A Way To Make Maps Less Repetitive

[LambertExe]

Idea of procedurally generated maps is good, yet it needs some polishing here in Warframe. As we know maps in WF are generated with premade 'cells'. Think about it like single cells are legos - they can be combined in various ways, and using multiple of them will yeld better, more randomized results. That's how it works:

 

 

Each red box represents one cell and... it's pretty straightforward.

 

The problem with this kind of map generation is that single rooms can be easily memorized and becomes mundane after several runs. Vet players know the layouts of cells, procedural generation becomes nothing more than building similar labyrinth with the parts of labyrinths that have been already seen by players.

 

In my opinion mag generator should be polished to improve variety and user experience.

 

How? Look at the scheme below (I'm paint mastaaa):

 

 

Cells as they are now should be made more barebone (RED SQUARES) and items such as crates, passages, stairs, pipes, controle panels, barrels and many more assets (BLUE SQUARES) should use procedural generation too. Cells within cells. Rooms as they are now should be a plain canvas, smaller assets a paint, and entire map as a art gallery. This will greatly improve variety of maps and eliminate repetitiveness.

 

Hope you understood what I mean. :) 

Edited October 18, 2014 by LambertExe

[(PSN)WiiConquered]

I really like this concept. I wonder if someone with game design experience would know how much work and change this would take.

[(PSN)Pharen]

I would also like to see more different types/shapes of base tiles.

[Lukap99]

maps & levels are a lonely section of feedback, but surprisingly more important than any other.

 

+1 Great eleventh post/10

[SoanoS]

So, you are suggesting sub-cells for the main room cells to randomise obstacles, like containers etc.?

 

I think this might actually work, and if the engine could flip and mirror cells it would add a lot of new layouts.

[Prexxus]

Bump.

[Loswaith]

I really like this concept. I wonder if someone with game design experience would know how much work and change this would take.

It would take a fair bit of work and likely cause level loading to be longer than we currently have as well (something many players would vilify DE for).

 

Typically speaking though for games and software in general its more about whether the trade off are worth the added value.  Something like this in warframes current stage would be of value.

 

The side effect is it is only a short term solution, as there is a limit of permatations (if there are very few its liekly better to just manually create those tile variances) and once you have seen the same permatation about 20+ times, it again becomes much like tiles are now.  Which is the real issue, players have run 1000s of maps so after a while they will see a lot of permatations repeated (which is unavoidable).

 

You also have to consider that beings arent realy all that random in the way they use space so each room may have only 5-10 permatations that would look like it is part of a ship or base (so it may be better to just manually make them), rather than just a hogepogs of things.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Loswaith

[SoanoS]

I'd say if the engine was able to mirror rooms to the horizontal axises would double the amount of usable content.  This would allow double the number of permutations as the door "junctions" would be shifted by the mirroring as well.

[(PSN)Pharen]

It would take a fair bit of work and likely cause level loading to be longer than we currently have as well (something many players would vilify DE for).

 

-snip-

It would take some work, but really the pieces already exist so the only work involved would be to change the RNG engine, not easy, but not as hard as starting from scratch. It would be a matter of changing the way the level loads from just tiles and connectors, to tile plus arrangement and connector plus arrangement. This means that the devs could turn one generic room into 10 plus permutations. It wouldn't actually be loading any more than it currently is, it would just have more items to choose from in the RNG.

[SoanoS]

I would say this should be fairly high on the priority list for DE.

 

I say this because running trough the same room or hallway, or even an elevator 3 times in a row in the Orokin Void or Derelicts, or any mission really really 5h17s (l13375p33|<) on the immersion and the fun factor of the game.

[KuroShiranui]

Awesome and neat idea. +1

 

I'd say that stairs should stay where they are, their positioning shouldn't be randomized cuz you might end up taking a stair to a blank wall. If you still want to make it randomized, then it should be scripted alongside doors and corridors so that the stairs actually goes 'somewhere'.

Hey we should bump this thread more often XD

Edited October 23, 2014 by KuroShiranui

[(PSN)Pharen]

Yeah, stairs would be attached to the tile, the things they would change would be boxes, windows, crates, scenery parts in general. The arrangements wouldn't be random. What it would mean is instead of having to replicate every tile with a slightly different arrangement, they could take one basic tile and set up positions for parts to spawn on the tiles. This would also mean that it would take up a lot less storage on the hard drive. Its essentially the way a map editor works in a game.