Generated Sandbox

[Valorfist]

If this has been proposed before, I beg your forgiveness. I also have no idea if the current software allows it but here it goes: randomly generated zone. Sure some items must be closer to spawning etc., but just imagine the possibilities: also the ability to map it somehow has to be there(even in-game drawing). Just a thought.

[Pancrisp]

If you're talking about procedural generation, it is possible with the current game engine.

I can see where you're coming from, it could help with the game's replay value.

[Valorfist]

On 5/13/2016 at 3:14 AM, Pancrisp said:

If you're talking about procedural generation, it is possible with the current game engine.

I can see where you're coming from, it could help with the game's replay value.

Yep that is the idea. The current zones can stay ofc, but a new mode can be introduced, which can include those procedural generated zones. I think it will truly challenge players since they wont know where the rifle/axe/knife is or can be.

[Hatchet]

Some great ideas on the boards that don't get the recognition they should, this is a good example.
I can't believe i didnt think of this, wait.. i hate randomly generated things in games! For one reason though, because a non-random option is never availible...
Makes you wonder though, why is that so? I would love to see both random and non random generated sandbox modes in TLD.

[Wastelander]

I wanted to disagree at first. I really wanted to. But then again, I found no other reason against it than developer resources. If these stop being an issue, I'm all for it actually! Considering a lot of things in this game are randomized already, maybe heightmaps, rock and building placements and so on can be randomized too.

[Landogarner]

I agree

As I already know the existing maps in and out, a randomly generated map would add a lot of interesting playtime.

[Resethel]

For my part, I'm somewhat against.

 

Like @Wastelander, I couldn't find an universal-great-and-shiny arguments against this.

Yet when I was starting to like the idea, I realized something.

That never a randomly-generated map may never tell a story, its story, and the story that connects regions to one another perfectly.

I mean, everything makes sense currently, you could even imagine how life were organized in the Island, what kind of events happened in those place, what people did before suddenly leaving, what their lives looked like ( even if it's all invented ). And this feeling is hard to imitate. From my own experience, I noticed that randomly-generated goods, despite looking good and stuff, never achieves such perfection (nothing actually but nature/time), or at least not without using a lot of ressources (simulation of weather, time, natural interactions, human activity), which is hard to achieve on a large scale.

Of course, such perfection isn't needed, of course you can come close to that with time and ressource, but imo, it's way better and easier to let a human do the job, rather than the machine, or at least combine both ( like some static elements (cities, dam, shelters) around which randomly generated wilderness is build ).

But well, that's only my opinion 

[hauteecolerider]

7 hours ago, Resethel said:

That never a randomly-generated map may never tell a story, its story, and the story that connects regions to one another perfectly.

This. Just this.

I don't want to see randomly generated maps in Story Mode. As an option, yes, I could live with that. But a huge part of the appeal in this game is exploring the maps with each play through. There are some random elements each time - bear spawns, burned houses on Coastal Highway and Mystery Lake and Pleasant Valley, rifle spawns, caches, etc. That's as random as I'd like to get. The general layouts of each map have a story to tell, and each story intertwines beautifully with the next. Not gonna happen with a randomly generated map. As I came to this game as an RPG, being able to figure out the story as I go along has been a huge part of the game's appeal for me.

[Jake Dolan]

I think an issue with this IIRC is the animals have a hard time with it, rust does this and the animals bug out a lot. (i believe i saw this on another thread of Reddit but dont have a source)

[Ruruwawa]

Dunno.  Might be better if the procedurally-generated zone was isolated from the story and sandbox maps, perhaps as a Challenge.  Call it "Lost!", with the goal to find the exit -- which of course moves every play through. 

[Valorfist]

Thread necromancy happening.

This would have nothing to do with story mode. It can be a challenge or another 'map' in the the sandbox. I can be a 'themed' procedural generated.

The 'story' of it can be like the story of the other areas...imagination.

The whole purpose of it is: replay value. If you put 20 hours in this game you prob know where everything is/can be.