FYI: This post contains a picture that represents my current progress on the the simulator.
Well... I'm not sure what 'these' you're exactly referring to but nothing has changed along those lines since you were last around.
I'm referring to the storms that I used to sometimes see over my land.
What would be the easiest and hardest part to simulate?
Easiest : Temperature
Medium: Plate Tectonics
Hardest: Clouds and water currents .
I wonder if we need Plate Techonics since they take millions of years to shift and the gametime is about 55,000 years max.
I would assume an Ice Age in the beginning would be simulated and Global Warming in Modern?
The whole point of the simulator is to create a map that is realistic geographically and in terms of terrain type placement (as well as features and bonuses).
Notice the map below (archipelago snaky continents script) which has been through the first step of the simulator, showing the results (The first simulator step is to find global lanes of moving water which are responsible for creating oceanic gyres; i.e. large systems of currents). Pay particular attention to the locations of hills and mountains.
Color Key:
Dark Blue = major cold water lanes (moving in the direction of the rising sun... normally east)
Red = major warm water lanes (moving in the direction of the settings sun... normally west near the equator. Away from the equator depends on land layout.)
Medium blue = areas of ocean without major lanes (still has currents but the area of water is too small for major gyres).
Light blue = shore
Green = plains
Yellow = hills
Orange = mountains
Notice how there is no pattern to hills and mountains? Notice how they seem to be just randomly scattered? This is FAR from being realistic. Especially because they seem to congregate in the middle of the continents.
If this map were realistic, those mountains would be in recognizable ranges and those ranges would usually be somewhat close to shore lines, following a specific pattern or trend. So yes... to produce realistic maps we need to simulate plate tectonics or at least represent the end result. That is the only way to produce a geographically realistic map. This will happen just after map generation before the game begins. It is not meant to be watched. It is simply an "after" step to produce a better map.
Ice ages way eventually be simulated; but those would exist only when the tectonic simulator is completed since it is part of history and serves only one purpose in the game: to more realistically place lakes and resources.
Global warming will only be simulated in the same sense that Ice ages are simulated. They will not reflect a current trend and will only be part of the historic tectonic simulation in order to determine where to place things like oil and coal. I am not convinced that global warming is a significant trend in the present even though I don't dismiss it outright. Even if it is occurring, the evidence doesn't necessarily point to it being (entirely if at all) man made.
If people want to have a global warming option such as in situations where huge ecological disasters occur, that might be possible. Also, if a user chooses to have non-default temperature and humidity options, these will eventually be considered when the simulation is done.
FINALLY:
Simulating plate tectonics will be much more difficult than most of the climate simulation. Most of the climate simulation (except calculating base temperature accurately and possibly one or two other future snags) is pretty straightforward if one understands all the factors involved. Gyre (current) simulation is about the same difficulty as climate if not a bit easier.
Plate tectonics on the other hand starts out with the most difficult and abstract step: determining the location of plates. Frankly, if it wasn't for the existence of "areas" in the game, this would be far more difficult than it will be. Even so... the math and generalizations that need to be used are very heuristic as opposed to algorithmic. Coming up with an algorithm will indeed be difficult. But I don't believe it will be impossible.
Laskaris ??
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to see! Welcome back and good luck on your further progress! Looking forward to your results!
