[MUD-Dev] Wilderness

[Nathan F. Yospe]

On Mon,  6 Aug 2001 15:56:45 -0700 (PDT)
"John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:

> I didn't mean to say that the entire world would be created
> algorithmically.  The idea is that the designers retain control at
> a high level, but the details are left to the computer.  I suppose
> what I'm shooting for is that the computer provides the defaults,
> while the designers provide the exceptions.  And even the
> exceptions should be provided with an assist by the computer in
> order to ensure consistency.

This is very close to how I'm approaching things.  However, I've not
yet tackled the idea of algorithmic generation of man made
artifacts, or the artifacts of alien civilizations.  (I have got
algorithmic generation of alien biologies, ecosystems, and
geologies, because while my universe is sparsely populated by
sapients, and I expect all of them to be hand made for some story
purpose, I figure a chance-of-life at about one in twenty planets,
giving a bunch of unlivable barren wastes, a few unlivable, but
teeming with alien life, non nitro-oxy-water worlds, and a bare
handful, albeit more than the population would require spacewise, of
inhabitable, non civilized worlds... and maybe three dozen civilized
worlds, in ruins from the recent precourser strikes of the incoming
invasion hordes... so I'm left with the question, having designed
alien biologies, culture and art, and planetary geographies, how do
I mass produce cities of the five or six dominant subcultures on
each world, with their own flavors, using their own subset
languages, and leaving room for the addition of builder specified
features?  Of importance to note: any player of a species and
subculture (take a Trelakian, Reda province) reads and "hears"
speech in their language as english.  All others are obfuscuted
based on language, skill, and similarities, with alien languages
sounding more bizzare than common-species languages... a Trelak
might hear english as low, soft and slurred, consonant heavy,
hooting sounds.  So signs must have meaning...  but they also must
translate into giberish for the nonspeakers.  There's an inherent
assumption that there won't be a predominant insistance from players
that they be allowed to play a human...

> I object to the idea that designers need to hand-build so much.
> In some cases, all that's needed is 'a ruins'.  Have the computer
> spit ten or twenty combinations out and let the designer pick one
> that works well enough.  It takes a couple minutes and it comes as
> a fully-featured ruins (walls can be pushed over, stones can be
> taken, etc).  All the designer has to do is place the ruins as
> appropriate for the backstory.

As far back as four years ago, I had a graphical tool I'd designed
for a sort of lego-style world assembly.  I need a modernized
version of that.

> If the computer knows about ruins, townsfolk and all the rest,
> then when a designer wants to hide the keys to the barrow's
> three-lock vault door, the designer says to scatter the keys
> within 30 miles of the barrow, emphasizing ruins first, towns
> second and monsters third.

Hmmm...  a pretty fuzzy control system, no?

> Algorithmic generation is the way to go because 99% of the terrain
> isn't significant to anything.  The other 1% can be crafted with
> further algorithmic assists because 99% of the ruin that you're
> creating isn't significant to anything.  And so on.  Do you care
> which kind of key is involved with the vault door?  Probably not.
> But the computer-generated key can be quite interesting and
> involved.  If that's what the designer wants.

Most agreed.

--

Nathan F. Yospe

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