About the month-long pause, got bored/busy with real life:

So, got lazy and implemented perlin noise from:

http://devmag.org.za/2009/04/25/perlin-noise/

resulting in this decent looking map generation:

Some issues I need to think about:

• my fillermoving (not true A* apparently) pathfinding still isn't robust enough, probably I need to really implement A*
• how large the map needs to be: current 200x200 map with about 10,000 rock walls is a little laggy, but not too bad. I shudder to think what a 1000x1000 map with multiple AI and dwarves would play like though.
• what the map actually represents. Is it 1 dwarf per dwarf tile? If so, this map gen varies a little too hard and needs to be stretched
• actually learning the perlinNoise stuff implemented all the way through: I know enough of the basics but I'd like know it well enough to be able to tune it completely to my preferences/code it from scratch

things I need to start doing:

• adding combat
• adding more items (just rocks and grass right now)
• adding more craftables/buildings (just doors right now)

I feel somewhat satisfied with the mapgen and the fact that I still come back to this and not be lost looking through my code. I'll probably be working on this a lot harder after this weekend.