I had a walk at the bank of river close to the forest and thought… It would be awesome to have land relief in TomeNet! We already got a lot of land types (from grass to lava), so we could make game even more interesting!
How it could be designed:
Each tile got two new relative parameters – elevation and angle. Why relative? Cause it has to be different from other tiles.
Elevation (“metres above sea level”) could be from -10000 to +10000. -10000 its the deepest dungeons, +10000 highest mountains.
Angle (grade) – could be from -90 to +90 degrees. It show how steep gradient of the land is.
For example:
We are at wilderness (#5). All this territory has Elevation 71 (meter) and Angle 0 (degree).
At the spot #1 was generated a hill. It has 4 tiers of slopes. Highest point of the hill (#1) is main parameter of this hill. Other parameters of hill depend on this parameter. So its just 1 point, 1 stroke in database. Other points (#2,3,4) is calcalated from point #1.
In some areas its constant (Bree, wilderness, other cities), in dungeons its randomly generated.
How player could see relief:
Most highest points could be darker, lowest lighter. We could use several different symbols “^” (add more to font file).
How relief affects players:
1) Speed of movement. Its slower to climb to more high point. Its faster to go down. Climbing skill makes it better (now its quite useless?)
2) Effectiveness of attack and defence. If you are attacked by monster which staying upper then you – you got debuff to your defence. If you attack while staying higher – you got bonus to attack. Again climbing skill could give affect this.
3) some races has bonus in some elevation conditions. For example: Dwarfs got buff at -2000 elevation, hobbit has bonus at 0 — -500; Draconian like high places (elevation 1000+) & etc. Another idea about terrain types influence. For example, Ent or Elves could feel better at forest tiles, Dwarf got bonus near rock and stones.