supercontinent; Team Continents places allied players on shared landmasses; and shaped variants like FFA-Cross and FFA-Plus create symmetric layouts with diagonal or cardinal corridors converging on a contested center.\n\nTerrain placement follows a layered process. First, the generator establishes continental outlines using noise-based landmass algorithms. Then elevation, temperature, and moisture values are assigned to each hex based on latitude, distance from coast, and altitude. The climate specification's ordered rule list classifies each hex into a terrain type: the first matching condition wins, producing natural biome distribution without manual painting. Terrain weights from the map type definition influence the relative frequency of each type, so a Continents map produces different proportions of forest, desert, and grassland than a Pangaea map.\n\nThe world age setting is the most consequential pre-game choice. It controls how many ticks the ecology simulation runs before the player enters. A Newborn world evolves for 5,000 ticks, producing ecosystems no higher than tier 4 with no guaranteed tier 10 biomes. Young worlds run 15,000 ticks, reaching tier 6. Established worlds (the default) run 30,000 ticks and can produce tier 8 ecosystems. Ancient worlds evolve for 50,000 ticks with 3 guaranteed tier 10 biomes. Primordial worlds run 80,000 ticks with 8 guaranteed tier 10 regions. Mythic worlds push to 120,000 ticks with 20 guaranteed tier 10 biomes, producing landscapes of staggering ecological depth and equally dangerous wildlife.\n\nThe disaster setting interacts powerfully with world age during pre-game evolution. Disaster options range from Off through Easy, Normal, Hard, to Chaotic, each controlling disaster frequency, severity ceiling, and damage intensity across 10 tiers of events. Tiers 1-3 are background noise, 4-6 are notable disruptions, 7-8 are major events, and 9-10 are catastrophic or extinction-level. On a chaotic ancient world, the simulation runs many destructive events over a long evolution period. Most species die. The survivors, those that endured repeated catastrophes, receive event survival bonuses that accelerate their tier advancement. The result is fewer but battle-hardened tier 10 ecosystems: sparse ancient forests that weathered every disaster the world threw at them.\n\nAfter terrain and ecology are established, the generator places deposits according to terrain requirements, distributes villages across habitable land, and spawns wild creatures proportional to ecological tier. Start positions are assigned based on the map type's strategy: per-continent for team games, quadrant for free-for-all, or arm-tips for shaped maps. Each starting position is validated for minimum viability, ensuring players begin with access to food, production, and room to expand. The completed world is a unique product of its settings, and no two maps with different seeds will play the same way.",
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"design_notes": "World generation is designed so that every setup option creates meaningful tradeoffs rather than simple difficulty scaling. A mythic world is not strictly harder than a newborn one. It has richer resources and more developed ecosystems, but also more dangerous wildlife and entrenched ecological systems that resist exploitation. The disaster-world age interaction creates emergent narrative: an ancient chaotic world tells the story of a planet that nearly destroyed itself and was rebuilt by the survivors.",
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"related": ["terrain", "climate", "ecology", "resources_deposits", "natural_wonders"],
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"tags": ["map_generation", "world_age", "continents", "hex_grid", "disasters", "setup", "procedural"]
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}
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