Map generation

[_Q_]

Why is map generation so focused? Like you always will have the same things on every map, I think it would be better and more fun to have it more general, like instead of guaranteed steam cool vents it should be any other water source, so on one map i can have steam cool vent and on the other map I can have very different water source.

Water is water, no mater if its polluted or not in both cases you need to cool that water down in order to use it anyway.

No even once in my play time on many maps I had the problem where I need to warm up water instead of cooling it down.

The same with energy sources, why natural gas when it again can be hydrogen or other thing that can be used to produce energy.

Map generation should be more general instead of set things that will always show up. Make categories and throw stuff in them and let the game pick at map generation time what it will be.

Current maps are totally predictable and boring, good for first few hours as kind of tutorial but nothing more.

[Sasza22]

The current map generation is pretty balanced in a way that it allows you to build a sustainable base. In exchange it`s pretty predictable after you play several times. After more pressing issues are adressed then maybe the devs can spend some time on making the map more unpredictable but still sustainable.

[avc15]

I wish the beginning of the game involved a prospecting mini-game, something the gravitas folks would have definitely performed. You know, search the asteroid belt for a home with certain basic properties. Rather than choosing settings or something, you can pick from a number of randomly generated sites.

Then you could, say, choose to launch at an asteroid that has a high ice content. Or, an asteroid with specific types of volcanic activity.

 

I don't know, just seems like a cool idea to me. I always hate landing on a seed with no magma volcano or metal volcano. Need something that's not metagame (like seed threads) for having at least some control over the mapgen.

[PhailRaptor]

The thing is that nothing in the game is truly guaranteed, because overlapping Point of Interest locations will cause deletion of one of the elements.  So even with the list of things you are supposed to get, it's not a true guarantee.

What every map should have is the following:

• 2 Cool Steam Vents that are exposed in the world.  One will be in the Swamp Biome with a chamber extending to the left, the other in the Caustic Biome with the chamber down and to the right.
• 1 NatGas Vent in the Swamp Biome.  It will be in a very small chamber, with a 1 tile thick wall of Gold Amalgam blocks separating it from a second chamber, with 2 Dusk Caps and a Thimble Reed in it.
• Another Vent in the Caustic Biome, that is a 50/50 chance between a second NatGas Vent, or a Chlorine Vent.
• 3 AETNs.  There are 4 templates, but only 3 of them will be used.
• Between 1 and 3 Oil Reservoirs down in the Oil Biome.
• The Gravitas Director's office Point of Interest on the Surface.

All other Vent/Geyser/Volcano formations are determined randomly (type, element, production rate).  Any other Ruins features are also selected randomly (lockers, computers, Neural Vascillators).

[hostagesaverfuz]

10 hours ago, PhailRaptor said:

The thing is that nothing in the game is truly guaranteed, because overlapping Point of Interest locations will cause deletion of one of the elements.  So even with the list of things you are supposed to get, it's not a true guarantee.

What every map should have is the following:

• 2 Cool Steam Vents that are exposed in the world.  One will be in the Swamp Biome with a chamber extending to the left, the other in the Caustic Biome with the chamber down and to the right.
• 1 NatGas Vent in the Swamp Biome.  It will be in a very small chamber, with a 1 tile thick wall of Gold Amalgam blocks separating it from a second chamber, with 2 Dusk Caps and a Thimble Reed in it.
• Another Vent in the Caustic Biome, that is a 50/50 chance between a second NatGas Vent, or a Chlorine Vent.
• 3 AETNs.  There are 4 templates, but only 3 of them will be used.
• Between 1 and 3 Oil Reservoirs down in the Oil Biome.
• The Gravitas Director's office Point of Interest on the Surface.

All other Vent/Geyser/Volcano formations are determined randomly (type, element, production rate).  Any other Ruins features are also selected randomly (lockers, computers, Neural Vascillators).

there can be 0 oil reservoirs

[SakuraKoi]

8 minutes ago, hostagesaverfuz said:

there can be 0 oil reservoirs

if you are very unlucky... anything can be gone though mostly the 2 oil biome random geysers are (the other 6 random are pretty much certain)

well, not everything but do you wanna see my three lakes (also actually guaranteed)? Well, sadly they are basically decimated (to 1/10) and the largest is like 70°C and still small.

 

regarding water: I guess one can add the other geyser to the POI selection like how it is either Chlorine or Natural Gas but one's wish to heat water up instead of down is technically impossible: Not only does polluted water heat up to 40°C when purified, which could be fixed, but more importantly most would welcome normal water at 1°C and even polluted water at -15°C. Cooling is much more valuable than heat/heat is not valuable at all while cooling is very. 

[PhailRaptor]

12 hours ago, SakuraKoi said:

well, not everything but do you wanna see my three lakes (also actually guaranteed)? Well, sadly they are basically decimated (to 1/10) and the largest is like 70°C and still small.

I think the water in the starter biome is a minimum mass.  Usually it is divided into 3 pools, one smaller the other 2 larger, but not always.  I've had a map generate once with a single VERY large lake, and a very very small pocket (like 6 full tiles).