[dogscoff]

Here's a cool idea- although it would be a PITA to keep track of- consistent combat maps: The first time a battle (ie a game of se4) is fought on a particular spot, the game map is saved and archived at the start of the game. Any subsequent fights over the same territory will be played out over the same map. Maybe the defender should get the opportunity to survey the map and pick their start point, or get the ancient race trait for free.

This would add a little texture to your meta-galaxy map, and players might avoid or favour certain angles of attack and defence because the "terrain" does/doesn't suit them.

You could even go the whole hog and plan out your galaxy map in advance, with one corner really dense in (say) ancient quadrants, and another corner with loads of planet-rich FQM maps and so on. You needn't pre-generate all the maps, just say "when combat occurs here, the map will be generated with the following settings"

Finally, consider making your "meta-map" wrap, or at least so big (and the players so central) that they can't reasonably back themselves into a nice, easy-to-defend little corner.

[ July 23, 2003, 09:51: Message edited by: dogscoff ]