Re: Galaxy Variants

From: bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard the Energizer)

Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 00:00:00 +0000

In article <ADE50A42966827BF0B@p018.mas.euronet.nl> terkans@euronet.nl (Maarten M Hazewinkel) writes:
>
>Anyway, this is one reason why I support some improvement in the
>galaxy generation code. If those homeplanets had been just a little
>further away, I would not have been able to execute such a swift
>attack, while still making the warship powerful enough to have good
>odds of winning the battle.

Blind galaxy has several solutions along these lines-
  1) The map wraps, so there are no "corner" or "side" positions.
  2) Version 2.43 or later games have code to attempt to balance
planet positions based upon how close the system is to your homeworld
(i.e. a 900 world 1 LY away is worth a lot more than a 900 world 15LY
away). This is adjustable at complie time (to some extent). Earlier
versions had code to move huge (1000+ sized) and size 0 worlds away from
homeworlds.
  3) Homeworlds are not known until you find them, and are
semi-randomly scattered throughout the galaxy system numberwise.
  4) Homeworlds are typically 25-30LY away at best (configurable at
compile time).

If the galaxy varient writers were smart, we'd drop all the galaxy
generation code into a plug & play module somewhere, so that those
wanting wrap around balanced maps use file X, while those wanting a
globular galaxy use file Y, those that want galaxy layout <whatever>
use this other file. Toss in some compile time or run time tuning
numbers (homeworld separation, "balance tollerance", whatever), and
most of the work is done.

Howard
--
Howard Bampton                      "The man without love gives no hostages
Internet: bampton@cs.utk.edu        to fortune." -- Black Omne
Sys Admin, Points unknown

References

Re: Galaxy Variants
mike@geophys.hokudai.ac.jp (Mikhail A. Menshov)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Galaxy Variants
terkans@euronet.nl (Maarten M Hazewinkel)
Wed, 12 Jun 1996 00:00:00 +0000