Random Map Generator

[havokstriker]

I won't argue with you there daniel, you do make a good point. However what a dungeon randomization tool does provide is easy access for gamers(who don't have the time or know-how to create masterpiece dungeons) endless hours of replayability at the click of a button and the toggle of a few switches or the sliding of a few bars to specify the generic basic requirements of the dungeons before randomization was to commence.

Handcrafted levels or dungeons will always achieve a level of detail and creativity that can never fully be realized when generating random dungeons based on a series of guidelines the player or devs specify that are needed to create the random dungeons. But making handcrafted levels takes time to finetune them and hone out the details of the dungeons, time and skill that not all players would have the time or interest in doing.

Still, a level editor being provided to the community would be ideal, as well as allowing players to share their dungeon creations with the gaming community, well that would be sweet. Random dungeon generator would be awesome too, but first let's see the game come to fruition, then things like level editors and level generators can come later if the dev's decide there is a high enough demand from their already growing and adoring community to add those ideas to the game after it's been released.

The suspense is killing me, I must have this game NOW!

[resonansER]

In my opinion, this Game will be very good and quick selling... somewhere about 750000-950000 copy's, possible more. So, i wish this Game GOOD selling!!!

[Falkentyne]

When I first saw this topic, I IMMEDIATELY thought of the game "Dungeon Hack," but I didn't remember the NAME of the game at the time. I did play it way way back between 1998 to 2002 or something. I remember that this game used the EOB3 (Eye of the Beholder 3) engine, including the horrible graphics that were in EOB3 (for those that remember, the BEST graphics in EOB3 were the recycled ones from EOB2). And, of course, keepin mind that Westwood Studios (EOB1/2/Command and Conquer, etc) did **NOT** Make EOB3, which is why it sucked so much.

Dungeon Hack was an interesting game for sure, but the random dungeon generator, while seemingly having a LOT of options, was actually rather piss-poor. The game actually sometimes created some UNSOLVEABLE levels (I Forgot the details....I think there were some unopenable doors or items missing a trigger something that you needed to pass, and I forgot if a cheat, reload, whatever was needed to pass). There were also some VERY illogical puzzles and level layouts, and I think the "find the gem to open the door" puzzles were simply ludicrous. Most of your inventory was often keys and gems you needed to hog around....

I would really love to think that we have the technology to do this correctly now. If a 1994 (?) game could do random dungeon generation, then I'm sure a 2010-2012 game could

Would be really great if you guys could write a really good algorithm. I'm sure a lot of us would pay some good coin for a generator that could keep us hooked. And of course, HARD, HARD battles

[petri]

Some of us here at AH are big fans of roguelikes so it's quite possible we'll explore these options with LoG or some other project... I think the best approach with puzzles would be to combine predefined puzzles and level chunks with randomly generated stuff.

[Nachtfischer]

I think this game could really benefit from random maps (and fan-made ones of course). Even though they may (or can) not be as well crafted as a hand-made dungeon, a careful put together generator can offer loads of replayability and diversity. Every fixed dungeon gets boring after a while. Randomization was the main reason I enjoyed Dungeon Hack for quite a long time, whereas the classics like Dungeon Master get old after a few runs. So I - admittedly being a huge roguelike fan - think it would really be a great future addition to this seemingly wonderful game.

[CanadianWolvie]

We already have a random map generator, but it's really crude version from way back when we tested various things like random maps. But that didn't work that well with handcrafted puzzles. Random map generator and level editor are definitely something we'll look into in the future.

Oh good, I was wondering about just this when I came here.

[S0ny_B1ack]

What about (just a weired idea) an random map generator, which could take as an input some handmade smaller map pieces too and it would than integrate those into the random dungeon (so it would be possible to add some interesting puzzles, which would be found in a mostry randomised dungeon).
I generally agree with Darklord that custom made dungeons are better than randoms, but it would definatly add variety and give us new dungeons without someone needed to add everything by hand

[petri]

What about (just a weired idea) an random map generator, which could take as an input some handmade smaller map pieces too and it would than integrate those into the random dungeon

Yep, that's how most roguelikes work. Although the ratio of randomness vs. predefined stuff is much in favor of random gen.

[Nachtfischer]

What about (just a weired idea) an random map generator, which could take as an input some handmade smaller map pieces too and it would than integrate those into the random dungeon (so it would be possible to add some interesting puzzles, which would be found in a mostry randomised dungeon).

Would be quite possible. Dungeons of Dredmor creates pretty neat random dungeons from pre-made rooms (or room combinations) for example.

[ClawlessVictory]

I enjoy handcrafted dungeons as much as the next person, but harken back to the days of a particular game I thoroughly used to enjoy with me for a moment. A game titled Dungeon Hack.

Dungeon randomization was the backbone of that game, providing for endless amounts of entertainment to be had. You could randomize a wide variety of things in the dungeon by sliding a bar for each element of the dungeon left or right.

This allowed you to adjust the number of traps in a dungeon, amount of treasure, difficulty of monsters as well as how many monsters are generated, whether the dungeon had any water levels where the level was partially submerged in water. It also allowed you to choose to enable or disable permadeath among other features. I included a screenshot of the dungeon randomization screen from that game below to give you an idea of all the features it could randomize.

Another great roguelike game that utilizes dungeon randomization is Dungeons of Dredmor. I can respect and understand if the developers of this soon to be released awesome dungeon crawler game, decide not to include dungeon randomization in the game upon it's release. But the thought of it potentially being an added feature in a future update or dare I say it, future expansion?, gets me super excited of the possibility. It could even be a seperate feature or option apart from the main singleplayer campaign, thereby keeping true to the developer's handcrafted dungeons that were made specifically for the game's release. Either way, whether dungeon randomization is ever considered or not, a second feature that I'm sure people are or would be excited for is a dungeon level editor to allow us to make our own dungeons that we could share with the community.

Anyway, keep up the great work on the game and know that you have in me a day one preorderer and a lifelong fan of the game. Cheers!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has fond memories of this game!