Procedural generations in video game

[Mr Jt (Gog is king)]

In general it is an interesting technical achievement but for example in starfield….. There is no way that all 1000 planets you can explore will actually be interesting. Would you prefer a few planets but handcrafted or do you prefer the procedural stuff in general?

[Ulfrinn]

In my experience so far procedural generation for maps often does result in mostly uninteresting end results.

[Mr Jt (Gog is king)]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ulfrinn:

In my experience so far procedural generation for maps often does result in mostly uninteresting end results.

Yeah that’s how i see it. No man sky is the best example. The planets have different biomes but they are all blant in some way

[Phirestar]

Procedural generation has its place. Roguelites and roguelikes, for example, don't need to worry about level design as much, since they're not necessarily about exploration as much as they are game mechanics.

I think that you can absolutely create a procedurally generated game in which the world is unique and interesting to explore for an extended period of time. Take Minecraft as the perfect example: you can combine any of the various biome generation mods with stuff that adds new ores, structures, dungeons, dimensions, and so on, and continuously create new and exciting worlds that stay fresh for an extremely long time.

But in general, I think a lot of games benefit more from being hand-crafted. I know the topic is more about procedurally generated worlds, but one place where I'm not as big of a fan of its use is in loot. After playing through the Souls series, I have found myself preferring a world with 100% hand-placed items over chests and other containers that pull from a loot table. The latter system obviously works for respawning enemies, and I personally do love farming for a 0.06% rare drop off some high-level mob, but when it comes to a fixed location within the world itself I'd rather there be an exact item or items that are guaranteed to appear in that spot.

[skOsH♥]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mr Jt (Gog is king):

In general it is an interesting technical achievement but for example in starfield….. There is no way that all 1000 planets you can explore will actually be interesting. Would you prefer a few planets but handcrafted or do you prefer the procedural stuff in general?

What could be done is doing something like No Man's Sky and then adding lore and npcs who "know" you

[Ulfrinn]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mr Jt (Gog is king):

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ulfrinn:

In my experience so far procedural generation for maps often does result in mostly uninteresting end results.

Yeah that’s how i see it. No man sky is the best example. The planets have different biomes but they are all blant in some way

Some other examples is Ark: Survival Evolved has a procedurally generated mode and all the biomes tend to look the same just with different ground textures. Very few natural looking formations or points of interest compared to the main maps.

Procedural generation on 7 Days to Die usually results in points of interest appearing in the middle of nowhere, I've even seen roads getting generated on a 90 degree vertical slope. It looks completely unnatural.

[GunsForBucks]

I like it in that you get a lot more bang for your buck performance and install size wise.

I am not a big story guy anyway.. I don't need a bunch of different hand crafted things to make it feel unique. I would rather be busy enough and have variety enough so I just didn't notice anyway.

Depends what you want from a game. If you are more into story then I can understand wanting more hand crafted single pieces to make things seem more unique.

For me I would rather have smoother performance on a not top of the line machine.

Valhiem is a good balance I think.


Something like KSP 2 I would at least like to see them maybe have handcrafted planets but have them show up RNG in different systems to mix things up. Exploring and probes really is meh after the first time and knowing what is there. Even RNG planet generation of whole systems to keep it fresh. Would love that kind of thing.

[Mr Jt (Gog is king)]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ulfrinn:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mr Jt (Gog is king):

Yeah that’s how i see it. No man sky is the best example. The planets have different biomes but they are all blant in some way

Some other examples is Ark: Survival Evolved has a procedurally generated mode and all the biomes tend to look the same just with different ground textures. Very few natural looking formations or points of interest compared to the main maps.

Procedural generation on 7 Days to Die usually results in points of interest appearing in the middle of nowhere, I've even seen roads getting generated on a 90 degree vertical slope. It looks completely unnatural.

The survival aspect makes this kinda games interesting because it has the Minecraft effect. You can be creative and craft a lot of stuff. But starfield is a rpg. It can work for dungeons but not on whole planets. I bet if you met a npc there they are either very blant or hostile enemies

[Good Night Owl]

I think a lot of developers use it as a content supplement. I think this is especially true for indie titles with a stricter budget, or even larger companies that don't want to put more financial backing in their game.

There's some scenarios I think that it can truly benefit from, but I think it's a feature that is used far beyond the extent it should be. It's weird how it's constantly used as a marketing selling point, but does the opposite of what is intended for me. It deflates excitement.

[SilverPigtail]

Depends of the game. Some of them uses the procedoral generating world system in a cool way, like Minecraft or some rogue-lites, but I understand that many other didn't gain much using this.

Honestly, I'm not really sure if Starfield will use the potential of these kind of systems in a proper way. We'll have to wait and see.