Automap (exterior) implementation

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Nystul
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Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by Nystul »

started to implement the exterior automap.
point "create the map layout" checked ;)
Was pretty straightforward since DFTFU already does most of the job. Just had to draw the info into a Texture2D

Image

edit:
point "render map layout into automap panel" checked ;)
(will change the filtering to point filtering so it will match vanilla df)

Image

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Jay_H
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by Jay_H »

Absolutely fantastic!

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Interkarma
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by Interkarma »

Looking good! Can't wait to see it once you've put your unique touches on it.

I need to port the building name generation from my test code to DFTFU. I also need to help with linking up building records to positions on automap. That's a bit of an unknown at the moment, but it will be easier to research once the automap is in place for testing.

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Nystul
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by Nystul »

thinking of using the red player marker also for exterior automap instead of the dot at player position as used in vanilla df. That way you would know in which direction you are heading/looking. This is one thing that always annoyed me in vanilla that you often did not know in which direction you were looking...

about building names: I remember common buildings to be revealed as "residence" when you inspected them in look mode. When getting a town quest and asking for the target location it would get a unique name. So here are my questions:
  • did the same house always get the same name assigned or was it generated randomly?
  • did it replace a name previously assigned as "residence" by the unique name? I guess so...
  • did it remain the name after the quest was finished? If not, did it switch back to undiscovered or "residence"?
  • were revealed "residences" stored in a way that they remained discovered even when leaving towns?

R.D.
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by R.D. »

Hi, I did some testing with the latest DosBox SVN r4000. I tested with a merchant quest and here's what I got.
did it replace a name previously assigned as "residence" by the unique name?
Yes
did it remain the name after the quest was finished? If not, did it switch back to undiscovered or "residence"?
It remained after the quest was finished with the same unique name.
were revealed "residences" stored in a way that they remained discovered even when leaving towns?
It seems so. The name was still there after leaving town, finishing the quest, and coming back to the town.

As for this question
did the same house always get the same name assigned or was it generated randomly?
I don't know yet. Maybe if you were lucky you could get a quest giver in a small town and get the same residence referenced in that town on different quest instantiations.

Also, if I may make a request, if you decide to go with using a different marker than vanilla df, I would be happy if there was still a way to use the original one.
Last edited by R.D. on Fri Oct 07, 2016 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

R.D.
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by R.D. »

Nothing definitive on the
did the same house always get the same name assigned or was it generated randomly?
question, but when repeatedly talking to a quest giver, loading and talking to him again to get another quest, I got two quests that used the same residence and gave it the same name. These were different quests, and on different runs of the game. They were gotten immediately after loading from the same save game, though, so the name might just have just been set for the state of that particular save game, rather than always being that name. I don't know if there's an easy way to test.

R.D.
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by R.D. »

I got the same name, again, when loading a save from the same character but taken considerably earlier in my playthrough, so I think it's likely that the names are set.

This particular residence seems to always be chosen, so to verify, try going to Gallowell in Daggerfall and asking a merchant for a quest. They should eventually give you one that involves the residence at the bottom middle of the map. So far, it's always been the "Ashsmith Residence" for me.

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Nystul
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by Nystul »

great investigation work! Thanks for all your efforts!

BansheeXYZ
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by BansheeXYZ »

Please god consider automatically labelling colored structures. I always thought it was kind of stupid that they weren't.

DF vanilla made you talk to people and they'd randomly have no idea. Which is absurd because YOU LIVE IN THIS CITY. OF COURSE YOU KNOW WHERE THE SLEEPY BEAR INN IS. EVERYONE KNOWS.

Maybe they were attempting some kind of realism here, but it just fails. Realistically, your character wouldn't have a map layout of thousands of cities anyway. Unless someone gave him a magic map to start the game. In which case, why doesn't a magic map have names on it too? Meh...

Also, it would be great to see the entire city map without needing to scroll around. Now that we're unbound by low resolution, we can totally do that, right? I don't recall being able to zoom out in vanilla, but maybe I'm wrong...

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Jay_H
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Re: Automap (exterior) implementation

Post by Jay_H »

I've had at least one case where a house would be marked for a quest, "The Ashsmith Residence," and then with another quest it would become "The Greensly Residence." Houses would devolve to being "Residence" when the quest is complete, but its previous name(s) would remain permanently on the map until erased. This means a single house could have a jumbled "Residence," "The Ashsmith Residence," and "The Greensly Residence," etc all on the same spot.

I haven't confirmed this in the immediate past, but I have a clear memory that this has happened. If I verify it directly in these days I'll write again.

EDIT: Just a theory to throw out: perhaps house names are seeded game-monthly based on an RNG string stored in code?

EDIT 2: My intended testing method is to find a town with a Fighters Guild and like 20 other buildings, with as few shops as possible. I think/hope the various Fighters Guild non-member quests sink into residences, so I would hope it wouldn't take too long to find the same house sooner or later.

EDIT 3: Here are some sample towns to choose:
1. Damu-Ij in Abibon-Gora. (good)
2. Broadford in Daggerfall. (good)
3. Fontbury in Daggerfall.
4. Holwood Garden in Daggerfall. (good)

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