PC A17 How Long Would You Wait For A Pre-Generated Map to Build?

[beerfly]

Considering that playing on random generated map could go to 500+ hours, a few more minutes more to generate one should not be a thing.

 

[Pille]

I don't mind letting the computer run overnight or even longer but the map should be ready before the A18 release.^^

 

[Crater Creator]

I don't know for sure how big the map needs to be to be satisfying. What I do know is that the current RWG size is sufficient for a satisfying game (except caves... caves are too small ).

As a player that likes exploration, what satisfaction means in practice is that I've been able to search far and wide for what I consider an excellent base location, mine location, trader location, etc. without running into the border. If I ever do run into the border, it'll be a big buzzkill. It reminds me I'm playing a game with limits, which can only simulate part of a world. I've never expected an unlimited world, mind you, but the current size is great. Since I don't run into the border (in single player or coop), it's big enough.

Factors affecting how big "big enough" is include:

• How well the RWG makes interesting worlds or, put differently, how much ho-hum terrain the RWG generates before it makes something interesting.
  
• Player count & dynamics. In PvE you'll generally all group together and thus don't need much more room than in single player. In PvP each player will want enough space away from other players to succeed, including enough space to not be too obvious where their stuff is.
  
• How close to the center vs. the edge players start the game.
  
• Loot respawn setting & game length. Obviously if loot doesn't respawn, players will fan out farther afield over time.
  

Navezgane doesn't feel big enough, but I attribute this to knowing the general layout of Navezgane by now, so I often have an intuitive sense of how close that pesky border is even when it's far away.

 

[JaxTeller718]

I wouldn't. Time is too precious for me with everything I have going on and my PC doubles as my work station so I can't devote any down time to such a thing.

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I believe there are server owners now who have pregenerated an entire A16 map over several hours to increase performance on the server. I don't believe that each client had to do it in order to enjoy the benefits of faster loading chunks. There is a command to generate the whole map but I can't remember what it is. Someone will know it.

This is 100 percent correct. Only the server people connect to must do it for everyone to enjoy the benefits so it would be a one time thing for them. It is an amazing difference as well.

 

[Mainsil]

Ideally there would be an option to set the map size along with the appropriate dire warnings for large maps. Some nice updating progress indicating how much of the map has been generated would keep the the player from thinking the game crashed. A nice Alpha18 feature would be adding the ability to expand the map later without destroying player made changes to old map.

 

[OzHawkeye]

Great poll Sylen! Beat me to it.

I chose "I'd wait all day" - if I KNOW that's how long it takes, if the game gives me some feedback along the way to let me know if HASN'T simply locked up, I'd be happy to kick off a map generation before going to bed and let it run all night long.

 

[Scyris]

For me it depends, Can I minimize the game as its generating? Will it slow my pc to a crawl while its generating? if I can do other things like watch something on youtube or whatever I don't mind how long it takes. So 12kx12k I guess for a start. As I dunno how it'll be on my system in terms of lagging the pc etc. The best thing the devs could do was just have it set when you select "new Game" and random gen to just have a dropdown box with world size. Kinda like Terraria, with its small, medium and large settings.

 

[Viktoriusiii]

I know I'm in the minority...

But i wouldn't wait for anything that takes longer then 2 minutes... if I'm very patient.

I still dont see any need of prerendering the map... never felt anything different between navazgane and randomgen.

*edit* but since i dont have to wait in multiplayer (which is what i play 95% of the time anyways)

I want as big of a map as possible. (or simply make it optional???

 

[Data]

In today’s world of gaming, players of whatever age, WILL NOT wait more than 10 mins to play a game

The current generation of players are “click now and play a.s.a.p.”

Are there any popular games out there that have in the instructions or game specs stating “World generation will be approx. 1 hour to 5 hours+” and been successful?

I know that it’s not likely to just wait 10 mins for a huge map, but I just sense that this way, any new players or critics will just give up ask for refund and there will be endless bad reviews

The days of waiting for a game to load and play ended in the 80’s, I remember having a tape based computer (ZX Spectrum and C64 etc.) and waiting ages for it to load, only to get bored and then either reset, (that was back then when that was the only option, I know , I lived the 80’s)

Nowadays that will just not be acceptable

7 Days to die vets will be happy to wait, new/future players will not

Now as broadband speeds have increased the only way I can see around this is for a dedicated super spec online system, that you “login to” choose/make your world, let that super-fast nuclear powered comp generate the world quickly, show a preview and then the player will download it in a few mins, if they like it

Or

Pre made worlds, that players that have generated themselves and then have the ability to upload the entire world including the generated data to a map database, so that others can scan through “maps” and then download the ones they’d like to try

Making a player that doesn’t have the most up-to-date computer sit and wait for possibly hours, is just going backwards in today’s gaming world technology

finally

if there is a long wait for a generated map, there better be 0%, absolutely 0% of any stuttering or map loading time

 

[Jost Amman]

I wouldn't. Time is too precious for me with everything I have going on and my PC doubles as my work station so I can't devote any down time to such a thing.
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This is 100 percent correct. Only the server people connect to must do it for everyone to enjoy the benefits so it would be a one time thing for them. It is an amazing difference as well.

That's definitely a plus for MP games then.

It would have been a mess for players jumping from one server to another just to check if it's the right one.

 

[Pizzalicious]

Would setting the server to higher than 8k x 8k push the server into the modded section?

 

[Crater Creator]

So what’s at the edge of the new, square map? Is there still a radiation biome? Is it also square now? Does it take up a portion of the 64 square kilometers, or does it lie outside of that? Is its size modifiable in the rwgmixer, the way it is in A16?

 

[SylenThunder]

Would setting the server to higher than 8k x 8k push the server into the modded section?

Since it will require modifying the xml file, yes.

 

[The Batman]

How long would the old 10 km radius map take to load under A17?

Anything under 15 minutes is fine tbh. Old map took between 4-10 minutes. If the new RWG map also takes that time I surely hope the density of stuff will compensate. Cause why are we even voting.

It's a 1 time load right? Who cares if it takes 1 hour. You can then enjoy your mega map.

I just remembered that I let my modded Civ 6 maps load for 20 minutes on average. It's all gainz later. Instead of playing on the mini vanilla maps.

 

[Tin]

Pie in the sky:

30secs - 1min

Ideally:

1-2mins per K

Acceptable:

2-4 per K

Be a little rough:

3-6 per K

 

[Brian9824]

Ideally the best solution IMO is to load say a 1km area around you once game knows where you will spawn, and then in the background slowly start to load all the terrain around you. So even if it takes 1-2 hours slowly your not seeing it happen or waiting for it.

 

[Pizzalicious]

can the 8k x 8k even support the larger servers? Hmmm

 

[PurgatoryWolf]

View attachment 24900

oh-my-god ...

This is going to ruin MP servers. Our servers typically had 25 - 50 people on them at any given time (before a17 itch struck and people left)..

There is no way this is going to work out well for these types of servers, everyone is going to be so cramped together, hardly any of the map will be able to be refreshed, and resources will be even more fubar then before. (apocalypse realism ftl)

 

[Jost Amman]

Ideally the best solution IMO is to load say a 1km area around you once game knows where you will spawn, and then in the background slowly start to load all the terrain around you. So even if it takes 1-2 hours slowly your not seeing it happen or waiting for it.

I'm no expert, but from a programmer stand point I guess it must be a very different kind of work to have the game pre-render before starting to play OR after. I mean, to do what you say they would at the least need to convert that code to multi-threaded, am I right?

 

[KeiraR]

No idea if anyone mentioned it yet but, make a dropdown box like all the other options so people can decide for themselves if they want 8k,10k,12k, etc. Put the time it takes to build them, feed the box value to the generator and Joel's your trader...