User:Librarian/How To Analyse A Dungeon

I made lots of false starts when analysing my first two dungeons. So, in retrospect, what's the best order to use?

Collect the data

Do several runs of the dungeon. For each run record the data for each room. The data should include room type, spawn pattern, herbs found, the colour of any key obtained in the room and the colour of any key used to exit the room. For 4-switch rooms, record the colour of the keyhole/orbs and regard the room as giving and immediately using a key of that colour when the correct orb is hit.

For Ulaid dungeons, room types include

• trapped chest room, predeployed room, 4-switch room, mimic corridor cluster,
• mimic room, 4-switch room, empty room, herb room and ore room, all of which are subdivided into cases depending on whether the exit is open or closed.
• Tiro and Fountain, subdivided into whether appearing in a corridor or room, with the latter case suvdivided based on whether the exit is open or closed.

Split the rooms into zones

I'll describe this for a dungeon with only one floor.

• Start with the orange keys. Each one belongs to a different zone.
  • Every room up to and including the room where the first orange key is used must belong to zone 1.
  • For subsequent zones, every room from that in which the n^th orange key is obtained to the room in which it is used must belong to zone n.
• Now look at other colour keys and try to identify more rooms. Examples:
  • If zone 2 has 3 consecutive rooms where you obtain the 2nd orange key, obtain a green key and then use the 2nd orange key, then all subsequent rooms up to and including the room where you use the green key are also in zone 2.
  • If zone 4 has 3 consecutive rooms where you obtain the 4th orange key, use a green key and then use the 2nd orange key, then all earlier rooms from when the green key was obtained are also in zone 4.
  • When you've finished using the green keys to extend the zones, then try the blue keys, and so on.
• The key colour sequence is orange, green, blue, dark blue, teal, yellow. Example:
  • Say the first 5 rooms of a dungeon are all 4 switch rooms coloured: Green, Orange, Blue, Orange, Orange. The orange rooms belong in order to zones 1, 2 and 3. The green room preceding the first orange must also be in zone 1. The blue room cannot belong to zone 2 because a zone cannot use only orange and blue; if it uses only two colours they must be orange and green. So the first 3 rooms all belong in zone 1.
• The last room in a zone always has a closed exit. Example:
  • Say the first three rooms in a dungeon are: Orange 4-switch room; herb room with open exit; Orange 4-switch room. The two orange 4-switch rooms are in zone 1 and 2. Since the herb room's exit is open it can't be the last room in a zone. Since it can't be the last room in zone 1, it must be the first room in zone 2.
• Figure out whether the last zone has only the boss key or whether it also has other keys.
  • Look through all your runs. If you can find a run where you obtain or use any other key after obtaining the boss key, the final zone has multiple keys. If in total the dungeon had 4 orange keys, the dungeon has 4 zones.
  • If you've done 5 or more runs and have never obtained or used any other key after obtaining the boss key, then the final zone almost certainly has only one key: the boss key. If in total the dungeon had 4 orange keys, the dungeon has 5 zones.
• The above processes are often enough to fully split the rooms into zones. If you do still have rooms for which the zone is uncertain, leave them for now.

Build the lists of spawn patterns and room types for each zone

• Use only the data for rooms for which the zone is certain.
• 4-switch rooms are troublesome. Start with runs where you did manage to generate 3 separate waves before hitting the switch that opens the exit. Then see whether the runs where you had only one or two waves are subsets of the lists made from the 3 wave runs.
• Note that Tiro, Fountains, herbs and Ore rooms are rare and might only occur in 1 or 2 zones in a dungeon. For herb rooms and ore rooms you might find that statement surprising because they feel more common. This is because there could be two or three such rooms in each of the few zones in which they can occur. Once you are certain of the zones in which they can occur, this can speed the process of splitting rooms into zones for any extra runs you do.

Revisit any unzoned rooms

• While some spawn patterns can occur in more than one zone, it's surprising that most spawn patterns are unique to one zone.
• So now go back to any rooms for which the zone was uncertain. Does the spawn pattern data allow you to classify any of them?

Structure analysis

The final step is to try to determine what room structures can occur in each zone. For example, you may find a zone that never uses 4-switch rooms, or a zone that only ever contains 4-switch rooms. I'll happily admit I am still clueless as to the best way to do this, so I'm not going to offer any advice.