Procedural Dungeon Generation for Eulora

Tuesday, 15 December, Year 7 d.Tr. | Author: Mircea Popescu

For a long, long time now Eulora's been looking for artists. This has worked miserably so fari notwithstanding that there's an immense population of starving artists and a very thin sliver of opportunities they have to ever matter.

Come to think about it, BitBet's been similarly looking for bookies, with very similar results : if it's like a nobility title, with a sinecure attached, then perhaps some white zombie would maybe (if not too lazy that day) condescend to accept the blessing. But otherwise... work ? What work ? Adding value, being useful, doing something ? Away with these demonic heresies! The white race has decided it wants to end - and perhaps it's for the best if it did, really.

Not one to be discouraged by experience (but on the contrary), here we are expanding the ever-expanding field of stuff that needs done, to coding. Specifically :

  • A C++ module that generates maps procedurally is required for Eulora.
  • In this first iteration, the idea of a "map" reduces to "a folded corridor 3 x 3 units in square section".
  • Folding means that the corridor may curve however you please (provided it's continuous, contains no volumes smaller than 3x3 units and no inclines over 10%) and run into itself (not necessarily at right angles).
  • In this first iteration, the idea of "procedural" reduces to "of a specified unit length". Note that because the server has to be able to track the movement of clients, your code must output a mapfile in the same format as currently seen in the Eulora client (for that matter - you should be able to test your work product by replacing the ghost place map with your own).
  • Compensation is available for this, in two forms. Firstly, you get game items of a reasonable value ; secondly, you get equity. In this first iteration, the idea of "equity" reduces to "you'll be the first in line to work with on this line".

This will be used in game for two different future developments. One is that the plan for remarkable and above claims is to have them transform into dungeons upon completion, rather than just spurt a quantity of material in your inventory. These dungeons will have access control, taxation by owner, all sorts of features. The other is that there's plans for another "exploration" sort of line - archeology - which discovers ancient items of varying size, from a small collection of pots to perhaps the fucking pyramids.

Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in doing. This is the first opportunity in two years for anyone to join the Eulora dev team, so don't mess it up.

———
  1. Highlights include that one guy who wanted to be paid time wage (hey, Szabo said it's what made capitalism great, rite ?) because "it took him too much time to not actually have anything deliverable". This somehow makes sense, I should undertake the costs of his ineffectual existence because hey, he gotta live!

    Highlights also include that other guy who, notwithstanding he's never worked for an "AAA" title, wants to ruin my game for me with his inept presumptuous bullshit. Because hey, the lost generation knows everything, through the simple process of having loaded up on some braindamaged priors that they're never EVER going to re-evaluate.

    Highlights also include 100s of full color, beautiful A3 posters plastered all over Buenos Aires (un ciudad de Argentinanoesunpaispobre) worth about 15 million idjits and no less than 300 different "multimedia online games" artschools, which mysteriously resulted in ZERO prospects. Just like that other thing.

    It's a wild ride out there in the lala-land of the unfortunately formally literate yet functionally illiterate. []

Category: S.MG
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