Me again viz: system names.
 

Don't know who came up with these. Don't care for most of them - so I compiled my own list from actual star names and added in the best (IMHO) from the default list.

Question though: there are only 100 names in the default list. It's possible to add 256 systems to the large map -- hence it must be possible to add more names to the list. Yes?

I ask before I screw things up - being the cautious type.

Wanted for SEV: larger map - say ... HUGE. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Thanks for putting up with me.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

You can add as many names as you like.

Don't put the limit to 256 though, I'm 95% sure that'll crash. Use 255 (and why isn't that big enough?)

Phoenix-D

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

You can add as many names as you want. The game will choose randomaly which ones it uses when setting up a map. If you don't have enough - some systems will have no names!

The max systems can be set in settings.txt to no more than 255.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

It's 255 cause of programming limits. There can be up to 256 variables (or something like that) there, and 0 counts as the 1st.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

I'm just and old programmer and probably don't understand these things but 256 items is still 0 to 255. Hence there can be 256 systems; 256 names and so on. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

In this case though, zero is not included in the max number of systems, hence the 255 limit.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

number 256 is significant (0-255) because MM has used a single byte as the variable that represents the number of systems. one bite has eight bits. between 00000000-11111111 there are 256 destinct combinations of numbers, thus that many unique values. in any binary system, everything is realted to a power of 2. in this case, 2^8.

i hate how accessable technology has become. everyone should have to know things like this. people complain that windows isnt reliable or is to hard to use, but they can use it without knowing how a computer WORKS. it kills me, and im not even a programmer.

back on topic, lots of lists of (real) star's names are available. heres some:

http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/s.../starnames.lst

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/con...name_list.html

edit: typo

edit: pardon my general rant, im sure everyone on this board is bright enough to know whats going on. im sure those of you who dont abhor my attitude and poor manners (and maybe even some who do) are competant and qualified persons, in whatever field you represent. cheers.

[ July 12, 2002, 05:51: Message edited by: Puke ]

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Right you are! Just looked at the Settings.txt. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

Well Puke, I knew the effect, just not the technical reason. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

I'm just wondering:
Since it takes 10s of hours to play a game, why would anyone want more than 255?

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

Fair comment Gryph, fair comment indeed....

Personally, I find that too many systems means too much real estate and therefore too much micromanagement to sort out your empire. I personally prefer medium size galaxies.

The two links for system names are excellent. I have changed all the system names on my SEIV to real star names and I think it gives a great feel to the game.

The only problem is that it can clutter up the map as your planets will tend to have long names such as "Australis Coriolis I", "Australis Coriolis II"

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

I have to agree that huge numbers of systems doesn't make the game better. More detail would make the game better. If planets had gravity, temperature, radiation levels and populations had to adapt or use technologies to cope. If stars had internal dynamics and output levels that affected solar harnessing techs. If storms would kick up spontaneously, move around, and die out. If solar systems evolved according to consistent laws of physics and didn't remain static, in other words, life would be much more interetsing on the SE IV map.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Which begs the question: can your systems have compound names such as: "Coma Berenices"? I haven't tried it because SEIV seems rather sensative to change in my view so I confined names to one word.

For example - right after I introduced new system names I got a 'system range out-of-bounds' when I tried to send a vessel to a system.

[ July 12, 2002, 16:12: Message edited by: Elowan ]

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

you definitly can have multi-word names in the systemnames.txt file. i know that SPACE and ' are both legal characters, but i dont know about other things. There may be a character limit, but i dont know what it is. the longest name in the devnull mod system names file is "Greater Plooriod Cluster"

your error may be because of a formatting problem. i think that the first line of the file must be a line of text (the name of a system) and i think the Last line of the file must me a blank line. (with no blank lines inbetween, or it will be read as the end of the file)

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

I've compiled a list of almost 600 system names (including some from SEIV) and another of about 500 or so of just actual star names.

I can post this if it is of interest.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

you can definately have long names.
My personal list includes In Your Face and several others. I'll give it a test tonight.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

Gryphin,
Did you add, "Hotel Carlton, Earth"?

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

id be interested in the list of real star names. i hate to be a nit, but are they all star names or they simply names of visible objects (including nebulae, galaxies, and clusters)?

it might be a bit odd having systems named after galaxies or globular superclusters or something, and i seem to remember that most visible objects in the night sky are galaxies. of course, its still better than completely fictional names.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

once again I get to plug. On the gold cd under eyecandy you will find a system file that has all the real star names in it.

Re: Me again viz: system names.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I just used star names choosing Arabic, Latin or Proper names without duplicating them (which-ever struck my fancy). I've also added some ancient Egyptian names (gods, etc)

Eye Candy has a lot of secondary stars with numbers and/or alphabetical designators (alpha orionis, B-33-A, etc.) which I don't have in mine. But it's a good list just the same.

Dracus: If I'd seen yours sooner - it would have saved me a lot of work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

SystemNames.txt

[ July 12, 2002, 21:59: Message edited by: Elowan ]