Some map questions dialogue...
 

Have many of you ever played on a grid map? Do you find them boring? Interesting? Why? Just curious...

Thanks,

Alarik

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

The Play By Committee game is using a spherical grid map.
Its pretty nice, with no borders or corners. Lots of ways to get where you are going too, so there aren't any chokepoints.

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

Hmmm...that sounds interesting...I'm sort of working on something very similar

I'm also thinking about things that, I hope, will challenge people's assumptions about maps and warp points and stuff like that...trying to mess with the basics of the maps and see what happens and how that affects peoples' actions in-game...ponder ponder ponder...

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

It would be nice if SE5 could have a map that was centered on one's home system, rather than on the middle of the map. That way, you'd never be sure until the end game where the edge of the map lay, and you'd get a better sense for exploring from home outwards, rather than, say, from the upper left to the center of the quadrant...

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

I've you've got a good eye for 3D, you could make a map with depth.

Lay out your map in 3D, with connections, and then project it onto the 2D grid.

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

I've got some aspects of that going on, but doing too much 3d to 2d thinking makes my mind go mushy.

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

Anyone know if there is a limit to the total number of warp lines a map can have?

thanks!

Alarik

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

None at all, to the best of my knowledge (and after seeing some of those maps with wormholes everywhere). You can also override the "no more than 10 wormholes per system" limitation, though it will still apply for player-created new wormholes.

Hmm, answering this question is safe I guess, as you cannot use this knowledge against me. Perhaps I should get back to work though.

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

Grid is my least favorite map to play. I like to imagine that the galaxy map is an actual map of the stars' positions, and that conceit doesn't work for grids.

However, I think a grid is more interesting if you mod it so that the maximum warp points is 8 and the minimum angle is 40.

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

If I set a game to "allow map save during game" and a player saves the map, does that player get the whole map (ie:including those parts invisible to their empire)?

Thanks,

Alarik

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

These players will get the .map file, so full knowledge of the map (if the map is loaded in the map editor). Or they could use it in another game, using an Ancient Empire.

Re: Ever played using a grid map?
 

Yes. This includes fully up to date information about atmosphere conversions, value/conditions changes, planet creation, ringworld/sphereworld construction, etc. If ruins are allowed, it also allows the player to find every unique tech ruins left on the map and immediately find out exactly which unique tech is in each ruins without having to colonize it first.

Re: Does \"allow map saving\" let players see whole
 

They get the whole map so they can see EVERYTHING layed out before them when they open it in the Map Editor. They'll get a chance to see the best systems for exploration and if other players, in a bout of roleplaying frenzy, renamed their home planet (I do it ALWAYS - no exceptions) to something race-specific, they can just search the Galaxy until they find the worlds in question.

edit: repaired bold code

Re: Does \"allow map saving\" let players see whole
 

Note that your homeworlds can be easily found (with full knowledge of the map, ie the Ancient trait) even if you do not rename them. You could simply sort all the planets in the game by mineral value, and look at the planets of the appropriate size and with all three resource values around the appropriate level.

In the case of standard homeworlds, you would look for Medium planets with three resource values around 100% (it is usually between 96% and 99%). There are very few such planets besides the homeworlds, and so they will likely all be homeworlds.

Re: Does \"allow map saving\" let players see whole
 

I'd forgot that. But perhaps that can be a part of "searching the Galaxy". Unfortunately, for some reason, my map editor seems to be slightly unstable (Ability 1 Type := Map Editor - Unstable) because I tried opening it once and I did something - can't remember what - and it "fatal error"ed out on me. It still works, but I now treat it with the utmost caution.