Creature & item distribution

[jose_tak]

Hello! I have a question about distributing creatures and items over a dungeon. How could I make it? Should I have a fixed set of things and spread them through the floors or should I randomize the creatures and items the player will find during his game? I would want every game to be winnable, but finding the same number and type of monsters through each floor seems boring and predictable. What systems do you use?

Thanks!

[penguin_buddha]

I have yet to implement the system for my game, but I plan on randomly placing monster "dens" around the map. Loot will be concentrated in these areas (the monsters have collected it) and monsters of a certain type will be placed around their corresponding den and their AI will lead them back to their dens if they stray to far (and aren't in combat).

[Endorya]

I have a system planed based on chance. Both items and creatures will appear based on chance having into consideration some aspects like the usual place they linger about as well as how often they should be encountered. The items and creatures in my game are generated dynamically and bound to a specific world generation seed, so even I, the author of it will be surprised by it.

Its hard to say the best method you should have because it is heavily dependent on what you are trying to achieve.

[IBOL]

My monsters generally have levels or difficulties , and basically on a given level you encounter monsters of vaguel appropriate level + - 2

Also I often exclude one random type of monster from a level or even entire game as a way of making place seem more specific

[jose_tak]

Interesting ideas, thanks for answering.

 

[Vanguard]

I often exclude one random type of monster from a level or even entire game as a way of making place seem more specific

Defining an area by what enemies it does have will give it a stronger identity than defining it by what enemies it lacks.

[Trystan]

One thing I'd like to add is that dead ends are boring and frustrating unless they have cool items. If, during worldgen, you can identify rooms with only one door or other dead ends, you can put loot or a boss or then exit there.

[Krice]

This topic is related to thing called balancing. It's possibly the most difficult thing in complex games, especially with random generation.

With monsters the "next" step from level/depth-based generation is difficulty level of a monster. It's preventing situations where a large number of difficult monsters are created, making the game unbalanced and maybe even too difficult to win. So for example if your level has ten points to use in monster generation, you could create two orcs (5 points) or ten acid blobs (1 point), or one orc and 5 acid blobs etc.

[Endorya]

One thing I'd like to add is that dead ends are boring and frustrating unless they have cool items. If, during worldgen, you can identify rooms with only one door or other dead ends, you can put loot or a boss or then exit there.

Agreed. That a thing I really want to purge from my project. Exploration MUST be rewarding.

[guest509]

I've use the system where each star system (room) has a random number of baddies and resources/items. But never too much of either.

Then sometimes a system/room is special. That system/room has TONS of resources or some special invisible monsters (romulans) or is just weird (space whales) or is just a normal system/room but triple the pirates....

It depends on your design, obviously you aren't building star systems, but the over all concept I've been concentrating on is that most the time things are tame but about 10% of the time shit gets crazy.

[Trystan]

Then sometimes a system/room is special. That system/room has TONS of resources or some special invisible monsters (romulans) or is just weird (space whales) or is just a normal system/room but triple the pirates....

I've done the same thing and I think it's really cool when some things show up in only 1% or so of the games. It makes for fun surprises and it makes places seem more immersive out and less generic and boring.

[jose_tak]

Your answers have helped me a lot! I totally agree about special rooms (specially if they include space whales!). Also, Krice's points idea sounds great for balancing, which was my main problem regarding monster distribution, I will sure give it a try. Thanks again guys!

[Vanguard]

It depends on your design, obviously you aren't building star systems, but the over all concept I've been concentrating on is that most the time things are tame but about 10% of the time shit gets crazy.

I love it when game developers do this.

I mean, ideally the game should always be interesting, but adding little events where something exciting or mysterious happens can add a ton of life to your game.  Brogue's puzzle rooms are an excellent example.

[wire_hall_medic]

. . . most the time things are tame but about 10% of the time shit gets crazy.

This.  Not crazy unwinnable, but crazy alarming (when it's bad).  And the knowledge that around the next corner could be something not just a little better but a lot helps encourage exploration.

[guest509]

  Yes it's something I put a lot of thought into, that rare occurrences happen every game. It ups the 'oh crap' factor. Especially if you hit the player with it all at once. Like my last game you hit a star system having NO IDEA what's in it. Then BAM, space whales. Or you snuck through the system last time but this time you are decloaked and so now the pirates are coming at you.

  Freakin' Game Hunter found Romulans and Space Whales in the same game. That was fun to see. He never did find a pirate system, they were too rare and depended on how many asteroids...it was complicated. ;-)

There were ion storm systems (messing up your cloak) and black holes (pull you toward the center each turn) but they didn't make the final cut...

  To do this truly well you need to have quite a bit of content. If doing a linear dungeon dive (or tower climb or starbase jaunt or cavern rappel...) you might want to keep track of how many level's it has been since a Rare happened, and increase the likelyhood.

So on a roll of 6+ the level has a 'rare' event. +1 to the check for each level passed without a special. Rares can be special monsters, special rooms, puzzles, artifacts, hidden corridors, etc...If you are truly bad ass maybe the entire level is special.

And all this can change depending on what you are doing. I'm talking single screen linear dives here.