Design of Settlement Generation

[sashman]

Background

Currently the settlement generation only consists of producing a point and a name to be rendered by the python scripts.

What needs to be done

First, a design is need to show how the algorithm would actually work. The settlement placement can be random, but once the settlement evolves it might disappear, or stay unchanged due to unfavorable conditions.

Once a settlement is bigger than an assigned size it might want to create routes ot other settlements. The intersections of the routes should be a favorable spot for new settlements.

How to do it

Come up with a list of favorable/unfavorable conditions. Classify them by which could be immediately implemented or not.

Come up with a set by step settlement evolution algorithm.

[sashman]

Important Considerations

The current settlement generation happens before KF contour maps are produces. This means only the raw heightmap data is available.

This gives two options:

• Leave the order as it is and generate the "geometry-less" metadata of the settlements (i.e.: number and type of houses, population and anything else, up to the data related with the physical locations of entities), store it in a file. Then after the contour generation use the data in the file (or just just kept in memory) to create actual locations for houses in the settlements.
• Shift all of settlement generation to after the KF contour format generation.

[sashman]

Starting Idea

The settlements can grow, first three stage for settlements:

• Single hut: Just a single house with one family. Only requiring very basic resources to survive.
• A hamlet of multiple huts: Multiple houses with families, possibly might include an inn. Requires: fresh water, hunting grounds, fertile ground, edible vegetation, for survival.
• A village: Larger than a hamlet, has to include a village hall and an inn, any surrounding raw material should be gathered via appropriate trades (i.e.: lumberjacks, stone quarry miners, fishermen, farmers, huntsmen, miners, etc.) and stored in village storage facilities. From there on the villages can set up trade with other villages. The surrounding resource must allow for a surplus.

[sashman]

House placement

The initial house can be place on the precise point of the settlement, From there on the houses can be treated as single point entities.

The conditions for placing a new house should be as follows:

• A house should be place as close as possible to the point of the sum of potentials of all other points, each residential houses should contribute medium potential, government houses like the village hall should contribute high and industrious buildings like mines and quarries should contribute low.
• A house should be placed far enough away from the individual houses' (personal/expansive space) negative area. The residential houses will not need much room to expand, while the hall and industries will.
• As a final pass the house placement should be adjusted with respect to terrain and should not overlap any cliffs, etc. The house should be shifted away from others to avoid collisions with expansion zones.