Yes, I have played A15 and the prior 8, So I got to experience the changes as they happened.
Archived almost each of the versions 82 vanilla so far, and 30 modded from then until now and play
Round robin going through them to get Ideas for personal changes.
As
@Riamus posted Teragon can make the rivers and lakes also, I use it with a map I created to fine tune
the details of the terrain, once I have my layout as I like.
The reason I referred to Nitrogen is because, of what you posted as your desire, and the pictures you
presented. The way for you to get closer to what you want, is through personal customization. Starting
at the terrain, you would need to use an image editor to adjust the grayscale, that will give the elevation
differences. Then for the large waterways and bodies of water, you would have to drop the grayscale
below a specific height, and the game will auto populate, it with water. They never removed the ability
people just stopped using it as much. For mountains, to get erosion effects there are two main ways that
I have seen so far. Get a geo height map, Or I then would defer to Teragon. But the more custom and away
form the default, the more caveates you must be willing to accept. Meaning, the more tris details on the
top landform, the more you have to adjust your own setting to balance load, the second which is inescapable
is time.
Once you get a land mass, then you can progress to topological aesthetics, to the look and feel, a lot of that
comes from learning and adjusting the xml values. There is fog intensity and color, storm particles and timing,
Tree and decorative meaning block layout probability. Then you would have entity population.
Biome layout Is paint preference, you can paint it any way you choose, following altitude in which ever order
you like meaning Snow forest burnt desert waste from top to bottom, split it into quadrants with all five blended,
or autoassign, it is only limited by you and the time you are willing to invest in doing it. Since I love it, I just reduce
the screen and watch a movie simultaneously while setting it up. But for a one button end all be all, it probably will
not happen, and it became clear with the last explanation, I received from
@faatal in the diary.
Pois, once you learn the engine rules, regarding grayscale population, then painting the base terrain at specific
shades will either render large cluster groups, small cluster groups, individuals, or make it open wilderness separation.
Roads and road smoothing, are gradients, they can be laid on top, be rough or smooth, or cut swathes through terrain.
Entities, = timing configs, per area.
Seemles biomes, Is painting and experimenting, Just decide your blending distance, and fractalize the the image, Paint
the two merging biome colors, overlay and combine the layers, and repeat at each of the borders, the game will do the
rest, by populating mixing and matching the topsoil decor. It will also spawn mixed entitiy groups.
Then pick the spectrum you favor, and set it for all but the Wasteland to differentiate it.
Basically the way the game engine works is, what you put in is what you are going to get out, the more time the more
customized detail. On my 10k x 10k, I have all of the above, lakes that span the map, their diameter, up to 2 kilometers,
Traders in non standard biome config, land bridges, and it is split into two terrain areas diagonally, with varying poi
cluster sizes, overlooks to take in scenery, rough trails, and smooth roads. And entity spawn to support it. I have yet to
clear half of it yet, and I play sweep and clear. I always find an area along the way to a trader or another poi, that catches
my interest and I bivouac there, and spend some time, collecting a domesticating the area before I move on.
Grass If you want taller, just scale it. And add a light reduction to trees, cvar if it is daytime, to simulate hiding in the shade.
