Random Island Generator?

pollywog · May 19, 2018

As far as I am aware it does not seem to be disclosed about whether or not there will be a random island generator completely independent from, or potentially unlocked by, completion of the campaign mode.

It would seem that being restricted to the five islands in strictly campaign mode, or Nublar with absolutely no cash restrictions, would limit replay ability.

I am hoping Universal didn't put some sort of restriction on the developers to put it a random island generator.

I want to mention that the visual aspect of the game looks amazing; the graphics, dinosaurs, trees, everything. The campaign does look like it will be fun to go through.

I am just really hoping that management oriented play will not be limited to simply one or two large islands within the context of campaign mode, but that there will exist the option on Nublar, or a 'random island generator', to engage in management oriented play independent of the context of the other five campaign islands.

I realize I created another similar thread to this; but the question is slightly differently worded. I am not incredulous at the ability to play Nublar as a 'sandbox' mode free of cash restrictions, but I am hoping that the ability to have cash/ management restrictions on Nublar or randomly generated islands independent of campaign mode is present as an option.

Sorry if this seems redundant. I expect moderators might merge threads if they deem it is.

Lora Craft69 · May 20, 2018

While I do find that a great option to have, I don't want to get your hopes up to much because from everything we've seen so far nothing points into the direction of a random island generator.
It is probably more likely to see a challenge mode (sandbox without unlimited money and everything locked) for Isla Nublar than this.
From what I've seen in the past days the community seems equally divided about Nublar and while my biggest wish was for it to be a sandbox mode, I do see that having both options would be very good for everybody.

blubbit · May 20, 2018

I think this a good point to bring up and warrants its own thread.

It would be nice. I don't think it will though if Nublar is the sandbox, UNLESS a procedural generation mechanic is already worked into Nublar.

BlindWatcher · May 20, 2018

It would be nice, but is it possible on the developer's side of things? RNG map generators might seem like a very simple and basic feature; but the better graphics get, the harder something like generating a beautiful Caribbean island that's fun to play on gets. It simply may be an unfortunate impossibility due to the constrains the Devs are working with.

Really, it's not exactly that contemptible if a random island generator will never come to be. The recent Tropico games don't have a random map generator, neither does Cities Skyline; and indeed neither do older zoo management games like Zoo Tycoon. They're all based on pre-made maps, for better or worse. And all of those games have a fair number of them, which brings us to what should be what we desire from JW:E in the future: More Maps.

Building a random island generator will take months of work for the devs, and possibly quite a bit of money; but they can make more islands for us in far less time and at far less cost. Releasing the tools they used to construct the islands in the first place would basically solve the problem as well. Even if you think you want 'random islands', really what you want is 'more islands'; and with modern modding hubs (Steam Workshop being one of many), I think the capacity for the community to produce as many islands as it desires is well within the realm of possibility.

dLimith · May 20, 2018

If you look at a game like Tropico 5 you can choose a random Island and have the options like: money difficulty. Starter money. Flat or hilly. Rare disasters or frequent. So something similar for this would be nice.

Vin · May 20, 2018

Probably not, but I suspect there might be a mapping tool somewhere down the line.

Andrew2018 · May 20, 2018

I highly doubt it, it seems like the Devs or Universal have really wanted to play on just the main 6 islands. I am fine with that though.

pollywog · May 20, 2018

From what I've read it seems like they will somehow make modding the game impossible; which basically means extremely difficult. I don't know why they would do this unless they had specific direction from Universal to make the game as un-moddable as possible to satisfy Universals ownership of JP likeliness. So in that regard, I don't see a crowd generated random island generator coming into existence given the relative complexity of the task. If a random island generator with customizable options (money limitations, disaster frequency) does become a Frontier supported patch or DLC down the line, this game will have significantly more replay value. It already looks like it will be an awesome game as is; but customizable sandbox options and a random island generator take it to another level.

I'm straying off topic here, but I did enjoy how JPOG was easily moddable through the game files for simple things; like the dinsoaur number limit on the island. or other simple things like that. Something I would do with JWE in that regard just to suit my fancy is make all the dinosaurs found at the real world dig sites to be found at the dig sites in the game and modify the total possible fossils uncovered and frequency of the remains of certain species to reflect the actual fossil beds in real life. That way I'd have to scour multiple sites potentially for certain dinosaurs; such that it may become more satisfying to get certain ones because of the rarity of finding those fossils; as opposed to the one dinosaur per dig site that seems to occur for certain dinosaurs. Also I would change the name of any amber finds to say simply "amber" so that I wouldn't know what was in the amber until after it was extracted. This is just sort of a realism thing cause there would be no way to know what was in amber until you sequenced the DNA you extracted from the insect; with fossils its obvious. It would also make the decision to extract or sell slightly more interesting.

PCMR4Life · May 21, 2018

I don't think we need a random island generator. Frontier has made some beautiful looking islands. I feel like I am looking at the real places when I see them in videos and pictures. The randomly generated islands in JPOG were boring and didn't look very good. They only came in round shapes or squares.

I would rather have some very well made islands than some randomly generated garbage tier ones. Also a lot of the JPOG player base just spent their time trying to make the novel and film islands anyway. Frontier already did this for us and they are better at it.

Andrew2018 · May 21, 2018

PCMR4Life said:
I don't think we need a random island generator. Frontier has made some beautiful looking islands. I feel like I am looking at the real places when I see them in videos and pictures. The randomly generates islands in JPOG were boring and didn't look very good. They only game in round shapes or squares.

I would rather have some very well made islands than some randomly generated garbage tier ones. Also a lot of the JPOG player base just spent their time trying to make the novel and film islands anyway. Frontier already did this for us and they are better at it.

I hated how every Island in JPOG was a bloody square.

PCMR4Life · May 21, 2018

Andrew2018 said:
I hated how every Island in JPOG was a bloody square.

So did I. They also lacked a lot of features. I hated how they didn't have any beaches or anything.

pollywog · May 22, 2018

PCMR4Life said:
So did I. They also lacked a lot of features. I hated how they didn't have any beaches or anything.

You guys do have a point here. The JPOG islands were nowhere near as graphically refined and detailed as the islands we have so far seen in JWE. But JPOG is 15 years old so that should be a given. I am not saying that the JWE islands we have seen don't look awesome even for 2018 and that the developers could have made them significantly better.

But......does that mean that having a random island generator in JWE would be worse than not having one? Imagine if at the click of the button you could have an entirely new island, just as beautiful as the ones wehave already seen, and you could build a park up from scratch and go through the tech tree from scratch in challenge mode or choose "sandbox" mode; along with all the other weather, disaster, island options.

When it comes down to it having the exact same six islands to play on will produce predictable situations once it is replayed. Having the option of challenge mode for Nublar, in addition to "sandbox" mode, will help increase replay value, but not as much as having a random island generator.

Its true we don't neeeeed it. No one neeeeeds to even play any computer/ video games at all. Its true the game already looks like it will be fantastic and I'm not denying Frontier has done an excellent job at it. But if you are saying the game wouldn't have more replay value if a random island generator was included, really? If they release an expansion pack with a random island generator are you saying you wouldn't buy it?

Deviljho · May 22, 2018

It would be really hard and costly at this time of the production to create an island generator that creates islands geographically logical. It would be better to give tools to modders, and let them create new islands. The problem with this is that only Xbox is friendly with mods, Sony... well…

But whatever, they didn't confirmed if there will be mod support...

Lora Craft69 · May 22, 2018

Deviljho said:
It would be really hard and costly at this time of the production to create an island generator that creates islands geographically logical. It would be better to give tools to modders, and let them create new islands. The problem with this is that only Xbox is friendly with mods, Sony... well…

But whatever, they didn't confirmed if there will be mod support...

They actually confirmed that there will be no mod support at the moment of release but they might look into that in the future.

Andrew2018 · May 22, 2018

Deviljho said:
It would be really hard and costly at this time of the production to create an island generator that creates islands geographically logical. It would be better to give tools to modders, and let them create new islands. The problem with this is that only Xbox is friendly with mods, Sony... well…

But whatever, they didn't confirmed if there will be mod support...

Yep it is 100% confirmed no mod support.