
For a couple of the missions in
Stellar Forces, I thought it would be interesting to have randomly-generated maps, since it will mean an infinite variety of layouts and thus increase the replayability.
However, I've come to the some-may-say obvious conclusion that randomly generated maps aren't always a good idea, especially for
missions that have important "hot-spots" (my term for some aspect of the map that plays a critical role in the mission). A randomly (or "procedurally") generated map is probably okay for a straight firefight mission, but there are at least two reasons why they are not the best idea for anything else:-
1) The random layout may give one side an unfair advatage; I'm currently playing the mission
Escape, where my side has to get to the escape chute. As luck would have it, the escape chute was "randomly" placed in the next adjacent room from where my units started! Some may say that this is a flaw in my algorythm, and they would be right.
2) The other problem is that nothing can replace a hand-crafted custom designed levels, with all it's subtle nuances that are probably only noticed after using it to play several games. Years ago, I hacked the original Laser Squad, and messed about with the maps, in particular making Sterner's moonbase a lot bigger. Unfortunately, this had the effect of making finding him especially hard! This showed me that not just the layout, but even just the size of the map is critical.
So I'm going to produce customized maps for all but one of the missions (that one being the straight firefight). Unless anyone else wants to have a go?