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Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

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Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#101

Post by Ogre »

coldcode wrote: post #44

I was excited to read about it until I saw it's only for a console. I've wanted to build a unique "park" world with similar ideas for a long time, but never had the time or resources. I guess you have to start somewhere, but doing this for a single console (P4) is not what I would want to work with. Outerra is the engine that has taken real world geometry combined with procedural geometry in the direction I wanted to…

It's likely coming to PC as well. It was announced last year without any console attached. At E3, it was at Sony's keynote, but it wasn't announced as an exclusive. On the other hand, they haven't explicitly said it will be on PC either, it's just an educated guess.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#102

Post by quarterto »

aetherson wrote: post #76
newobj wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that's procedural content, I would say that it's emergent, or even less impressively, combinatorial. I would probably call it emergent, in that the designers likely could not test the entire state space of all strategies. What's impressive, in light of that, is that the game ends up balanced, or at least not fundamentally broken. To your point though, is that the "content" (cards) introduces mechanics.…

Dominion is balanced largely through the fact that it's symmetrical. No matter how good or bad the kingdom cards, both players are interacting with them in the same way, so, barring things like writing cards that give additional advantage to the first player, it's hard to unbalance it. If you played "a game like Dominion, except each player had their own independent set of Kingdom cards," it would be big-time not bal…

Dark Ages and Guilds don't change this.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#103

Post by kazagistar »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #55
protonpopsicle wrote: post #13

None of these articles on No Man's Sky ever mention Noctis, which is really strange. That's clearly a precedent here worthy of mention. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctis

Not even Spore.

Lets not even go there. Too much disappointment down that road.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#104

Post by kazagistar »

mbenjaminsmith wrote: post #22
thisjepisje wrote: post #18

Now what would be really interesting is to have some sort of rudimentary evolution in a game like this. Star systems, planet geology, flora, fauna, everything.

No, what would be interesting is everything that you said with the addition of relativistic-speed travel. Take round trips near (or over, depending on your reference) the speed of light and watch how things evolve.

That is only possible in single player.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#105

Post by taurath »

lifeformed wrote: post #86
DanAndersen wrote: post #11

The issue with a lot of procedurally-generated content is that overall things become same-y. Lots of breadth, little depth. When you have a set number of variable sliders, you don't have to see all the possible worlds to get a sense of how many sliders there are and what their ranges are. The problem only gets worse when moving away from planet/landscape generation (dumb matter) and getting into simulations of histor…

I've been working on combating this problem for a few years now. I'm working on a game called Spire ( http://hitboxteam.tumblr.com/ ), which is a mix of Quake and Roguelikes. Every procedural dungeon creator I've seen so far seems to just use pre-made rooms or chunks of rooms, and shuffles them around. It never feels like you're in a new world each time, it just feels like you're in the same world jumbled up. For the…

The "emotional analogues" sound actually very interesting. I wonder how well that will hold up in practice - it seems like if it were possible to generate a compelling story from variables we'd be able to do it by now - we would be able to consistently put out compelling stories in book form at the very least. Its frequently not the structure or even the overall plot that's the point, but the little details that matter. I've heard it said of movies that the point is not what happens, but how it happens (probably a paraphrase of Roger Ebert). It feels like we're a very long way off from having any machine generate that.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#106

Post by anon4 »

shmerl wrote: post #84

PS4 only, really? Why can't developers release cross platform games these days? Releasing it for one platform prevents a significant amount of potential users from even trying the game. I'd play it when they'll release a Linux version.

You're a bit too aggressively negative, hence the downvotes, I guess.

But I concur - as someone who can't afford to buy a PS4 or other current consoles (especially given how there's just a couple of exclusive games coming out for them), I won't be playing this unless it comes on PC.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#107

Post by baddox »

mbenjaminsmith wrote: post #22
thisjepisje wrote: post #18

Now what would be really interesting is to have some sort of rudimentary evolution in a game like this. Star systems, planet geology, flora, fauna, everything.

No, what would be interesting is everything that you said with the addition of relativistic-speed travel. Take round trips near (or over, depending on your reference) the speed of light and watch how things evolve.

I wonder if any games have implemented Minkowski space and Lorentz transformations. I could imagine a puzzle game using mechanics like relativity of simultaneity and length contraction to challenging effect.

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#108

Post by baddox »

kazagistar wrote: post #104
mbenjaminsmith wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, what would be interesting is everything that you said with the addition of relativistic-speed travel. Take round trips near (or over, depending on your reference) the speed of light and watch how things evolve.

That is only possible in single player.

Loosely related: there is a multiplayer RTS that allows both players to travel forward and backward in time at will. It's a pretty neat mechanic.

http://www.achrongame.com/site/achron-and-the-grandfather-pa...

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#109

Post by coder23 »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #4

Looks like it could be a good game either way, but I'm questioning their use of words when they say "every atom" is procedurally-generated, as in their first reveal trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fCn8oB-sg From what they have demoed, they have not proven that anything actually is being generated. My best guess is that they randomly vary colors and textures (and generate the atmospheres, as they say), and r…

No Man's Sky doesn't have a seamless world. It is separated between space and planets. The first clue is the incorrect size ratio of ships to planets when in space and when on planets. The second clue to this is the video, at 2:16 in the video[0], two ships most far away from the player( not the three close in front ) disappear into the planet's atmosphere, that is the line that separates the two worlds.

[0]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtmEjqzg7M

Re: Exploring No Man’s Sky, A Computer Game Forged by Algorithms

#110

Post by otikik »

DanAndersen wrote: post #11

The issue with a lot of procedurally-generated content is that overall things become same-y. Lots of breadth, little depth. When you have a set number of variable sliders, you don't have to see all the possible worlds to get a sense of how many sliders there are and what their ranges are. The problem only gets worse when moving away from planet/landscape generation (dumb matter) and getting into simulations of histor…

> The issue with a lot of procedurally-generated content is that overall things become same-y

Unless you are Dwarf Fortress.

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