Basic Terrain Generation
It would start with 4 basic variables:
- Base Height
- Precipitation
- Temperature
- Terrain (physical contour)
- Ocean (down to Y: ~32)
- Coast (Y: ~60-64)
- Beach (Y: ~64-70)
- Inland (Y: ~70-120)
- Plateau (Y: ~120 and up) (added 2012-08)
Precipitation
- Dry
- Average
- Wet
- Hot
- Temperate
- Cold
- Flat
- Hills
- Mountains
The four variable maps would be overlaid, and it would be their combination that would govern the actual blocks to be generated. For example:
- [Coast/Beach]-Hot-Wet-Flat = Swamp
- Inland-Hot-Wet-[any] = Jungle
- Inland-Hot-Dry-[Flat/Hills] = Desert
- Coast-[any]-[any]-Mountains = this or this
- Beach-[any]-[any]-Flat = typical beach
- Ocean-[any]-[any]-[any] = Varied underwater terrain (unaffected by Precipitation, although a Cold value for Temperature would result in an ice-covered ocean)
Terrain Features
With the basic terrain determined, special features would be added based on the values of any given terrain.
Precipitation
Precipitation would change from being a global, "all areas simultaneously" occurrence to a local one. It would occur frequently in Wet areas, and occasionally in Average areas. Dry areas could have either an extremely low chance of precipitation (1/365 or so), or simply none at all.
The frequency of thunderstorms vs. regular rainfall/snowfall would remain much as it is now.
In Cold areas, the precipitation would take the form of snow, and in Temperate/Hot areas, rain. In addition to the familiar thin layer of snow that exists now, if a Cold-Wet area has a thunderstorm, any blocks over a certain height (say, 96 or so) would have a full-sized snow block added on top. A limit would be placed as to how many full-sized snow blocks can pile up - something like 2-3 perhaps.
Rivers
Rivers would be generated to "flow" from Mountains to the nearest Hills, then on to the nearest Flat area, and from there to the nearest Ocean. In Wet areas, a river would have a chance of flooding its banks during a thunderstorm, which would mean simply duplicating the top level of water source blocks directly upwards one level, allowing them to flow outwards "naturally" (according to Minecraft water physics, at least). The additional water blocks would automatically be removed at the end of the thunderstorm.
Flora
Forests would have a chance to be generated in any area that was Inland and not Dry. A Wet area would have a much higher chance to generate a forest. The type of trees composing the forest would of course be affected by the Temperature value, with Cold-[Hills/Mountains] more likely to have pine trees than any other tree type, and Wet-Hot areas typically generating swamp or jungle trees.
Mushrooms would be restricted to [Wet/Average]-[Hot/Temperate] areas, cacti would be restricted to Dry-Hot areas, and sugarcane could even have the must-be-next-to-water restriction lifted if planted in Wet-[Hot/Temperate] areas.
Fauna
Certain mobs could also be restricted to specific value ranges - imagine if slimes were no longer restricted to specific random chunks, but instead could only spawn in Wet-Hot areas, or if squid only spawned in Oceans rather than in just any old water block (RIP Pond Squid, Cave Squid, and Mob Grinder Squid!).
As far as the oft-mentioned temperature variation with altitude...
If you like this idea, consider sending @Jeb_ a link to this thread... just don't bombard the man! He doesn't need to be barraged by hundreds of near-identical tweets - anything more than half a dozen or so is just wrong.
EDIT 2012-01-26: Added river overflowing and a new Precipitation section to Terrain Features.
EDIT 2012-08-15: Adjustments to accommodate the raised map height limit (5th value for Base Height; elevation/temperature changes)
1
How long have you been on StoneHeart?: long enough
Why are you applying?:For Redwood Gorge to become a town finally
Will you have Co-Owners?:um...its a town not a country there is no owner
What will your town's name be?:Redwood Gorge
What is the theme of your town?:The gorge through the middle of town
Where will your town be located? (Biome and Coordinates):I can't check the server is down for some reason(may have been my fault sry....i did //cut rose and it crapped its self ) but you should know where it is
Why should we let you build this town?:Most players live there
When do you expect to open your town?:it would be open asap
How will your town run? (Number of Houses, Shops, etc.): Completely ran by the residents, its worked fine so far.
1
In Game Name:kolop97
Age:14
Have you been banned before?: Yes
If so, why?: various griefing and such, but I go on griefing runs going on low protected and suckish servers and then ruining them this one is far to cool!
Any additional comments: I have experience building and over seeing players...see what i did there
so i just made this to show that players shouldn't lie about griefing because they think they won't get whitelisted and most players have griefed at least once....I know operative player has....with me