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0011290Dwarf FortressWorld Generation -- Parameterspublic2020-02-02 08:282020-02-04 18:13
Talvieno 
Toady One 
normaltweakalways
resolvedfixed 
PCWindows10
0.47.01 
0.47.02 
0011290: Medium World Size with Very High Number of Civilizations impossible to gen
The default "Create New World!" world parameters are a little messed up. If you set the "World Size" to "Medium" and "Number of Civilizations" to "Very High", the world will fail to successfully gen, placing only 70 to 120 of the desired civilizations. I believe this issue is completely unintentional and due to some improperly assigned values.
Create a new "medium" world in a vanilla copy of DF with civilizations set to "very high".
The way Create New World! works is by using a set of pre-defined values for each world size. This applies something like 2,4,6,8,10 to "very low" to "very high" number of civilizations, depending on what is chosen, and applies to most settings - number of sites, number of beasts, etc.
- Pocket world with high civs tries to place 10 civilizations (works)
- Smaller world with high civs tries to place 12 civilizations (works)
- Small world with high civs tries to place 20 civilizations (works)
- Medium world with high civs tries to place 160 civilizations (doesn't work)
- Large world with high civs tries to place 160 civilizations (works)

Notice that these numbers (10,12,20,160,160) don't ramp up smoothly, and 160 is duplicated. I'm guessing Medium's 160 is an accident.

I've done [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=119675.msg3826711#msg3826711|previous [^] research]] on worldsizes, based on Toady's 2x2x3 meter tilesize (which he gave out a good while back, relative to minecarts).

Pocket worlds: 263 square miles, or 1 civ per 26 square miles on high civ
Smaller worlds: 992 square miles, or 1 civ per 83 square miles
Small worlds: 3846 square miles, or 1 civ per 1292 square miles
Medium worlds: 14685 square miles, or 1 civ per 92 square miles (see the jump?)
Large worlds: 60133 square miles, or 1 civ per 376 square miles

Clearly, something's up with medium worlds.

Here's the full Very Low - Very High gen list:
Pocket: 3,4,5,7,10
Smaller: 3,4,5,8,12
Small: 5,7,10,15,20
Medium: 10,20,40,80,160
Large: 10,20,40,80,160

With all this in mind, I'd like to suggest a change. Change the above to:

Pocket: 3,4,5,7,10 (no change)
Smaller: 4,6,9,13,20
Small: 6,9,14,24,40
Medium: 8,13,24,44,80
Large: 10,20,40,80,160 (no change)

All of these should still gen without more than a few rejects, and the worlds should feel a lot more evenly populated, leading to a more reliable, predictable vanilla DF experience for newer players toying with worldgen.
No tags attached.
Issue History
2020-02-02 08:28TalvienoNew Issue
2020-02-04 18:13Toady OneNote Added: 0039883
2020-02-04 18:13Toady OneStatusnew => resolved
2020-02-04 18:13Toady OneFixed in Version => Next Version
2020-02-04 18:13Toady OneResolutionopen => fixed
2020-02-04 18:13Toady OneAssigned To => Toady One

Notes
(0039883)
Toady One   
2020-02-04 18:13   
Yeah, those numbers look much better. Thanks!