With terrain generation done, along with the segregation of land
and water, we can move on to more complex matters. Here’s where
things become more subjective and creative. What terrain types
are necessary? How do we handle climate? I decided to start with
basic terrain types contingent on elevation. At the lowest level
is water, which isn’t really a “terrain,” but it’s there for the
sake of making the terrain map look sensible. Who wants to look
at a black ocean, seriously? Yes, it really is that simple a
decision. The various terrain types are based strictly on
elevation. Further nuances are defined later by climate and
biomes. The elevation scale is in shades of gray, from 0 to 255,
with 0 as water. The rest are: - Wetlands (shades 1-5) -
Floodplains (6-25) - Plains (26-75) - Foothills (76-125) -
Highlands (126-170) - Mountains (171-255) I’ll admit those
numbers are rather arbitrary, but they result in a reasonable
terrain distribution. Here’s an example: As you can see, the
whole gamut of terrains is cove