The Aquapolis

Forum Forums Discussion The Aquapolis

This topic contains 10 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by Miqobot Miqobot 8 years, 6 months ago.

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  • #1656

    Marakalaid
    Participant
    0

    Many greetings from a recent Miqobot convert. I’m extremely happy with the product and eager to see how farther it’ll grow. For now, I have a question concerning the new dragonskin map dungeon, the Aquapolis.

    The premise of the dungeon is simple: Choose the correct door and you can advance to the next room. Using other third-party tools, I was able to look into door IDs and other unique variables, but I was not able to distinguish a consistent pattern.

    The same exact door, with the exact same flags and IDs could either end or continue the dungeon. A more in-depth look is necessary to figure out how it works – is the dungeon entirely generated from the start? Or is it generated on a per-room basis? Could you, for instance, work out the entire dungeon layout if you were able to zoom out the camera past walls?

    Every room is laid out directly in front of each other, causing one of the branching paths to be a dead-end (Or else they would collapse together, which they don’t). This can be confirmed by placing waypoints in two rooms and looking at the minimap as they perfectly align.

    Would Miqobot be able to assist in solving which door to choose?

    #1658
    Goblin.jpg
    Goblin.jpg
    Participant
    0

    I’ve no idea about this, but it would be amazing.

    #1659

    Mark
    Participant
    0

    Like with many things in games it is not preset to which door will be the correct door as it is handled server side

    #1660

    Marakalaid
    Participant
    0

    Like with many things in games it is not preset to which door will be the correct door as it is handled server side

    This may or may not be the case as there are no loading screens between rooms, and you can actually see the chest from the following room before opening it, using a radar add-on.

    #1661
    Goblin.jpg
    Goblin.jpg
    Participant
    0

    radar add-on? – As in not on Miqobot?

    #1668
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    1+

    The Aquapolis piqued our interest as well, so we have dedicated a special research to how it works.
    And we are preparing the report on what we found.

    We’ll post it here in a few hours 🙂

    #1689
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    3+

    Experiment 1. Rooms.
    The Question: Are there multiple instances of the same room?

    In order to answer this question, we have decided to build a Navigation Grid as we progress through Aquapolis.
    Kind of like unrolling a ball of Ariadne’s thread.
    Also, we were always choosing the Vault Doors on the right, until the Aquapolis kicked us out.

    The main feature of a Navigation Grid is that it’s bound to XYZ coordinates. So in case we would end up in a different instance on the next run, the Navigation Grid would appear in a different place.

    Alas, there was only one instance of Aquapolis and one instance of each room. When we entered the dungeon the 2nd time, the Grid was there patiently waiting for our return.

    After this, we switched to choosing Vault Doors on the left (while drawing on the same Navigation Grid).
    And just like you said, the branching pathways immediately collapsed.

    aquapolis-grid01

    Here’s a view of this Navigation Grid from the top.

    aquapolis-grid02

    So:

    1. Rooms never change.
    2. There is only one instance of each room.
    3. The only thing that changes is corridors.

    Experiment 2. Corridors.
    The Question: Can we predict the outcome of our choice?

    We have decided to see what’s behind each Vault Door before making a choice. If there’s a dead end, we’d just have to look around the corner to confirm that.
    So we squeezed through the Door on the left, then through the Door on the right.

    Behold the void of Aquapolis 🙂

    aquapolis-left01 aquapolis-left02 aquapolis-left03

    aquapolis-right01 aquapolis-right02 aquapolis-right03

    Now it becomes clear.

    How Aquapolis Works

    1. When you enter the room, both corridors are dead ends.
      They lead into a bottomless pit, and you can see the entrance to the next room across. Corridors are twisted at such angle that you would not be able to see this pit from behind the Doors.
    2. Before you make a choice, the next room is empty.
      There is no Treasure and no monsters guarding it.
      Which means there is no point in using teleport hacks to jump across.
    3. When you make a choice, the server does a 50% random roll for you.
    4. If you win, the game client generates a matching corridor piece, which leads into the next room.
      – If you choose left, the left corridor will be generated.
      – If you choose right, the right corridor will be generated.
      – The opposite corridor stays a bottomless pit (you won’t be able to go there anyway so why bother).
      – The Treasure Coffer is generated, and the next room is filled with monsters.

    aquapolis-cut02 aquapolis-cut03

    So basically, the game gives you the Illusion of Choice.
    In reality, it doesn’t matter which way you go – the server decides that. The game only fits the matching image for your choice if the server allows to.

    This is it 🙂
    The only way to predict the correct Vault Door would be implementing RNG Solver. But the cost of this solution is so big, that by the time it would be done there will be no humanity left to enjoy it.
    If you’re curious about how RNG works, you can find more insights here: Roll Solver.

    Thank you for bringing up the interesting topic!
    And welcome 🙂

    #1691

    Marakalaid
    Participant
    0

    Excellent research, Miqobot. Very interesting read and it definitely puts a nail in the coffin with regards to manipulating rooms. In a way it puts my mind at ease, knowing that getting to the last room is simply a matter of luck.

    Many thanks for clarifying everything!

    #1699
    Goblin.jpg
    Goblin.jpg
    Participant
    0

    Wow, thanks for the research guys!!
    Shame we cant use the bot for it, but now we know! 😀

    #1712

    Marakalaid
    Participant
    0

    Miqobot, any thoughts on this event occurring?

    There is apparently a chance of a glowing door spawning, which is guaranteed to grant safe passage to the next room. More info can be found here, albeit not much more as it seems to be an extremely rare event.

    Does this mean the 50% roll has already been decided in this particular scenario? How would it affect your previous findings?

    #1724
    Miqobot
    Miqobot
    Keymaster
    2+

    Yes, it seems that in this particular case the 50% roll is already decided.
    It is indeed an extremely rare event as we haven’t encountered this one ourselves. But when we do, we’ll definitely post additional footage of what’s hiding behind the glowing door.

    However, this would not affect previous experiments in any way.
    If you don’t see the glowing door – you can’t make any other door glow.
    (Well actually you can, by editing the game memory. But such actions would not affect the outcome.)

    Consider this a gift from the server.
    Instead of the Illusion of Choice, it gives you the Absence of Choice 🙂

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