Recent Map Generation is...

[Cynical Cynicist]

...is sort of wacky and just removes some immersion from the game. I've noticed a trend where on completely default worlds I'll keep generating a bunch of scattered, large blocky islands connected by tiny bridges or around very long bends. The biomes seem to be intermixed more, which also makes the map a mess and less distinguished. The biggest offender however is the frequency of completely straight sides of the islands. It's almost as if the world generation involves pasting a bunch of random circles, then a bunch of squares that overlap with them. It's hideous.

[TeoSS69]

The biggest offender however is the frequency of completely straight sides of the islands. It's almost as if the world generation involves pasting a bunch of random circles, then a bunch of squares that overlap with them. It's hideous.

The island is made of connected squares, you can distinguish them with the pitchfork. It that bother you, play another game because that ain't gonna change.

[SamLogan]

...is sort of wacky and just removes some immersion from the game. I've noticed a trend where on completely default worlds I'll keep generating a bunch of scattered, large blocky islands connected by tiny bridges or around very long bends. The biomes seem to be intermixed more, which also makes the map a mess and less distinguished. The biggest offender however is the frequency of completely straight sides of the islands. It's almost as if the world generation involves pasting a bunch of random circles, then a bunch of squares that overlap with them. It's hideous.

 

Are you playing with the last version of the game, the island map is pretty old.

[Cynical Cynicist]

The island is made of connected squares, you can distinguish them with the pitchfork. It that bother you, play another game because that ain't gonna change.

 

Yes, I know. It's just that there are some islands that resemble more organic shapes and environments, while others are quite literally huge squares that resemble artificial land and don't fit in.

 

And yes, I'm playing with "Six Feet Under" as the latest update.

[The_Cookiebeast]

...is sort of wacky and just removes some immersion from the game. I've noticed a trend where on completely default worlds I'll keep generating a bunch of scattered, large blocky islands connected by tiny bridges or around very long bends. The biomes seem to be intermixed more, which also makes the map a mess and less distinguished. The biggest offender however is the frequency of completely straight sides of the islands. It's almost as if the world generation involves pasting a bunch of random circles, then a bunch of squares that overlap with them. It's hideous.

Yeah i have noticed this, like the island is made of squares sure, but at the moment a lot of the islands just seem to be too square-like in shape. It is really weird, like it doesn't really affect me all that much but sometimes it does make me think that the particular part of the island will keep going because it isn't thinning out and then BAM, flat edge.

[Blucher]

I've noticed some flatter edges but it hasn't bothered me.  On the other hand, I'm really loving the new map generation overall.  Above and below ground.  So much better than they were.

[TeoSS69]

Yes, I know. It's just that there are some islands that resemble more organic shapes and environments, while others are quite literally huge squares that resemble artificial land and don't fit in.

 

And yes, I'm playing with "Six Feet Under" as the latest update.

You mean like these?

They don't really bother me either...

[Cynical Cynicist]

You mean like these?

 

Those are OK...I'm talking about instances where the squares are lined along the grid, so instead of just resembling a tilted square, it literally is a perfectly-shaped square.

[Cynical Cynicist]

Are the developers trying to make the default worlds more "exciting"? Because every world I generate has around 4 Walrus Camps, one of which is always in proximity of a few Tallbird nests, with very divided up sections and branching. In addition to a lot of killer bee hives and clusters of ponds. I really miss the world generation before the "Six Feet Under" update.

[Spoony]

The preset lights out doesn't seem to have teleportato either or the things. Can't find gears other than in ruins.

[Cynical Cynicist]

The preset lights out doesn't seem to have teleportato either or the things. Can't find gears other than in ruins.

 

They're assuming you won't survive that long.

 

Also: SERIOUSLY KLEI REVERT WHATEVER MAP GENERATION CHANGE YOU MADE IN THE LATEST UPDATE, I'VE GENERATED TONS OF THEM RECENTLY AND HAVE NOTICED RECURRING FEATURES (e.g. TEDIOUS TRAVEL, SPIKY ISLANDS, TONS OF WALRUS CAMPS, TONS OF TALL-BIRD NESTS AROUND THE WALRUS CAMPS, THE ENTIRE MAP LOOKING LIKE A LESSER VERSION OF A MOSAIC BIOME, ETC.) I needed to let that out, sorry.

[Hugeisno1]

Eyup they messed up something in the map generation. The squares are quite off putting and looks out of place in the world. Perhaps they were trying to reimplant some code that was used previously but they removed?

[Blucher]

Maybe the slightly more blocky coasts are a legit if aesthetic complaint, but the other changes to map generation are very much to the better in my opinion.

 

I'm the kind of person who generates multiple worlds until I find one I like before settling in and actually playing a game.  Before the changes, I'd discard world after world before finding one I liked.  With the new changes nearly every world I generate looks good, and I've generated quite a few right after the patch just to see what the changes would be like.

 

Here's my current game world and it's great I think (I have nearly all of it explored now).

[TeoSS69]

I started a new world this morning and i'm pretty content with it.

[Neosaurus]

I started a new world this morning and i'm pretty content with it.

They is good!

[Cynical Cynicist]

From what I can tell from those pictures you guys got incredibly lucky. On many of the worlds I generated, there would be a large "U" shaped island with many branches, necessary resources on the very ends of each making it a huuuuuuge pain in the rump to get everything, much less decide where to place my base. Plus mob clusterfests. Plus big blocky, awkward, square islands.

[The Letter W]

Can you take a picture of what you mean? I'm afraid I don't quite follow.

[Cynical Cynicist]

 
These don't look like a hassle to travel through and don't look like a complete mess.
 

Yep...no worries here...
 

 
That's great, because I hate it when all cave entrances aren't always right next to each other.
 

 
...Really? Just, really?
 

 
...I hope this helps illustrate my concern, W. I can supply even more samples if anyone wishes.
 
Address this problem while you can, Klei (which should be easy, because it was fine before the latest update).

[lierofreak]

As someone who has generated a lot of huge maps and revealed them, trying to find patterns of map generation, those don't look that odd to me (I'm still on A Moderately Friendly Update).

 

The tallbird nests and walrus camps for example, that's what I (and I think others too) call a continent. It consists of some grassland, some savannah and some rockyland biomes and there are 3 walrus camps somewhere within those biomes, often times pretty close to the road. In those rockylands, you will quite often find a few tallbird nests - I once had a patch of rockyland a little bigger than the one in your second screenshot with 7 tallbird nests and 2 walrus camps in it. The cluttering of killer bee hives in map generation is generally ridiculous IMO, you got a pretty huge example there though. And about the cave entrances: There's always two of them within the mosaic biome (most often really close to each other), one within a forest that is close to a lot of marshland and one within a forest close to a pig village (the one with the pig king). In your example screenshot, there's an "invisible border" between the two cave entrances that are really close to each other, ranging from coast to coast. To its upper side there's the mosaic continent, to its lower side there's the continent with lots of marshlands and a little forest. You just so happened to have your map be generated with these two continents sharing a border and the cave entrances being close to that border.

 

Try using "land branch: most" in map generation, I often do that and it will more times than not give you a more compact map with the different biomes/continents closer to each other.

 

As I said, I haven't even tried the new update yet, so I've no idea what they actually changed in map generation. But had any of those maps been generated when I was experimenting with map generation, I would in no way have considered it unusual.

[The Letter W]

Oh good lord, I can see why you're upset! I think I got a map like that once and they are a hassle to deal with. 

[Crown_king]

Square

[goldfish911]

Can someone see what happens with Land Branch disabled? I considered turning it off because the trek around the continent just to get to the other side which is in plain sight is ridiculous. Of course, there always is "the  lazy explorer". But it comes too late to be useful.

[Blucher]

Can someone see what happens with Land Branch disabled? I considered turning it off because the trek around the continent just to get to the other side which is in plain sight is ridiculous. Of course, there always is "the  lazy explorer". But it comes too late to be useful.

 

Land Branch: most setting creates "starfish" shaped worlds with a central(ish) hub and peninsulas jutting out.

 

Land Branch: never creates "salamander" shaped worlds, with each region coming one after the other.

 

Land Loop determines how curved everything is -- so the starfish arms would be curly, or the salamander would curl all the way around to almost (but not quite) form a ring shaped world.

[aredshroom]

Land Branch: most setting creates "starfish" shaped worlds with a central(ish) hub and peninsulas jutting out.

 

Land Branch: never creates "salamander" shaped worlds, with each region coming one after the other.

 

Land Loop determines how curved everything is -- so the starfish arms would be curly, or the salamander would curl all the way around to almost (but not quite) form a ring shaped world.

Would Land Branch most and Land Loop most generate a "most compact" world then? I used to do that but feeling not much change, went back to default worlds.

[Cynical Cynicist]

As I said, I haven't even tried the new update yet, so I've no idea what they actually changed in map generation. But had any of those maps been generated when I was experimenting with map generation, I would in no way have considered it unusual.

 

As I've mentioned earlier, I've also generated my fair share of maps and have observed them both before and after the most recent update. In fact, nowadays instead of actually starving I spend most of my time trying to find a half-decent world to inhabit. What I would like is for adjustment of land branching and land loop to be unnecessary, because setting them higher puts the world at a "normal" standard, as opposed to reaching its true extremities; the world generation should already meet these standards by default. I've also never seen recurrent clusters of Walrus Camps and Tallbird Eggs until after this update (and I've generated a LOT of maps). Hell, there are even random triangular biomes at the end of certain paths, such as savannah triangles in the middle of a forest next to a pig village, etc. All in all though I believe this change was unnecessary and does not improve anything - best just to revert it until there is something objectively better about it.