[MUD-Dev] Wilderness

[Hulbert]

Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:

<SNIP>

> The problem is more like: why do it?  Designers want control, and
> quite frankly designers are going to produce more interesting
> areas than any general algorithm can produce.

<SNIP>

> Ok, so it is expensive to develop, but it certainly is more FUN
> than these churn-out-as-much-land-as-possible designs that are
> typical.  This is not to say that you cannot do this
> algorithmically, but you have to take a different approach from
> the one that I believe has been argued in this thread.

There are two general problems that I know of that algorithmic
generation systems are hoped to solve.

The first, and I believe the most common, problem is generation
time.  With any decent number of players, all of your nicely
designed content is going to be stale in less than a year.  Even if
you have = builders constantly adding new areas to your MUD, there
comes a time when = nothing new is ready, and everything old is
already explored.  Good content with a = plot just takes too long to
develop.  In this case, the procedural = generation system keeps
things fresh.  The generated content will not be up to the standards
of the designed content, but you have to hope that it can = keep the
players' interest until the good stuff is ready.  Along similar
lines, = you may be able to use generated terrain as the location
for a well = designed dungeon/city/whatever, and cut down your
design time.

The second thing that generated content is good for is space-saving.
A designed area has to be saved specifically to disk.  A generated
area = can be saved as a set of algorithms, and a seed value.
Additional = generated areas are only stored as additional seed
values, and the algorithm is reused.  You can use generated terrain
to increase the distance between designed areas that you want
seperated, without significantly = increasing your DB size.

Your algorithm will depend on which use you intend it for.  Either
way, a generated area will benefit most MUDs, even though it will
lack = the quality of a designed one.

Lee
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