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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0002808AI War 1 / ClassicSuggestion - Campaign Management And Setup - Map Styles And GenerationJul 14, 2011 9:33 am
ReporterEntrenched Homeperson Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status consideringResolutionopen 
Product Version5.000 
Summary0002808: Allow Players to Create there own Map Types
Description Since all the map types work off an algorithm anyway, why not create a way for players to create there own map types to create new formula to generate new maps.
TagsNo tags attached.
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parent of 0003275 new "Fixed Layout" map style 
Not all the children of this issue are yet resolved or closed.

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TechSY730

Feb 16, 2011 8:09 am

reporter   ~0010373

Sounds very similar to my earlier "suggestion" 0002259. :P


Okay, to be fair, this seems [I]slightly[/I] less hairy to implement.

Toll

Feb 16, 2011 9:22 am

reporter   ~0010374

Would still likely be rather hard to implement... I'm guessing the current map modes are hard-coded in, which means they'd have to implement an interpreter for a scripting language to make the maps.

ArcDM

Feb 16, 2011 11:15 am

reporter   ~0010377

Last edited: Feb 16, 2011 11:16 am

Perhaps just a map creator that lets you place stars and connect them (despite how tedious it would be for a 120 planet map)

The game will then randomly choose starting points and ships.

Red Spot

Feb 16, 2011 5:45 pm

reporter   ~0010398

You could have a very simple system that gives a lot of control but still leaves the randomnes as it is.
Allow the player to draw some boxes in a galaxtic view, add a number to each box. The box represents an area to spawn x planets, where x is weighted based on how big a total number you entered in regard to the number of planets you selected.
Give some control in how many connections between boxes you have and you can create all sorts of weirdness, up to the point of having several small universes literally spammed on top of each other making it impossible to read their connections, to the point where you just have 3(min. amount)boxes each in a corner with min. connections between them(a box for the player and 1 for each AI).

TechSY730

Feb 16, 2011 6:26 pm

reporter   ~0010400

I think one of the devs said that the format for galaxy layout in a (raw, uncompressed) save game file is relatively simple. Up until when (read IF) this idea gets implemented, someone could write a program to manipulate the layout in the mean time.

Entrenched Homeperson

Feb 16, 2011 11:19 pm

reporter   ~0010411

Last edited: Feb 16, 2011 11:20 pm

I always assumed that the process must be simple, it has it's roots in games from the 90s. I figured it was just a matter of having enough variables for every aspect then based on the value of each one doing different things. It becomes alot harder if nodes are placed in a way that's hardcoded.

EDIT: Typo

Zephilinox

Jul 13, 2011 4:07 am

reporter   ~0012710

Last edited: Jul 13, 2011 4:08 am

A simpler idea is allow the player to just drag planets around on the map before starting the campaign, and assigning/removing wormholes, much like the galaxy view in the beta patch.

Hearteater

Jul 13, 2011 10:36 am

reporter   ~0012720

Probably the simplest way to handle this would be to include Lua in AI Wars and allow players to write a Lua function for any given new map type. Then AI Wars would call the Lua function to generate a list of system coordinates and warp connections. While not very difficult to implement, it is a bit time consuming and it does come with some overhead in terms of making AI Wars take up more disk space.

http://www.lua.org/about.html

Zephilinox

Jul 13, 2011 11:01 am

reporter   ~0012721

Last edited: Jul 13, 2011 11:02 am

The dev's have said that they do not want mods for the game, so I don't see any reason for them to include lua.

http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,10.0.html

Although personally I'd love to mod the game with a scripting language, especially lua, as I've used it before.

Hearteater

Jul 14, 2011 9:33 am

reporter   ~0012724

Including Lua does not automatically allow you to make any mod you want. The devs can allow as little or as much interaction as they'd like. My suggestion here is that the extent of Lua's interaction would be generating the galaxy map before the game begins. You would be able to do nothing else. Not even select AI Home worlds and such.

And if the devs didn't want ANY mods at all, I'd guess all those graphic replacements wouldn't exist. And this topic wouldn't be marked as Considering by them :) .

Lua is just a quick and easy way for them to allow us to write an arbitrary procedure to generate a map.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Feb 16, 2011 7:14 am Entrenched Homeperson New Issue
Feb 16, 2011 8:09 am TechSY730 Note Added: 0010373
Feb 16, 2011 9:22 am Toll Note Added: 0010374
Feb 16, 2011 9:31 am Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Feb 16, 2011 9:31 am Chris_McElligottPark Status new => considering
Feb 16, 2011 11:15 am ArcDM Note Added: 0010377
Feb 16, 2011 11:16 am ArcDM Note Edited: 0010377
Feb 16, 2011 5:45 pm Red Spot Note Added: 0010398
Feb 16, 2011 6:26 pm TechSY730 Note Added: 0010400
Feb 16, 2011 11:19 pm Entrenched Homeperson Note Added: 0010411
Feb 16, 2011 11:20 pm Entrenched Homeperson Note Edited: 0010411
Apr 17, 2011 5:26 am FunnyMan Relationship added parent of 0003275
Jul 13, 2011 4:07 am Zephilinox Note Added: 0012710
Jul 13, 2011 4:08 am Zephilinox Note Edited: 0012710
Jul 13, 2011 10:36 am Hearteater Note Added: 0012720
Jul 13, 2011 11:01 am Zephilinox Note Added: 0012721
Jul 13, 2011 11:02 am Zephilinox Note Edited: 0012721
Jul 14, 2011 9:33 am Hearteater Note Added: 0012724