Is there a way to get a specific seed (for example, a lava world where the land is spread out, or a world with sensible-sized oceans) Do certain numbers/ number combinations/ digit totals (sum of all digits) give a specific output, or it is just random?
it wouldn't be random because that would ruin the point of having a seed. it would be great if the game had a planet editor
The seed gives you a identical planet everytime for the same seed used but the numbers do not relate to anything. You cannot second guess it try and create a planet with more X than Y
I know that. I wish there was a "choose your own seed" option, to make a great planet (in terms of how it generated)
I just tend to randomly play. Just keep hitting the planet generator until it generates two Earth's. Play a game on them, if you like the seed, load up the planet editor and save it.
There will never be custom seeds - that just isn't how math works. At best you might get a mod at some point that makes planets using known good values. There was some talk of using PA stats auto 1v1 for that eventually.
The same Template, seed # and radius will always generate the same topology. So pick a planet type, find a size you like, then try seeds until you find an 1 with acceptable continents then adjust water height etc until you are happyish.
A certain seed will generate unpredictable results; that means that there is no way of knowing what type of features a seed will generate based on the input value alone. You can't think up some terrain formation and be able to find a matching seed based on that. If a given seed's value could be used to determine the features of the generated terrain in some non-random way, the amount of variation in those features wouldn't be as great. There is also no 'good' way of doing this, because it would mean that whatever features depended on the seed would have to be expressed in a scalar function, limiting the number of non-random features or combinations of features you could influence through the seed value. It doesn't make sense for the seed used in random generation to be used as the same variable as something non-random. You want lots of small lakes instead of one big one or vice versa? Maybe there should be some variables to influence simplex size or some other aspect of the topology. You want to keep a certain topology but with different brush placement or number of certain types of brushes? Best done with some other variables, maybe even use a different seed to define the generation of different random features. tl;dr Variables that are meant to generate random data should stay that way, don't make one variable influence multiple unrelated features. What you really want is more variables.
Later on we might get a mod/support in some way to allow direct modifying of planets (paint brush style etc.) The way it works now is the only thing that is passed to the clients is the planet data that you see in the editor, which is then used by the clients to generate the worlds locally. In order to do direct editing, it would require a lot more work and transfer of specific data. It has been requested enough where I'm sure someone, be it Uber or modder will do this eventually, but until then, cycling through random seeds until you get one you like is the best you can do. There are a truly ridiculous number of possibilities so I'm sure you'll find something. If you are curious how random seeds are used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_seed
I was about to explain seeds myself. You can load variables to control what generates, but if you do that and you get a result you don't like, that is it. You must change something you don't want to change. So the seed, instead of changing what you want set a certain way, just re-rolls the dice by bending locational spawning of what the planet generator was told to spawn, giving you thousands of different dice rolls of a planet with specific settings. In other words, a planet with 50 water 25 temperature 40 biome scale and 45 height, can only generate one way without having to lessen the water. Even then, you can only do that 10 times before it is DURASTICALLY different (water/land/hybrid vs desert/tropical). Seeds let you generate that specific set of features, and if it sucks you regenerate them with a different roll of the dice to get the exact planet details in a configuration that doesn't suck. The randomness sucks, but ignore it and just use seed 1 and generate planet features until you find one you like. If that doesn't work, then do as I said, keep the map features and just change the seed, seed 2, seed 3, seed 4... If you want controllable features, then you are asking for more sliders for more options. That would be nice, but the seed is important to keep so THOSE options can even still generate different results in case the default generation sucks. Manual map making by players, might not be ready by release, but if it isn't by release then immediately after release a modder will make it, promise.
Perhaps their should be a mod to register planets to a shared repository with some tags for major features.
