Procedural Generation and Permanent Features question

Mazhurg · May 5, 2014

Viajero said:
Oh I see. It does not need to be saved anywhere. The seed does the job for us, correct?

Correct. What can be (needs to be) saved however are those things that developers -or users- create (or destroy) beyond the initial seeding and that are deemed to be wanted kept around (persistence). Even then, if an object or event is to become a permanent status it can probably be incorporated in the overall generation.

Mephane · May 5, 2014

rlr149 said:
to be fair he's also got a point

faith_in_humanity -= 1;

Mazhurg · May 5, 2014

Mephane said:
faith_in_humanity -= 1;

OT - Man has advertised his eppen and woman her sensuality for aeons. Ain't gonna change so your faith is well placed.

Patrick_68000 · May 5, 2014

It seems logical that the procedural generation is done only once. It would be weird if a trader sees an ocean on a planet during a first journey, and a desert during a second journey on the same planet.

However I wonder when there will be the planetary landings, if the landscape will change depending on the season (when there will be planets with seasons of course) ?

Mazhurg · May 5, 2014

Patrick_68000 said:
It seems logical that the procedural generation is done only once. It would be weird if a trader sees an ocean on a planet during a first journey, and a desert during a second journey on the same planet.

However I wonder when there will be the planetary landings, if the landscape will change depending on the season (when there will be planets with seasons of course) ?

Eventually (tm). Probably not soon. :smilie:

(but it would be nice).

Patrick_68000 · May 5, 2014

Mazhurg said:
Eventually (tm). Probably not soon. :smilie:

(but it would be nice).

In winter, to hunt the game in hibernation, would be much more difficult

Pyros · May 5, 2014

Liqua said:
Or putting messages into planet surfaces that are viewable from space "Hello World"

I'd like to see a "Sorry for the inconvenience" message in a certain world.

(HHGTTG reference)

SlimExpert · May 5, 2014

My concern would be on mining. I think it was confirmed, you could by a mining rig, leave it on an asteroid, upon my return, stow the newly mined (refined too??) cargo and off I go.

two things cone to mind
1. will the asteroid get smaller with each visit? PG overrides
2. would other players be able to see my rig, and witness the same asteroid shrinkage. Broadcast of PG overrides.

SlimExpert

PS. no jokes about shrinkage, please

Memnoch · May 5, 2014

Regarding this idea that got floated about hunting animals, is there any significant interest in this in the community at large I wonder? Of all the things I could be doing in ED when PL and EVA expansions are available, running around on the surface shooting animals probably isn't going to be high on their list, no matter how beautifully PG they are!

Swap them for a raiders camp at a staging point for an invasion and count me in though!

Adept · May 6, 2014

I could go all Sea Shepherd, and try to save the animals from the safari, I guess.

Tinman · May 6, 2014

Memnoch said:
Regarding this idea that got floated about hunting animals, is there any significant interest in this in the community at large I wonder? Of all the things I could be doing in ED when PL and EVA expansions are available, running around on the surface shooting animals probably isn't going to be high on their list, no matter how beautifully PG they are!

Swap them for a raiders camp at a staging point for an invasion and count me in though!

Depends on the animal in question I guess...it's not necessarily bunnies we're talking about.

Although, in this particular case I would rather stay in my ship.

Dante80 · May 6, 2014

Tinman said:

No.NO, HELL NO!!

I...I..I think I'm gonna be a trader after all...

Hellhawk666 · May 6, 2014

Memnoch said:
Regarding this idea that got floated about hunting animals, is there any significant interest in this in the community at large I wonder? Of all the things I could be doing in ED when PL and EVA expansions are available, running around on the surface shooting animals probably isn't going to be high on their list, no matter how beautifully PG they are!

Yeah, I've always had a problem with that one. However flying upmarket eco-tours to interesting planets in one of passenger yachts might be fun - a long as all they are shooting is cameras

technome · May 6, 2014

Memnoch said:
Regarding this idea that got floated about hunting animals, is there any significant interest in this in the community at large I wonder? Of all the things I could be doing in ED when PL and EVA expansions are available, running around on the surface shooting animals probably isn't going to be high on their list, no matter how beautifully PG they are!

Swap them for a raiders camp at a staging point for an invasion and count me in though!

There's likely be a lot of profit in furs, leather, ivory-type products and aphrodisiacs for the rich and gullible. Who could possibly object to a little honest hunting, eh?

Oh, OK. Maybe some of the more fundamentalist Gaia-cult independent worlds would have laws against this sort of thing but their game wardens can't be everywhere, right?

Mu77ley · May 6, 2014

Patrick_68000 said:
It seems logical that the procedural generation is done only once. It would be weird if a trader sees an ocean on a planet during a first journey, and a desert during a second journey on the same planet.

That would never happen. As the whole thing is procedurally generated from the same seed and follows the same rules it would always be identical.

Maxeren · May 6, 2014

Random numbers with seed = always identical
Random number without seed = always random

Simples as that

Procedural generation wouldn't be very efficient if you had to generate it all at once, the seed makes the magic happend because you get identical numbers everytime for the same coordinates etc. so you can generate things on the fly depending on where you are.

So that sand planet will ways be a sand planet when using the same seed...

Joat · May 6, 2014

Patrick_68000 said:
It seems logical that the procedural generation is done only once. It would be weird if a trader sees an ocean on a planet during a first journey, and a desert during a second journey on the same planet.

However I wonder when there will be the planetary landings, if the landscape will change depending on the season (when there will be planets with seasons of course) ?

Procedural Generation generates orbital characteristics for the planet, use those to determine which season it is and apply that when drawing the planet.

Of course, it all depends on how far Frontier will take the development of ED. I see no problem implementing seasons, it's all about time and resources.

Ayo · May 6, 2014

Joat said:
Procedural Generation generates orbital characteristics for the planet, use those to determine which season it is and apply that when drawing the planet.

Of course, it all depends on how far Frontier will take the development of ED. I see no problem implementing seasons, it's all about time and resources.

Just to put it another way:

Seed is used to generate the system. Time is used to generate seasons.

Using time as an extension of the seed, you can generate many dynamic phenomena while it is still the same for everyone.