FT3: bringing most land below 2,000' elevation/altitude
Vir
Surveyor
Hello and thank you for entertaining my question. I can imagine that I am missing something obvious in my searches.
On my map, I stared with earthlike altitude extremes in the settings. Most of my altitude map is green, but unlike Earth these lowlands are from 0 to 4k'. The least highland can still get up to 9k', and is not uncommon. The link below shows a sort of baseline for what I am aiming for. My world and its climates would make a lot more sense to me if elevation were distributed something more like it is on Earth, where 2k' is a highland and 6k' is already unusual apart from high peaks.
http://my.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter/LDEO/Geo201maps.htm
http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=6416&page=1#Item_3
I see this method with which I could go piece by piece around the world and give it a range? Are there other good ways to get earthlike heights distribution onto my current map and altitude scale? If I start over, should I just start with a low extreme so most of the land ends up like on the Earth histogram linked above, and then paint the actual mountains everywhere?
On my map, I stared with earthlike altitude extremes in the settings. Most of my altitude map is green, but unlike Earth these lowlands are from 0 to 4k'. The least highland can still get up to 9k', and is not uncommon. The link below shows a sort of baseline for what I am aiming for. My world and its climates would make a lot more sense to me if elevation were distributed something more like it is on Earth, where 2k' is a highland and 6k' is already unusual apart from high peaks.
http://my.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter/LDEO/Geo201maps.htm
http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=6416&page=1#Item_3
I see this method with which I could go piece by piece around the world and give it a range? Are there other good ways to get earthlike heights distribution onto my current map and altitude scale? If I start over, should I just start with a low extreme so most of the land ends up like on the Earth histogram linked above, and then paint the actual mountains everywhere?
Comments
I just tried it again, and it kept those height/depth settings through several worlds. Then I exited the software.
Hope that helps.
Anyways, those are a few methods I've experimented with. I'm assuming that you know how to do all this stuff. If not, just ask.
The attached graph shows what FT does to a world's computed altitudes with continental shelf values turned off (green) and on (orange). Note that the original distribution of values out of the fractal function is not as uniform as shown on the chart, so this chart does not represent exactly what you get. It would be nice if FT has a histogram window to show the final computed distribution of altitudes on a world.
If you have a world that you're invested some time in editing and you would like to adjust the exponent, the following might work for adjusting an existing world:
0) make a backup of your current .ftw file.
1) In FT, use Map>>World Settings to bring up the World Settings property sheet. Click the Selection tab to show the selection page. Click the … button and select a temporary directory to work with (it you installed to the default location and aren't running as Administrator, you'll be unable to write to the protected installation directory). Click the Save button, give the file a name, and click OK. You should now have a file with that name and a .srf extension in your specified directory.
2) Exit FT.
3) Navigate to the specified directory and edit the .srf file with something like Notepad. Locate the line starting with "Misc" and change the first two numbers to 3.0 and 0.4 (leave the rest of the numbers on the line alone). Save the file.
4) Start FT again, select your item on the Selection tab of the World Settings property page, click Load to load the settings, and then click Apply. Your world should now have new information about the shape of the landforms. You'll need to reset any continental shelf value that you might have changed.
5) Save your file.
The attached image shows the result of the technique above (before and after). The big star is obvious editing data that was preserved across the operation. Note, however, that editing across continental shelves may change appearance. Also note that the coastline changed shape a bit because coastal areas were flooded. If you don't want the coastlines to change shape, you will need to set your continental shelf altitude to zero, which causes the loss of continental shelves worldwide.
Would this adjustment continue to work for all new worlds as well?
(Sorry Vir - I was silently reading along, but I just needed to know the answer to this question)
Since I use FT3 for my Traveller site, I use it for water, temperate, and waterless worlds. I keep a spreadsheet of values from the World Settings tab in case I want to try more with the basic world.
I've been looking for an easy way of making the lowlands flatter for aaaaages!