With the upcoming new versions we might see those local universes and there are some promises to allow user-controlled creation of planets + biomes etc. I have used the world editor earlier and have found it very professional and interesting but I doubt that the majority of Boundless players will want to use such a complex tool - not integrated into game play - to build their universes/planets etc.
But we have already - ah yes, better say: almost everything - the tools and facilities at hand: We start on a planet, gather some blocks and then we “use blocks” to create buildings, streets, places and TOOLS like our beloved workbenches, extractors … centraforge engines. So it is a small step to invent a new engine: The “Planet Modelling Engine”.
With it you can create a (small) modell of a planet, assign biomes on a “virtual map” area, change/adapt biome settings and finally LET the engine create the neccessary config files for the planet creation process. Even a modification of such a config may be thinkable - if it will be allowed to “change” planet structures on the fly?
I have already some idea how that engine looks alike: as with the existing engines we craft some new type “engine blocks” and arrange them in a square pattern on the floor inside of our property. A minimum square might be 2*2 but I could imagine a larger area like 16 * 16. This area will represent the planet map (which is also square afaik) and we can place two - for the time being - levels of NEW blocks on that table:
level 1: that underground below of the planet surface, allowing with these blocks to customize various kinds of resources, caves, mobs. A default layer may help to postpone any modelling here until we have decided about the surface/biomes…
level 2: At beginning this level defines the planet surface (water / lava …).
Using new “biome definition blocks” - where these are crafted/found is to be defined soon - to replace a water block with a specific biome block. A new (?) chisel may allow forming the coast line and/or lifting/lowering the biome level. Biome blocks of the same type with common borders will merge into one larger biome (at first with common settings).
When all biomes are assigned - and verified for proper consistency by the modelling engine - we can activate the crreation process which does its work for a new planet! The square size used on the engine table (22 …1616) would be expanded to the real planet map size for 3k…6k large planets.
This engine will NOT REPLACE the modelling editor which will allow much more detailed costumization and/or fine grained detailing, but it is a funny start for own planets without a steep learning curve.
Ah, for those new “Biome blocks”: The could just be copied from the current Sov planet biome varieties, or we get another engine (!!!) to model our own blocks … what can stop our imagination!
This is just the outline of that idea, perhaps others have seen similar facilities. I do see that this is “an integrated handling of the new possibilities in Boundless” and they provide a lot of fun. I have taken the first comments of @James that they will provide modelling functions to all of us as a start to show my vision how this could be achieved.
What do you think of it?