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TimHaus

Erosion / landscape decay

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When cities such as Troy is leaved alone, when a deed is disbanded, houses start to decay and finish to dispear. I suggest to add a mecanism that will lightly change landscape to return it to natural. The mecanism will continue the decaying process on the terraforming work wich was done to plan buildings.
I suggest to make the same way cave-in occurs: rarely, randomly. Maybe best way is to sometimes smooth a tile with its adjacents. Sometime could be timer or some trigger: tree groth / death. But dunes also change et n'ont pas d'arbres...

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There's already been a couple suggestions along this line, and I've outlined my objections in a couple of those. -1

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On 10/21/2021 at 2:06 AM, DaletheGood said:

There's already been a couple suggestions along this line, and I've outlined my objections in a couple of those. -1

 

Yes but most objections are to elements that are either addressed in the suggestions, or straw men.  

 

Most objections fall into these broad types;

  • Don't be lazy, if anyone is put off by big steep blocky slopes, let them use dig/drop/level to change them the hard way.  The problems with this objection are;
    • Newbies cannot do this.  The "hard way" is actually no way as working those slopes is skill-gated (or attribute gated).
    • Server populations are greatly reduced, meaning there is a LOT of heavily terraformed  landscape ("mine-crafted" in appearance 😄)  that is completely abandoned.  Where hundreds worked at terraforming for their presence, there are now dozens to re-terraform for the absence.
    • It is hard for the inexperienced to tell the difference between a long abandoned deed area and a newly prepared area - so instead of going to work on a location that they like, there is an impetus to just move on, leaving the abandoned area once again abandoned.
  • All of my hard work will be undone.
    • No, it won't.  With a mechanism that is slow and limited both in scope and extent, it will take a very long time to do more than take off the blocky sharp edges.
    • An angle of repose mechanic, applied based on tile type AND prevented by presence/proximity of infrastructure would ensure that landscape "settling" would occur ONLY in long abandoned areas ONLY after everything else has rotted away ONLY to limited extent ONLY on dirt or sand based tiles ONLY above water level.  There will be no mountains sliding into the seas and no lakes silting up.
    • Somewhere around here, I worked an example of a 1600 slope cliff and it's final shape - IF it was grass with NO infrastructure and even then only after many many iterations of an erosion mechanic (which I would see as maybe 1 tick per month or even longer).  It would still flat-top plateau but with top and bottom edges that are a BIT softened.  Others may be pushing for something more than this, I must admit, but my own view is that it should look abandoned, not virgin.
  • All landscaping in Wurm should be permanent.  
    • This already doesn't happen.  What is DEEDED is protected, and would remain so.  What is off-deed and not part of a highway or heritage infrastructure is always "fair game".

 

EDIT:  Regardless of this - I don't think it should be a high priority.  There are not enough developers, and there are genuine problematic issues that should take precedence.  This to me is "would be nice".

Edited by TheTrickster
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51 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:
  • An angle of repose mechanic, applied based on tile type AND prevented by presence/proximity of infrastructure would ensure that landscape "settling" would occur ONLY in long abandoned areas ONLY after everything else has rotted away ONLY to limited extent ONLY on dirt or sand based tiles ONLY above water level.  There will be no mountains sliding into the seas and no lakes silting up.
  • Somewhere around here, I worked an example of a 1600 slope cliff and it's final shape - IF it was grass with NO infrastructure and even then only after many many iterations of an erosion mechanic (which I would see as maybe 1 tick per month or even longer).  It would still flat-top plateau but with top and bottom edges that are a BIT softened.  Others may be pushing for something more than this, I must admit, but my own view is that it should look abandoned, not virgin.

This is a compelling argument for it, but I would not be in favor of anything faster or less restrictive. I'd also want it to apply ONLY to those slopes that are over 40. Any less than that and any noob that has done even a minimal amount of terraforming would be able to do it themselves.

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27 minutes ago, DaletheGood said:

This is a compelling argument for it, but I would not be in favor of anything faster or less restrictive. I'd also want it to apply ONLY to those slopes that are over 40. Any less than that and any noob that has done even a minimal amount of terraforming would be able to do it themselves.

I think when I worked on this concept, I had 40 as the minimum slope, and even then only for sand, above the water line.    For bare dirt it was something like 70 or more.  Grass would be a couple of hundred (and therefore also steppe, and maybe tundra but that could be steeper again). Rock and clay not at all.  I didn't think about marsh (Wurm marsh already defies logic and physics) but maybe somewhere a but less than grass while still well above sand.  ANY infrastructure would rule it out altogether - even a fence or lamp-post.  From memory it wasn't just about the slope, either, but about the CHANGE in slope.   The effect would be like the top edge of a cliff rounding off a bit and the "lost" material would be scree at the bottom.

 

 

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