multiple empires/same shipset

[apache]

Well, I am playing a PBW game right now where two of my neighbors are using the exact same shipset (the default xichung). Thats fine and all, except I have no clue which one is which. All the planets, ships, and everything are exactly the same to me. The shipset gives a brown coloring to the markers of a colonized planet, but since they are using the same shipset, I can't tell their planets apart. And of course, all the ships look exactly alike, with the same little flag and same picture. What makes this an even worse problem is that they are both on the same side of my empire.
Is there anything anyone can do for this? I hope MM will look into allowing only one empire to use one shipset per game. Of course, for future PBW games, this is remedied by making sure everyone is using a different shipset prior to the start.

[Andrés]

Do they also have the same name?
If not you can right click on their flags and see their names.

[apache]

Hey, I never knew that. Thanks man.
Still, I think maybe it should be made visually obvious the differences between the empires.

[Aub]

When a human host starts a game and loads up the race files, he can easily see that two of them have the same pics. At this point he can ask one the the players to re-do the .emp file...

I wonder, is there a way for a PBW server to notice the duplicate race pictures and do the same? If not, at least in PBW one should see the flags of all races submitted so far. This way the next player to join could see what's already taken.

[capnq]

One suggestion I've seen to deal with this is for the players with the same shipset add an identifying tag to their ship class names. This may not even be needed if they are using different design name files.

If at least one of the players renames his colonized worlds, you can turn on Show Planet Names under (F11) Status/Empire Options.

On PBW, the player list currently will show any custom shipsets being used, but not the standard ones.

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Cap'n Q
My first SE IV mod! Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 17 November 2001).]

[President Delerith]

Antother good solution could be that the program automatically selects another race_main.bmp when detects a second player with same shipset. Changing race_main.bmp will keep the shipset pics intact, changing only the main colour of the race making the two players easy to distinct.

[This message has been edited by President Delerith (edited 17 November 2001).]

[capnq]

quote:

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Antother good solution could be that the program automatically selects another race_main.bmp when detects a second player with same shipset.

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When implementing this, you'd also have to check which main.bmp files are being used, in case a third player picks the shipset that goes with the second player's main.bmp .

I'm a little leery of letting the software make automatic choices, though. There are several races whose main color is nearly invisible on the black background.

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Cap'n Q
My first SE IV mod! Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"