blkerby
Feature request: True Vanilla
This might be a pretty niche request - but I'd love to be able to generate "true vanilla" games, i.e. the "Vanilla" map layout but also placing all the items in their original location. I play through SM fairly regularly, and it'd be awesome to be able to play the OG game with all the great quality of life options, Samus sprites, tile sets etc. etc.
I had a quick look through the old issues & PRs and found https://github.com/blkerby/MapRandomizer/pull/97, so it looks like I might not have been the first person to have this thought. It sounds like that was canned because it had such a high generation failure rate - but I'm guessing/hoping that restricting to the vanilla map layout would side-step that problem.
Also just to take the opportunity to say that I love your work - I'm a software developer myself (boring enterprise slop) so I've got some appreciation for how complicated this must be and how much work you've put into it.
I've played a couple hundred map randos, and I don't imagine I'll be stopping any time soon!
One could imagine an option for placing the items in their original rooms. If that and vanilla layout are selected, then naturally one gets "true vanilla" as you put it. The problem with the option is that the map layout step happens before any item placement logic is considered, so it'd be pure rejection sampling.
Vanilla item placement in combination with vanilla map and vanilla doors is something that can be done. In that case we would just skip item placement logic entirely. There's some technical issues to sort out to make it work, and it's not obvious where would be the best place to include this option in the UI. I think because it affects/overrides item placement, map, and doors, it doesn't really belong in any of those categories and so might probably best fit somewhere in "Other options".
We'd also want to carefully label the option to make it clear that it's not recommended for a first play-through (since the map QoL will spoil things). But it's something that does frequently get asked about and would be good to include.
I was wondering about this very same thing!
I've been playing through some randomizers with a friend and it's been a blast. We've been learning all kinds of new tech thanks to the handy documentation on the randomizer site. We thought it would be fun to play the vanilla game, going wild on the sequence breaks, but with the QoL options this randomizer comes with. Would love to see this option included.
Either way, thanks for this randomizer. It's renewed my love of my favourite game ❤️
