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Constantly Changing Terrain

In-game terrain changes in real time
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In this game, the terrain morphs constantly around you in a random fashion while buildings, obstructions, etc. appear and disappear in different random locations. The advantage gained by learning a static map would be negated when playing this map which would allow for a fairer first person shooter experience. A possible way to implement this would be to allow the map to change in areas which are uninhabited for a period of time.
pppporkins, Oct 26 2010

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       Not sure if preventing players from improving by learning would make the game popular, but an attractive idea for its own, aesthetic sake. [+] for that, and for reminding me of "The Men Return," a classic Jack Vance story which confronts its protagonist with a similarly irrational landscape.
mouseposture, Oct 26 2010
  

       "Time Fighters". A game wherin time passes extremely quickly, but only to the player; so as they run around, natural causes make mountains form, rivers meander, and continents drift visibly.
DrWorm, Oct 27 2010
  

       I like the idea of generating a 'new' map for all the players in a multi-player FPS - there is a distinct advantage in 'learning the map' and a more general playing style might be encouraged if everything was new, to everyone at the beginning of each game.   

       The tricky part comes in where you have to automatically generate a map while ensuring it has interesting and non-biased qualities. That being said, war isn't fair, so why should an FPS be?   

       Having a map that morphs in real-time during play would be a bit weird, I'm not sure how you'd be able to explain that away.
zen_tom, Oct 27 2010
  

       //how you'd be able to explain that away// The first two annos are answers to that question.
mouseposture, Oct 27 2010
  

       //not sure how you'd be able to explain that away//

Why should you need to explain, z_t? It's a game. So the rules are whatever the game designer says they are.
DrBob, Oct 27 2010
  

       I meant explain, in terms of situating it and the rules that model its behaviour within some kind of self-consistent narrative.   

       Having a narrative underpinning the rules, can help imbue otherwise dry logical statements with a sense of depth and context. Imagine a description of the rules of that oldest of computer games, Lander, without having a physical analogue/narrative to help describe the formulation of those rules. It would just be a bunch of maths.   

       "Welcome to Lander, ensure the value of V stays below a limit of X at the point where Y = 0 and V=MA. Where A = -9.8, Y starts at 100 and M = 100 before F =< 0. You start with 100F. Use applications of A++5 to avoid L-1 but remember each application decrements F by 5! You have 3 L. Extra L at 10000P!"   

       Such a game would have to be set within a world/environment in which this unusual behaviour was normal - and that's fine, it just poses some limitations on what narratives you can adopt.
zen_tom, Oct 27 2010
  

       //Such a game would have to be set within a world/environment in which this unusual behaviour was normal //   

       This could work out very well, in a game with a fantasy setting instead of sci-fi. You would expect the terrain of Fairyland to change, right? [+]
gisho, Oct 27 2010
  
      
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