I have what seems to me to be an "interesting" problem in my long-running Dungeon series. A dungeon is an array of tiles. Randomly placed in the array are rectangular rooms.
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Rooms are connected from room N to room N-1 by halls from center to center, either first H then V or first V then H. This means that a given all way can cut through any other room, two halls can be side by side, making a wide hallway, and so on.
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Like this:
Complex map in top right of dungeon picture.
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Complex map in top right of dungeon picture.
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My problem is this. I would like to have complex puzzles, I call them "set pieces", in the dungeon, for the player to solve. Maybe she has to find three switches, figure out what they do, and configure them a certain way to gain access to something valuable.
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But the game program literally does not know what the dungeon layout is, and even if I were to place, say, a one-entrance set piece room first, the hallway logic could cut a second path right to it, by accident.
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In a "real world" map like that, things would be arranged in convenient rooms for whatever the usage was. And doors would be built, paths walled up, based on knowledge of the big map.
In my game, there does not exist "knowledge of the big map".
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In my game, there does not exist "knowledge of the big map".
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I like that property, and want to maintain it. Yet I need to find suitable places to put puzzle items so that the puzzle will make sense.
I will think of something clever and elegant, if I can, or I'll brute force program my way through it.
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I will think of something clever and elegant, if I can, or I'll brute force program my way through it.
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I don't want to be given the clever and elegant solution, but I did want to talk about the problem. @ me if you wish.
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Hm suppose we have defined layouts that demand, say, a single entrance. we block a rectangle and permit no hallway to go thru it. if some room tries to go HV to connect to another, and hits the block, it tries VH. if the dungeon winds up not fully connected, just roll another one
the Pathfinder monster maps all paths in the dungeon leading to the exit (dijkstra, basically). what else can we do with that info? certainly find places that are inaccessible.
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