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[roundedge]

I don't know how much Toady has looked into this, but I've been playing with L-systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system, and I think they could be used to make some really cool generative caves and structures, as long as you kept your angle parameter at 90 degrees. In addition, I think it would be cool if we could imput L-system style strings for our miners to dig out. And even if Toady isn't interested, these things can give players some really cool design ideas. Here are some examples I generated using Lsystem vs. 2.0 from http://www.spiderland.org/lsystem/.

This one uses the rule F+F-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This one uses F-F-F-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And this one is F-F-F- again, but with more iterations

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Neoskel]

It would be cool to have the Mountainhomes plotted out like that F+F- one instead of the way they are now, with parts jutting out of the mountain made of constructions.

[Capntastic]

Something like this would really spice up generated dungeons and such, if not overused.   And implemented in a way that allows for, well, surprises.

[roundedge]

The only thing is that it's not a solved problem space, it's very nonlinear, so it's hard to do lots of procedural stuff with it, you kind of have to just play around with the system until you find something good. But it's a lot easier than doing things by hand, and finding symmetries is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. But if you could combine different constructions together, you could get lots of interesting architecture from all the permutations.