Digging into the editor

HI there,

First let me say, WOW! how amazing this tool is.

Now let me mention a couple improvements I would love to see:

1.
The ability to mix mods and scenarios. What I mean is something similar to Crawl Stone Soup. You have you average random generic levels and sometimes, on certain levels at a certain depth (defined by parameters), you may come across the entrance to special area or level. This special area could be a custom built level (scenario), or a random level with special definitions similar to a mod. We would now have the ability to mix procedural levels, custom built levels, and procedural levels with unique definitions. Maybe even hybrid levels that contain some predefined elements and some generated elements?

So this bring us to the second request.

2.
The ability to link levels together in a more complex way instead of just one on top of the other. By choosing what level each stairway is linked to, we can now create some really interesting plot-oriented adventures with this amazing editor!

BTW, I am considering making a Dwarf Fortres mod and the above requests come from me thiking it through. I would want players to be able to go up and down and generally explore the Fortress in a free-form way. These features would allow that to happen.

Nahjor's picture
I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)

For #1, yeah, I'd love to do something like that. It's quite a bit of work to get something like that added though, and I'm not sure that the editor has been well-enough received to make adding that worthwhile. What sorts of things would you want to be able to tweak, for a procedurally-generated level?

As to #2, you can do that already, to an extent. The "Change To Map" command will let you move the PC from one map to another; you can thus set up triggers/levers/remotes that will allow such things. It's certainly possible to add a "custom stairs" template to another version of the editor, though, which would allow you to have the same functionality with stairs.

Looking forward to seeing your mod!

Administrator
#2 Then I will have to dig in

#2 Then I will have to dig in a little more! But 2 way staircases like in crawl would be nice, which leads us to #1 below.

#1 It would be nice to start with:

  • number of exits and where they will go
  • type/level/difficulty of mobs
  • any special items that you want players to find
  • special/named mobs that will show up
  • size
  • persistent once it is generated, because players may pass through again

So imagine this. We enter a large procedural level that will have 4 exits. 3 of those exits go to levels we have custom designed and will hold some special items we need later in the dungeon. These are dead-ends at some point and the player will return to the large procedural level we are talking about. AT some point they will find the fourth exit that takes them further into the dungeon.

Nahjor's picture
Hunh. Ok. Well, the

Hunh. Ok. Well, the procedural things you note there are certainly doable. I have no idea how to integrate those into the editor as-is; it'll probably require a significant overhaul to add them, but it could be done.

The one thing there that's a problem child is the issue of persistence. MageGuild has no concept of persistence between levels whatsoever, and adding it is definitely not trivial. I'm just not sure that there's enough interest in the editor to make such an addition worthwhile, sadly.

Administrator