2 "proofs" that I have is that in the pitch video, you can see when (I guess Madoc) creates some terrain, if it would've been random generated, then there would be no need for that right? Also in, I think the 250 tier you will be able to create a 60*60 meters square of terrain, and If it would be randomly generated, then that user made terrain would not make much sence.
Well... to be honest, that's not really proof. A terrain editor is generally just a useful tool to have anyways, and it's likely just a more direct use of what could be an automatic terrain generator, which could be used to flatten terrain to place buildings, for instance. Maybe, the game would normally just automatically deform the terrain, and Madoc simply added the functionality to the game editor to build the terrain themselves if they needed to do so for whatever reason.
The user made terrain might just be made into a "tile" that could be integrated into a part of the map in a way that fits correctly, no? Obviously, if the island's procedurally generated there'd only be a small of these preset tiles fitted in wherever possible, otherwise the whole island might end up being made of fan-made tiles. If you think about it, this would make sense to make the map procedurally generated with a few £250 backer-made terrain tiles spaced around the island.
... At least, that's the case I was
going to make about that, but I checked, and there's only like, 11 people who are doing that. So, that argument's gone out the window. Unless the island is going to be way smaller than we thought.
Really, the reason I'm so confused as to whether or not the map is hand-made or not is mostly due to how everyone on the dev team talks about the map and how they're going to make it. Take what Kieran said for example:
Our terrain is procedurally generated but until now this was very basic and just too random. To make an actual island or even just features like beaches we would have to sculpt them by hand. Now we're developing the actual land mass for the game and we need something quite specific. We've been extending our procedural tools significantly so that they can accept shapes and other major features such as rivers from images. Basically we can draw a flat 2D map and just convert it to a 3D terrain.
Below is an early version of our map based on the 2D image inputs for the terrain generator:
An example of procedurally generated coast following a map contour:
He mentions the words "procedurally generated" a few times, says "procedural tools" once, as well as "terrain generator", which seems to point to us getting a new island generated every world instance, but at the same time, he's saying they're wanting a quite specific thing and how they're going to draw a 2D map to make the island terrain, which points to the map being hand-made instead...
And also, he says that "[they]
can draw a flat 2D map and just convert it to a 3D terrain", which doesn't explicitly say that they
will, just that they've got a terrain generator that is able to take a 2D image and make a 3D world with it.
To be honest, with the way they're going about doing it, I kind of hope they
are just procedurally generating the landmass. I get it if they want to hand-sculpt the island so that it's really awesome to explore, but even if they have a 2D to 3D terrain-maker, they'd still probably have to comb through the island after changing it from 2D to 3D to make sure the island has turned out exactly the way they wanted it, and that everything's hunky-dory. There might be a slightly higher chance of part of the map ending up not really the way they want it to unless they check really carefully, too, seeing as how it's a bit easier to spot a mistake you made after making it than it is spotting a mistake in something you're checking through.
Ahh, what am I talking about... I don't know anything about their 2D to 3D terrain maker anyway, they've probably made it really well and there's going to be no problems.
I suppose I kinda just prefer having a new island to explore each time I start a new world instance, so I can play a unique adventure each time. I hate to say it, but while a well-made world is a really awesome experience the first-time round, unless I'm able to explore a new island each playthrough, I'd probably lose interest after playing through the story once. Even if the story is incredibally dynamic and I can change it damn near any way I want, I wouldn't get much replayability from a game just from something like that.
So yeah, even though a great experience can be had playing through a well-designed world, that's just it. You only have that one great experience of exploration, and once you explore the entire world (or however much you feel like exploring, anyway), there's nothing left to see, unless the dynamic storyline can open up new places to explore, but even then, once that's done, that's it. If the world were new each time round, I'd probably be more inclined to explore every nuance of the story and seek out lots of lore and such, seeing as how there's always more places to explore if I want them.
I'm kind of having difficulty getting my point across, I think. I just like procedurally-generated worlds more, I suppose. If they're done fairly well, I could explore them to my hearts content, and I won't really run out of places to see.
Maybe someone from Bare Mettle could say a little more about the map? Please? I really can't stand not knowing, there's so much confusion on the topic in the things you guys write, and I really don't know one way or the other. So please, somebody tell us what's going to happen with that.
