Experimental Smaller Dungeons

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Interkarma
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Interkarma »

Concept

Some time ago, I created a proof-of-concept for injecting smaller dungeon layouts for random dungeons. From next round of builds (0.7.3 or later), this will become available for general play-testing. To enable, open your settings.ini file and set the below option under [Experimental] section. This will remain an INI-only setting for the time being.

Code: Select all

SmallerDungeons = True

How It Works

The smallest viable dungeon size in Daggerfall consists of 1x interior block surrounded by 4x border blocks. You can read more about dungeon block layouts here.

The SmallerDungeons setting forces Daggerfall Unity's map reader to overwrite map layout as they're being read to create a randomised minimum version from the same dungeon pieces as original.
  • Natively tiny dungeons (e.g. graveyards) and story dungeons (e.g. Wayrest castle, Privateer's Hold) are not subject to this setting.
  • If original dungeon had water blocks then new dungeon may also have a water block.
  • Smaller dungeon generation is seeded by map ID, so will be generated the same way each time.

Advantages
  • Random dungeons for guild quests, etc. will be reduced to roughly the size of Privateer's Hold. This makes random questing faster and reduces chance of finding impossible block combinations.
  • Some interior blocks are more complex than others so there's still lots of variability.
  • New layouts are compatible with quest system as interior blocks should always have quest markers.
  • The new dungeon is created from random border and interior blocks of the source dungeon so will be thematically the same style and use same texture tables as original.

Disadvantages
  • If player is already inside a dungeon subject to this change, you'll probably be dropped into the void. Please ensure your character is outside before toggling this setting.
  • If you have quests targeting a random location, they may no longer be functional. Best to clear your active quests before toggling this setting. Main story quests should be fine provided they aren't currently targeting a random dungeon.
  • Unforeseen issues might result from this change. Please consider it experimental only. Feature may or may not become part of Daggerfall Unity 1.0. It might evolve into something else or be cut completely.
For those of you who try out this feature, please leave your feedback here. Cheers! :)

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mikeprichard
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Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by mikeprichard »

Bam. Daggerfall classic's single biggest design problem (in my opinion) may get the DFU treatment. I still can't test right now unfortunately, but can't wait to see what comes of this.

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Jay_H
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Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Jay_H »

Aah, I was wondering when this would enter live builds :D Speaking of which, do you have an ETA set for 0.7.3?

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Interkarma
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Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Interkarma »

I'm hoping to drop next round of live builds this weekend or early next week. :)

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Zadroter
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Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Zadroter »

I may say that with daggerfall unity map system all sizes of dungeon stop become a problem :)

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King of Worms
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Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by King of Worms »

Welcomed OPTION for many :)
Looking forward the next build!
I will test it for sure

EDIT: Saw the road map, the pace is insane... I remember I joined somewhere around 0.2. Great job everyone!!

Geeosh
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:59 am

Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Geeosh »

I am stunned that this is happening. I can't believe how far this project has come.

I eagerly would like to make smaller dungeons but can't seem to find settings.ini anywhere in the game or unity files.

What am I missing?

Thank you for such an amazing feat.

Geeosh
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:59 am

Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Geeosh »

Never mind, found it!
C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Daggerfall Workshop\Daggerfall Unity

I believe that is the right one.

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Interkarma
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by Interkarma »

Welcome to the forums. :)

Yep that's the path in Windows, it's a little different for each platform. Enjoy!

chantling
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Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:15 pm

Re: Experimental Smaller Dungeons

Post by chantling »

I just wanted to say how awesome this feature is. I've been playing DF intermittently since 1997. If you asked me back then what my #1 wish was for DF, it would be to be able to play more than 10 minutes between crashes. If you asked me what my #2 wish was, though, it would be smaller dungeons. Even back in the 90s when I played DF fanatically, I never accepted dungeon crawls. Always refused them in favor of quests in towns or whatnot, and if I had no choice but to do a dungeon crawl, I made liberal use of the teleport to quest target and exit cheats. Between my poor sense of direction and DF's sprawling, randomly generated tunnels to nowhere, I loathed dungeons and the 3-5 hours of frustration they inevitably entailed.

DF Unity already took care of wish #1, so imagine my excitement when I saw this feature announced. Edited the .ini, loaded up a game, and rushed off to a dungeon to try it out. An hour and a half later and about 8 floors into the dungeon, exited the game, reopened the .ini and put the setting under the correct category, and tried again. 8-) And I explored a reasonably sized dungeon that was possible to keep your bearings in, large enough to be interesting and full of creatures but small enough to not drag on forever, and it was glorious. GLORIOUS.

I did spend about an hour longer in the dungeon than I needed to. I covered every hallway and room probably 10 times, trying to find a secret door or a switch to open up a new passageway. I felt like a bit of a fool trying to figure out where the rest of the dungeon was, given that the entire reason I was there in the first place was to test out the smaller dungeons. But I kept hearing a vampire ancient somewhere, so I was sure I was missing something. I remember reading a thread about smaller dungeons a while back, and it vaguely seems like it was mentioned in the discussion of how dungeon blocks go together that there are some inaccessible blocks around the periphery of dungeons? I may be misremembering, though, and I can't find the thread now. Probably I was just overlooking a hidden door.

Anyway, thank you so much for this addition. It really is a game-changer, for me at least. I'm sure some people love the gigantic dungeons in vanilla, but they were one of my least favorite parts of the game. Now I'm looking forward to dungeon crawls.

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