Build 42 seeds, Map Generation?

[Lemmons714ofOz]

So I am playing on PC now, while they fix it up for the Deck, I noticed in the menu though for the starting point, there was a 'seed' field, does this mean parts of PZ's map is randomly generated or no? Are there any plans to make anything in the world randomly generated if not the map itself or parts

[The early worm deserves the bird]

There should be borderless exploration now and I think you can start on an entirely empty map, or at least the devs were doing that to test out their crafting tech tree.

Build 42 info here: https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Build_42

Specifically here:
Map updates
Knox Country expansion with three towns and numerous smaller map locations.
Borderless exploration beyond the premade map with random wilderness generation.
New challenge map 'Many years later' focused on post-apocalyptic crafting and survival.
Map’s previous height limits exceeded, allowing for basements and very tall buildings.
Automatic created foraging zones and biomes for the map
Improvements and revamps to the current map as of Build 41, adding floors, basements, additional houses, etc.
Introduction of bunkers, panic rooms, etc.

[J128MM]

I could be wrong but that seed, if I shared mine with you, we'd have the same map. Wrecked vehicles in the same places. Loot in the same places. And so on. That's my guess. Not sure. Maybe someone knows for sure. Those elements are often "randomly" generated, but the map itself remains the same for each playthrough.

[Lemmons714ofOz]

Originally posted by J128MM:

I could be wrong but that seed, if I shared mine with you, we'd have the same map. Wrecked vehicles in the same places. Loot in the same places. And so on. That's my guess. Not sure. Maybe someone knows for sure. Those elements are often "randomly" generated, but the map itself remains the same for each playthrough.

Ah thank you

[J128MM]

I guess that would also give players the opportunity to start a new character on a fresh version of the map they just died on as well. Back to day one and their previous character isn't walking around as a zombie carrying all their loot. So if they really liked their spawn location and how things started out, they'd have as many chances as they want to get it right. Again, that's my guess.

[Lemmons714ofOz]

Originally posted by J128MM:

I guess that would also give players the opportunity to start a new character on a fresh version of the map they just died on as well. Back to day one and their previous character isn't walking around as a zombie carrying all their loot. So if they really liked their spawn location and how things started out, they'd have as many chances as they want to get it right. Again, that's my guess.

True, would be good for a random gen feature, it would make me never put it down again if I could generate a different world everytime :)

[Moraya Sontenegro]

I made some tests and as far as I noticed, only the basements are affected by the seed

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I started a new playthrough and again started in Echo Creek. I got a rather long map seed this time, something I hadn't noticed before. This time, the gas station/diner was damaged, broken doors and windows and rubbish all over the place. First time I've ever seen that in several starts.
I think the buildings have some level of procedural generation beyond just the basements and the map seed effects that.

[Sunderbraze]

Originally posted by StainlessSteelCynic:

This time, the gas station/diner was damaged, broken doors and windows and rubbish all over the place.

The devs call this "looted & trashed" and you will see a bunch of references to it in patch notes. It is unrelated to the map seed as far as I know, there is just a random chance for it to happen to any building, kind of like burned houses in B41, however there is a greater and greater chance of it happening when new map cells are loaded as time progresses. I read somewhere that after two months there is basically a 50% chance for every building you see to be trashed. It's a lazily designed "meta event" intended to make an empty world feel less empty, just like the repetitive yells and screams and gunshots that play randomly in the background.