Procedural generation?

[DannyUS]

Are the maps planned to be the same throughout new playthrough s or is there some level of procedural generation/randomness? I assume the portal world's are going to be random if the facilities are not? I am not too worried even if everything is handcrafted, but it's nice to have variety during subsequent plays :)

[MechWarden]

As said in other threads, it is very likely not procedurally generated. The starting area is set, and far as we know the rest are hand crafted as well.

[@xaker89]

It's premade

[StrungSweeney]

Open world survival craft and no randomness what so ever?

[Slideshow]

Nope. Fixed layout. Somewhat randomized drops. No respawning furniture and materials laying about.
Maybe in the long future there will be. But at this stage, it's 95% static

[MechWarden]

What would procedural generation give?

I can't quit see how the devs could make a good coherent underground facility if parts could just shift around.

And it isn't exactly open world. You can't just climb a hill or explore some massive cave, or carve out a new path. Things are more or less linear* (with some exceptions) and the quest lines and maps are built around that idea.
*(thought more or less hub area linear, unlocking interconnected areas in some sort of order)

Even if it did randomly generate, I can't see it adding much to the game. Instead of going east for a required place, I'd maybe go north? In the demo, some people complained about being lost, so less randomness in this sense might be better for them.

I'd rather the devs make a good story with hand made parts than try to use procedural generation to maybe create content for them. It worked for Subnautica, and that's way more open an open world than this game.

[Mr.Valentine]

Originally posted by DannyUS:

Are the maps planned to be the same throughout new playthrough s or is there some level of procedural generation/randomness? I assume the portal world's are going to be random if the facilities are not? I am not too worried even if everything is handcrafted, but it's nice to have variety during subsequent plays :)

i would love if they add some randomly generated content in future update because it would add so much playtime value since this game looks so cool to be played for long time

[DannyUS]

Originally posted by MechWarden:

What would procedural generation give?

I can't quit see how the devs could make a good coherent underground facility if parts could just shift around.........

It would give you more replay value, since you would need to search for paths and places again. Sometimes this is good, sometimes bad. Best part is if there is at least part of a game that is procedurally generated, which could have been the portal worlds. As I said, its not necessary, but it sometimes adds to the game.

[Rabble]

are the portal worlds random?

[DannyUS]

Originally posted by Rabble:

are the portal worlds random?

I have no idea, but it would be nice :)

[MechWarden]

I'm vary familiar with Procedural generation. Played the heck out of No Man's Sky, played various roguelikes/lites, played Minecraft for a bit, and so on. It in of itself does not add replay value, and I've seen devs try to pad a game with a system that 'makes the game for them'. NMS is a great example of over used procedural generation in early development. Once you've seen the same type of planet, a similar type of animal, and similar looking ships a few times, you've kind of seen it all (permutations be damned). The puzzle pieces the game uses start to become more and more clear and predictable as you play, even in good procedural generation.
(Also, thanks for the Jester award, who ever you are. Glad you found it amusing!)

I've suggested before that a Portal World could have it, but as it is I'm finding it hard to shoe horn procedural generation into this game as a whole and not make it look bad or feel confusing. If the devs pivot in to that direction, a lot of their map structures would have to be scrapped, and then would have to do a lot more tedious play testing to balance a selectively random system. I play tested a 2D classic Rogue-Like with simple math in it, and once you add weapons, armor, spells, abilities, enemy attacks, and map tile groups with all the needed resources and spawns, it still gets complicated at an exponential rate.

I'd like to see procedural generation as well, but realistically I can't see that happening in this game. I'm worried enough as it is for the devs to make their road map goals on time, let alone add in a feature that's mainly used to make underground dungeon maps impossible to memorize so to add a challenge to rogue-likes. Sure as heck not going to have much in the way of Minecraft or NMS landscape generation in a game focused primarily in an underground facility.

In short: Procedural generation is not some sort of magical content creating system.

[tons0phun]

The game playing through exactly the same way through each time like a puzzle to speedrun would get old, fast. I recently got the game, but I'm not excited at the idea of only ever playing a single map with nothing substantial changing between runs. Talking to the same scientists again, and again, and again. Opening the same door with the same item every time.

Procedural generation could be done, but likely not for a while, it is a good deal of time and effort. They devs have all the assets/rooms/paths/modules/resources/etc needed to throw into a generator and create randomized finite facilities complete with paths/area-transitions/loot/monsters/etc. Start with the campaign map itself, dissect and categorize it, experiment with functionally reconfiguring it. Eventually dropping the story/narrative aspects of the game for more generation flexibility, and without any "locked-door" sequences to progress that could soft-lock players if generated incorrectly. Some player-adjusted variables to let them configure the facility generation, and from there they challenge themselves however they like.

A single level play through is charming once.
This game needs generation to sustain replayability.

[Demonocolips]

the long dark style generation, with varibles controlling what might generate where, would be the way to handle it currently. though with so many more things simply requiring certain resources it might not be enough.

[Eidolon]

Originally posted by tons0phun:

The game playing through exactly the same way through each time like a puzzle to speedrun would get old, fast. I recently got the game, but I'm not excited at the idea of only ever playing a single map with nothing substantial changing between runs. Talking to the same scientists again, and again, and again. Opening the same door with the same item every time.

Procedural generation could be done, but likely not for a while, it is a good deal of time and effort. They devs have all the assets/rooms/paths/modules/resources/etc needed to throw into a generator and create randomized finite facilities complete with paths/area-transitions/loot/monsters/etc. Start with the campaign map itself, dissect and categorize it, experiment with functionally reconfiguring it. Eventually dropping the story/narrative aspects of the game for more generation flexibility, and without any "locked-door" sequences to progress that could soft-lock players if generated incorrectly. Some player-adjusted variables to let them configure the facility generation, and from there they challenge themselves however they like.

A single level play through is charming once.
This game needs generation to sustain replayability.

Why does every game must be infinitely replayable? Why can't you just play the game and be done with it? Hand crafted map is exactly what made Subnautica so great and it's also what makes this one better than other generic survival games. As shown time and time again procedural generation makes everything samey, bland and boring and actually hand crafted maps make exploration that much more rewarding due to all the detail that's lost with random generation. No, thanks.

[Monokuma]

Alright seeing as this thread's been necro'd I might as well just throw in my two cents while we're here.

Games as a service has tainted the average videogame consumer into being overly reliant on endless-content gaming. You don't have to put replayability on every single game. Imagine trying to procedurally generate content for Undertale. It's just not necessary in every piece of media.

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

I wouldn't be surprised if they added some weird endgame portal world that is procedural in some way. Some Anteverse Goulash realm that rearranges upon reset or whatever.

Speculation aside, no, nothing as of yet and even my above speculation is doubtful.