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Neural_Kernel
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Posts: 1
Joined: March 16th, 2011, 9:37 pm

Hi everybody!

Post by Neural_Kernel »

Hello all, I've just started mucking about with PAS, started with Sauerbraten but figured that for trying to make a game I could use a bit of extra hand holding :)
After a few hurdles (mostly related to my use of a trackball without a mousewheel or middle button) getting things set up I've started making a few very basic maps to see how some of my game ideas will work.
The basic premise is from a pen and paper RPG setting I've been working on for a while... it's not really kid friendly but it's not unfriendly exactly either... oh well.
I originally wanted to set the game on a procedurally generated planet... I pushed that idea to the back of my head for now, it'd probably be as easy to write a new engine as modifying cube2 to handle that sort of thing and I'm just not up to the job :D
So I decided on a compromise, a ringworld. I figure that I can use teleports to switch maps when you reach the edge of the current one. Since a ringworld is basically linear it means I only need to link each map to two others instead of eight (or more!) and the geometry is potentially a lot simpler. A ringworld can also be a LOT smaller than a planet in terms of surface area (they can also be much larger... but that doesn't help me much here) leaving me with much less mapping to do.
Even with the compromises and tricks I've got in mind it's still a huge job just to make the basic levels, so I'm poking around the darkest corners of the internet trying to find an easy way to either procedurally generate the terrain or convert an image file to a map. The terrain itself doesn't need overhangs or arches (I was already planning on constructing all the artificial structures by hand) so a simple 2d heightmap image is all I need. The heightmap approach has another benefit, I can make a very long and narrow image file and simply cut it into squares to represent individual maps... that way I can easily make sure that the eastern edge of map1 matches the western edge of map2.
Well, anyways... maybe not much of an introduction of... well, me... but that's the rough idea for what I'd like to do in my sandbox :)
Oh... yeah, it's a single player FPS/RPG with the final goal of escaping the ringworld.
And thanks for putting all this together, guys!
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