Bugs and Feature Requests for PlanetsCentral and other VGAP software
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Hi Stefan, ALL,
since you are interested in new ideas for PHost, etc.,
i would like to see a variable ship limit aspect added to the games.
GhostWriter
Hi Stefan, ALL,
since you are interested in new ideas for PHost, etc.,
i would like to see a variable ship limit aspect added to the games.
GhostWriter
When you say "variable ship limit", what do you have in mind, higher ship limit, lower ship limit?
cherek: When you say "variable ship limit", what do you have in mind, higher ship limit, lower ship limit?
higher, of course. IIRC, at the present time, the only ship limit options are 500, and 999.
my concept would offer something between those numbers, but not a specific number...
GhostWriter
cherek: When you say "variable ship limit", what do you have in mind, higher ship limit, lower ship limit?
higher, of course. IIRC, at the present time, the only ship limit options are 500, and 999.
my concept would offer something between those numbers, but not a specific number...
GhostWriter
Two minds thinking the same way. Plus maybe a higher number of minefields instead of limited to 500 would be nice.
cherek: Two minds thinking the same way. Plus maybe a higher number of minefields instead of limited to 500 would be nice.
the nice thing about my "formula" is that it will not 'normally' produce the same ship limit in two consecutive games. also, it could be adapted to a variable mine field limit...
GhostWriter
the nice thing about my "formula" is that it will not 'normally' produce the same ship limit in two consecutive games. also, it could be adapted to a variable mine field limit...
GhostWriter
Unfortunately, I believe the host will have to manually configure things like that.
One more thing I would like to see, is a FLAK game or two with more than 500 ships and and minefields.
cherek: Unfortunately, I believe the host will have to manually configure things like that.
maybe, maybe not. Stefan has not weighed in on the issue...
cherek: ...a FLAK game or two with more than 500 ships and minefields.
what is a FLAK game?
cherek: Unfortunately, I believe the host will have to manually configure things like that.
maybe, maybe not. Stefan has not weighed in on the issue...
cherek: ...a FLAK game or two with more than 500 ships and minefields.
what is a FLAK game?
The Killing Fields on steroids. Multi-ship combat instead of ship vs ship.
cherek: Unfortunately, I believe the host will have to manually configure things like that.
maybe, maybe not. Stefan has not weighed in on the issue...
cherek: ...a FLAK game or two with more than 500 ships and minefields.
what is a FLAK game?
The Killing Fields on steroids. " Fleet combat instead of ship vs ship. "This is a multi-ship combat engine, intended to be used with PHost. It can probably also be used with HOST, although that has not been tested." from the docs.
cherek: When you say "variable ship limit", what do you have in mind, higher ship limit, lower ship limit?
higher, of course. IIRC, at the present time, the only ship limit options are 500, and 999.
my concept would offer something between those numbers, but not a specific number...
Two minds thinking the same way. Plus maybe a higher number of minefields instead of limited to 500 would be nice.
Technical situation: PHost has an option to configure the maximum number of ships (NumShips, any value between 100 and 999) and one to configure the maximum number of minefields (NumMinefields, any value between 0 and 10000). There also are options to configure per-player limits for minefields (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer).
Thus, it is possible to configure a game with 999 ships and 10000 minefields. PlanetsCentral currently has options for 700 and 999 ships, respectively. More than 500 minefields is not that popular because VPA and Winplan do not support it (PCC and EchoView do.).
Rule situation: As we've seen, it is possible to configure fixed limits. Variable limits just need something to update the configuration each turn.
A while ago, I also a simple dynamic approach to the ship limit. Start with a limit of, say, 400. For every turn where there is a ship build queue, add five new slots. The advantage compared to a fixed limit of 500 is that you can have more ships. The advantage compared to a 999 limit is that you cannot have the new ships so fast as you had with unlimited building. It's a lot of work to play 100 ships.
For minefield limits, there's the "mfq" add-on, but it isn't immensely popular.
If you have concrete (and not too convoluted) proposals for a ship limiter, I'm willing to give them a try. However, please keep in mind that games still take some time to fill up, which limits our pace in trying out new things. I definitively want FLAK on this server someday soon. After all, I wrote it :-)
--Stefan
cherek: When you say "variable ship limit", what do you have in mind, higher ship limit, lower ship limit?
higher, of course. IIRC, at the present time, the only ship limit options are 500, and 999.
my concept would offer something between those numbers, but not a specific number...
Two minds thinking the same way. Plus maybe a higher number of minefields instead of limited to 500 would be nice.
Technical situation: PHost has an option to configure the maximum number of ships (NumShips, any value between 100 and 999) and one to configure the maximum number of minefields (NumMinefields, any value between 0 and 10000). There also are options to configure per-player limits for minefields (MaximumMinefieldsPerPlayer).
Thus, it is possible to configure a game with 999 ships and 10000 minefields. PlanetsCentral currently has options for 700 and 999 ships, respectively. More than 500 minefields is not that popular because VPA and Winplan do not support it (PCC and EchoView do.).
Rule situation: As we've seen, it is possible to configure fixed limits. Variable limits just need something to update the configuration each turn.
A while ago, I also a simple dynamic approach to the ship limit. Start with a limit of, say, 400. For every turn where there is a ship build queue, add five new slots. The advantage compared to a fixed limit of 500 is that you can have more ships. The advantage compared to a 999 limit is that you cannot have the new ships so fast as you had with unlimited building. It's a lot of work to play 100 ships.
For minefield limits, there's the "mfq" add-on, but it isn't immensely popular.
If you have concrete (and not too convoluted) proposals for a ship limiter, I'm willing to give them a try. However, please keep in mind that games still take some time to fill up, which limits our pace in trying out new things. I definitively want FLAK on this server someday soon. After all, I wrote it :-)
--Stefan
The issue you are talking about with more than 500 minefields is being able to view the 501+ minefields, not lay them, right? I use Echoview for things like minefield plotting, so it was not an issue in the 2 games that I remember playing where the minefield limit was over 500.
The dynamic approach sounds interesting, but instead of 400 ships maybe start at 500 ships and throw in FLAK, you'll have at least one player, even if I'm at my game limit.
The dynamic approach sounds interesting, but instead of 400 ships maybe start at 500 ships and throw in FLAK, you'll have at least one player, even if I'm at my game limit.
Add POneAlly to that list. If it isn't there, it will not stop me from joining, but I will like to have it. :)
The dynamic approach sounds interesting, but instead of 400 ships maybe start at 500 ships and throw in FLAK, you'll have at least one player, even if I'm at my game limit.
Add POneAlly to that list. If it isn't there, it will not stop me from joining, but I will like to have it. :)
I will put POneAlly and FLAK on top of the "next programs to integrate" list. The game would be a PList 2.4 game, because FLAK doesn't do PList 3.2 yet.
--Stefan
Thus, it is possible to configure a game with 999 ships and 10000 minefields. PlanetsCentral currently has options for 700 and 999 ships, respectively. More than 500 minefields is not that popular because VPA and Winplan do not support it (PCC and EchoView do.).
The issue you are talking about with more than 500 minefields is being able to view the 501+ minefields, not lay them, right? I use Echoview for things like minefield plotting, so it was not an issue in the 2 games that I remember playing where the minefield limit was over 500.
Yes, that's a problem of being able to see the minefields. Only the first 500 are displayed.
Laying always works. Older versions of VPA wouldn't allow you to give a mission like "Add 15 mines to field 2351", but at least that's fixed in the newer versions.
To see more than 500 minefields in VPA, there's VPA10k, but that's just an evil hack.
--Stefan
The dynamic approach sounds interesting, but instead of 400 ships maybe start at 500 ships and throw in FLAK, you'll have at least one player, even if I'm at my game limit.
Add POneAlly to that list. If it isn't there, it will not stop me from joining, but I will like to have it. :)
I will put POneAlly and FLAK on top of the "next programs to integrate" list. The game would be a PList 2.4 game, because FLAK doesn't do PList 3.2 yet.
--Stefan
You might want integrate PNoAlly in the future.
You might want integrate PNoAlly in the future.
You mean "CPEnableAllies = No"?
You might want integrate PNoAlly in the future.
You mean "CPEnableAllies = No"?
You're right. For some reason, I thought that there was a PNoAlly.
It's amazing the simple little things you forget when you take a few years off,