What does a stone's type have to do with where it spawns?

[Shadeslate 0]

Or does it at all?

[stringburka 72]

It's bound to biome, but I don't know if there's a strict biome = rock type, or just that whenever a new biome is spawned it sets a random rock type.

[N0body 4]

There are no 'biomes' in the world, rather the rock layers are completely random. The trees and vegitation vary the closer or further away you are from the 'equator'.

[stringburka 72]

There are no 'biomes' in the world, rather the rock layers are completely random. The trees and vegitation vary the closer or further away you are from the 'equator'.

Are you sure? I thought that technically the biomes where still used, just that they don't spawn at random and that many biomes only have slight differences between them. The F3 display shows biome names that seem to match the general environment, and when it changes from, for example, forest to plains the rock usually also change. Sometimes it changes within a forest, and I assumed this was due to having several biomes named "forest" clumped together.

[renadi 258]

The biome only affects the surface, rock types are pretty much random for each horizontal section, but tend to follow some patterns vertically.

[Shadeslate 0]

There are no 'biomes' in the world, rather the rock layers are completely random. The trees and vegitation vary the closer or further away you are from the 'equator'.

yes there are.

[Shadeslate 0]

The biome only affects the surface, rock types are pretty much random for each horizontal section, but tend to follow some patterns vertically.

alrigh thanks

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

I have been investigating this. Not by watching the code, mind you, but by just generating worlds and exploring with the F3 UI open. What i can freely say is that the vanilla concept of "biome" (world generation wise) has NOTHING to do with TFC concept of "biome". TFC's world generation is much more complex and leads to more sensical results (no deserts next to taigas), as you probably have noticed. There isn't a direct link between biomes and rock layers, i can asure you. As renadi said, it's random horizontally but tends to follow paterns vertically.

I could write a detailed list of how i suppose world generation works in TFC, but i'm afraid i could be right in something and therefore i would be posting some information the dev's team won't like me to : so yeah...

[ShawnB 8]

The simple way of putting it is that TFC calculates a biome based on the region's rainfall and temperature.

[Just_Another_Guy_:) 1,066]

The simple way of putting it is that TFC calculates a biome based on the region's rainfall and temperature.

The evotranspiration rate (or however it's called) is used as well, isn't it?

[ShawnB 8]

The evotranspiration rate (or however it's called) is used as well, isn't it?

They all are. I'm not entirely sure of how it works though.

[renadi 258]

Which is just fine. lol

[Alestance 39]

If I recall correctly, when you start a new world, rock types are assigned to each of the (possibly) hundreds of TFC biomes, and those specific rock layer combinations will always be in that biome for that world.

Example: The three rock layers for the area you spawn in, which we'll say is Plains_5, are, from bottom to top, Basalt, Phyllite, and Chert respectively. EVERY Plains_5 biome in that world SHOULD have that exact same combination of rock types, but only in this specific world.

In another randomly generated world, Plains_5 could have a completely different three rock layers. It's all dependant on seed firstly, THEN biome type.

At least, that's how it was before, it could have been changed in my absence, of course.

[Kalix 9]

Another thing to quickly mention is that you can get the same exact stone in successive layers, for example I have phyllite between all of y=100 down to y=10 (Lava flood), whereas there is usually a split somewhere in between.

And either it's me or each stone layers has separate distribution, so you can get weird overlaps that vary heavily by location.

[HiddenSage 39]

If I recall correctly, when you start a new world, rock types are assigned to each of the (possibly) hundreds of TFC biomes, and those specific rock layer combinations will always be in that biome for that world.

Example: The three rock layers for the area you spawn in, which we'll say is Plains_5, are, from bottom to top, Basalt, Phyllite, and Chert respectively. EVERY Plains_5 biome in that world SHOULD have that exact same combination of rock types, but only in this specific world.

In another randomly generated world, Plains_5 could have a completely different three rock layers. It's all dependant on seed firstly, THEN biome type.

At least, that's how it was before, it could have been changed in my absence, of course.

It did change. Build 49 did away with the traditional notion of biomes altogether. The "biomes" we have now are generated by the system compiling three rock layers, three tree types (that is, what trees will be pre-generated there), a variable for elevation, a variable for rainfall, and a variable for the evt (evapotranspiration) rate. Temperature is then determined in an area based on what the z coordinate is (zero is warmest. The farther out you go, the colder it gets, until +/- 20k, at which point you've reached an endless taiga). The rivers are carved out afterward, again via random generation.

So, a "plains biome" is really just an area that had a low variable in elevation and rainfall, so that it's fairly flat and too dry for trees to grow (but not so dry as to stop the grass growing and make a desert). A forest has higher rainfall and prolific tree growth. And the rocks underneath don't correlate to the surface at all anymore, AFAIK.

^drawn from the change log archive.