So, I thought I'd post a thread about generating things other than levels, monsters, etc. As part of URR (main thread:
http://roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic=2822.0) I'm having the game generate flags for all of the in-game civs, and also icons and symbols for all the games religions. Below are some examples of generated flags:
The way a civilization's territory is coloured on the map is dependent upon the flag. The same combination of colours, and the same pattern, cannot be generated twice in one game - whilst, technically, this does make the possibilities finite, a quick calculation showed the number of options was orders of magnitude above what would ever be needed on even the largest possible map with the highest possible resources, land mass, and generally trying to set everything so that as many civilizations as possible were generated. There's a database of colours, which is significant, though not exhaustive - I tried out quite a lot of colours to decide which ones worked, and which ones didn't.
Secondly, I've got the game generating religious icons. These are *not finished*, as there are some that I feel still generate too similarly, and some that simply aren't that interesting, and a lot of extra "components" I intend to add to the generator, but it's a pretty good idea of the final product I have in mind. Religious icons are generated in three parts – a “base”, a “symbol”, and a “surround”. The base is the largest shape present – it might be two crescents at the top and bottom, various kinds of squares, triangles, octagons, linked squares, arrows, and the like. Once that’s been chosen, the game then selects a set of symbols appropriate to that base – symbols are the sections that go in the middle. Lastly, if *no* symbol has been chosen – some bases have no valid symbols, whilst even bases with valid symbols will sometimes choose against a symbol – then a surround is chosen, which is things that are outside the main design. Some of these are specific to specific designs, whilst others are more general. As with flags, names and everything else, the same religious icon cannot be generated twice in one game. And, like flags, some combinations are denied, either because they don’t look very interesting, or they actively create a clash between the components. Some symbols and surrounds are also changed to match with certain bases in certain ways – the upshot is, there are about 30 bases, 30 symbols and 30 surrounds, with variation within each, and that gives a heck of a lot of religious symbols.
So, do let me know what you think - I'm truly trying to generate as close to everything as possible, and these struck me as both interesting things I could generate, and a good way to add flavour into the game. I also generate "landscapes" for the game (again, see the thread), and in the future I plan to generate images for weapons, artefacts and the like, as well as heraldry, but I'll cover those when I get to them!
