forum.freeciv.org

Low land has many types (swamp, forest, grass, plain, desert, jungle). But there is only one hill, and one mountain.

I have made a heightmap-based terrain generator, and find this limiting. A desert or forest isn't always flat, for example.

Proposed terrain types:

desert hill
Barren like the desert, high move cost like the existing hill. Can be mined, like any hill.

forested hill
Like the existing hill, but covered with forest. Irrigation action clears the trees and converts it to a normal hill. Perhaps +1 shields production over the normal hill?

arctic hill
mostly for better looking polar regions/glaciers. Can be mined, like any hill.

Mountains work reasonably well as-is. A desert mountain and an arctic mountain might make terrains prettier, by better color matching.

More terrain types would be backwards compatible. Old games would still work, they just happen to not use these tiles.

The "Desert Hill", "Forested Hill" and "Arctic Hill" would be functionally the same as a mountain? Movement cost is different though. Mountain is 010, same as desert, but can't be irrigated and doesn't produce trade when road is built (does get +1 productivity from rail though.) Mining adds +1 productivity to total 0,2,0. Perhaps allowing "m" as mountain, and "M" as the same mountain but with icon/sprite influenced by, or dependent upon nearby tiles -- if adjacent to mostly forest, then the mountain graphic gets trees when mined. If adjacent to mostly arctic/glacier tiles, then the mountain is snow-covered, and gets a mine icon when mined.

Or perhaps the addition of a "special" which changes the appearance of the base hill/mountaint for environs desert, forrest, glacier?

For https://longturn.net/game/SG2/ I planned using new terrain types. I patched some together or got help from the longturn community. I also have the spec files if someone wants to quickly integrate them. I just added a few lines.

Found also these.

Molo_Parko wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 2:46 pm The "Desert Hill", "Forested Hill" and "Arctic Hill" would be functionally the same as a mountain? Movement cost is different though. Mountain is 010, same as desert, but can't be irrigated and doesn't produce trade when road is built (does get +1 productivity from rail though.) Mining adds +1 productivity to total 0,2,0. Perhaps allowing "m" as mountain, and "M" as the same mountain but with icon/sprite influenced by, or dependent upon nearby tiles -- if adjacent to mostly forest, then the mountain graphic gets trees when mined. If adjacent to mostly arctic/glacier tiles, then the mountain is snow-covered, and gets a mine icon when mined.

Or perhaps the addition of a "special" which changes the appearance of the base hill/mountaint for environs desert, forrest, glacier?

Mountains may not need a new terrain type. If different graphics can be provided depending on neighbour tiles, then that may be enough. A mountain has high move cost, hight road building cost, no food, and may be mined in all cases.

Extra hill types are different. The road building cost should be like the normal hill, less than the cost for a road through a mountain. A desert hill ought to be like other desert in that you may irrigate and get one food. A forest hill could have one shield more than the normal hill, but no irrigation before you convert it to a normal hill.

A tundra hill would also be useful. Like other tundra, but rougher terrain so roads take more time to build.

Having two heights (flat and hill) for all kinds of terrain, makes it easier to create terrains based on heightmaps. Perhaps a swamp hill is not necessary, swamps tend to be flatter or the water runs off?

"Swamp Hill" probably ought to be a Freeciv scenario, in which diplomats are voodoo witch doctors who, rather than bribing units instead put them under a voodoo curse turning them to zombies. "Swamp Hill" is probably also the name of a town in Arkansas, at least it seems likely -- and I'm sure that I would have relatives there if it is. A foggy, dark, green-shaded graphic would be nice for a Swamp Hill.

Having the appearance of a tile be influenced by neighboring tiles would have to be optional though, or the entire land area would take on the same theme -- grassland would pick-up trees from nearby forests, and therefore be largely indistinguishable from the forest. If the "nearby terrain influence" were handled as an "extra" then it would be optional, and the influence could then affect the f/p/t values of the tile (as tile extras already do.)

Making new terrain turned out to be easier than I thought. Well, as long as I don't need to be a graphics artist. (New hilltypes is simply the hold hill, but with the color modified to match the base tile.)


Here are some deserts with desert hills in them, as well as tundra hills and snow hills. Freeciv had no problems using them. If anyone wants to try, look to https://github.com/Hafting/freecivstuff.

Is it possible to change the base tile under mountains? It is fine when the mountain is in the green, but don't fit otherwise.

XYZ wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 4:06 pmFound also these.

I am curious as to how volcano tiles would work, I would suggest something like them being high risk; high reward (Volcanos erupting destroys any improvements and cities on the tile, but provide plenty of production and gold.)

Made some volcanoes. I don't know a way to make them erupt. They are high reward in that they provide lots of production - volcanoes bring unusual stuff like sulphur to the surface. And they are a bit difficult in that they don't allow roads.

Volcano -> osdn #48900