Design issues and chitchat

[Zeno410]

I just want a place to refer to for existing discussions, and to keep track of what's been said.

[Zeno410]

Tree height: I lowered the heights of the trees to make the mountains stand out more and to make it easier to see from a mountaintop. Mountaintop heights are limited somewhat by the need for relatively easy slopes and the parallel ridges I'm shooting for. I already had to move the ridges further apart because they got awkward too often when they were closer. To make the mountains higher they'll have to be even further apart and the parallel ridges effect will be lost.

I've been pushing for smaller trees to see the landscapes better and for APL that won't help. Because of the lower relief, you don't see much of the mountains from the ground. The earlier larger trees created a "Deep Forest" effect which is lost with the shorter trees except occasionally in the bigger stands.

Also, putting the big trees only on low elevations doesn't help show off the mountains. Unlike with Extreme Hills, I think the big trees should go at all elevations. My personal wish would be something like Forest with big trees stands, medium tree stands, and relatively open areas, although with a lot less open area than Forest -mostly medium trees, some big trees in largish areas for the Deep Forest effect, and occasional open areas, and all of this more or less the same for all the terrains except Bog.

If the "lost in the Deep Forest" is a desired effect, i have the alternate suggestion of making the flatland forests mostly big trees, but still maybe spritzing them around elsewhere.

Since APL terrains are clumped and at present they're all basically closed forest, I think we should switch the Bogs to open forests with only occasional trees. I love the BoP effect of spindlier trees in Bog but I do know that's a lot of work. All closed forest gets oppressive after playing a while.

[Zeno410]

Oh, and on grouping differentiation: Giving each group a consistent block palette didn't make them readily distinguishable. Maybe they should have comparatively distinctive tree shapes. It wouldn't have to be much; probably one passably common shape in each of two regions would be enough.

[whichonespink44]

The 'lost in the deep forest' effect is both intentional and desired, but that's not to say that we can't have the occasional open area, or experiment with different-sized stands to see how they look. I'll try a few things out and see how it goes. That includes sparse trees in Bogs.

Agreed on the tree shapes being the differentiating factor, rather than the blocks.

[whichonespink44]

@Zeno410 any progress on the fallen leaves to help prevent day spawns? can't remember if you were waiting on me to finish decorating the biomes before doing your thing.