ID:138306
 
...you aren't supposed to be adding any new features. But hear me out...

1) Are we ever going to get a Populate option in the mapper, so we could randomly place things across the map? Criteria would be like: "if loc contains: [list of atomic objects]", "if loc doesn't contain: [list of atomic objects]", "Percentage of results to cover: [##]%", and "Maximum number of items: [##]". This way, you could make sure flowers don't appear on walls, you could tell it to cover only a certain percentage of the map, and you can limit the total number created if results begin to get large.

It can always be done in run-time, but I don't want a run-time-generated one, because then my world would always look different (which is definitely unintended). Maybe an idea for a library, though.

2) How about that logging option in DS?
It can always be done in run-time, but I don't want a run-time-generated one, because then my world would always look different (which is definitely unintended). Maybe an idea for a library, though.

Ooh, here's an idea! You know what would A) handily permit this at runtime and B) probably be simple for Dantom to implement? An option to seed the random number generator.

The game "Worms" lets you do this. You can preview a level, and the game will show you the random seed that was used to create it. If you like it, you just write down the seed value and you can duplicate the level again and again.

I often used this technique testing my cheesy little games on the C-64! :)
In response to Guy T.
On 11/14/00 12:45 pm Guy T. wrote:

Ooh, here's an idea! You know what would A) handily permit this at runtime and B) probably be simple for Dantom to implement? An option to seed the random number generator.

That's an excellent solution to this problem. I've always wondered why none of the C random functions did any auto-seeding: now I know! We can probably have a randseed function that is automatically called with a varying seed (like the time) on the first call to rand() if it hasn't been seeded already.

In the meantime, it might be a fun exercise to try to code up your own pseudorandomizer function. There are a number of simple available sources (mainly in C), but for most peoples' needs those are overkill. A simply variation of a fixed pattern masked with a seeded value might do the job.
In response to Tom H.
On 11/14/00 3:07 pm Tom H. wrote:
On 11/14/00 12:45 pm Guy T. wrote:

Ooh, here's an idea! You know what would A) handily permit this at runtime and B) probably be simple for Dantom to implement? An option to seed the random number generator.

That's an excellent solution to this problem. I've always wondered why none of the C random functions did any auto-seeding: now I know! We can probably have a randseed function that is automatically called with a varying seed (like the time) on the first call to rand() if it hasn't been seeded already.

In the meantime, it might be a fun exercise to try to code up your own pseudorandomizer function. There are a number of simple available sources (mainly in C), but for most peoples' needs those are overkill. A simply variation of a fixed pattern masked with a seeded value might do the job.

That's peachy, but I kind of want to see what the map will look like before I actually go in-game. A randseed() function would be a nice addition, but not what I'm looking for.