Procedural generation#550

Game option for play open world random maps of various sizes.

Interesting, this is the first time this has been brought up on here.
This is technically impossible to do for them, as procedural maps would have to follow so many rules, it would be an absolute hell to debug and make sure it works (Drillships surfacing paths must not intersect into each other for any size of ships, they can’t run into mines or basements or outside terrain either…)
There’s a lot of issues with it that they’re not willing to put effort in. The map will be reworked at some point and will be much larger, but still fixed.
However, modding support is planned. One can hope that someone out there will manage to create a map editor or something.

Could be nice if possible to do, but at the same time I don’t know. The island wouldn’t be the same anymore.

This is an epic disappointment, a procedurally generated map is an absolute must for a game like this IMO..

Replayability is already very limited with things like low tier enemies being removed as you progress. This choice severely limits both the replayability and enjoyment long term for the consumer. Without procedural generation the game is limited to maybe a handful of playthroughs for most. Such limited replayability is a shame because this game is special and deserves more attention.

Regarding the reply from @The Fire Dragon, that’s simply not good enough of an excuse. There are so many procedural generation tools and accompanying tutorials out there for Unity.. Also, please contemplate editing the title for future reference.

Team Volcanoid, please reconsider this choice. This request is one of the single highest upvoted on this board.

I don’t see how something being immensively hard to code in is a bad excuse. Do you realize how hard it would be to program in, not only because it will have to fit the story (when it is added), but also because all landing sites must not intersect with each other, as I said.
It’s not because there’s a few tools to help that it makes it easy. easier, surely, but not easy, it’d still take a huge amount of time, during which we wouldn’t get anything else.

Honestly, I am fine with a fixed map. If it’s big enough, you’ll always discover one or two things. And if we really want to have new experiences each time, one way to do it would be for them to make multiple maps, and have a random choice when you start a game. It’s a lot of effort, but definitely much easier than programming a procedural map.
And even if they’re not willing to do any of that, which is perfectly understandable, there’s modding support, I already said it. Someone might end up making a map editor or something.

Also, this post doesn’t have that much votes, there’s much stupider posts with even stupider amounts of votes lol

The reason this topic doesn’t have votes is because the title is misrepresentative of the subject. Asking for “random map(s)” is not asking for dynamic world generation. If there was a subject for dynamic world gen OR a request for a dynamic map rework I gaurantee it would be at the top of requests.

Regarding your response, just lots of hyperbole.

The choice for a static map with targeted progression as we have it now limits gameplay and kills off any replay value. As the game stands you play it through once.. and once you do every replay experience is diminished, no matter the reason. You know where everything is and how to progress. You absolutely not will discover anything useful off course, only time sinks here and there.

I’m not saying it would be bad. I’m saying there’s a lot of other features the devs can add that would make the game better that are not procedural generation and take a lot less effort. For more details, refer to my previous comment.

As for the misindicative title, maybe it is. We’ll see how it goes now

I agree that procedural generation would be great for a game like this, but I also agree that it’s not a high priority. Medium-low, maybe, to me.

As to some of the concerns about making sure landing sites don’t intersect with each other, mines, and towns, the devs can maybe set it up as grids. This wouldn’t be a full, true procedural generation, but it would help ease a lot of the rules that need to be checked every time while still allowing the map to be random.