[CF-Devel] issues with random maps

[Peter Mardahl]

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      Exits on Exits:
     
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      I sometimes see exits stacked on top of each other.  I think I may have
     
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      once seen the up and down stairs on each other, but I've often seen a hole
     
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      to a special treasure map on top of the stairs.
     
     
Some of the exits on exits were intentional:  one is an exit to
the previous level, the other is an exit out of the whole random map.

As for the other, yeah, it's a bit ugly, but a player can simply
select the appropriate exit with his mouse.

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      Monsters on Entrance:
     
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      Monsters should never be placed on the entrance to the map.  When this
     
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      happens, you have to fight your way out, as you get placed a square or two
     
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      away from the way back.  Similarly, generators should not be placed on the
     
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      entrance.
     
     
Well, I agree with you here:  the problem is that the code for placing
monsters is unaware of exits:  I borrowed it from crossfire at large,
and the crossfire-at-large code for placing things doesn't care
about exits.

A phase of monster-removal might be added, but great care
would have to be taken not to remove an important key from the map.

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      Traps Bypassed:
     
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      When there is a chest that requires a key to open, it often will have a
     
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      large number of traps.  However, you can ignore them.  I find that if I
     
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      pick up the chest, activate it, and drop the contents, I'm free to pick
     
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      them up, drop the chest, and walk away without ever setting of a single
     
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      trap.  (Of course, I like to disarm them anyway so as to get the
     
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      experience.)
     
     
Arguably, this isn't a problem with random maps but rather
with the container code.  This could be repaired easily, though,
if we cease ever requiring a key to open these treasure chests.
Then I could switch them over to the other type, which spring
their traps when they're apllied and drop everything onto the floor.

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      Traps on Walls:
     
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      I've seen some maps generated that had traps on most of the walls.  I was
     
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      able to search and disarm them, though running into the walls would not set
     
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      them off.  Either they shouldn't be there, or they should be set off by
     
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      bumping into the wall (which would require some new code, I suspect).
     
     
I've never seen this.  Ever.  Where did you see this?

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      Disconnected Maps:
     
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      I discovered this by casting "show invisible" to locate spectres.  I was on
     
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      a map that had two separate areas.  The walls separating them were three
     
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      squares thick at the narrowest point.  (I went into dm mode to see what was
     
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      up.)  There was no way to get over to the other area.  Fortunately, the
     
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      stairs down were in the same area as the stairs up, so it didn't really
     
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      mess anything up that time.
     
     
What crossfire version and what type of layout was it?  I've gone
to some trouble to ensure that ALL maps are fully connected:  i.e.,
you can get anywhere in the map from anywhere in the map.
I ran hundreds of test cases to see if this actually worked out.

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      Impossible to Reach Area Due to Keys:
     
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      I found one map where one walled-off area was accessible only by using
     
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      strange keys to open the walls around a chest.  Unfortunately, the keys in
     
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      question were all in that walled-off area, so I couldn't reach them.  I
     
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      suppose there's a chance that one was in an icecube, but I don't think so.
     
     
Here I think you simply failed to look hard enough for keys.  When I
put in any keyed door, I make *two* keys for it:  one on either side
of the door.  When a monster cannot be found in which to put the key,
it is dropped onto the ground, which is why you saw a pile of keys
inside.

It's not possible for a key to be in an icecube.  The only things that
can harm keys are alchemy or the matching doors.

PeterM