I'm so happy about this.

they specifically said it is not procedural generation. my feeling is it's more like a big bucket of legos with unique pieces. They've got a lot of those pieces but not an infinite number of them. Combine that with being able to populate with any combination of the four enemy types. I do imagine it will take a while before it feels routine.

I mean, if the computer takes 2 bricks and arranges them using a mathematical procedure, that meets the definition of procedural generation.

My guess would be that they have like 20 rooms made, and the rooms are just strung together *via procedure* to make a relatively unique map.

For it to not be procedurally generated, there would have to be a human being hand-curating a whole bunch of different layouts. Totally possible but also totally weird, because permutations are a thing that computers are *really* good at.

Many beloved games that use procedural generation are using a setup like this. The most famous and effective are probably spelunky and the original X-Com from 1993. Here's a great deep dive on how spelunky's gen works. http://tinysubversions.com/spelunkyGen/

When most people see procedural, they think it's something more like the minecraft/No man's sky approach where it users layered noise functions to create entirely unique Playspaces. most people think of this method when you say the word procedural generation though, so I can see why they avoided using it.

I think generally for skill based and challenge based games, I prefer the first approach. It lets you build designed challenges that can spike in fresh new elements to create experiences that feel unique. The second approach works well in survival and exploration based games where the designer might take a lighter touch.

And I am pretty sure that Bungie definitely wants to avoid a lot of the associations while also ensuring that people understand what to expect from the content itself. If they were to refer to the content as procedurally generated certain assumptions will come up in the player base/holiday consumers which likely would not allign with the final structure of the gameworld.

The baggage is silly and misplaced based on the mistaken belief that for a game to contain "procedurally generated" content, the designers literally have no hand in designing that content at all. Not only did designers make the procedures in the first place, but often (and seemingly in this case), they hand build the building blocks and the procedure simply puts them together.

For example, if you're building a bunch of rooms that can be connected in a straight line, the number of possible permutations is the number of rooms, factorial. So if you have 6 rooms, then you have 6! (or 6x5x4x3x2x1=720) possible combinations of those six rooms. Sure, a designer could do that by hand, but *why*? Computers are great at permutations. And what if you make a 7th room in a later patch? Now you have 7!=5,040 permutations. That's an insane amount of work to do by hand when the computer can be told to just figure it out on the fly (procedural generation) and presto: You've got it.

Of note: prison of elders is already an example of procedural generation within destiny, albeit with a very limited number of rooms.

Anyway, I firmly believe that procedural generation can be wonderful, and that people who are scared off by the term are being silly.

Did you know that Public Events are procedurally generated?

During D1, the list of Xur's wares was procedurally generated (which is why it was predictable). Unknown if D2 is the same.

And countless other things within the game use procedures to generate their outcomes. It is not, nor should it be, a dirty word.