Monthly random challenge maps.

[CmdrDats]

I'd love to see a random map generator that can generate areas using existing artifacts in the game. Then have leaderboards for who survived the longest on the maps - Ideally, one could retry the past generated maps, but I imagine that you could only be emblazoned on the hall-of-fame for starting your game in a given month (maybe if you survive a certain amount of days, you "win", and the map ends too, just to have a cap?)

As for the implementation of random : I've seen quite a number of ideas around using neural networks to do style transfers for map generators. Perhaps use that for the landscape, using the existing maps as the training material and do multiple passes to fill in the detail?

If/when modding comes along, I'm quite keen to try build this, but will have to gauge interest and see if I get time..

What do you all think?

[Fuarian]

I've thought of this mechanic in great detail. It would take a lot of work and is a long term, final update type thing. But it can be done. 

[Mroz4k]

Unlikely. Any sort of a generator for the game which seems to have set artwork in place seems like TLD would not work and depict the game very well.

[Prestermatt]

24 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

Unlikely. Any sort of a generator for the game which seems to have set artwork in place seems like TLD would not work and depict the game very well.

I agree, though I'm curious about what those worlds might look like.  Could be interesting, if bizarre and unplayable.

[CmdrDats]

15 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Unlikely. Any sort of a generator for the game which seems to have set artwork in place seems like TLD would not work and depict the game very well.

Sounds like a challenge  I might just take you up on it! Not having access to the raw data of the maps makes it a bit tougher to put something together that's of production quality - I'll simmer on building a bit of a proof of concept demo some time...

That said, the idea isn't to have the raw beauty of hand-crafted moments as much, but rather pitting against the blisteringly hard game (think random maps in interloper), forced to learn the layout of the land on your feet. Heck, it could even be limited to roughly the same elements (signal tower, random farmstead, lookout, trappers cabin, caves, etc..) but just in different arrangements.

The interiors can be fairly pseudo random (chair/not chair, bed/not bed, etc.) where the layout is relatively static.. Though, I think it's not particularly difficult to randomize a house layout.. Will have to try it out and see.

 

[Mroz4k]

The sandbox is somewhat randomly generated, as in some buildings may or may not be ruined and others are okay, the plants and animals spawn in different places but all of these places are placed on an unmoved map. If anything, I would like to see the spawnpoints even more randomly distributed, to make it really hard to play individual games, because as you get better, you learn to avoid locations with dangerous wildlife.

Dont see much point in trying to generate entire maps - game is already diverse enough, in my opinion that randomly generated terrain could very easily break the immersion of the game because of unrealistic landscapes which would most likely occur, because what we think is going to look realistic may not look so realistic in the end. As for the interior equipment, that part is already in game, many interiors have different equipment inside in individual games.

[EricTheGreat12]

On 8/14/2017 at 9:29 AM, CmdrDats said:

I'd love to see a random map generator that can generate areas using existing artifacts in the game. Then have leaderboards for who survived the longest on the maps - Ideally, one could retry the past generated maps, but I imagine that you could only be emblazoned on the hall-of-fame for starting your game in a given month (maybe if you survive a certain amount of days, you "win", and the map ends too, just to have a cap?)

As for the implementation of random : I've seen quite a number of ideas around using neural networks to do style transfers for map generators. Perhaps use that for the landscape, using the existing maps as the training material and do multiple passes to fill in the detail?

If/when modding comes along, I'm quite keen to try build this, but will have to gauge interest and see if I get time..

What do you all think?

They cannot even finish the majority of what is on their roadmap and they're still struggling to put out new improvement patches due to an unstable launch; I like the idea of some sort of 'monthly challenge', but they are so far behind on development that doing something as grand as monthly events would stall the entire project.

 

Sorry to bring the bad news but it's the truth, this studio is about to collapse on itself if it continues to try to over-reach 

[CmdrDats]

7 hours ago, EricTheGreat12 said:

Sorry to bring the bad news but it's the truth, this studio is about to collapse on itself if it continues to try to over-reach 

Ye, sadly, that's the feeling I get.. but hey - this is the wishlist forum, one can only throw out the ideas and see what takes..