That sounds interesting, how would it work?
Multiple Maps and Mapscripts
- Thread starter ls612
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That sounds interesting, how would it work?
I was just looking at the future techs, drawling over the not yet implemented features. I saw the Luna exploration tech and was wondering exactly what that unlocks... I saw the description said a "Luna rover" which is capable of exploring the moon and then planetary exploration unlocks planetary/mars rovers but how do these get to those certain planets? What happens if you use a rocket to bring a Luna rover to mars?
Oh and I'm guessing no colonization yet at that point. You'd just have the ability to explore those nearby planets. I'm very interested in seeing how it all works. Then boom, Luna colonization tech and you have the ability to build cities on the moon. This mod is just gunna be so awesome and I really hope multimaps comes soon so these future units can be worked on and we can see them in the game.
Koshling... I know you have a lot on your plate right now but I personally believe working on multimaps is a priority. Yes, it will be hard to do but once it's done, it's done! You won't have that terrible thought of "damn, I've got to work on multimaps soon" ever again unless a bug is found. Once you finish multimaps then everything in the future eras can be properly worked on. The other developers will be able to make the space/Luna/planets units, buildins and improvements while you work on improving the ai or whatever else you want to work on.
I'm wishing you all the best of luck koshling with this big challenge of coding multimaps but it will be worth it. It opens up so much and without it working on future stuff is currently not exciting since it won't be seen properly running in the game until multimaps is completed. I'm sorry to bug you but a lot of projects I find die soon after I find them and I don't want this one to die before multimaps is implememnted otherwise you may as well kiss the title of caveman2cosmos goodbye.
Lol, I'm not meaning for this message to come out angrily or anything, I just want to emphasis the importance of multimaps over ai, better multiplayer and other stuff currently. The faster its implemented the faster everyone can get to work on the future/the cosmos side of this mod. Good luck and thanks for being a great dev
Oh and I'm guessing no colonization yet at that point. You'd just have the ability to explore those nearby planets. I'm very interested in seeing how it all works. Then boom, Luna colonization tech and you have the ability to build cities on the moon. This mod is just gunna be so awesome and I really hope multimaps comes soon so these future units can be worked on and we can see them in the game.
Koshling... I know you have a lot on your plate right now but I personally believe working on multimaps is a priority. Yes, it will be hard to do but once it's done, it's done! You won't have that terrible thought of "damn, I've got to work on multimaps soon" ever again unless a bug is found. Once you finish multimaps then everything in the future eras can be properly worked on. The other developers will be able to make the space/Luna/planets units, buildins and improvements while you work on improving the ai or whatever else you want to work on.
I'm wishing you all the best of luck koshling with this big challenge of coding multimaps but it will be worth it. It opens up so much and without it working on future stuff is currently not exciting since it won't be seen properly running in the game until multimaps is completed. I'm sorry to bug you but a lot of projects I find die soon after I find them and I don't want this one to die before multimaps is implememnted otherwise you may as well kiss the title of caveman2cosmos goodbye.
Lol, I'm not meaning for this message to come out angrily or anything, I just want to emphasis the importance of multimaps over ai, better multiplayer and other stuff currently. The faster its implemented the faster everyone can get to work on the future/the cosmos side of this mod. Good luck and thanks for being a great dev
I was hoping to fool the game engine into thinking it was loading a totally different save game, without actually doing the elements of the load that change the underlying data, which should force it to redisplay from scratch.
But you tried it and it didn't work? Or have you not tried it yet?
@12padams:
Nothing Multi-Maps related (except for Viewports) is in yet, but I'd like to see it in soon.
I played around a little, but I couldn't find a good way to initiate a pseudo-load from the points we'd need to, so I think we'll probably have to stick with the current approach.
Well, that's disappointing, but still, it's awesome we can even do this in the first place! Do you think you can get the basics in (the iterators, extra coordinates, and on-the-fly map generation) before V28?
Also, why would you need a new AI for Multi-Maps (aside from any unique mechanics we add to it)? Couldn't you just not change the AI iterators, so the AI goes through and manages everything on an end turn?
You just need new AI to control decisions about how you move BETWEEN maps (or spread between or whatever the mechanic(s) is/are). For dealing WITHIN a map the current AI will do just fine.
Not sure on schedule. I haven't felt like doing any modding this week at all, so partly it boils down to when my motivation comes back (I've been playing more and am currently in the late industrial era in my test game). I think the biggest piece of work that will be needed is for someone (not me) to figure out what the mechanics and UI will be to move between/open up/spread to maps other than the starting one will be. I suspect the UI part will be by far the largest remaining piece of work.
Could it not be something similar to the Build Lists menu that AIAndy added in August? ie, you add another button in that area, which when clicked brings up a screen that lists maps you can go to, you click on a map on that list, and you go to that map. Quick and dirty I know, but I don't think that it would be a long project for someone who knows Python.
No idea. The APIs to call to switch maps are already there, so whoever is going to do this can start on it any time.
You might first want to think about how the actual transfer is going to be mechanic wise, not UI wise.
There is a serious issue if all starting from earth end up in the same plot on the solar map.
I've thought about this and have a possible solution. Take a 7 by 7 grid of tiles with the center being the planet. A unit moved off of a planet to the Solar System map is put in a random unoccupied plot in the first ring, or if all of those are full, a random plot in the second ring, and then if all of those are also full, into a random plot in the third ring. This gives a potential of 48 different entry points, which should be enough for almost all situations. If there is no way to put a unit in an unoccupied plot in that area, or if you already have a stack in the area, then it can go into your existing stack. If there is absolutely no way to exit the planet into an unoccupied or friendly tile, then combat can occur if you are at war with the offender.
Thunderbrd
C2C War Dog
That's not a bad idea. Since I was thinking something similar and find there's a number of possible options on how to resolve this issue, I agree that this is one of the best to move forward with.
I suppose that to get TO the Earth map, you'd simply move onto the Planet's tile and then be given the popup option of what grid x and y to come in at, listing off the owning player, cities that may exist there (by name), and perhaps a button to pull up a second sub-window popup that displays the units on that plot (must be closed before making any landing selection.)
However, there was some consideration of making an orbital map around Earth too and I'm getting the impression that's not likely to be employed... Without it, how are we going to handle the Moon? Would we be launching directly between Earth and Moon maps? When we enter the Earth space do we FIRST need to answer a popup question as to which map we're headed for? Are we planning on doing anything with orbital weaponry?
Il Principe
Prince
About going down back to earth: Could this be made tech/unit dependent and get a little random factor. Like you come back from your first trip to the moon, you simply see earth in orbital view ( zoomed out to max in reuglar map) , and click on a tile where you want to land. Then the game rolls a few dice so to speak and you land somehwere within 6 tiles of that point. And a chance that an improvement ( or buildings if you hit a city) get destroyed. Later as you get better spacecraft this radius decreases until you can realy select a specific city and land there without doing any harm.
This could simulate an early Apollo or Sojuz capsule landing somewhere within a huge area ( potentially hitting soemthign if you ever chose a populated one) , whereas a space shuttle can land on an airstrip, and quite sofly.
One could however also take damage to the unit into account: A Space shuttle landing in a forest will get damaged. One landing on an arifield ( city with airport, fort...anything that counts as airbase) won´t. Apart from atmospheric reentry that is.
I've got to be honest... I would like multi maps (just the beginnings, solar system view, moon and mars) to be implemented by v28 even if the ai had no idea about it by that point and just continued to stay on earth while human players could blast off into space. If this is implemented then work can be done on making and testing future units, buildings and terrains in their proper environments.
Is anyone with me on this one? Would they like to see multi maps ASAP even if it wasn't initially optimized to work well with the ai.
Is anyone with me on this one? Would they like to see multi maps ASAP even if it wasn't initially optimized to work well with the ai.
Hydromancerx
C2C Modder
Well we have been waiting for the multi-maps for awhile now. I have already stated I would prefer them sooner than later. But I also understand that ground breaking features also take time to make. In short keep up the great work and I can't wait to see it in action!
Some one needs to add the mechanics to unlock and spread to mutlimaps. The APIs to switch maps are already there (and have been since viewports were first added), so, although some more coding is needed to make them operate fully, the code is already present to have multi maps and to switch between them. It would be much easier to work on the other coding aspects that are needed once a version (crude or otherwise) to do the UI/mechanics for the spreading to a second map is done, as a test bed.
I have no idea who is planning to take that UI/mechanics part on - it will all or mostly be Python I think.
Are you saying that from a dev standpoint having a crude interface would help? Because, I'd bet that if we tried to implement an interface now without support for more coordinates we'd end up with crashes.
At any rate, I don't know any python, so I can't really be much help here.
DH maybe could take a crack at it?
Thunderbrd
C2C War Dog
Some interesting thoughts. Note: Something like a rebase mission or something like an airdrop mission that took you to the other map is actually not all that bad a way to go about it in general. Hmmm...
I am currently trying to learn some python so it MAY be something I can eventually work on but my ability to do it anytime soon is probably pretty minimal.
Are you saying that from a dev standpoint having a crude interface would help? Because, I'd bet that if we tried to implement an interface now without support for more coordinates we'd end up with crashes.
At any rate, I don't know any python, so I can't really be much help here.
All I'm saying is that we need to lay out the mechanisms by which you get access to new maps, and switch to them. Even without adding underlying coordinates that's a necessary step, and it makes the business of testing the operation of multiple coordinates easier if you have a way to switch maps to test it. Obviously it wouldn't be useful in a live game yet, but it's part of what needs doing, and can as easily be done first, with some testing benefits of providing a vehicle to test the other part later. I don't have the necessary UI or python skills really, and I have no idea what the intention is of how it manifests in terms of game UI. Someone needs to pick this up if multi maps are going anywhere.
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