Galaxy Generation changes needed

specifically the planet spread balance

Perhaps I am alone in this, but I and my friend played about 10 matches between the two of us this weekend and we found that colonizable planets tend to be clumped together in sections in the galaxy (specifically on the spiral map) with some players getting lots  of colonizable planets (10 planets in 10 systems) and the others getting lots of uninhabitable ones (I'm talking traveling through 20 star systems in a 'sector' and not finding a colonizable planet).

 

Feel free to add or comment.

7,199 views 12 replies
Reply #1 Top

Aren't there options which determine this? Addmitedly I havent tried changing them.

Reply #2 Top

My mod tries to fix this by making habitable planets more likely among other things. You can find it in this forum. Sandy's Better Systems Mod.

Reply #3 Top

There are options which increase the likelihood of better planets, yes. However, if you are trying to play a game with occasional or even common habitable planets it tends to keep them in this clump of systems with similar planets, be they habitable or not on spiral maps. I have tried it with a star distribution that is more evenly spread around the galaxy (loose clusters? I cant remember) and the problems go away. This seems to be tied specifically to the spiral map type.

Reply #4 Top

Though perhaps improvements can be made, I always like to go back to some thing they say from time-to-time on the dev stream (paraphrased): Multiplayer is geared toward co-operative play against the AI. Their main goal is to balance for player vs. AI gameplay, not player vs. player. In the former case, sometimes you get screwed but your ally can pick up the slack. In the later case, one of you is going to get stomped.

Reply #5 Top

Quoting eviator, reply 4

Their main goal is to balance for player vs. AI gameplay, not player vs. player. In the former case, sometimes you get screwed but your ally can pick up the slack. In the later case, one of you is going to get stomped.
End of eviator's quote

 

Maybe I'm strange like it so many other areas of the development of this game but why is the balance aimed at cooperative play for multiplayer?  This makes no sense to me, the reason I want a multiplayer 4x is to play against other players.  Even with godlike AIs players are almost certainly going to come out on top in the end especially if they are allied and spend even a little bit of time coordinating and even if they are on opposite sides of a large map.

 

I also want to add that in spiral games black holes tend to cluster too.  For example in my current game I left the type of galaxy random and got spiral.  In my starting range 7 black holes and 5 other stars.  Also in another plea for a bit more realism, I started on the edge of the galaxy with all those black holes which if they cluster they should cluster in he middle of the galaxy.

Reply #6 Top

Even though my friend and I were playing cooperatively, I got a great start and he got a horrible one. I was having a blast and he was having a crappy time. It's not about players vs ai, it's about everyone having fun and consistently (instead of rarely) having this much of a disparity in map generation is a bad thing.

Reply #7 Top

While I generally agree with the comments here, this is an issue that has been mentioned many times on the streams as something the dev team will always be tweaking. For example, this last stream (or maybe the one before), Paul mentioned that black hole placement was behaving in an undesired way (clumping black holes together in otherwise empty areas).

Anyhow, just thought I'd mention it and suggest we all be patient since this is still a beta and they are working out these details patch by patch.

Reply #8 Top

Quoting kestlstw, reply 5

 Also in another plea for a bit more realism, I started on the edge of the galaxy with all those black holes which if they cluster they should cluster in he middle of the galaxy.
End of kestlstw's quote


100% pure.

Reply #9 Top

Oh, I'm in no way under the illusion that this is a finished product. I'm a 2 year veteran of Star Citizen crowdfunding. I'm just posting feedback on areas that need improvement in case the team is unaware.

Reply #10 Top

Will there be a black hole frequency setting?  I'd like to be able to make these rare.

Reply #11 Top

Quoting bleachorange, reply 9

Oh, I'm in no way under the illusion that this is a finished product. I'm a 2 year veteran of Star Citizen crowdfunding. I'm just posting feedback on areas that need improvement in case the team is unaware.
End of bleachorange's quote

I didn't think you were under such an illusion--I just wasn't sure if you knew the devs have mentioned this as an ongoing issue for improvement. But I agree, I think it makes sense to say what you see when you see it while the game is still in beta...

Quoting charon2112, reply 10

Will there be a black hole frequency setting?  I'd like to be able to make these rare.
End of charon2112's quote

I believe this is already an option under galaxy settings...

EDIT: Black Hole Frequency is under Galaxy Options when creating a new game, in the Resources section beneath Asteroids.

 

Reply #12 Top

Thanks Trumpeter.

 

Also, I think the algorithm that lays out the stars needs work.  They seem very evenly spaced to me, no matter what galaxy shape I pick.  For instance, loose clusters keeps the stars in loose clusters, but the stars in the clusters are almost evenly spaced between each other.  GC2 generated galaxies that were much more organic.