Wednesday 6 June 2012

Random Galaxy Generation

Information about the galaxy generator in the game with some examples of randomly created galaxies.

Generator Settings

When you start a new sandbox game you first need to generate a new galaxy. Some of the settings that you can change when doing this include:
  • Galaxy shape (spiral, elliptical, ring and starburst)
  • Number of star systems
  • Number of planets
  • Number of galaxy arms (used for starburst galaxies)
  • Random seed
  • Frequency of dead end systems (systems that have just a single stargate travel link)
  • Frequency of planet types (temperate, desert, ice, ocean, volcanic and gas)
  • Scarcity of asteroids and resources
  • Computer faction starting positions and relations
  • Starting planet, ships and resources
  • Background colour style

I havnt yet decided on the upper limit for the maximum number of star systems and planets. Theres no real performance issues with having 500-1000 systems but even set at 250 it will result in a very long game especially if your trying to conquer everything.

Spiral Galaxy Examples

(100 systems, many dead ends)

(250 systems, average dead ends)

 (500 systems, many dead ends)

Elliptical Galaxy Examples

(50 systems, few dead ends)



(100 systems, average dead ends)



(250 systems, few dead ends)


Ring Galaxy Examples

 
(50 systems, few dead ends)

(100 systems, many dead ends)

(250 systems, few dead ends)

Starburst Galaxy Examples

(50 systems, 5 arms, many dead ends)

(100 systems, 7 arms, few dead ends)

(250 systems, 10 arms, many dead ends)

10 comments:

  1. This is -THE- most promising 4X game in development that I've seen.

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  2. very nice. tracking

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  3. I second that, when you post something new it's always worth looking at.

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  4. Cluster variant could be nice

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  5. Nice to see another 4X developer! I just recently switched over from grid-based to starlanes in my game, are you using minimum spanning tree, then adding random starlanes (more dead ends meaning less random starlanes)?

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    Replies
    1. I'm not using minimum spanning tree. All systems first get a link to their nearest neighbour then depending on the "dead ends" setting the nearby systems will be checked to see if they are within a certain number of jumps, if they are not a stargate link will be created to them.
      For example the "few dead ends" setting will check that the nearest 6 systems are within 4 stargate jumps of the start system.

      After all the links are created then there's some pathfinding checks to ensure no isolated sections.

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    2. Have you ever read the Starfire Books? Steve White and David Weber wrote them. They used a jump network device for their way of getting from system to system quickly.

      Chronological Book list from Amazon:
      Crusade
      In Death Ground
      Shiva Option
      Insurrection
      Exodus
      Extremis

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  6. Brilliant mechanic, can't wait to play this game! Keep it up Stuart! :)

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  7. Looking forward to playing this game.

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