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Author Topic: Games with procedural content generation  (Read 3736 times)

Robsoie

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #15 on: December 26, 2010, 12:30:54 pm »

Daggerfall in its time was amazing, i remember when i bought it after reading so many enthousiastic articles on some PC magazines, i bought it nearly on its release.
My PC was not good enough, so i had to play with a very low view distance.

With time and upgrades i could enjoy each time the game even more.

And i was really thankfull to the DOSBox folks that coded this marvelous application that allowed me to continue to launch that amazing game from time to time .

Those random dungeons could have sure used more preset pieces, as after a while you recognized a bit too much those pieces in the random dungeons.

The non-random dungeons had sometime amazing architectures, i remember one of the last of them having some very weird giant objects that you used to reach various kind of portal floating.

The only parts i didn't liked of Daggerfall were the exterior that were very blend.
Arena, the previous game in the serie (released for free before Daggerfall some years ago) by example had better rendition of those random exteriors.

I wish all the plans would have made it into the final version of Daggerfall, there was a lot of interesting concepts and ideas that would have enhanced it even more than it already was at retail.
But i guess time and money were running short in the end and pushed the release, explaining too why it was more than plagued with bugs in its unpatched release state.
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The Merchant Of Menace

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #16 on: December 26, 2010, 12:37:18 pm »

There's a version with all of the patches and several restoration mods packaged together. It also comes with an autoexecuting dosbox, meaning you just run the exe without having to fiddle with mounting. I think there's a link at the bottom of the wikipedia article, one of the external links.
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Empty

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2010, 01:15:13 pm »

Have you tried minecraft?
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LeoLeonardoIII

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #18 on: December 26, 2010, 04:42:34 pm »

He did mention Minecraft in the OP.

What I don't see a lot of is a dynamic / procedural / random adventure. That is, not just the dungeon is constructed randomly, but the characters and plot too.

Imagine random generation of a dungeon. Why couldn't you randomly generate a character in the same way? Define his basic personality attributes at the start, decide what his job is based on where he is and those attributes and who else is around. When you ask him questions, probably by asking keywords, the game decides based on the random seed and his Gossip, Ancient History, etc. knowldge-type stats, and where he is (a lone farmer knows less about current events than a bartender in a big city), to determine if he knows various types of info. For example, you could have info on the King of Examplia. Types of info would be Basic (he's the king, dontcha know, there are two princes), Specific (this is the politics of the king, this is what he looks like), Secret (rumor has it the king has an aluminum chamber-pot studded with yellow diamonds), Dangerous (there's a band of rebels trying to sieze the throne). Each info type will have a True, False, and Vague variant. Based on how much the person likes you, and his Gregariousness, and how much you bribe him, he might give you different information that he knows. Dangerous info would be very difficult to get. And it's not a matter of just bribing him over and over like Morrowind. He needs to like you, trust you, AND maybe need a bribe.

And the NPC should ask you questions. If you choose to answer truthfully, he gains that info. If you answer vaguely, he gains that info. Same with lies. If you haven't come across the truth yet, you can't know the truth, same with vague info. But if you have Truth you can answer truth of vague. You can always answer with a lie but based on your lying skill the NPC might think it's a lie or the truth. Lying to people makes them like you less. Lying to children, if they don't catch you, entertains them and makes them like you more (fairy tales, etc). Sometimes the NPC may think you're lying when you're telling the truth, and respond appropriately. Any info you give adds to what the NPC knows.

(This is sort of like the Daggerfall keyword conversations, except that you store a couple bytes per item instead of one on-off bit per item or however they programmed it. It's possible they just had several dozen "Conversation types" and some of those were for specific NPCS and some for every random person).
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SquidgyB

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #19 on: December 27, 2010, 04:41:54 pm »

I just picked up something that might fit the bill in the steam sales: Flotilla.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55000/

It plays like a turn based homeworld with tron inspired graphics, where (apparently - I haven't played further than one planet. I was attacked by penguin bandits...) the universe is generated procedurally. Or randomly. I'll give a bit more information when I've played it a bit - I'm on my work laptop atm so it's not the best gaming experience.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2010, 04:46:49 pm by SquidgyB »
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hawkeye_de

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #20 on: December 28, 2010, 06:37:42 am »

I add two tactical games: They are either free or there is at least a free version available:

Both games are pretty deep&complex and have a dynamic AI.
Maps/Involved Units/Scenarios can be generated.
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Shades

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #21 on: December 28, 2010, 07:00:37 am »

There are a fair chunk of games that use procedural generation to some extent. How much does it need to be done to be considered?
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hawkeye_de

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #22 on: December 28, 2010, 07:37:27 am »

There are a fair chunk of games that use procedural generation to some extent. How much does it need to be done to be considered?

I would say that the game creates every time new scenarios / alters stuff, so that every time you create a new game you have new challenges..so for example for me the approach in LCS is sufficient, although it does not really create new locations etc but randomizes just the available stuff like characters and so on.
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"No matter what you or anyone else does, there will be someone who says that there's something bad about it. Whenever somebody comes up with a good idea, there's somebody else who has never had a good idea in his life who stands up and says, "Oh, you can't do that..."

-Tom Clancy

Ringmaster

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #23 on: December 28, 2010, 06:08:52 pm »

GearHead and GearHead 2 might be up your alley content-wise, the main questline (Among other things) is procedurally generated, it's also a good proof that procedural generation isn't for everything, especially character names (Seriously, it's like the programme picks five-eight letters at random from the alphabet, which leads to some incredible pronunciations). About the only thing that stays constant is the amount of equipment and skills you pick from.
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The Merchant Of Menace

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #24 on: December 28, 2010, 07:14:25 pm »

Heh. If you want bad character names, Try Elona.
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SquidgyB

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #25 on: December 29, 2010, 08:28:13 am »

Heh. If you want bad character names, Try Elona.

Hehe, yeah. Elona once gave me "Ageing homo" as a nickname. I shit you not.
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Hugehead

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #26 on: December 29, 2010, 10:50:44 am »

Armored Brigade looks pretty cool, trying it now.
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Mephisto

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #27 on: December 30, 2010, 02:11:49 am »

I would have suggested .kkrieger, but the url seems to be down.

The game is a fairly short FPS with basically everything procedurally generated - textures, weapons, possibly music and levels. It's only 97kb.

Found a link! Meh, it doesn't work on my laptop. It worked on my old rig, however.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2010, 02:17:35 am by Mephisto »
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Dakorma

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #28 on: December 30, 2010, 05:36:18 am »

Heh. If you want bad character names, Try Elona.

Hehe, yeah. Elona once gave me "Ageing homo" as a nickname. I shit you not.

One better, Musty Pussy, again, shitting you not.
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Rose

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Re: Games with procedural content generation
« Reply #29 on: December 30, 2010, 06:13:24 am »

Is not finished, but I have high hopes for this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuifhuJI4T0
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