Procedural aspects of gameworld.

[soapmak3r 677]

After getting to Stary Sobor and seeing that the military tents are no longer there, it got me thinking that it might be a good idea to make certain things about the map procedural.

 

Such as, military camp positions, deer stands, water holes, wells, ponds and even holes in fences/walls that you can pass through...

 

Perhaps also bring back randomly generated chopper crashsites, but also include things like train crashes, plane crashes, vehicle pile ups, and that kind of thing that can be looted for supplies.

 

Changes like this would keep the experience unpredictable and fresh, to an extent, and prevent people from just camping well known, static loot sites, or becoming too familiar with the map layout.

Edited December 24, 2013 by soapmak3r

[King of kong 1117]

Provide they're Chernarussian helis I see no reason why not. Greetings from the south, old bean

[applejaxc 2500]

What kind of procedural generation do you mean? Completely random placement will never work; you're going to get deer stands buried in the ground or awkwardly floating everywhere.

[King of kong 1117]

As Apple said, look at the failure that is The Dead Linger

[soapmak3r 677]

What kind of procedural generation do you mean? Completely random placement will never work; you're going to get deer stands buried in the ground or awkwardly floating everywhere.

I mean that every so often, there is an update to the game that switches things up a bit in terms of where military camps are located, or where deer stand are placed, what part of fences and walls are open etc. not that stuff is just randomly generated.

 

Although, having crashsites of various kinds randomly generated on server restarts worked fine in the past and really added to the experience. So having that refined and expanded on as well as having map updates that come through steam would keep things new and interesting and prevent over-familiarity with the map.

[applejaxc 2500]

I mean that every so often, there is an update to the game that switches things up a bit in terms of where military camps are located, or where deer stand are placed, what part of fences and walls are open etc. not that stuff is just randomly generated.

An update as in a patch, or while a server is running?

 

As a patch: No. It doesn't make sense-realistically speaking-for stuff to just no longer exist.

During server time: No; that's even more unrealistic than as a patch, seeing as a military barrack doesn't simply jump to another location at random.

[soapmak3r 677]

An update as in a patch, or while a server is running?

 

As a patch: No. It doesn't make sense-realistically speaking-for stuff to just no longer exist.

During server time: No; that's even more unrealistic than as a patch, seeing as a military barrack doesn't simply jump to another location at random.

But it is realistic for survivors to know every single patch of a huge map, including the location of military encampments, and even where holes in fences and walls are...Sure.

 

I'm talking about ways to keep the game fresh and interesting for people. Yes, updates as in patches that change the map in specific ways.

 

You are saying that military camps moving isn't realistic (notice that I said camps, not bases, and mentioned in the first post that the idea occurred to me after see that the military tents in Stary were gone)? Why not?

Surely military camps moving would make a lot of sense? Tents are not fixed in the first place, and having their locations static, given that there are so many bandits around doesn't make a lick of sense, realistically ;)

Edited December 24, 2013 by soapmak3r

[Wildust 6]

I think the idea is good. Is it doable on the technic side, idk. 
But to talk about realism, there's no way your character can sprint for 10 kilometers without spitting his lungs. But you can cross the entier map holding the sprint button.
What Bean King suggest is to avoid having the same camping area, considering everyone knows where to go to loot a M4 and some military stuff. 
Plus, some "random" sites spawns would refresh each game you play, because the whole map might offer you good and bad surprises. 

Playing on that kind of mechanics, the airfield and military camps might contain less valuable loots in order to make some appear in various locations. That sounds nice to me.

[soapmak3r 677]

It would keep people on their toes and help prevent loot camping and if it was a random setting on a server, it would help prevent server hopping loot hoarders. 

[tlane 17]

After getting to Stary Sobor and seeing that the military tents are no longer there, it got me thinking that it might be a good idea to make certain things about the map procedural.

 

Such as, military camp positions, deer stands, water holes, wells, ponds and even holes in fences/walls that you can pass through...

 

Perhaps also bring back randomly generated chopper crashsites, but also include things like train crashes, plane crashes, vehicle pile ups, and that kind of thing that can be looted for supplies.

 

Changes like this would keep the experience unpredictable and fresh, to an extent, and prevent people from just camping well known, static loot sites, or becoming too familiar with the map layout.

 

I agree with this idea and support the arguments made hereafter. 

 

I think overcoming the technical challenges is worthwhile if it keeps the game play fresh. 

 

There would need to be a reasonably large number of variations and a great degree of difficulty in determining which variation you are looking at from spawn. Random doesn't work for the reasons Apple stated. 

[applejaxc 2500]

As Apple said, look at the failure that is The Dead Linger

 

I don't know what you're talking about; there's nothing wrong with TDL's procedural generation. The only problems are unfinished inventory interaction, weapons, zombie models, and hunger/thirst, not to mention low FPS for a game that looks rather LD. But I've never had a problem with floating, misplaced anything.