Desert, lush, and fungal biomes. What's the difference?

[JuggernautOfWar]

In the advanced start screen you can choose from lush, desert, and fungal biomes for the world generator. Does this actually change anything like the world age, temperature, etc does?

[Jack]

I think that lush guarantees a almost totally green florid planet, whereas desert does the same but with arid tiles. I think that it just statistically weights certain terrains over others and probably alters the temperature. Fungal makes the world a bluish purple mushroom, and I am pretty sure that unless fungal is selected you won't get any shroom forests or moss tiles.

[Covfefe]

I believe the world type just dictates the base land palette for the world. IE: Fungal = blue land with fungal forests, Desert = orange lands with I believe limited vegitation, and Lush = grasslands. The temperature and rainfall choices affect the tiles on top of the land. Cold desert lands will still have tundras and snow (depending on rainfall) tiles.

Also, from observation, I believe the world age affects how broken up the continents are by the sea. Younger = more cohesive while older = more island chains. As I said, that's only through limited observation of the planets that I actually choose the planet's age.

[Jack]

Originally posted by Nalidus:

I believe the world type just dictates the base land palette for the world. IE: Fungal = blue land with fungal forests, Desert = orange lands with I believe limited vegitation, and Lush = grasslands. The temperature and rainfall choices affect the tiles on top of the land. Cold desert lands will still have tundras and snow (depending on rainfall) tiles.

Also, from observation, I believe the world age affects how broken up the continents are by the sea. Younger = more cohesive while older = more island chains. As I said, that's only through limited observation of the planets that I actually choose the planet's age.

I think the world age also affects how rugged or smooth the terrain is as well, like in Civ 5, right?

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Aristocrates:

I think the world age also affects how rugged or smooth the terrain is as well, like in Civ 5, right?

That should be so, yes. Younger world usually means more hills and mountain ranges.

[Ryika]

Desert/Lush/Fungal are purely for esthetics/variation and doesn't have any influence on map generation. Like Civ5 had different climate "color palettes", but taken a bit further.

/edit to give proof:

"Shacknews: Can you describe some of the exclusive plant life and terrain that players will find in the arid biome?

Firaxis: The biomes are visual markers rather than having separate gameplay values, much the way we had American, Asian, African, and European tile sets in Civ V. Each of these gave the world a unique look, but played identically. This is because resources and their distribution is so key to the gameplay for Civ, that walling off resources behind a specific biome would have created problems for players given the way the game is designed. However, when you're on the arid biome, your forests will be giant cactus-like plants, rather than woody trees. Also the mountains and craters will look different than the other biomes.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/85500/firaxis-lead-designers-discuss-civilization-beyond-earths-desert-like-arid-biome