I have posted a couple of map generators and sample maps on my website. I hope to update them and release more in the coming weeks.

At this point, I've never playtested the maps, since I can't run a proper server and I don't personally know anyone who runs servers. If somebody does try any of these out, please let me know how they play here or by email.

The two map generators I have right now are:

Skybridge - generates an approximation of the regular AoS map, then a bunch of brightly colored skybridges covering the map, and stairs up to the skybridges. [Screenshot]

Caves - generates an approximation of the regular AoS map, with asymmetric terrain for green and blue, but puts a giant mountain in the middle of the map and a bunch of "caves" throughout the mountain. Screenshots: [1] [2] [3]. (I suspect this may not play well since you'll just never see each other when you're in the middle. But maybe not?)

I have not spent a lot of time refining the color generation for the map. In particular, when you bring up the map screen by pressing 'M', the terrain looks really ugly. I'm not sure what the right way to make it look better is, but hopefully I'll come up with something.

The files can be found here.

The files ending in "_gen.zip" are Windows executables that generate the maps. If you're concerned about running unknown executables, the files ending in "0.zip" contain a sample map from the generator (which I have tested in a local server myself).

As to the trustiworthiness of these executables: I am an indie game developer who has released multiple free games (as windows exe files), and I am a (former) professional game developer as well, so no, I'm not fucking with you.

(I will be posting the source code to the map generators eventually, sooner rather than later, but I'd like to fix the 'M' issue first. I'll also be posting a better file format document.)

Looks delicious. I wants :3

Awesome work, Sean. I'll try to make the server use any external terrain generator, kind of like a plugin.

yeah, I guess that'll be important once you get win/restart logic in, so the game can spontaneously generate new maps with a custom generator. cool beans.

i guess i should look into generating trees and other things people have asked for. is there a wishlist somewhere?

@nothings

How would you plan on making trees? Just use brown blocks as the trunk and green for the leaves?

Also it would appear the flat terrain maps loaded with pre-made buildings and bunkers are very popular (for good reason) so maybe you could start working on that?

Wow, those caves look awesome! Could you do a map generator, which is hilly but in the middle of the map there's a valley and a lake?

Holy crap, now this is the good stuff.

Would like to report crashing under (Skybridge only) some circumstances:

- Random seed is generated (doesn't matter w/ other options)

- Custom file name is used (doesn't matter w/ other options)

Wow, this is awesome. I would like a hilly land with a lot of trees and few simple bunkers already builded.

I've fixed the 'custom file name' crash, dumb bug, and I'll upload soon. I can't reproduce the random seed crash: "-s 0", "-s0", and no "-s" all work for me. Is there some particular seed that's crashing skybridge, maybe?

Edit: Yep, ok, it depends on the seed and only happens in release builds, so the two in combination meant I hadn't hit it in my testing. I should be able to fix it now that I've reproduced it.

I've uploaded versions of skybridge and caves which fix the output-filename crash.

I've also uploaded a new generator, Forest_River, which is blatantly asymmetric. Screenshots: [green side] [blue side] [map]

Generators and sample maps still here.

With no -s, I'm only having a 50% success rate. -s 0/-s0 do work, so I think it has to do with your generating pattern.

And damn, you just made my day with forests. >:)

I've uploaded a Skybridge generator that fixes that seed-dependent crash. We'll see if there are any more (I guess I should write a little stress tester).

How do you make these generators? how do you know how the map files format is built? In what language do you code them?

They are written in C and I'll release the source code at some point.

The .vxl format is sort of described in a file called vxlform.txt which you can find by google, with modifications mentioned in the "quick primer" in the AoS newspost. Some of the documentation appears inaccurate, so I'll write up a better document about the file format when I release my source code.

That's would be really helpful, thanks

http://advsys.net/ken/voxlap/vxlform.txt
^

is there a wishlist somewhere?

Here:
http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=6f3a1

I stand in awe before these generated maps.

This is the best major development since i got to know this game, so carry on man!

This guy's a legend.
He's been making Quake, Thief I & II, Braid, System Shock I & II etc.

I bow before thee.
Humbly.

I didn't actually make Quake, I was just thanked in the credits and mobygames sloppily considers every thing mentioned in the credits when it makes that list.

Thanks Nico, I will browse through those suggestions.

I've added a new map generator:

Incomplete Fortress

Maps produces by this generator are probably insanely biased towards green. I'm curious whether this makes it impossible for blue or the if game is self-balancing. But I suspect it relects how a lot of greens would like the map to be.

The entire green spawning area is fairly flat, surrounded by a moat and a wall, and contains three unfinished buildings. The outer buildings have towers with a crappy staircase and no windows. The inner building has no roof, doors, or windows, but contains little piles of green blocks for building so you don't have to go anywhere else to get more blocks.

The permiter wall is one-block thick to make it easy for blue to penetrate. The building walls are two-blocks thick as a compromise between griefability and allowing blues to hide inside walls.

Green screenshots: [1] [2] [3]

[Blue]

[Map]

The generation aspect of this just means the blue terrain is different each time, and the green buildings have midly different interior layouts (e.g. the towers may be smaller or larger). I'm not sure this is enough to matter, but I'm not sure the map is a good idea anyway, which is part of why I didn't go whole hog on making a completely finished and polished base.

Maybe it would be better if the green "base" was raised up very high, to give blue more opportunity to tunnel, or something.

I've also updated the map lighting for Caves and fixed a bug in the terrain generation for Caves/Skybridge/Forest_River which was making them all flatter/less-varied than I'd intended.

And added another:

Slope

This one features only mildly rolling hills and a continuous slope downhill from blue to green. (Not a very steep one, since the map is much wider than it is tall.) Like with Skybridge, the amount of water is randomly chosen per map, so you might get a lot or a little.

You'll probably feel awfully exposed a lot and need to build lots of temporary shelters. Maybe I should pre-build some trenches and cover points into the map.

There's little to see in screenshots, but here's a sample map.

Downloads are at the usual place.

this could be so cool combined with victory conditions and new gamemodes

I love the forest and fortress ones! Are there any servers running these?
(I'm still hoping for that middle lake thing ;)

Edit: Is there any way to use these in map editor? I'm pretty noob with this stuff.

@monsteri you could generate a map with these, save it, then use it in the editor

But then I should make a server, or shouldn't I?

(and that's a thing I can't handle)

Alt-F2 to load in voxed. Alt-F3 to save.

Yes yes, but you didn't now realise that I can't GET the map, because first I need to be on server which haves it.

As off-topic, these random map generators would be nice as implemented to Voxed.

Wohoo, this is really nice! Props to nothings! :)

I've worked out the AoS fileformat too, and it's basically just the VXL format without the header: http://paste.pocoo.org/show/ibpq4zfhKAVBmvXg8g59/ (if you want to use this code, v is the input data, and remember to allocate geometry and colors to 64 * 512 * 512).

I'm also very interested in the networking protocol, and I've worked out a few things already. I want to make an alternative server in Python using Twisted (which I've got a lot of experience with, both language and library), similar to what has been done with MineCraft. Any details on this would be greatly appreciated :-)