Disclaimer: While I understand what procedural generation is, I don’t know the finer nuances of it, such as actually programming it
The suggestion is in the title: Create maps that are procedurally generated. This can be used for, but not limited to:
What’s Procedural Generation?
Procedural Generation is the generating of content through an algorithm, rather than hand-crafting zones. This process creates content that is somewhat random (funnily enough, fractals (not the dungeon) are created through procedural generation).
What can this offer?
- Engagement – I feel two of the reasons that people aren’t as engaged with content nowadays is because a) walkthroughs remove the need to discover and think for yourself, and b) repeating the same content over and over causes the sense of discovery to wane. Procedurally-generated maps for WvW would bring an extra element in which players would have to discover forts and such (maybe even scrapping already constructed forts, and giving the players tools to create forts at places of power on the map), while procedurally-generated dungeons world help prevent the tedium of running the same dungeon over and over (engaging encounters being the same).
- Meaningful Interaction with the Environment – That is, smashing a fireball into a tree with set it alight, or cannons firing will actually indent the land. Because a different map is generated each time they are used, it doesn’t really matter if that map gets wrecked. Going back to a thought above, you could use this feature as a tool for player-created forts and such (taking stone from a cliff to create blocks to create a fort).
- Strategic Approach to Content – Tying in with the engagement point, if you have an unfamiliar landscape every time, you need to plan ahead. Scouts will need to find the most strategic points to make their forts, as well as discovering these places of power, as well as finding the best place to attack from.
What are the downsides?
- Potential for bugs / unfriendly User Experience – Since it is randomly generated, it’s entirely possible that the map could have areas inaccessible by some races (Norns really should cut down on the meat and ale…). However, this could potentially be turned into a positive; imagine, a crack team of Asuran’s finding a little tunnel which comes out on a cliff where they can safely enter an enemy’s keep. As for bugs, this is more in terms of dungeons, since the procedural generation would also have to apply things like pathing and mob creation and placement.
All in all, I feel this would lend itself very well to WvW in terms of adding depth to it, and potentially to dungeons to prevent them from becoming too repetitive.
A random thought: Do you think this could be applied to SPvP?
Life is a journey.
Time is a river.
The door is ajar.