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Author Topic: WorldGen Science: Lake/River Formation  (Read 1354 times)

kiwiphoenix

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WorldGen Science: Lake/River Formation
« on: June 18, 2015, 07:05:44 pm »

Sorry if I'm being dense, but I reread Dune recently and was tempted to try a completely dry world.
However, rivers and lakes always seem to appear randomly around the map during worldgen. Even with rain and river start sites set to zero, even in test maps designed in the World Painter!
Anyone know how to strip all the rivers and lakes out of a world?
« Last Edit: June 21, 2015, 03:21:36 pm by kiwiphoenix »
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Alfrodo

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Re: WorldGen: remove outdoor water?
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2015, 10:44:44 am »

I've never boned around with worldgen parameters.  But this sounds like an interesting problem.

And I don't think there's a way to mod in burrowing sandworms that blow up everything on the surface.  You can certainly create world-sized worms though, don't expect them to be able to get past a 3 metre high wall.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2015, 10:48:23 am by Alfrodo »
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kiwiphoenix

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Re: WorldGen: surface water in Worldgen
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2015, 02:39:35 pm »

Got it! And the answer's kind of unintuitive.

So, it seems lake formation is tied to elevation:
Elevation <100 = Ocean. Will form regardless of worldgen settings, and can be completely landlocked.
Elevation 103-359 = Lakes and rivers will form normally.

Interesting bit:
Elevation 100-103 = No lakes will ever form. Presumably to prevent lakes from overlapping into oceans?
Elevation >360 = No water features will ever form.


Really interesting bit:
Prep a world to your liking in either World-Painter or the Perfect World utility, then go into worldgen parameters and set the elevation range to anywhere from 100-103.
The world will keep the form you painted, but no rivers or lakes will form anywhere on the planet.

Caveats:
After setting the elevation parameters, you won't be able to use World-Painter anymore without ruining everything you touch.
And if you just wanted a truly random world, but without any surface water features, you're still kinda SOL.

Still, hope this helps someone somewhere sometime.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2015, 03:16:10 pm by kiwiphoenix »
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