Re: Galaxy question

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

Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <3qiqj4$lvs@crcnis3.unl.edu> tulrich@unlinfo.unl.edu (Timothy Ulrich) writes:

>I asked a similar question once before, and I received rather
>contradictory responses, so I thought I'd try again.  (Besides, I
>asked for my first game, tried one format as my second set of orders
>ever... and then the game crashed and never came back up.  So I don't
>know if it would have worked!)

When in absolute doubt, one can always look at the source code. There
are a few places where one can read the rules one way, and get a rude
shock when something else occurs (which the rules can be read as
saying as well).

>So... here's the scenario.  Assume I have 20 ships at my home world,
>and 10 units of colonists that I want to send out.  Each ship has a
>cargo number of 2.  Now, I want to put 2 units of colonists on each of
>3 ships, and 1 unit of colonists onto 4 different ships.  HELP!!!

>If I do:

>L 1 COL 3  I'll put 2.4 units of colonists onto each of 3 ships (2.4 -
>     	   as the effective hold of a cargo tech 1, cargo size 2 ship)
>     	   This is more than I want to put onto each ship, and it
>     	   won't leave a full unit of colonists for each of the 4 ships
>     	   left.

This is the best you are going to do most of the time. There is no
general purpose way to do what you want. In this case, this sequence
will work:
L 1 col 5 ; Loads 10 units across 5 ships- 2 each, group 2
u 2 2 ; unloads two of them, creating group 3 (since identicle
      ; groups are merged later).

>Regardless, let's assume that my second order is:
>
>L 1 COL 4  This should evenly split up the remaining colonists onto 4
>     	   ships.  So, less than 1 unit of colonists per ship.
>

Now 1, as originally desired. This would be group 4 for those
counting.

>Now, I want to send each ship to a different planet.  How do I do
>this?  If I use:
>
>S MAX 100 1
>S MAX 101 1
>S MAX 102 1
>S MAX 103 1
>S MAX 104 1
>S MAX 105 1
>S MAX 106 1
>
>This won't work.  I have two separate groups (three groups when you
>count the original) that I'm dealing with.  Obviously, only one of
>these is "MAX".
>
>So, would I put the first 3 send orders (ie 100, 101, 102) immediately
>after the first load order, and the remaining four send orders after
>the second load order?  Or, should I assume what the group number will
>be for each of my new groups (ie, after the first load order I have
>group 2 of three ships with 2.4 colonists aboard each and after the
>second load order I've got group 3 of four ships)?
>

In standard galaxy*, you must "guess" the group number, since once you
have done:
S max 100 1
the max numbered group is the one you just broke off, not the original
group.

The orders you wanted to do would turn out to be:
L 1 col 5
u 2 2
L 1 col 4
s 2 100 1
s 2 101 1
s 2 102 1
s 4 103 1
s 4 104 1
s 4 105 1
s 4 106 1

Obviously group guessing can be dangerous (like if you insert an order
before these that creates a new group, and forget to renumber
everything.... I wasn't trying to colonize your occupied homeworld,
and bomb that uninhabited system; really (:-) )

* Blind galaxy plug: Blind galaxy has an option "unsafemax" which
alters the affect of the MAX token to be the last group not in
hyperspace, rather than the last group. This lets you shoot your left
foot with misuse of MAX, instead of the right one with group number
guessing. (:-) This situation is why I added this apparently useless
option.

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

References

Galaxy question
tulrich@unlinfo.unl.edu (Timothy Ulrich)
Wed, 31 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000