Read an article the other day about generating random land maps using cellular automata.
Cellular automata is a system in which there exists a grid of cells. The system steps through generations of the grid and for each subsequent generation the cells change state depending on the state of their neighbours in the previous generation.
A popular known example is Conways Game of Life.
http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/Anyway, by using a very simple set of rules you can create organic looking land/sea maps very easily. (i.e. looking like something out of Sim City or Red Alert etc...)
The rules are...
If a land cell is surrounded by at least 4 other land cells it remains land. Otherwise it changes to sea.
If a sea cell is surrounded by at least 5 land cells it changes to land. Otherwise it remains sea.
First create a random map of land/sea cells with equal probability...
and then iterate through the map 8 times making the conversion (I made the conversion on all cells simultaneously by creating a duplicate map and then copying it to the original in one go).
Et voila!
An orgainc looking map with very little effort!
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