Re: Galaxy:Planet Reports

From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)

Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 21:12:56 +0000

Howard J. Bampton <bampton@cs.utk.edu> writes:
>> An important point is that the numbers you are talking about for the
>> planets section can all be computed from the information which is
>> already on that line.

> All the information for the groups that you might want is computable
> too....

My point is that you can't compute the speed of a group from the
information in the groups section.  You have to look at a completely
different part of the turn, where the types are listed.  (In fact, it is
almost as far away as you can get.)  On the other hand, the planets
section is already self-contained.  Thus there is less reason to add
numbers which are just computed from numbers already there.

> Consider: you have 100+ groups (5 chars to print), a group with 100+ ships
> (5 chars), a long ship name (17 chars), have ships with techs != 1 (6
> chars / tech; total 24); have ships carring colonists (10 chars), have
> some freighters which can carry 10+ units of cargo (7 chars), heading
> for a long named planet (17 chars), and have a group in transit (7
> chars). Lets see: 5+5+17+24+10+7+17+7= 93 characters or so for the
> groups section (including 2 spaces/field separation).

The cargo type is only three characters (COL, CAP, or MAT), not the
whole word COLONISTS.  And it's clearly a good idea to have only one
instead of two spaces between fields.  You also don't need space after
the last column.  That reduces the maximum length to 76.

In fact, you could replace the field for "Distance" with "Turns to
Arrival."  This would save rather than add space.  After all, what
difference does the distance make, except to determine how long it will
take to arrive?  Adding "Speed" admittedly takes up a little bit of
space, but it is so important that it seems worthwhile.  (It's
practically impossible to plan any turn without knowing the speeds of
your groups.)

Replacing "Distance" with "Turns to Arrival" saves 4 characters.  Adding
"Speed" adds 6 characters.  Bingo, 78 maximum.

Adding statistics like "Speed," "Weapons Strength," and "Shield
Strength" to the "Ship Types" section doesn't make any sense at all to
me.  Since those statistics are all affected by tech, the player is
going to have to compute the true numbers anyway.

David desJardins

References

Galaxy:Planet Reports
bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard J. Bampton)
Fri, 28 Aug 1992 01:40:49 +0000
Re: Galaxy:Planet Reports
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Fri, 28 Aug 1992 16:19:03 +0000
Re: Galaxy:Planet Reports
bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard J. Bampton)
Sat, 29 Aug 1992 19:42:40 +0000