A dynamically created network of starsystems.

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pixelfck
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Inspired by the recent repair works on 'The Network' I've been doing some work on a dynamically created network of starsystems.

I can create many types of random topologies, based on a set of chances. My question is: what number of starsystems should I aim for? howmany dead ends? howmany alernative paths, etc.

I initially thought that anything above 40 or so star systems would be too complicated and/or boring, then started expirimenting with 90 or systems before I came to the conclusion that I just don't know.

So my big question is:
How many randomly generated starsystems would you like to see, if you had the choice?
do you mind dead-ends? would you mind many dead-ends?
(and don't hesitate to describe what else you would like to see with regards to a network of star systems, maybe I can implement it).

Thanks,
Pixelfck

P.S.
The difficult part of this mod is not generating the random network topolgy, but making sure the random results are layed-out nicely; I'm resolving this last issue now and results look acceptable, but I think they can still be improved upon 8-)
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RPC
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Location: Hmm... I'm confused. Anybody have a starmap to the Core?

How are you planning on doing this? I have a random topology spawner for Star Network and the only real issue I have is getting the node coords for the Galactic Map make sense.
How many randomly generated starsystems would you like to see, if you had the choice?
(I'm assuming this is the system and not the network you're asking about)
I'd like to see an arbitrarily large number of them based on random numbers of:
-asteroid belts
-planets
-nebula (this isn't possible though; I tried and you can't replicate the LRS jamming & drag factor through code but it is possible through XML)
-random space hazards (asteroid showers, solar flares, etc)

Right now some system concepts I've been working on (don't know if this is applicable for Vanilla though:)
Capital systems
-- I'd like to see the Ares Homeworld (since we see St. Kat's and Huaramarca)
-- Do the Ringers have a homeworld?
Border systems
-- systems where there is heavy fighting.
Ideas (Network does some of these):
Sung vs Huari
CW vs Ares
pirates vs Korolov
Colonized systems
These are peaceful systems like Starton Eridani that have few pirates. It would be cool to add special missions to these systems ;)

do you mind dead-ends? would you mind many dead-ends?
I don't mind dead ends BUT I have a hard time figuring out if a system is a dead end AND also letting the player know that it is a dead end.
(and don't hesitate to describe what else you would like to see with regards to a network of star systems, maybe I can implement it).
How are you preventing multiple gate spawns? Right now I have multiple gates to and from systems and although that is okay I'd like to know how to toggle it.
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pixelfck
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RPC wrote:How are you planning on doing this? I have a random topology spawner for Star Network and the only real issue I have is getting the node coords for the Galactic Map make sense.
Well, this is an age-old problem (as far as computer sciences have 'age-old' offcourse) fortunately, there are some usefull algorithms to get the job done. Unfortunately, the simple ones have awfull running time [in the region of O(n²e), where n is the number of nodes and e is the number of edges] and the more efficient ones are multilevel algorithms that are 'somewhat' complicated to translate into tLisp.

I've so far experimented with function-based placement and the Fruchterman and Reingold [FR91] algorithm. The first one being horribly to look at and the latter one is mostly acceptable, but I'm not happy enough with it. So next up is Davidson and Harel [DH96] algorithm, which I expect to generate a better looking layout, although I'm not sure all required math funtions are supported by tLisp.

RPC wrote:(I'm assuming this is the system and not the network you're asking about)
I've not planned any changes to star systems (maybe I'll look into that later), so I intended to ask about the total number of systems (nodes) that the network should contain.

RPC wrote:I don't mind dead ends BUT I have a hard time figuring out if a system is a dead end AND also letting the player know that it is a dead end.
(...)
How are you preventing multiple gate spawns? Right now I have multiple gates to and from systems and although that is okay I'd like to know how to toggle it.
The topology is created first, dead ends can just happen, they are chance based. (if a system has no outbound connections and only a single incomming one, than I consider it a dead-end.) Only after the topology has been created, the stargates are added to the systems as required.
Most vanilla starsystems already call a lambda (via <Lookup table="HumanSpaceStargates"/>) that generates all required star gates. I just added it to some of the non-random systems (St. Katharine's, etc.)
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the_Butler
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I don't care how many systems there are, what I care about is what is there to do in those systems.

Clear cutting a system gets old, so does getting to a base and finding "we have no missions for you" in every new system I get to.

Just give me stuff to do and I'm happy.
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