Whole map versus Room-by-room?

[nijineko 3]

My current project is to recreate an homage version of a very old ASCII rogue-like as a mobile game. The maps from this game consists of walls, doors, secret doors, and openings. The maps also featured one-time fog of war (once explored, always revealed). In rooms, one could find things like stairs, traps (pits, shafts, energy, teleport, guaranteed monster encounters), and various magical effects (darkness, anti-magic, illusions). Based on the combination of these things, one could also find hallways and large rooms. 

I have started creating a whole map for this game, only to find myself asking some questions. Here is a list:
 

1. Should I design a whole map, or create a unit by unit map (where a unit = rooms and hallways).
2. If I choose unit-by-unit, can I reuse these rooms yet still keep track of where they are in the big-picture map?
3. If I choose unit-by-unit, can I add and remove unique features via some method (global events?) to prevent visual repetition?
4. How can I best emulate the special features of traps and magical effects on the map level?
5. How should I best pull off the fog-of-war (any good plugins out there that are play-tested and recommended?)
6. How can I include a "create-your-own-character" mechanism in the game? (Both visually and mechanically)
7. How can I include mini-games?
8. How can I include crafting?

Today's post focuses on questions 1, 2, & 3 only. Future posts will cover other questions. 

What experiences and suggestions does everyone have in this area? I'm looking for opinions, ideas, and brainstorming; though if you have technical details of how-to, while that is most welcome, it is not expected at this point.

[Kayzee 4,032]

I am not sure I understand what you mean by 'whole map'. Do you intend to make the whole game fit on one gigantic map or something? Or are you just talking about the current dungeon/level? If so, by unit-by-unit do you mean the map will be just the current room or hall and nothing else?

 

I am working on a roguelike game for VX Ace myself, but I use scripts to randomly generate the dungeons so I am not sure I could help you if you are deigning one by hand.. Even so, maybe it will help if I explain how most roguelike dungeons work. The basic theory behind how most roguelikes do dungeon generation is pretty simple: It all boils down to dividing rectangles into two parts over and over. That will give you a bunch of smaller rectangles that fit together. Then all you have to do is put a room in each one and link them up with hallways. And bam, instant dungeon! Of course there is a bit more to it then that, but that's the basic idea. Donno if it helps you or not.

 

I really should do some kind of random dungeon plugin for MV too someday, but eh, lazy.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Kayzee

[+ Abscond 149]

On 2/17/2018 at 10:35 PM, nijineko said:

 

1. Should I design a whole map, or create a unit by unit map (where a unit = rooms and hallways).
2. If I choose unit-by-unit, can I reuse these rooms yet still keep track of where they are in the big-picture map?
3. If I choose unit-by-unit, can I add and remove unique features via some method (global events?) to prevent visual repetition?
4. How can I best emulate the special features of traps and magical effects on the map level?
5. How should I best pull off the fog-of-war (any good plugins out there that are play-tested and recommended?)
6. How can I include a "create-your-own-character" mechanism in the game? (Both visually and mechanically)
7. How can I include mini-games?
8. How can I include crafting?

Today's post focuses on questions 1, 2, & 3 only. Future posts will cover other questions. 

What experiences and suggestions does everyone have in this area? I'm looking for opinions, ideas, and brainstorming; though if you have technical details of how-to, while that is most welcome, it is not expected at this point.

From my experience, a singular, large map would eventually cause lag. Unless, of course, you have an antilag in place, but they're not perfect. My suggestion is that you'll have to think ahead on how long you want your game to be; which will have an impact on your final map size. If you were to make medium sized maps, complete with rooms and hallways, I think that would alleviate that problem. 

 

@Kayzee seems to have the right idea. Maybe find a script or plugin that would do the heavy lifting for you?

 

To answer your questions:

1. Unit by Unit. But don't limit them to just hallways or rooms. Maybe a hallway with multiple rooms. Or a room with multiple hallways?

2. Kind of confused by what this means but I'll try to answer. What I would do is create the entire dungeon as one large map. Then select portions of said map to paste it on a separate, smaller map. Do that until all parts of the large map are broken up into smaller maps.

3. What kind of features specifically? Common events can help with this.

4. I think you'll need to be a little specific with this one.

5. Not that I know of for MV.

6. This can be evented but very time consuming. Depends on how much time you're willing to spend doing it.

7. If there aren't any plugins already, then this can be evented, too. I once made a Pacman mini-game entirely out of events. Again, depends on how much time you want to invest.

8. Can be evented but I'm certain there's a plugin floating around.