Random Map Generation

scrag_10 wrote:Well you perhaps could just have to send the random seed # to the clients and each PC could generate it on its own? If they have the same seed they should in theory end up the same.

It's the same amount of data, if not more.

100% random maps are not practical, in my opinion. If you want, we can try, the methods are not hard to create, and we'd just add a few conditionals for checking if trees are not blocking the way or something like that.

We could, however, estabilish some standard expressions with only an identifier (as in a lot of 4x4 squares, each one with a number), but this would mean it's still predefined small areas that attach to each other randomly.

scrag_10 wrote:Also, You can turn Random maps into Static'ness. As in Generated 1000 maps, and then save the generations, and include them in the Game.

That was actually what I was suggesting when I said all that stuff about predefined maps.

Guys, I want hear you all about this:

Another thing: in real life not every cave, dungeon or something like this have a logical path or a "good walkable" way. If a rock get in the way of the player he needs to have a PICK with him to remove it. If it was a lake/water, he needs a mage to frozen it up for him/her pass. Magma? Nothing like a good and STRONG blizzard to frozen it up. A tree is blocking your way (like I said before)? BLOW IT UP, CUT IT UP, BURN IT UP! YOU'RE A HERO DON'T YOU?

Yeah, that is the basic idea of many adventure games (like, for example, Pokemon Ranger), and I find it awesome for the type of dungeon we were talking about earlier (if two players not in the same party enter a dungeon, each of them go to a different instance of it), because if all the players were allowed to enter on the same map, the path would only have to be cleared once, and in our case, we could reset it when the character leaves the dungeon.

Another thing, aside from the main path, why don't we design some "hidden" paths too? Things that seem to belong to the scenario, but can be cut down/burned/removed, etc to open new areas in the dungeon. We could even have two dungeon bosses, a normal one and a secret one.

I did some primitive calcluations everything is likely to be wrong lol
and I have decided that a map of about

Map Width x Map Height x 2^x = Size in bits

where 2^x = the number of different tiles that can be used

1024 x 1024 x 16 = 16777216 bits = 2 MB (probably 4mb to be sure)

So how big is a map of 1024 x 1024 tiles? 1,048,576
Make a picture that big in your paint program to see how huge it is!!!
Imagine doing that by hand

scrag_10 wrote:Make a picture that big in your paint program to see how huge it is!!!

Looool... It's not like I only use ms paint. I have photoshop AND flash (for vetorial), but I use paint for simple things because it's more intuitive.

scrag_10 wrote: Imagine doing that by hand

Ever heard about a programming feature called "abstraction"?
It's the act of hiding, at each step, the machine parts of programming.

With abstraction, we'd create methods that generate simple maps with the size we want them, and then you can simply call more methods to add objects to it. The code for generating a 1024x1024 map would be simply this:

Map myMap = new Map ( 1024 , 1024 , plaingrass );

It creates a simple map that has 2^20 tiles, all of them are plaingrass tiles. Later we can just add objects, like this:

myMap.addObject( tree , 50 , 75 );

So it adds a tree at the position 50x75.


By the way, why would we create a 1024x1024 tiles map? O.o

I dunno why we would make a map that big, but I is just to try and show that it wouldn't be that big of strain on a server to generate them or distribute them.

scrag_10 wrote:I dunno why we would make a map that big, but I is just to try and show that it wouldn't be that big of strain on a server to generate them or distribute them.

Maybe you're right.

But then, remais the question: Should we make these random maps for dungeons only or also for normal non-city maps?

Dungeons Only: Eases a lot the server work, once you'd only have to generate the new map set once a character enters a dungeon. Also, since dungeons are mostly single-player or small-party, the server wouldn't have to distribute the copies of the map for everyone. The map set would be generated only once per character, at the time he/she enters the dungeon (of course, it would still be recreated if the character leaves the dungeon and enters again).

All Possible Maps: The server has to send the full data of each map whenever a character enters it. It also needs to generate many more maps, which could result in server slowdown, and consequently players would lag. The server must create routines to check if there are characters in a map or no, so it can be regenerated. Also, mobs would be substituted, so if a player was nearly killing a powerful monster, and enters a portal by mistake, when he comes back, the mob would have vanished.


I personally would vote for randomizing only dungeons, but if you think that generating a random map for each non-city area of the game is the best option and is worth the drawbacks, we can do that.