I am developing my first island generator (in c#). I am using this algorithm as my basic idea : http://www.funstormgames.com/blog/2012/09/procedural-island-generation-for-ludum-dare-24/
Basically you loop around the tiles in a spiral shape, adding land based on chances - the more land the current tile is touching, the more chances of this tile becoming land. However, I don't know how to work with the chances - whatever I put I am never satisfied with my result.
If you havent worked using this algorithm, you can't really help me with the numbers, but a recomendation for a new approach would be great!
I am using a function to determine each tile - passing an argument called potentialChance. For the first "circle" or round around the starting island I put a 25 potential chance.
This potential chance was at first multiplied with the number of land tiles the current grid we are potentially changing into land is touching. So, if a grid has 3 surrounding tiles of land, its chance would be 75% (I generate a random number up to 100 and compare).
I was not satisfied with too many islands I got, and I was changing the potential chance while testing. So instead of multiplying the number of tiles with the potential chance - I tried a different approach.
I would have a quotient of ie 0.7, and for each surrounding land tile, I would multiply the quotient by ie 1.5, and then multiply that number with the potential chance. Still, I was not too satisfied.
I know my algorithm works properly (I have debugged and seen the results), but my numbers are not too good.
If anyone worked with this same logarithm, I would love to see the approach and numbers! Otherwise, would you suggest working on a new algorithm? I'm new in game development so...