0003274: Disconnected maps - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0003274	AI War 1 / Classic	Suggestion - Campaign Management And Setup - Map Styles And Generation		Apr 17, 2011 5:25 am	May 24, 2015 11:08 pm

Reporter	FunnyMan	Assigned To
Status	new	Resolution	open
Product Version	5.010

Summary	0003274: Disconnected maps
Description	Right now, all maps are connected, meaning that each planet can be reached from any other planet. The opposite, disconnected maps, could create an interesting gameplay variation. A simple way to allow disconnected maps would be to specify a "Regions" number, R (default 1), with an N-planet map generating R sub-maps with N/R (+-1) planets each. For example, a 120-planet map with 4 regions would generate 4 30-planet maps, shrunk down to fit in the four quadrants of the map. 1, 2, 4, and perhaps 8-region maps would be relatively easy to lay out. To begin a game on a disconnected map, at least one system in each region must belong to the players. The available planets should be evenly split between the regions, to prevent the players from claiming all of the systems in a region or having no choice of system in a region. Lore-wise, disconnected maps represent either regions that were settled via normal propulsion (at least one minor race already uses this explanation for avoiding wormholes) or wormholes that collapsed, cutting off (easy) travel between planets. Advantages: * Disconnected maps create multiple "theaters" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_%28warfare%29) which cannot easily reinforce each other. The ships must be dismantled and rebuilt (possibly using a warp gate in the process), meaning that irreplaceable ships (e.g. golems, captured ships) can't be moved between theaters at all. * The players must choose a planet in each region, but a given region may not contain any of the players' preferred ship types. This forces the players to choose a ship type that they may not have used before. * In multiplayer, each player might claim a specific region as their own, thus ensuring that everyone has something to do: explore, defend, and conquer (the useful parts of) their region. * Conquering an entire region makes it mostly safe. This can allow the players to reallocate fleets and defenses to other regions, at the cost of a significant amount of AIP. It creates an interesting tradeoff, and may require frantic rebuilding when the next counterattack guard post is triggered. Disadvantages: * The UI and AI may not be designed with disconnected regions in mind. At the very least, a significant amount of testing would be required to ensure that it worked as expected. * Proper balance may be difficult with multiple sub-maps. One region may end up with a disproportionate amount of useful planets (either high or low). Conversely, evenly distributing the "interesting stuff" (ARSes, etc.) could make the layout too predictable. * The average distance from a human homeworld to any other planet will be significantly less, meaning that important targets like ARSes and Factory IVs will be close at hand, but so will the AI homeworlds. As with 10-planet maps, however, this is not necessarily a bad thing, just added challenge. On the whole, I think that playing on a disconnected map would make the game harder, but in an interesting way. I'm especially fond of allies having disconnected regions to work in, making it possible but difficult (and possibly dangerous) to support your allies. It also makes it harder for one player to be "subordinated" to others and end up doing little-to-nothing, a nasty problem I've seen a couple times.
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Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Apr 17, 2011 5:25 am	FunnyMan	New Issue
Apr 17, 2011 5:27 am	FunnyMan	Relationship added	related to 0003275
May 24, 2015 11:08 pm	Radiant Phoenix	Note Added: 0041110