Prefab areas (the move away from procedural generation)
Racer1
Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
After the Destructoid interview, its clear that procedural generation will go away, or at least be used much less often than had been anticipated. This means UWE will prefabricate all of the areas. I think replayability is still possible, and desirable (despite what was said in the interview), with only a small effort beyond designing the areas themselves...
I can see prefab areas working if:
1. The prefab areas are attached randomly (rather than always in the same place/orientation)
2. Each area has least a few random variations (either designed in or auto-generated)
- These would be not only aesthetic differences, but require you handle them somewhat differently depending how they show up (but are much less effort to add in then creating a whole new area).
The clincher (much more work to implement but would pay huge dividends):
3. Players can design new areas, to be submitted to, and rated by, the player community at-large (via an easy-to-use in-game tool). Each player could then choose the minimum rating they want to allow, and the game would automatically add random community areas to those players' games as needed.
- This could be done either with a design tool, or by saving an in-game area that the player has modified
I can see prefab areas working if:
1. The prefab areas are attached randomly (rather than always in the same place/orientation)
2. Each area has least a few random variations (either designed in or auto-generated)
- These would be not only aesthetic differences, but require you handle them somewhat differently depending how they show up (but are much less effort to add in then creating a whole new area).
The clincher (much more work to implement but would pay huge dividends):
3. Players can design new areas, to be submitted to, and rated by, the player community at-large (via an easy-to-use in-game tool). Each player could then choose the minimum rating they want to allow, and the game would automatically add random community areas to those players' games as needed.
- This could be done either with a design tool, or by saving an in-game area that the player has modified
Comments
I do like the idea of letting players create worlds. This could get complicated in practice, but it's more of a known quantity.
First, I don't see any reason certain areas couldn't be larger in size. It doesn't need to be a rigid grid.
Second, I see two options for transition between areas:
1. Use procedural generation to bridge the gap between the areas. Perhaps each "edge" of each area could give cues (either given by the dev, or just look at the terrain), and the procedural code would gradually change from one area to another.
2. At the edges around each predefined area, require a buffer zone defined by the dev, which would still contain the "style" of that area (but possibly to a lesser extent). The game engine would have the freedom merge these areas together. This would still require a bit of magic (to match ground levels, etc), but not nearly as much as option one.
Well, at the very least, it might be nice to build them as separate areas, and glue them together beforehand. This way all of the pieces are in place -- so, if you decide you have the resources to later allow for random or player-submitted-areas (or if you provide that ability to the community), this can be done without much work.
Those tiles are just an example, but you probably get the idea.