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[sandersan]

I just entered the world of Cogmind several days ago, so I have lots of questions.
In this post I'd like to ask about the maps.
1)Do the maps generate randomly? If so, why there are some "new" maps added each time the game updates?
2)Is the mechanism of levels in Cogmind the same as that in other roguelike games? In Cogmind, the players are seems not able to return to the last level. And the core evolves as we enter a new level.
3)Does every level have a specific theme in Cogmind? I note some levels are marked as "Factory", some are "Materials",... And is each level devided into several functional area?
4)Will the map grow infinitely as the time flows, when there are many miner bots?

Hope these fool questions may not bother you guys!
Or you could send me a link if there already exists a passage about the questions above.

BTW, is the official wiki ready to run? Which is the link?

[zxc]

Quick answers:

1) The levels generate randomly (using a seed). New 'maps' being added to the game are branches you can explore that are like side paths and optional.
2) You can't go back to previous levels. This is different to most roguelikes. But DoomRL is the same.
3) Factory is a different type of level to Materials. It has different enemies, level generation, and different branches that you can access.
4) I'm not sure if it grows infinitely. But it does grow a lot. I've never sat around long enough to see by how much.

Wiki: http://gridsagegames.com/wiki/Main_Page

[sandersan]

Thanks! The mechanism of levels seems slightly different from other rl games, so it confused me a lot.

[Star Weaver]

1a - When Kyzrati talks about adding new maps, he usually means 'map generation procedures' and the parameters and tuning that go with them. From what I understand, recently he made a new cave generator and then made some 3+ different regions that all use that generator with different parameters and constraints.

1b - There's also 'prefabs', which are hand made bits of map that get stuffed into the random map to make it better, so that's another level of hand-crafting that goes into a region. If you've seen other roguelikes with 'vaults' or 'special rooms' that have any atypical geometry, it's probably the same general idea.

2a - Angband is the classic middle ground, where you can backtrack but you won't end up in the same place again.

2b - Cogmind actually evolves when getting closer to the surface. Not all transitions do this. This can be important when deciding how long you can sidequest.

3 - Personally I think of it like, you're in an underground skyscraper or something, there is a materials division that is 2 floors tall, and a factory division that is 4 floors or whatever tall, etc.

4 - Hmm, has anyone asked/heard Kyzrati about that? I was just being curious if miners follow a plan determined at mapgen or if they just roll up new rooms on the go.

For that matter, engineers occasionally moving entire new machines into new rooms would be awesome for the core living dungeon.

[Kyzrati]

About topic #4, maps are not infinite in size, and except for the first aren't usually expanded a whole lot, at least not under any current designs. It's possibly to add maps that are dynamically expanded much more broadly, as you can see in the Scrapyard, though it wouldn't serve much of a purposes besides fluff, either, so it's not worth adding.

Also, the engineers have a plan for what they're doing--it's not random.

engineers occasionally moving entire new machines into new rooms would be awesome for the core living dungeon.

That's one of the big things that's missing in terms of the ecosystem, machines being repairable or buildable, though these features were never intended to be added, either. Maybe one day (but probably not). Would be a neat bit of fluff.

[Star Weaver]

About topic #4, maps are not infinite in size, and except for the first aren't usually expanded a whole lot, at least not under any current designs. It's possibly to add maps that are dynamically expanded much more broadly, as you can see in the Scrapyard, though it wouldn't serve much of a purposes besides fluff, either, so it's not worth adding.

Also, the engineers have a plan for what they're doing--it's not random.

Hmm, random wasn't quite the right word, more, I meant I wasn't sure if they were "merely" continuing construction of areas already marked by the map generator, like a Dwarf Fortress game with way too much pre-planning, or if they were applying their building rules on the fly.

Given that the core dungeon dosen't stay damaged or dug out, I guess you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, really.

The first method would let you just generate a more dense map than needed and turn off a percentage of rooms for live construction later.

I will say in my first hour of play in the new version, I found a secret door via terminal hack that lead away from the hallway the room was on, and when I took it, the room it connected to was still being dug and finished off of some other hallway. That was pretty cool.

That's one of the big things that's missing in terms of the ecosystem, machines being repairable or buildable, though these features were never intended to be added, either. Maybe one day (but probably not). Would be a neat bit of fluff.

Could also allow for the reintroduction of an occasional repaired/new interactive machine greeting when they have to run back through a area.

Also I sort of imagine the player observing a hubbub of robots, realizing that the engineering truckbots are carrying e.g. fabricator blocks, and trying to hang around out of sight to use the new toy when they build it.

[Kyzrati]

I will say in my first hour of play in the new version, I found a secret door via terminal hack that lead away from the hallway the room was on, and when I took it, the room it connected to was still being dug and finished off of some other hallway. That was pretty cool.

I've run into situations like that before, too, and thought that was neat

They're building according to a premade plan for the entire floor, not designing rooms on the fly. As you note though there's really no difference from the player's point of view. (That said, if the latter method were used instead, the chance of odd results would be much higher.)