Door that spawns at random locations

[Storms of Superior]

Hey again, folks.

 

I have been wondering for a few months whether or not it is possible to have a door that loads a dungeon that spawns in a random place, but I have been too busy with other stuff to find out.

 

So is it possible?

[Content Consumer]

I don't see why not.

Consider that many of Skyrim's default encounters are (somewhat) randomly generated in place... I'm thinking specifically here of the College of Winterhold "Aftershock" quests. The Magic Anomalies are placed in a semi-random spot in the world.

 

Given this, it should be possible to spawn a simple doorway or small portal at a random spot too.

 

Making it an actual thing like a cave entrance might be a bit more complicated, because you'd have to build in to the local environment seamlessly, but still possible.

[Storms of Superior]

I'm thinking of a farmhouse door that just spawns in the open wilderness or on a road somewhere. No door frame, no building it into any structure.

 

Maybe I can make it spawn like a thief encounter, but with the regularity of an Imperial patrol encounter.

 

Forgive me, but if I can do this, I'll be keeping the content of the mod to myself for my own entertainment.

[Killing Joke]

You wanna turn skyrim into a roguelike or something?

[Content Consumer]

......................

......................

.......@.....+........

......................

......................

A door suddenly appears in front of you.

A grue steps out of the door and EATS YOU.

You are dead.

Play again?

[Storms of Superior]

You wanna turn skyrim into a roguelike or something?

 

What's "roguelike?"

[Content Consumer]

From RogueBasin:

"

A Roguelike is usually described as a free turn-based computer game with a strong focus on intricate gameplay and replayability, and an abstract world representation using ASCII-based display, as opposed to 3D graphics. Of course, as with any genre, there are deviations from the norm.

Roguelikes allow the player an indefinite amount of time in which to make a move, making gameplay comparable more to chess than to reflex-based games like first-person shooters. Since graphics are limited (if not completely shunned), the player's imagination must come into play - gameplay is more like reading a book than watching a movie.

Of course, the best way to understand what Roguelikes are is to download and play one.

"

[Storms of Superior]

So early Final Fantasy games.

 

The mod I'm thinking of building is almost like "Choose Your Own Adventure." Not quite, but the player will have to decide whether or not it's really worth opening the door, and also fighting curiosity.

 

That much I will give away.

[Killing Joke]

So early Final Fantasy games.

 

The mod I'm thinking of building is almost like "Choose Your Own Adventure." Not quite, but the player will have to decide whether or not it's really worth opening the door, and also fighting curiosity.

 

That much I will give away.

 

Nah FF games are (J)RPGs, roguelikes are, among other things, based on random generated content, which it seems you also want to do.

[Sailing Rebel]

Sensibly the random location thing wouldn't be so random. All possible locations would have to be pre-selected and cells prepared with the appropriate edits. Your placed door(s) would then start disabled. When the time comes, one of these locations would be selected and the door at that location enabled.

 

It would be possible to place the door object randomly in proximity to the player but calculating the position relative to the local terrain and ensuring it is actually accessible and does not hinder critical path progress might prove problematic. Still, it is certainly doable and there are a number of mods that allow dynamic placements of typically static mesh objects (see Frostfall fire and tent placement). I only have a vague idea how they do that, though.

[Storms of Superior]

Well there is a reason I gave up on Frostfall; the fires and tents were always half-way underground and tilted in a crazy way.

[Storms of Superior]

In another method, the placement of the doors can be placed at the centers of each exterior cell. There would be a roll, maybe a percentage based roll, to determine whether or not a door spawns at that location. From there, the placement could be tweaked according to terrain and NPC pathing schedules to avoid conflicts.

 

Is the center "X" cell at the top of a mountain? No problem; place the spawn point near the highest accessible point on the mountain.

 

Is the spawn point in the way of NPCs? No problem; place the door to the side of the road.

 

Is the door still in a bad spot? Well, hell, I don't know...

 

I guess I would give a notification that a door has spawned within "X" cell, and leave it up to the player to decide whether or not to chase it.

 

If anyone is fond of old fantasy movies, this idea was inspired by Krull, which is a great movie in its own right.

[Storms of Superior]

OK. I'm off to get ready for work. I'll look forward to seeing anything else anyone has to say about this. Thanks for the input, folks.

[Sailing Rebel]

In another method, the placement of the doors can be placed at the centers of each exterior cell. There would be a roll, maybe a percentage based roll, to determine whether or not a door spawns at that location. From there, the placement could be tweaked according to terrain and NPC pathing schedules to avoid conflicts.

 

Is the center "X" cell at the top of a mountain? No problem; place the spawn point near the highest accessible point on the mountain.

 

Is the spawn point in the way of NPCs? No problem; place the door to the side of the road.

 

Is the door still in a bad spot? Well, hell, I don't know...

 

I guess I would give a notification that a door has spawned within "X" cell, and leave it up to the player to decide whether or not to chase it.

 

If anyone is fond of old fantasy movies, this idea was inspired by Krull, which is a great movie in its own right.

 

The problem with the procedural approach is that some of the criteria are difficult to analyse. For example how would you identify the top of a mountain, or the interior of a mountain for that matter, what data is needed to distinguish road terrain and how do you get that into your script? What constitutes "accessible" and how do you turn that into a boolean condition in your script?

 

While less "fun" I would still say that having ~20 predefined locations to choose from will be much less hassle and have far fewer bugs to deal with.

[Storms of Superior]

 

In another method, the placement of the doors can be placed at the centers of each exterior cell. There would be a roll, maybe a percentage based roll, to determine whether or not a door spawns at that location. From there, the placement could be tweaked according to terrain and NPC pathing schedules to avoid conflicts.

 

Is the center "X" cell at the top of a mountain? No problem; place the spawn point near the highest accessible point on the mountain.

 

Is the spawn point in the way of NPCs? No problem; place the door to the side of the road.

 

Is the door still in a bad spot? Well, hell, I don't know...

 

I guess I would give a notification that a door has spawned within "X" cell, and leave it up to the player to decide whether or not to chase it.

 

If anyone is fond of old fantasy movies, this idea was inspired by Krull, which is a great movie in its own right.

 

The problem with the procedural approach is that some of the criteria are difficult to analyse. For example how would you identify the top of a mountain, or the interior of a mountain for that matter, what data is needed to distinguish road terrain and how do you get that into your script? What constitutes "accessible" and how do you turn that into a boolean condition in your script?

 

While less "fun" I would still say that having ~20 predefined locations to choose from will be much less hassle and have far fewer bugs to deal with.

 

 

It looks like I wasn't clear, but I do agree, after giving it thought, and after consideration of advice, that predefined locations would be better than random spawn points.

 

If I can be more clear, please ask questions (anyone), and I'll do my best to rephrase things in a way that can be better understood; I understand that there are many folks on LL who don't speak English as a first language, and I tend to be distracted when I share information. If it seems like something is missing, please say so; I'm always glad to help.