Random World Generation

[Daxter304]

I was thinking, it's possible that we could have a random world generation. I thought a bit about it as I was falling asleep one night so here goes the thoughts: Each route is randomly generated, but it can have specific things put in it. There will be a text (Or XML, will need to determine that) file for every route and the generator will read the first line to find out what it needs to know to generate it. When you first get to the route it will be generated and all information put into the text/XML file. Next the game will read in every step you take and figure out what you are standing on in the game. I figure routes can be random length between two set values (8-20 for example). Then lets say it wants to put in grass, that could be 2-6 long. Next trainers could be added, possibly with a max allowed. Finally I figure with this that when you tell your character to move, it could move until it runs into something so you don't have to constantly type 'move'. Example: "Move forward, you have moved 5 spaces over road and have walked into grass, where would you like to move now? Forward, you have moved 1 space over grass and have walked into grass." Or you could run into a trainer or whatever. Maybe water, "You have run into water, where would you like to move now?" You could say surf to keep moving. Anyways that's all the thoughts I had on that as far as I remember. /Wall of text

[IN3D]

This isn't a bad idea, but I feel the need to ask a few things for clarification...

1. And I don't mean the to be rude at all (I realize it may come off that way), but why? What in your opinion does a route being random offer over it being consistent?
2. Am I understanding correctly, that there would be some data about what the route must contain in data somewhere, and then the route will be generated based on those conditions? So, once it is generated, is it saved like that for the remainder of that game (if there were a save load system)?
3. Would move take in some other numeric parameter to accommodate this? In your examples I see the player moving 5 spaces, and 1 space, but how is that conveyed through the command line? As a follow up, what are you thinking of for directions? the player would need to specify direction in some way, otherwise how is the move to be interpreted?

Personally, I've been leaning more toward moving away from the command line and towards some kind of graphic interface, but that's just me.

Lemme know, Thanks!

[Daxter304]

1. Replay-ability. Variation is always nice, think of Torchlight 2 where dungeons are all randomly generated each time you play.
2. Yes, there would be data for each route prior, and after generation it would be saved and stay that way. So lets take the route that has the pokemon daycare, that has to exist. Again I can also point to Torchlight 2 (No T2 didn't give me this idea :P), the Dijinni will always be there but the area will be random.
3. I wasn't sure how the world would work initially so I just thought of it as a person moving just forward and backward, but it wouldn't be impossible to add up-down too.

Graphics would be good, but first we should just get a text based one going first perhaps.

[IN3D]

Ok, now I see how you're envisioning this, it's like a side scrolling 1D sort of thing? I have a concern with it, that while it's a neat idea it might not be the right fit for Pokemon.

For example, using something you mentioned; they route that has the day care center on it. If you look at basically every game from gen 2 on (once eggs became a part of the game), the day care center is always on the longest continuous stretch of ground in the game. In gen 3 for example not only was it a long route by itself, it ran straight through a town without a turn, and to the end of a second shorter route. This sort of thing is actually an important feature to the game because it makes hatching eggs noticeably easier.

I think your idea is actually cool, but I'm not sure it's right for this. Of course, I might be wrong about it. If you can think of solutions to cases like this let me know.

[Daxter304]

In my minds eye I was thinking of text but to visualize it yeah it would be a path 1 wide and X long. But that was just a basic way of thinking about it, we can make it anything.

As for a solution, that's easy. Daycare route has to be at least a certain length then. In my mind only routes are random, cities and places adjoining routes are set. So the town could be there but just different lengths away. In the end length could be unchanging and what is in the route could be random, maybe 3 trainers, maybe 6. Maybe lots of grass, maybe almost none.

[IN3D]

So something like text characters representing the ground. Something like...

Key:
_ = ground
# = Grass
~ = Water

You enter Route 3:

__###__~~__#_

In 100% honestly, I'm not sold, I see Pokemon as a game that has a lot of repetition and predictability (at least in this respect). However, it could be something interesting in it's own regard. So if you want to try it out in your own branch and see where it goes, I'm all for it. While I'm working on rebooting things in the master repo, I think it would be good that everyone just fiddle and come up with cool ideas in the mean time. So if you'd like to start working on something like this feature in your fork go for it.

[IN3D]

The issue was discussed in our meeting on 08/04/2014 and was agreed upon to be implemented by the group. See meeting minutes for details.