Making a large galaxy for a Larp

Hey everyone, Im from the small Western Australia larp group; I'm going to be running an event next year using EE as the method of players travelling between locations in the galaxy. I'm planning on making a rather large galaxy from what I can tell others have done: so far my dimensions are 100,000 wide and tall, starting at (500,000 , 0).

I will have plenty more questions about various things as I come across them but right now I'll start with a weird thing I discovered with sector naming: going up from sectors Fx, after Ax it changes to ZZx. That struck me as odd unless the universe loops/wraps but I understand technical limits. The thing that seems wrong is that ZIx goes to YHx in the up direction, and [x comes after Zx in the down direction. Would it be something wrong with the code loop that labels the sectors?

I'm also interested in using a time constant to have planets be in particular parts of their orbits.
Example, it is hour 16 of the day. All planets orbits are calculated in Init using this to place them 16 iterations along their orbit path. I briefly tried using os.date("%t") but it didn't work.

Can we edit and add stations in scenario files?

Comments

  • Correction, 1,000,000 or 1 million wide.
  • The universe doesn't wrap. But I had to label the sectors somehow. The code for sector labels is in the gameGlobalInfo.cpp, the "/ 20" does not match up with the "% 26" so that explains the odd naming.
    
    string getSectorName(sf::Vector2f position)
    {
        constexpr float sector_size = 20000;
        int sector_x = floorf(position.x / sector_size) + 5;
        int sector_y = floorf(position.y / sector_size) + 5;
        string y;
        string x;
        if (sector_y >= 0)
            y = string(char('A' + (sector_y)));
        else
            y = string(char('z' + sector_y / 20)) + string(char('z' + 1 + (sector_y % 26)));
        if (sector_x >= 0)
            x = string(sector_x);
        else
            x = string(100 + sector_x);
        return y + x;
    }
    
    And yes, with extreme large games you will have different sectors with the same labels.

    I don't know how well the whole code will hold up if you go extreme distances from the center. You might run into floating point precision problems.

    The "os" lua library isn't available for security reasons. (os.remove and os.execute could seriously cause problems if you run a random script from someone) There is no access to the real world date/time. Because how would that work with pause?
    You do have the delta parameter on each update call. Accumulating that will give you a time base.
  • Im not likely to get into coding and compiling things, too much else on my plate getting everything ready for the event in a few months.

    For distances from centre, I'll have to just do it and find out.

    I see theres some buttonmaking and info editing done by other people, but are we able to edit the stations (eg helm, engineering) from within scenario files?
  • edited December 2017
    I am also interested in changing the model for Wormholes and having one change position at regular intervals of real time.
  • I'm trying to use "singlePilot" in player:addCustomButton but am getting an error after loading the scenario

    "unknown value for crew position: singlePilot"
  • I'm not sure how to compile code, is there any chance you could do it? That is, if the project is in a good state to be compiled. Dont want to step on anyones toes, Im still new here.
  • Daid said he is aiming for a new release shortly (wich might eventually fix the audio issue on windows), so you might just have to wait a few days. Otherwise, you can take a look here:
    https://github.com/daid/EmptyEpsilon/wiki/Build-from-sources
    (Never tried it for windows, but for Linux it is pretty easy)
  • Oh, I can wait 'til the new year :) I was worried a release would be months away.
  • edited December 2017
    You also cant create custom buttons on Tactical, Damage Control and Power Management screens. I dont think this is due to the new release, I just didnt check before.
  • That's true. some of those are subclasses of the main 5, so for example, engineering advanced will show engineering custom buttons.
  • edited December 2017
    I'm trying to set up a custom Jump Carrier cpuship that can jump a massive distance, like 5000U. But the ship only jumps in 10U intervals when given orderFlyTowardsBlind().

    I've edited JumpDriveRange already in my custom template.
  • We ran a 36 hours larp last week, where the map size was about 4800U X 4800U and it worked pretty well.

    We still gathering our input, but we were also looking at the grid naming, and the ability to jump quickly between points in the GM and Relay screens (maybe Waypoints?).

  • https://github.com/daid/EmptyEpsilon/blob/master/src/ai/ai.cpp#L490
    The AI has a few bits of logic that influence the selected jump distance.

    It could be that the path planning is flying around something. As the path planner does not account for the fact that the jump drive can jump over black holes and stuff.
    Planned path should be visible in the GM screen.
  • perhaps it's possible to add `setSectorSize()` global function to the lua API?
  • alternatively, is it possible to change to a more mundane coordinates logic, with more room to grow in all directions?
    say, divide the map to 4 quadrants (A-D according to the negativity / positivity of the x and y coordinates), and allow up to 4 digits for each axis (36-base : a-z0-9).
    so sector names can be "A-004z-000g" or simply "A-4z-g".


  • edited December 2017
    using very large maps in our LARP raised a need for view position bookmarking.
    something like control+shift+number to set a bookmark, and control+number that will save and restore values of view_position and distance in radarView (relay and GM screeen).

    I'd be glad to make a PR if that sounds good
  • also, I've opened another issue that is related to this discussion, regarding mximum distance in radar views

    https://github.com/daid/EmptyEpsilon/issues/509
  • Bookmarks on GM/Relay sounds good. Maybe some keys to instantly move the relay screen to a certain waypoint would also be nice?
  • daid said:

    Bookmarks on GM/Relay sounds good. Maybe some keys to instantly move the relay screen to a certain waypoint would also be nice?

    sounds cool. I'll do it.

    currently PR-ing max zoom and sector names as they are easier for me to learn the ropes with.
  • Is there a way I can apply the Warp screen effect at any time?
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