Feedback [Nightly] About biomes...

In the near future, biomes will be far more random - as one of the blog entries said it, it will be possible to see volcanos on a desert planet.

Well, about that...



I can't help by feel it's somewhat overdone with some worlds. It's Nightly, so it's definitely still WIP, but I took a look in just two systems, visited two different desert planets in hopes of finding an oasis mini-biome and instead, I got... something belonging in different planets entirely. One desert planet was essentially an alien planet with some sand and a desert background (alien and flesh biomes), another was a midnight planet that's actually lit, and also has sand here and there (obsidian and hive biomes).

When I see "the majority of the planet is covered in desert", I don't really expect to find alien rocks and piles of flesh on that planet, and only a small part of the map and the background being actually a desert. Am I the only one feeling like this? =/

 

i don't play nightly, so i can't share your experience (yet). but i do agree that there should be less divergence from the main biome associated with the planet type than what you're talking about. a desert planet should be like 70% desert at the least, with some other mini-biomes associated with deserts mixed in. that said, i do think there should be more planet types in general where you could potentially get a desert background and a midnight planet with light and whatnot. i just don't think those planets should be called "desert". maybe "eccentric" or something.

 

The nav computer should be able to tell you what biome occupies the majority of the surface area on a planet. They need to change the code from simply identifying planet "type," to actually counting tiles or chunks or whatever to determine which biome is most dominant and displaying that result instead.

I assume having only one background per planet is just temporary until they can work out a way to transition from one parallax to another.

 

I still don't actually like that change. It just doesn't work right, and I preferred having the planets as they were. Currently, it's just a disorganized mess pretending to be "variety" - another thing I've just seen was a scorched city one a frozen planet, orbiting a frozen star. Not to mention another hive biome out of nowhere. Like, is this for real?

It's obviously the decision players have no real influence on, but I'd not have environment of the planets I visit all messed up. =/ It absolutely ruins the atmosphere the planets had, which used to make it all the more fun to create structures matching the planet's environment stylistically.

 

This is one of those things I strongly disagree with Chucklefish doing. I don't think even half of the biome mixes make any sense despite what they say.

Example:

Lets play a game of "Guess the primary biome!". Here we have a scorched city biome and a midnight biome. Think you know? Yes! It is a SNOW planet!

 

I don't get what's supposed to be bad about that screenshot, aside from the background, which again I hope they'll sort that out in time.

 

It's not about how it looks, it's about where it is. It's on a planet where neither of these belong, that's what is the problem there.

 

A scorched city, on a snow planet, right next to a midnight biome, doesnt raise any flags? Chucklefish said they picked what biomes should be mixed based off what "made sense", when this clearly doesn't make any sense.

Oh yeah, and this little gem.

This is on a volcanic planet. Need I tell you why this is messed up?

 

You guys seriously don't think the problem is broadly categorizing every single planet? If the game didn't "declare" it to be a "volcanic planet" would it still seem wrong?

As I already said:

It's not a "volcanic planet." It's a planet that has some volcanoes- maybe a lot of volcanoes! Still absolutely no reason it can't have ice elsewhere.

 

Except you're talking about changes they're unlikely to actually make. Just because you come up with a solution, doesn't mean it will actually be implemented this way. Even then...

Yes. If you have a city fried by its sun right next to an iceberg, it's just silly.

Additionally, broad planet categories allow you to plan for an environment you want to see in your settlement. I already spoke of this too.

 

I think they mentioned in the stream the other day they are working on making biome distribution more realistic.

 

There is no transitioning to make the mixed biomes feel fitting. If they get something to smooth out the transition, then great, but till that time, I will hate its guts and mod it away.

 

Honestly truthfully speaking, I thought it was fine as it was. A planet maybe have like 3 biomes max. If I see bones and oil then I know for a fact for the next few hundreds of steps I can collect bones for white dye and have more than enough chances to get enough oil for a lantern on a stick. If a forest planet have those vine trees then I know it would be a good spot to collect color dyes. You pretty much know what you were getting if you had explored enough, in a way exploring was it own reward as you obtain knowledge. Depending on how random they have it now it might take a full tank of fuel just to find a true desert planet. I really hope it just that they haven't fix it yet and literally any planet can have any biome at the given moment as these screenshots are scaring me. You may as well not have the planet typing if it doesn't relate at all to the planet.

 

Forest can have:
"secondaryRegions" : ["alien", "barren", "garden", "jungle", "scorchedcity", "volcanic"],

Desert can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "alien", "barren", "forest", "garden", "midnight", "savannah", "scorchedcity" ],

Savannah can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "alien", "barren", "desert", "forest", "garden", "midnight" ],

Snow can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "barren", "forest", "garden", "midnight", "scorchedcity", "tundra" ],

Jungle can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "alien", "barren", "garden", "forest", "scorchedcity", "volcanic" ],

Alien can have:
"secondaryRegions" : ["barren", "desert", "forest", "garden", "jungle", "midnight", "savannah", "scorchedcity", "snow", "tundra", "volcanic"],

Tundra can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "barren", "snow", "midnight", "scorchedcity" ],

Midnight can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "alien", "barren", "desert", "forest", "garden", "jungle", "savannah", "scorchedcity", "snow", "tundra", "volcanic" ],

Volcanic can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "alien", "barren", "desert", "forest", "midnight", "scorchedcity" ],

Scorched City can have:
"secondaryRegions" : [ "alien", "barren", "desert", "forest", "garden", "jungle", "midnight", "savannah", "scorchedcity", "snow", "tundra", "volcanic" ],

Any biome not mentioned can only have itself.

 

well... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070517-hot-planet.html

 

"conditions that can only be replicated on Earth in laboratories."

If we can walk around on the planet, then it does not meet such conditions.

 

Alien isn't really alien if it is the norm right? I think they should limit it some more or the fact that trees can have eyeballs will lose it charm pretty quickly.

 

Um, almost all of these regions can be found on one planet already.... This one. So, what is the problem again?

 

I don't think Midnight biomes should be on anything BUT Midnight planets. Without the dark and obscuring fog/dust, the Midnight landscape just doesn't work. The atmosphere is ruined.

That said, in the stream just a few days back they said they're still polishing the distribution of biomes, and if memory serves they mentioned ice + volcano as a combination we SHOULDN'T be seeing come 1.0. So we'll see.

 

I agree with you OP. I'm glad that CF is doing the internal work to allow more diversity on planets, but a lot of what's going on irks me. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if:

1) The navigator didn't state that the entire planet is one way like Lazer said.
2) There were better transitions between the biomes like lazarus said, and
3) The background parallax actually changed to reflect what's going on in the foreground.

If planets are going to have several biomes now, the planet images/masks should also reflect this. Have patches of green for forests, patches of beige for deserts, patches of white for snow, etc. Biomes that are placed next to each other should be similar. Having a savanna next to a desert or a forest next to a garden is believable, but no scorched cities next to frozen biomes, please for the love of Kluex!

Looking at that bit lazarus pasted from the terrestrial worlds config, there's a handful of things that bother me. Why are barren biomes being added to the mix? They have absolutely nothing in them. No flora, no fauna, no caves, no ores, no chests, nothing. That would only make planets even more boring. And why is scorched city listed in practically every single planet type? It's supposed to be a late-game biome and its presence doesn't even make sense for the majority of planet types. Also, the midnight biome should not be on any other planet besides midnight planets. Those shadow figures stick out like sore thumbs otherwise. Same goes for alien biomes. They should strictly be limited to alien planets because they're no longer special when they appear on 60-70 percent of the planets you visit.

Please CF, don't mess this up, just take your time.