Dungeon Runners (PC) Screens

[RainOfTerror]

NCSoft's Dungeon Runners is a fast paced, action RPG experience where you take on the role of a brave hero and explore dangerous dungeons, battle ferocious monsters, and discover unique items! Your hero can adventure alone or team with a party to hunt terrible monsters and reap fantastic rewards.

Dungeon levels are randomly generated and may contain any number of special rooms, shrines, altars, and more! Some dungeons can be completed quickly, rewarding those who can only invest 15 minutes a play session. Larger dungeons, however, will provide a deep, rich, questing experience for those who want to go on longer runs or multi-part quests.
check out 20 new Dungeon Runners screens (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=32632) over at WorthPlaying.

[dojoteef]

Hmmm.... looks like a Dungeon Siege mod. :)

[Klade]

Ya, that looks nice and crapy. I mean Dungeon Runners??? Is there anyway they could make this game be more generic?

[NoName]

Ya, that looks nice and crapy. I mean Dungeon Runners??? Is there anyway they could make this game be more generic?
Possibly. Are the first things you fight in the dugneons rats?

[Demo_Boy]

1. Dungeon siege is 10 x the game this is, available for $10?
2. Wow that looks pretty bad in terms of production quality
3. Even Pop Cap games has a hack and slash game like this.
4. NCSoft can take the golden horseshoe out of their a$$ now... its not working anymore.

[JazGalaxy]

there is nothing good about "randomly generated" anything. Why won't developers get that?

[Demo_Boy]

Jaz: Im not so sure....

What's the difference between randomly generated and procedurally generated? Other than Wil Wright that is.

[gawaintheblind]

there is nothing good about "randomly generated" anything. Why won't developers get that?

I disagree. Non-Randomly generated items are one of the reasons WoW continues to suck. Additionally, As long as you can ramp up the difficulty, randomly generated dungeons mean infinate replay value.

That being said, this looks like a crappy version of diablo. Pass.

[Roc Ingersol]

What's the difference between randomly generated and procedurally generated?
Procedurally generated is a method of creating art assets in real time from an algorithm, versus shipping map/texture data.

'Randomly generated', in this context, refers to a method of organizing art assets differently each time the program is run.

They're not mutually exclusive.
Spore has both procedurally generated art assets and randomly generated initial conditions. Oblivion just has (some) procedurally generated art assets.

[UnderHero5]

there is nothing good about "randomly generated" anything. Why won't developers get that?
Well, you might be upset with the outdoor areas in Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion... they are randomly generated, I believe.
As is most of the game world in the much anticipated "Spore".

If it's done right, it's not always a bad thing. It's just a matter of IF it's done right... which it usually isn't.
Looks to be done right in Oblivion and Spore though.

[Roc Ingersol]

Well, you might be upset with the outdoor areas in Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion... they are procedurally (randomly) generated.
Is it? I was under the impression that the art was generated procedurally, but that the algorithm was deterministic and the parameters fixed.
i.e. the outdoor areas are not random. they are generated procedurally, but the end result is known and the same from instance to instance.

I'm pretty sure we have a Bethesda peep around, but I can never remember who it is.

[UnderHero5]

Is it? I was under the impression that the art was generated procedurally, but that the algorithm was deterministic and the parameters fixed.
i.e. the outdoor areas are not random. they are generated procedurally, but the end result is known and the same from instance to instance.

I'm pretty sure we have a Bethesda peep around, but I can never remember who it is.
I'm not positive about it being random. I thought that's what I read, but I could be remembering wrong.

I think I got it from the 20 minute video I watched where the dev talks about it... I'll have to skip through it again and see exactly what he say's (it's been a while since I've watched it).
I'll edit this post when I find out.

Edit: (that didn't take long)
In the preview video the dev is showing off a forest scene and say's "All this is being generated in real time by the game. Our forests are not hand places by an artist. Our staff spend some time with the University of Maryland (I think? he kind of slurs the name) geology lab studying how soil erodes, how rocks form, and how trees grow and we have the game create that for us."
Then he goes on to say that half the land in the game is covered by "procedurally generated forest".
So I guess it's not random? The first thing he say's makes it sound random... but I guess not.

Ah well, at any rate it's going to rock.
Now that I'm completely off topic... yeah...

[Klade]

When I think randomly generated areas I think Star Wars Galaxies. This created a souless world that gave you no feeling of immersion.

When I think of procedually generated assets I think of a way that developers can cut dev time while allowing the players more freedom.

The difference to me has been that randomly generated gives the player no power just plops them down in the middle of nowhere and says good luck! While procedually generated allows players as much freedom as they like to create new things.

This is just my impressions.

[F3nyx]

RainOfTerror, you amuse me with your attempts to sound enthusiastic about an obviously uninteresting game.

[Demo_Boy]

I think that while there are descriptive differences between "randomly generated" and "procedurally generated" in practice they wind up being about the same, with the one exception that under procedurally generated, if you plug in the same initial numbers you wind up with the same outcome every time.

At that point the designer is only choosing the procedural seeds that make the most likeable content, but really it is still random until he happens upon some numbers that work well together.

[Tohoya]

I dunno, I'm actually somewhat intrigued by this game. The description read like a huge list of cliches, but well, this is NCSoft. Between Guild Wars and CoH, they've earned my respect, so I'll definitely give it a try.

[JazGalaxy]

no, the forrest in morrowind aren't random, they were just randomly generated. The difference being that the a computer churned out the geography of the forrest, but it'll be the same on everyone's copy of the game. Randomly generated means there's no rhyme or reason to anything, and it's likely to be different every single time go to a location.

In randomly generated games, there's no point in paying attention to any of the scenery because none of it means anything. There's nothing there, so it may as well be ignored. that's why I hate it.