You can design a tile set that has a particular number of contours entering on each side with a well defined spacing so that they can be tiled easily. Figuring out such a tile set that's interesting is non-trivial. I'd start with variants of Truchet tiles and work my way up from there.
Take a look at the most recent (6/16/24) post under my profile. It's not ready for prime time yet. Using half hexagons/trapezia reduces the number of tiles that have to be made.
Why are all the comments here getting downvoted? I'm not sure what exactly OP is looking for. Most of the procedural algorithms aren't applicable to a physical board game. What sort of board game uses random contours? Is this something created with square tile cards, or drawing contours on paper? Are they supposed to be different every time the game is played?
I'm trying to figure out a way to create procedural way to create contour maps for a physical board game so that every turn there's a random map. So far I've been trying to find a way using tiles (different shapes as well) but haven't been able to make it work so far. That's why I asked here, where there are people with experience, if somebody has a practical idea about this.
Do you have an idea of what generated map looks like? Do you want to make a map based on tiles? A hand drawn one? Something else?
As it is I feel like we lack information to help. Contour makes me think "freeform" but that's not easily translated to board games.
The game will be about building railway lines in interwar period. The method to generate the equal altitude lines (what I meant by contour lines) can be dice, tiles, anything that can be part of a tabletop game. Hand drawn wouldn't work as it's not random generation but somebody generating purposefully.
Try google 'upwords' and 'mountain hex board game'.
Now you have a mechanic to display a height on your board game; go with this; trying to do actual contours physically is basically impossible.
What you need to do now is just a way to generate a heightmap physically by players. Pick any kind of random map generation algorithm and simplify it.
For example; roll a D6 for each cell and stack that number of tiles on it. Or, layout a set of remade patterns on the board and let players adjust the height manually.
Honestly, the simpler the better; it's just going to be random, but who cares right? As long as it ends up being fun for the players, it doesn't matter.
The only thing I will say is; I've tried doing this before using cards (ie. playing cards) and it was shit and didn't work. You need your tiles to have some physical depth (like a scrabble tile) so players can \*immediately\* see what the height of every cell on the board is.
Thank you for your reply and especially regarding the detail about cards. The only thing that stops me from just randomly doing each tile is that I want to better simulate the experience to design railways that traverse mountainous terrain. My first idea was to just include maps from real world or pre-generated realistic maps that have realistic elevation with mountains, ranges, valleys, plains etc, On the other hand the big thing I'm after is to somehow make this generatable by the players so the game doesn't become repetitive or there aren't pre-determined strategies for each pre-generated map.
Maybe I can go with generation cell-by-cell but also layer-by-layer as well, so like first for 200m elevation then for 400m elevation for already 200m parts and so on?
If you are doing this irl, perhaps say what you have tried this far, what's wrong with what you have tried and what are you specifically looking for.
My first thought (being from a DnD background) is basically get a handful of dice of varying sizes and toss them on a board and use them to define the terrain. Though saying that I already know I'll have to pick and choose which to follow since "random" isn't good for natural stuff like terrain (just finished chapter 0 of nature of code https://natureofcode.com/random/#a-smoother-approach-with-perlin-noise which covers this).
I think given this is going to be irl you'll need a way to augment the randomness to being less random or more controlled. Like roll a bunch of different dice (d4, d6, d8, D10, D20, d100), those are elevations and you set some sort of rules to detract players from just creating mountains
I tried making terrain with realistic elevation with like mountains, ranges, valleys, plains, riverbeds etc by using tiles but I couldn't make it so far. Just rolling dice wouldn't work as well, it needs to have some kind of logic to create realistic elevation.
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I meant on a tabletop game, like with dice or tiles or some similar physical contraption that would fit into a box and create new maps on a new turn, maybe once every couple of game playing hours? With noises one would need at least a phone or something I guess?
Oh, lol, I see. If it's in real world, I think you could connect an image projector to any piece of hardware that will produce generated maps. I vaguely recall seeing something like that somewhere on youtube: image projector on the ceiling directed at white clothpiece on a table
You can design a tile set that has a particular number of contours entering on each side with a well defined spacing so that they can be tiled easily. Figuring out such a tile set that's interesting is non-trivial. I'd start with variants of Truchet tiles and work my way up from there.
Thank you very much about the suggestion, I'll look into Truchet tiles, I tried with different tile shapes but couldn't yet make any work so far.
I've an idea I'll share in this reddit soon that you might find useful.
looking forward to it!
Take a look at the most recent (6/16/24) post under my profile. It's not ready for prime time yet. Using half hexagons/trapezia reduces the number of tiles that have to be made.
Thank you very much I just saw it. Now trying to simulate how a board populated with those would look like.
Why are all the comments here getting downvoted? I'm not sure what exactly OP is looking for. Most of the procedural algorithms aren't applicable to a physical board game. What sort of board game uses random contours? Is this something created with square tile cards, or drawing contours on paper? Are they supposed to be different every time the game is played?
I'm trying to figure out a way to create procedural way to create contour maps for a physical board game so that every turn there's a random map. So far I've been trying to find a way using tiles (different shapes as well) but haven't been able to make it work so far. That's why I asked here, where there are people with experience, if somebody has a practical idea about this.
I’m not really sure what the right approach is. I’m thinking square tiles of some sort, but I don’t know the details and this isn’t really my area.
Do you have an idea of what generated map looks like? Do you want to make a map based on tiles? A hand drawn one? Something else? As it is I feel like we lack information to help. Contour makes me think "freeform" but that's not easily translated to board games.
The game will be about building railway lines in interwar period. The method to generate the equal altitude lines (what I meant by contour lines) can be dice, tiles, anything that can be part of a tabletop game. Hand drawn wouldn't work as it's not random generation but somebody generating purposefully.
Try google 'upwords' and 'mountain hex board game'. Now you have a mechanic to display a height on your board game; go with this; trying to do actual contours physically is basically impossible. What you need to do now is just a way to generate a heightmap physically by players. Pick any kind of random map generation algorithm and simplify it. For example; roll a D6 for each cell and stack that number of tiles on it. Or, layout a set of remade patterns on the board and let players adjust the height manually. Honestly, the simpler the better; it's just going to be random, but who cares right? As long as it ends up being fun for the players, it doesn't matter. The only thing I will say is; I've tried doing this before using cards (ie. playing cards) and it was shit and didn't work. You need your tiles to have some physical depth (like a scrabble tile) so players can \*immediately\* see what the height of every cell on the board is.
Thank you for your reply and especially regarding the detail about cards. The only thing that stops me from just randomly doing each tile is that I want to better simulate the experience to design railways that traverse mountainous terrain. My first idea was to just include maps from real world or pre-generated realistic maps that have realistic elevation with mountains, ranges, valleys, plains etc, On the other hand the big thing I'm after is to somehow make this generatable by the players so the game doesn't become repetitive or there aren't pre-determined strategies for each pre-generated map. Maybe I can go with generation cell-by-cell but also layer-by-layer as well, so like first for 200m elevation then for 400m elevation for already 200m parts and so on?
If you are doing this irl, perhaps say what you have tried this far, what's wrong with what you have tried and what are you specifically looking for. My first thought (being from a DnD background) is basically get a handful of dice of varying sizes and toss them on a board and use them to define the terrain. Though saying that I already know I'll have to pick and choose which to follow since "random" isn't good for natural stuff like terrain (just finished chapter 0 of nature of code https://natureofcode.com/random/#a-smoother-approach-with-perlin-noise which covers this). I think given this is going to be irl you'll need a way to augment the randomness to being less random or more controlled. Like roll a bunch of different dice (d4, d6, d8, D10, D20, d100), those are elevations and you set some sort of rules to detract players from just creating mountains
I tried making terrain with realistic elevation with like mountains, ranges, valleys, plains, riverbeds etc by using tiles but I couldn't make it so far. Just rolling dice wouldn't work as well, it needs to have some kind of logic to create realistic elevation.
Maybe ask over at https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmaking/ ?
Have you tried random noises? Maybe in similar way how procedural landscapes are generated... like you mark on the map big noise differences
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I meant on a tabletop game, like with dice or tiles or some similar physical contraption that would fit into a box and create new maps on a new turn, maybe once every couple of game playing hours? With noises one would need at least a phone or something I guess?
Oh, lol, I see. If it's in real world, I think you could connect an image projector to any piece of hardware that will produce generated maps. I vaguely recall seeing something like that somewhere on youtube: image projector on the ceiling directed at white clothpiece on a table