really big games

The attached is the map I created. It was renamed as a .txt automatically, but I assume the file contents are unaffected. Modifying the system generation files would not really do what I wanted since I wanted good productivity in all three resource types AND a good climate on 2/3 of the worlds. Also I wanted a random number of planets per system from the starting half dozen in trinary systems to about forty in the biggest systems, which would not happen if I just added new system types. I also wanted random placement of worlds within systems. It also seems likely that I am exploiting a bug in the multiple starting point placement routine which does not seem to have an upper limit on worlds per system. But the change from roman numerals indicates that some provision HAS been made for super systems. It may be a little boring with 2/3 of the planets large rather than evenly distributed but that too looks nice upon consideration. So the result varies from near standard systems to near impossible ones requiring huge fleets to subdue. On the other hand the 100 mines limit on warp points makes the initial entry into system relatively cheaper. Since this was my first attempt and I kept checking things it also took about twice as long as it should.

My philosophy is to have as much variety as possible, so I have not tried making everything colonize the same. To me that would be boring because it eliminates the challenge of getting the right race to the right atmosphere.


THIS ATTACHMENT WILL NOT WORK. SEE LATER POSTS FOR EXPLANATION.

[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 16 May 2001).]

[Nitram Draw]

Thanks for the map. i'll give it a try, if I can load it I'm computer challanged you know
The reason I asked about a single type map is that if all races need the same planet types there is greater competition for the planets. It adds a small twist to the game.

You are welcome. I just rechecked seven systems and the stats on climate are 2/7 unpleasant 2/7 mild 2/7 good and 1/7 optimal. That sure beats over half unpleasant and optimal rare indeed in a typical map.

The climate can probably be fixed by tweaking a file but I still want over 100 in all three resource types because the stupid AI persits in mining farm worlds and farming mine worlds. I have seen mines on 2% minerals 110 % farms. So this way he can not miss whatever his tiny brain decides he needs will be good. And he can even waste dozens of them on tech/intelligence out of his 450 and still come out ahead.

See my posting under basic strategy for a recommended tech sequence.

I took twenty minutes to check the complete planets list for my map. The biggest systems are Sun at 46 planets plus 3 moons followed by Tessana @44 Eskirk @44 and Ixe @43. Invading those systems once they have been colonized would be a real challenge. Imagine twenty shipyards tossing out battleships as you move from world to world. Best to go in with at least a dozen dreadnoughts to visit them all in a turn or two before they can build ships.

On the other hand it occurs to me that the automatic AI empire management has probably never been tested for over 200 worlds. I tried turning on all AI on one of my games I was tired of at 600 worlds and the computer locked up. So it is possible that I have generated a monster that will just crash about turn 100 before I am ready to conquer the map. I hope not....

Let me know if I also need to post the system names file I used. I do not know if it pulls system names out of the file or has them in the map itself. They should be in the map. On second thought I will just attach it. The names I made up are all three letters because I get tired of writing long names on my plans.

If you want to make things interesting generate the game with your race Last rather than first. That way the AI gets to move new ships before you move.... I find it interesting enough being first so I can decide which sitting duck to pursue. My ships experience reaches Legendary +50% quickly....

One thing I forgot to mention is to turn off automatically claiming any system you colonize. This just makes the AI mad especially when it has a colony there. Do not claim them, just colonize them and grin...

[Nitram Draw]

Maybe the crash is related to the Max number of units. IIRC there were some Posts about a month ago concerning a limit on what the game could handle.
I bet you get some monster AI fleets with this set up!

[Q]

LCC I congratulate you to your "monster map" and please don't see my proposition as a critic. I just thought that you might be interested in ways to create such maps in less than seven hours.
The planet value you can change very easyly in the settings file. If you change "planet value low percent" from 0 to 100, you will have no planets with less than 100% value!
A little bit more effort, if you want systems with 40 planets. But if you create in the system type file a stellar system with 40 planets (and you can chose the size of each planet too!) you could easily modify the original to let's say ten different systems each with forty planets. Now you just use mainly these new system types in the quadrant text file and you've got what you want. Just the planet condition can not be pretermined IIRC.
All in all it might take you 3 or 4 hours, but then you can create randomly as many maps as you want in seconds.


[This message has been edited by Q (edited 16 May 2001).]

quote:

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Originally posted by Q:
Just the planet condition can not be pretermined IIRC.

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That is my point 2/2/2/1 distribution for planet climate beats the default all hollow. I want those suckers to GROW so that when I conquer them I have more than 50 population per planet to distribute on new colonies. With a single world starting point of 4 billion times three races multiplied by a MAXIMUM of 2.3 percent per turn compounded 130 turns there is only (at best) a factor of 19 increase to 230 billion to split on 1400 worlds. The ACTUAL increases observed in my games have been a factor of three to five not 19. An increase of just .2 percent jumps that by 67 billion or about 30 percent. And the distribution observed is much better than a .2 percent increase....

This discussion applies only once the planet really gets rolling. I am aware that you get at least an increase of one per turn regardless of the population so long as at least one population is on world.

Besides, the time needed to generate a map is less than a third of the time I estimate will be needed to PLAN the exploitation, which is also less than a third of the time needed to do the FIRST wave of expansion to 390 worlds. And THAT is about a third of what I estimate will be needed to get all the races to surrender. So about four percent of your time in a huge map game will be spent actually generating the map. As I said, my first hack took me twice as long as it should have.

So find me a way to get better climates and I will concede that my procedure is unnecessary. But you still will not get the even distribution of systems from six to 46 plus planets unless you make a huge increase in the system types file. And it seems likely that it will barf if you go beyond thirty planets per system roman numerals.