[MUD-Dev] Morphable worlds, Reset based systems revisited

[Ted L. Chen]

John Robert Arras wrote
> On Sat, 26 Oct 2002, Ted L. Chen wrote:

>> Tying it back to the question at hand, I think it'd be more
>> prudent to either generalize your system up to the level of
>> neighborhoods (fewer nodes), or at least concentrate on providing
>> game mechanics on the level of neighborhoods instead of
>> individual zones.

> I am not sure that I'm following this. Are you saying design on a
> general larger scale like design on the scale of a mountain range
> rather than the 10 mountain areas within it individually? Or
> design in such a way that those patterns become apparent?  Or, do
> I try to create the best algorithms I can and then hope? ;)

> Some of the code tries to draw the world so that there are some
> patterns like areas with a certain overall type (like mountains or
> deserts) are next to each other and that the transitions make
> sense, like no snow next to swamps. But, I hadn't considered more
> than trying to not make it look too bad.

> Could you give me an example of what you mean in terms of placing
> wilderness areas like swamps or forests into some kind of a world
> map?

Yup, design on a larger scale.  If I understand you correctly, your
algorithm would generate several swamp-like tiles next to each other
to create a swamp?

So, why resolve to the level of individual swamps tiles if the
user's view it as just a swamp?  "You are now in Swamp0A.  You are
now in Swamp0B.  You are now in Swamp1B."  Instead, just say "You
are now in the Dagobah swamplands."  You're describing the Dagobah
swamplands anyways in your algorithm (the set of features it uses).

  Something that trumps this of course is if you value continuity of
  scale.  Abstractions don't work well when you try to visually
  represent it ;)

The other option I gave was to go the algorithm route, but design
the game-mechanics such that there's meaning to the generated tiles,
instead of them being just decorative.  If you move your game into a
more strategic war-game genre, then the layout of swamps and forests
would be very useful.  In this case, you could probably get away
with some repetitiveness in zones since people aren't concentrating
at the level of individual zones.

But if you stay with the current trends of MOGs, and focus on a
in-your-shoes perspective, then being stuck in a set of zones that
look all similar is bland.  From a players' viewpoint, there's no
care about the fact the swamp I'm in now is different from the
forest 1 mile away because the game-mechanics concentrate on that
rock in front of me.

Hmm.. didn't I pass that rock 10 mins ago?  ;)


TLC


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