Random Generated World?

[Tarvon]

Question to the Devs: Will there be random generated worlds at some point?

[Squeal Like a Pig]

We highly doubt it. We found there to be a huge increase in quality of the visuals, and much more flexibility to create really elaborate landscapes, when building the world by hand, as opposed to anything we could have done procedurally. So, there are no plans to go back and spend a lot of time on the tech to create the world procedurally, especially since much of the gameplay is now being designed around the hand crafted, non randomly generated approach.

[Darthtanien]

Ok I keep seeing this said over and over. You will get more random and diverse worlds if you put the work in to your "terrain test" random generator. Other games do it to perfection. If you do not have the time,resources,manpower that is ok. Static maps willl ALWAYS get old where as random worlds are, well, always different. IT takes a LOT of work to make a randomly generated world work and look correct but it can be done, it just takes more time and resources to do than a static map. The quality of the visual depends on the engine you use, detail you put into it and how you optimize it. I love the game and think it has great potential. Keep up the good work.

[Tarvon]

My concern is that it get boring quick if you only have a static world available.
Otherwise it's a really great game with much potential.

[Squeal Like a Pig]

Originally posted by cyberjudas:

Other games do it to perfection. If you do not have the time,resources,manpower that is ok.

I would love it if you could name some of these games that you feel are doing it to perfection. Most first person world games at our level of visual fidelity are not randomly generated, especially ones where there is complete freedom of movement.

If we devoted the proper amount of time and resources into a powerful world generation tool, it would mean that many of the large and important gameplay features we want to put in the game would have to be dropped.

While the world may be static, we are working on many gameplay systems within it to allow the player to spend a lot of time even in just one small area, studying and interacting with the creatures, working out different ways to get past dangerous ones, or through some environmental hazard that is an obstacle to getting to a new area. The static world allows us to make a more visually interesting and rich environment, that is much less repetitive and monotonous then a procedurally generated world would be. It also allows us to construct gameplay in a way that is more suitable, to really maximize the players experience.

And, finally, the world is very very large. The portion that has been filled in in the released version so far is just a fraction of what we intend to put in there. Once all the planned areas areas are in the game, along with all the planned gameplay, there should be hours and hours of exploration time, crafting time, and creautre / plantlife interaction that the player will be able to experience.

As a final note, a few big features that we still hope to get into the game will also lead to the game from becoming boring too quickly - Terraforming and Base building. While it is unclear when these features would go in, they should be a big help in adding additional time the player will want to spend with the game.

[Darthtanien]

Im not going to get into a pissing match.

"If we devoted the proper amount of time and resources into a powerful world generation tool, it would mean that many of the large and important gameplay features we want to put in the game would have to be dropped"

This is what i was getting at. Its all about time and resources, and you said it yourself.
SOE landmark and up comming Next, Blizzard and Voxel farm, No mans sky, Unity 3d Procedural Terrain Generation Engine, Daylight using Unreal 4. Pathea's Planet Explorers There are many examples, just bing or google. Some of these are Huge companies and all i was saying is that if you have the time and resources it can be done.

"As a final note, a few big features that we still hope to get into the game will also lead to the game from becoming boring too quickly - Terraforming and Base building. While it is unclear when these features would go in, they should be a big help in adding additional time the player will want to spend with the game."

Cant wait to see these flesh out. Game looks great so far.

[Zetachron]

Is it possible to create a procedural deep sea ocean with abyssal depths and wide open sea connecting hand crafted static terrains? Or is the engine/memorymanagement limited in absolute world space size?

Because a big sub like the cyclops would probably get around a static world real quick. Or giant whales might need a lot of space, but not necessarily a detailed coral reef layout for deep sea action.

[Voelkar]

Oh my freaking gosh thatll be so great :O

[Kitchen Gun (TM)]

I'd be more than happy to give up some visuals for more replay value. Would indeed take a lot of work.

[oeneg]

the problem I have with this game not being procedurally generated is that you need it in games like these think of minecraft and what the appeal of it is (and before you say anything its graphics was a design choice)

but think of how dull minecraft would be if every time you played it was the same world with the same resources in the same spots every time enen if the first time i played i spent 100 hours playing and beat the game if I wanted to go back and play again I would know where every thing is and there would be no challenge I could beat the game in 10 hours (gross exaggeration to prove a point)

I understand if you don't have the time or the reasources to do it right now but I think you should consider doing it in the future I like this game and I want it to succeed thats why I'm saying this and I hope that the devs take me seriously and use our feedback to make their game better because I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there who thinks this

[Claus]

I already explored the entire map which took me a few hours, the only thing that could possibly prevent a randomly generated world from woking is a story mode, unless you make it a game mode with it's own map.

I'd give up the entire storyline to be able to create a random world, yes not all the worlds will be as interesting to explore, but that's the point to find out.

Notice how many posts is related to randomly generated content which this game screams for, it would be a mistake to ignore it.

After the game has been released you can devote your time to a story mode that is seperated from survival, creative and hardcore mode, i wouldn't mind buying it as DLC, but it's not something the game needs right now, to spend most of your resources on a storyline that is over in a couple of hours of gameplay.

I hope you reconsider.

[Myrador]

I have 90 hours so i roughly know where which biome is. I still get confused on where exactly i am. I personally think randomly generated areas are often really stupid and bland. Once you have seen one they look all the same. With hand crafted terrain there is more uniqueness to it. I like it. Just like i liked Gothic (1) which had a small map and was not random.

Originally posted by oeneg:

but think of how dull minecraft would be if every time you played it was the same world

i think minecraft is still dull because the random terrain looks the same just very little variation i was mostly sticking to a small area and building something cool but the randomness never was much helpful to me personally, i mostly liked the creative part

[Claus]

Originally posted by Myrador:

I have 90 hours so i roughly know where which biome is. I still get confused on where exactly i am. I personally think randomly generated areas are often really stupid and bland. Once you have seen one they look all the same. With hand crafted terrain there is more uniqueness to it. I like it. Just like i liked Gothic (1) which had a small map and was not random.

Originally posted by oeneg:

but think of how dull minecraft would be if every time you played it was the same world

i think minecraft is still dull because the random terrain looks the same just very little variation i was mostly sticking to a small area and building something cool but the randomness never was much helpful to me personally, i mostly liked the creative part

You make a good point, minecraft worlds was too similar even when randomly generated, if not a world generator, a map editor would be ideal.

[Xeonic]

Originally posted by Claus1978 (DK):

You make a good point, minecraft worlds was too similar even when randomly generated, if not a world generator, a map editor would be ideal.

I could get behind that, but i dont want randomly generated worlds. Imagine having a whole community making specific maps that are amazingly hand made vs having always a randomly generated map that would probably be very buggy unless given years of polishing.

[Memnoch]

Is the location of "loot", at least, randomly generated? I haven't played this in ages and am just in the process of downloading it again to have a look to see what progress has been made.

[Mr. Clean]

If there is specific parts of the game tied to specific areas Eg. Aurora, then why not just have those statically placed and then procedurally generate the map around them to fill in the space?