CF: Proposal for features for a random map generator

[Peter Mardahl <peterm@langmuir.EECS.Berkeley.EDU>]

Hello,  I'd like to get everyone's ideas on random maps.  I'm considering
taking a crack at making a good generator.

Random Maps

The major thing still missing from Crossfire, I think, is a good facility
for generating random maps:

1)  They can be used by map creators to create a basic layout for his
quest or whatever, so that he need not start from a blank canvas.

2)  Buildings with nothing else in them can have a random map in them.
In fact, we could have the same random map generated every time someone
enters a particular building (pick the seed off of the parent map name
and the entrance location!)  This would transform the world from finite
to infinite.

Needed Features:

  Styles:
   Random maps would need to be "styled":  walls, doors, monsters, and other
decor should be picked from certain subsets of the total object set.  An inn
has a very different style than a castle, and from a dungeon, in both walls,
decor, and monsters.

  Ubiquity:
   Any exit which does not have a destination specified should lead to
a random map, but WITH a sign saying "this is a random map".

  Recursion:
   Random maps should optionally have another entrance to a random map of
the same style.  The depth of recursion should be specifiable.

  Difficulty:
   Difficulty should be specifiable.  Also, whether the map advances in
difficult with recursion should be specified.

  Quests:
   It would be cool if random quests could be implemented, too.  I won't
put this in immediately.

  Standalone operation:
   It'd be cool if the random map generator operated standalone, so that
map designers could use it easily as well as the server could at exits.

  Size:
   Random maps should be sized.  A big, multi-square exit should have a bigger
random map to it, while a small house should have a small interior.

  Inheritance:  
   The type and location of the exit should imply something about its random
interior.  A shop exit should have a shop interior, a house should have a
home interior, etc, a difficult map should have difficult sub-maps.

  Directedness:
   Buildings should have random maps with stairs up to the next random map,
dungeons with stairs down, etc.

What does everyone think?  Anyone willing to help?  Has anyone already
made so much progress on this that I should just help them instead of
starting one myself?
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