[mod] Geomoria [geomoria]

[duane]

This mod uses a simple table-based description of an underground region to create huge, geomorphic constructions. Think of it as nodeboxes for dungeon-making. My goal is to make it look a bit like Tolkien's Moria.

The complex extends horizontally in all directions, around 250 meters down.

How to make geomorphs:

+ Spoiler

The geomorphs are easy to make. Start with a fill, which looks like this.

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  {act = 'fill', node = 'air', coords = {1, 15, 21, 4, 10, 20}},


The coordinates are pairs describing the x, y, and z extents of the fill. In this case, we have a box at (x=1, y=21, z=10) with width (x)=15, height=4, and depth (z)=20. It will fill the box with air, creating a room.

Using many of those items, I constructed this:



You can, of course, specify any node to fill with. You can also specify a param2 setting to rotate a node (see the minetest lua_api.txt for specifics on rotation). However, rotation will not work correctly except in the y-axis (param2 < 4). I may add double-rotations later, but don't count on it.

Fills can specify a "line" or "floor" parameter, which creates a shell of the specified node around (usually) an air fill or a floor under it. This lets you place something other than stone in the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Finally, you can specify a "random" number to place things through a volume at random. The number is the denominator of the fraction of the volume you want filled (e.g. 2 for half the volume).

The "act" parameter can also be "stair" or "ladder". See the plans.lua file for examples. Stairs are placed with stone underneath and air overhead. Ladders require special rotation, which ranges from param2 = 2 to 5 (see my examples). Otherwise, they work just like fills.

My method for making geomorphs is to diagram them in Inkscape on a document set to 80x80 pixels, like so:



This lets you see exactly what you're going to get. Plus, since each box is an svg object, you can select it and look at the inkscape toolbar to see its exact coordinates for entry into a fill item.

I've attached the Inkscape document I use as a starter for all my plans.

The geomorphs are chosen randomly for each chunk of underground terrain and rotated randomly, for more variety.

Screenshots:

+ Spoiler

Note: This mod works very well with the goblins mod.


The source is available on github.

Code: LGPL2

Mod dependencies: default, stairs, doors

Download: https://github.com/duane-r/geomoria/archive/master.zip

[duane]

Problems

- no vertical exits
- no way to define subordinate constructions and add them by name to a geomorph

[azekill_DIABLO]

just missing the crawling goblins and here we are! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

[burli]

As always, great idea

[duane]

As always, great idea

Thanks. The geomorphs will rotate now. I've added two more. You can now get extremely lost within minutes. They're easy to make with inkscape, but I quickly figured out that all the entrances have to connect at some point or it ends up with closed loops.





Adding lighting everywhere is going to be difficult, and since I want the place dark, I'm not likely to work on it any time soon.

[the_raven_262]

Is there any way to generate ores around these?
Nice work by the way :D

[duane]

Is there any way to generate ores around these?
Nice work by the way :D

I put in a setting for that. It looks strange to me to have ores spawn in finished walls, so it's not on by default.

[duane]

I've added stairs, ladders, and false walls (hidden doors), for even more complexity. To test them out, I put in a few hidden passages, upper levels, and a submerged level in the reservoir.

Of course, taking full advantage of this means designing each geomorph will take even longer. /sigh

[duane]

I've added fissures and chasms. These are optional, but enabled by default.

It's just not as terrifying with cute goblins.

[azekill_DIABLO]

lol for the goblins + 1 for mapgen improvements!

[duane]

[duane]

[GreenDimond]

You sure do like messing with the mapgen. First the cylinder cave tunnels, now this (and maybe others I don't know of). What will ya think of next? :D

[the_raven_262]

I love how i see progress every time i open up this topic :D
I have a question, non mapgen related... why is the cobble and stone on your screenshots in the 32x32 resolution? It seems a bit odd.

[duane]

I love how i see progress every time i open up this topic :D
I have a question, non mapgen related... why is the cobble and stone on your screenshots in the 32x32 resolution? It seems a bit odd.

Why not?

"And here we are at the stupendous Moria Underdome waiting for those fighting Balrogs to enter the arena!"



I also added an automatic lighting option, but I don't recommend it. There's no easy way to make the lights look good, especially when they can come from either side of a wall.

[Robsoie]

Hello,

After just downloading and testing with a new v7 world without any other mods than the ones default to minetest_game, i am puzzled if i am doing something wrong or if that's just extremely rare that any of the structures from your screenshot generate ?

I mean i've been fast noclip/flying to explore the underground of my world for a dozen of minutes with
geomoria_mod.cheap_lighting = true in the mod init.lua
to help me locate any of those and found nothing out of the usual caves, dungeons and other big mapgen blobs.

[azekill_DIABLO]

well this is weird... have you gone deeper? they generate deep if i remember, about 250/260 blocks under sea level.

[Robsoie]

That could be it, i'll have to retry with going deeper.

EDIT :
That was it indeed, as soon as i went way down, below -200 , i saw this :
http://imgur.com/pCMi8gg

After browsing, i think then the depths is setup by those in the scripts

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geomoria_mod.geomoria_depth = -2

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(geomoria_depth - 1) * 80 - 32

I'll have to play with that to change the actual depth

[duane]

That could be it, i'll have to retry with going deeper.

EDIT :
That was it indeed, as soon as i went way down, below -200 , i saw this :
http://imgur.com/pCMi8gg

After browsing, i think then the depths is setup by those in the scripts

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

Code: Select all

geomoria_mod.geomoria_depth = -2

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Code: Select all

(geomoria_depth - 1) * 80 - 32

I'll have to play with that to change the actual depth

The depth has to be in full chunks, by the nature of the mapgen. You can set it to -1 and you'll have occasional collisions with sea bottoms, but probably nothing noticeable. Setting it to 0 would, of course, cover your surface with stone blocks containing geomorphs (and a lot of embedded trees). Setting it higher would make a layer floating in the air.

[duane]

Don't be surprised if you hear the screams of the forgotten prisoners.





Edit: Be on the lookout for a hidden door in one of the cells leading to a secret level.

Edit: Ive also added treasure placement in the form of a "treasure" parameter. At the moment, it only supports my booty mod. The mushroom gardens are absolutely stuffed with buried chests, but you have to dig them up, of course.

[Wuzzy]

Woah, this is an epic mapgen!

Maybe it would be an interesting addition to Lord of the Test. This is the kind of mapgen I would totally expect a boss fight. :D
This also looks like the perfect home for dungeon masters. Large, open spaces, lots of stone, large areas are already destroyed.

I like that you made good use of the new stone blocks in Minetest Game.
I like the areas with small bridges.

I think the decay or destruction of the halls is often very extreme. This make it interesting and makes it challenging to navigate. I've seen broken bridges over lava lakes, ladders leading to nowhere but to a sheer drop, and many heavily broken rooms with deep holes everywhere. Interesting. You really have to watch your step becaue if not, you can easily fall into your doom. :D

But I would expect that at least *some* areas are a bit more intact than the others.
Are there even any sections which are intact? It seems large part of the structures have been badly damaged. Maybe you could make the mapgen so that all generated areas/regions/whatever have a “damage level” and the map generator applies damage based on that. It should be possible that larger areas be intact. This would also add greatly to the mapgen variety.

One question, does the underground structure extend to the entire horizontal plane? Because I have not seen any end so far.

The steel doors are a bit odd. Seeing the decay and destruction anywhere, it is surprising to see something as modern as steel doors. Besides, steel doors are normally owned in Minetest Game, so it seems odd that anyone can open or close them. It's as if you would place a locked chest with a mapgen. I would maybe replace them with wooden doors, and sometimes don't place a door at all (if part of decay).

I would spawn the mossy cobblestone not everywhere, only restricted to certain areas with some sort of “spread” (maybe use perlin noise if you don't do already) (to give the impression of a more “natural” spread). Moss could be more likely in areas with water, and it should never appear in lava rooms.

I think this mod would benefit if you also explore the 3rd dimension a bit more. The mapgen feels rather flat. I realize you used the 3rd dimension to some extent already, but I like to see more. I think about small walkways at the side of huge walls which.
or just more ways to connect multiple levels in general

Some other ideas for a “Moria” feeling:

- Sometimes generate cobblestone bridges over badly damaged areas
- More variations in wall and floor types: Currently, most walls and floors are a mix of stone, cobble and mossy cobble. I would like if there are areas which are supposed to be more “clean” / less damaged with only cobblestone, or only stone. This idea is just to make all the rooms a bit more unique


But you did impressive work with this mapgen alreay and I am curious about the future of this mod. I'm pretty sure you have many ideas on your own as well. :-)
Good job!

[TheReaperKing]

With a little skin rework I was thinking maybe this could be the Balrog:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15899



Maybe some rotation on the horns, some wings, and fire particles :D

[duane]

With a little skin rework I was thinking maybe this could be the Balrog:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15899



Maybe some rotation on the horns, some wings, and fire particles :D

That would be cool, but I'm not going to put any specific mob support in geomoria itself. My thought is that if you want specific mobs, you can add a spawner block (e.g. from mobs redo) to the map descriptions, at the appropriate places. That would be as simple as adding this line.

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{act = 'fill', node = '[spawner]', coords = {0, 1, 21, 1, 19, 1}}

Then you'd get a constant stream of goblins, balrogs, etc. where you want them. I think the mobs redo block can even be tweaked to only spawn one balrog at a time.

If you have the original goblins mod active, they'll spawn on all the mossycobble already (which is why I added it).

[TheReaperKing]

Awesome, thanks! I think there is actually an orc invasion mod somewhere I could mess with too haha.

[duane]

[azekill_DIABLO]

gigantic!

[the_raven_262]

How do you exactly make it so lighten up?
The darkness of the underground caves makes it a bit hard to explore :P

[duane]

How do you exactly make it so lighten up?
The darkness of the underground caves makes it a bit hard to explore :P

I set DEBUG on in the mapgen file, which removes all the damage and falsely lights the chunks. The light will disappear as soon as you disturb anything, but it's good for checking my work.

A better way for regular play is to enable the cheap_lighting setting, which isn't always attractive, but doesn't ever disappear. I also use the flare gun from my fun_tools mod whenever I go exploring. It lights up a cave nicely, for a short while.

Edit: I'm working on adding more levels and connections to the existing geomorphs. I'm also setting up a connection to the surface. I think I may move the default depth up to -1.

[duane]

Almost finished with the entrance plan. Entrances will be spaced in an 800 meter grid, and are fairly unobtrusive, at least in valleys mapgen.

[burli]

Looks great for my subgame