I've noticed there's some stuff we used to have in the old maps that we don't seem to have now, or environmental controls we don't have, so I'm just gonna leave this suggestion here. With these kinds of options in the game, players' already extensive control of the default environments would be even more versatile, allowing for a wider array of environments to be created.
-Water in pre-V21 maps or environments could have a certain "roiling" effect to them, making them look as if waves were moving about in them. This is still evident in the brick based water we have now, but there's no option for it in the environmental options. Water lethality is another issue, as it is bound to the water type selected and it cannot be set to any selected water texture. Damage for lethal water is also fixed.
-Some maps pre-v21 had a "wind", a sort of force that shifted emitters in a certain direction depending on where the wind was headed. It'd be nice if we could have this back for map settings.
-Some pre-v21 maps also had a "default ground effect", for example, the "Grasslands" map had grass already on the ground even with no bricks to speak of. Others had dust effects (which combined with wind made for neat dust clouds!). Having this back would be pretty neat.
-Clouds are currently bound to certain skyboxes, which is kind of annoying as this can ruin or change ambiance. For instance, if I were to try and make a dark map that has rain, I'd have to use the default skybox with rain. However, while I could hide the skybox with a black color, I can't change the color of the clouds. Not only this, but you can't change cloud direction.
-Precipitation, like clouds, is also currently bound to a particular skybox and cannot be used without the effects of that certain skybox. It cannot have its color/size changed or have its direction modified.
-Map ground collision could be taken out of some maps entirely. Of course you'd need to have bricks already placed if you wanted to start building, but it'd still be a fairly cool environment option.
There's other minor stuff too. Changing skyboxes tends to not change "advanced" skybox options, leaving weird behavior when a player wants to start customizing. Having some way of controlling this would be helpful. Direct number inputs for values like sun azimuth and such could also be useful.
Extensive environmental control could allow for much better or more interesting player environments. While what we have is cool now, I think it'd be even cooler if we could crank things up a notch, and be able to create a wider array of scenes to build in. Maybe with new environmental features, it'd even be possible to have map "events", such as intermittent storms, winds, or other stuff.
Thanks.
Poll