I love this game, but after 80 hours, a random map generator would complete Survival Mode

[Guest jeffpeng]

I'm rather set on the idea that handcrafted maps are an important of the game. The real "progression" you experience in TLD is mostly based on learning and knowing things. I cannot think of an algorithm so smart, so sleek, so elegant that it would generate the same quality of experience as a handcrafted world. I mean, yeah, technically it would be possible, and technically this sounds like a good idea, but the world in TLD tells a story and has a meaning. If we would substitute this for a procedurally generated world I feel like a lot would be lost.

That being said .... it would be interesting to actually see how it worked. It's no small feat, and I feel like TLD has bigger fish to fry at the moment, but if they can pull it off ..... why not make it an alternative "world" to play, or maybe even keep the existing maps, but add a procedurally generated world to that you can visit if you want - but you don't have to.

The thing is .... TLD was initially thought of as a narrative driven, story based game, in which a handcrafted game world makes not only sense, but is a neccessity, but then Survival Mode kinda just happened to be a really cool thing. A procedurally generated world is sorta-kinda the logical conclusion to this.

Another way would be to randomly mix "tiles", something Diablo did way back in the day. The individual parts of the maps were not procudurally generated, but the arrangement of several map tiles was basically random (within a certain set of rules). It's a nice hybrid way to ensure a human touch remains in the game, but the eventual layout is unknown to the player.

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

On 2/27/2020 at 3:24 PM, EjectedCasings said:

I'm more in favor of community made maps.

seconded. When I play banished, for example, which is only a random generated map, I tend to restart 5-10 times before I get a map I'm happy with (and not just in terms of difficulty, but also the aesthetics etc.).

The option to maybe have a cave at one end of the world that you could 'open' when starting the game, and then bolt on something you have either created yourself or downloaded from the community would be pretty cool.  Could even be a nice end point for the game when Hinterland decide to turn their focus to the next projects (Long Darker, Long Dark with a Vengeance etc.).  A map editor for survival mode would allow the community to keep freshening the game up for as long as they wanted.  Whether Hinterland, quite understandably, would care to give away that level of control over something that has been such a labour of love over all these years is another matter.

I'd love a map with a disused military airbase or something!