Map Gen Starting Area Options
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 8:35 pm
It would be nice to have a few more options for creating the Starting Area portion of a new map beyond just the size of it.
Starting Area Water
In particular I would like to be able to adjust how much water is in the starting area. I find that the map generator too often places far more water in the starting area than I would like. This becomes more pronounced if you already set the water value to "big" or "very big" giving you large ocean-like bodies of water nearby. That setting seems to only affect the water availability outside of the starting area. I only have a couple of alternatives if I want to change the starting area water:
-- I could try to build my factory outside the given starter area, but then I would have to contend with more aliens. This is less viable if you set the alien values higher than normal.
-- I can use the map editor to remove some of the water by making a scenario. This is the workaround I usually use, but I would prefer to use a freeplay map instead of a scenario.
-- I can use a mod that might allow me to fill in the water areas with land. For me personally, I generally prefer to play early access/beta games without mods so this isn't an option for me.
Starting Area Resources
It would be nice to be able to have different resource values for the starting area than for the rest of the map. I don't use mods, but I see a lot of people on the forums that use mods to make resources more scarce. I don't think you would need 5 separate values for each of the different resources in the starting area, but perhaps a general low-normal-high type of setting for frequency, size, and quality would suffice for all of the resources together. Ideally there would be options for "none" or "minimal" to really entice players to explore and build rail networks.
I don't know how much other players would like these things, but at least I have the option of using a scenario editor as a workaround.
Starting Area Water
In particular I would like to be able to adjust how much water is in the starting area. I find that the map generator too often places far more water in the starting area than I would like. This becomes more pronounced if you already set the water value to "big" or "very big" giving you large ocean-like bodies of water nearby. That setting seems to only affect the water availability outside of the starting area. I only have a couple of alternatives if I want to change the starting area water:
-- I could try to build my factory outside the given starter area, but then I would have to contend with more aliens. This is less viable if you set the alien values higher than normal.
-- I can use the map editor to remove some of the water by making a scenario. This is the workaround I usually use, but I would prefer to use a freeplay map instead of a scenario.
-- I can use a mod that might allow me to fill in the water areas with land. For me personally, I generally prefer to play early access/beta games without mods so this isn't an option for me.
Starting Area Resources
It would be nice to be able to have different resource values for the starting area than for the rest of the map. I don't use mods, but I see a lot of people on the forums that use mods to make resources more scarce. I don't think you would need 5 separate values for each of the different resources in the starting area, but perhaps a general low-normal-high type of setting for frequency, size, and quality would suffice for all of the resources together. Ideally there would be options for "none" or "minimal" to really entice players to explore and build rail networks.
I don't know how much other players would like these things, but at least I have the option of using a scenario editor as a workaround.
