Apparently there are two new bits of code in the system generator:
1) Planets try to space themselves one hex apart now. This means if you have three planets in lane 1 and three in lane 2 they make a hideously artificial looking triangle.
EDIT: The rule seems to be that planets in adjacent lanes cannot be adjacent to one another. Only a problem in the inner two lanes, because of the planet cap.
EDIT 2: Now I don't know WHAT is going on... I have kept testing, and I have found one system that violates this rule. Every other system is following the rule. Unless two inner-ring planets are adjacent to each other, an inner ring of three always produces the "triangle of ugliness..."
Please please change this! It is ugly, and it makes large systems look unrealistic!
2) Lanes can now only have three planets each in the random system generator. This really makes modding systems a pain. I'm sure it was done to keep object counts down, but those of us using larger systems could simply increase the spacing or mod other aspects of the game to fix it. It used to be different, because I remember that when you filled a lane completely, the code added a new lane outside of that to accommodate the overflow. That was a wicked-cool bit of programming, and it made my mod work.
I know it is pointless to ask for a change just to make a mod work again, but would you pleasey please please take this limit out of the code? Or let us modify it somehow?
If anyone is following this, I have now updated it twice.
Has anyone else seen the "triangle of ugliness?" It is really noticeable and artificial-looking!
I see lots of triangles of planets on my present map. I don't see the equilateral triangles you seem to describe. The Anti-Matter triangles are much more noticeable. You may have to show a picture of what you mean by "ugly".
> Lanes can now only have three planets each.
This is inaccurate. I have a system in my personal mod with 5 planets in one lane. It works perfectly in Crusade.
You can physically code in five planets, but the random generator will only add a maximum of three. At least, according to all of my testing.
Voila!
Astrologically, if you are born under this sign, you are doomed to the Vulcan discipline of Kohlinar.
Okay. That tracks. Carry on then, and thanks for all the exploratory work!
I have seen that configuration, but it is very rare. From what I see, one of the three planets is usually, if not nearly always, 3 tiles from the star. That is with base game. If you are modding, I am useless to you.
You are right, that would be a serious case of "born under a bad sign".
It is very rare because your planet settings are low. It is possible in half of the built-in planetary systems, and will happen regularly if you set your planets to "abundant."
Excessive map, abundant everything. I can't find any examples of the planet configuration you describe.
You have not one but THREE of them. In the base game they can only happen in white systems. You missed them because, in each case, one of the planets was a resource (one thulium, two promethion, the latter two marked with exclamation points). They are still ugly, even if one of the planets is a resource!
So, y'know what... maybe there ARE balanced star systems out there. Oh wait. For example, ours.
The Earth is balanced by the moon's orbit. Now, there's no "equal threes" going on that we know of, but how does balance work?
A small object can balance a larger object if their mass is similar or the same.
A lower mass object can balance a greater mass object if their distances from their common fulcrum are different, giving the lower mass object a leverage advantage. Or in the case of celestial bodies, giving the lower mass object a leverage or orbit advantage even in spite of its smaller gravitational forces. This is why the moon has neither crashed into nor drifted away from the Earth, even after millions of years of this seemingly eternal waltz they're engaged in.
There could be binary systems, such as the Earth and Moon, which are part of a larger binary system such as Earth & Moon together in opposition to Sol. Or maybe this is just a lopsided trinary system that has found a way to balance itself even though the participants couldn't be more different.
Could there be trinary systems that are somewhat more homogenous in nature? Sure, and maybe those would be more likely to balance if the individual elements are equal in size, mass, and orbit characteristics.
If there could be trinary systems, then why not double-trinary or triple-trinary systems?
I'm not proposing that we should have a lot of these in the game, but I am proposing that such celestial formations might not be all that crazy or mathematically rare, especially since this game is played only in two dimensions.
I don't consider resources as planets, although they may look like planets. They never behave as planets as far as I am concerned. I don't find the configuration "ugly". I don't consider the placement of planets on the stylized star map to be accurate indicators of the inner system navigation details.
You obviously know the technical details way better than I, but I still disagree on aesthetics. Planets are just places on a game board done up to be pretty. Three of them in a symmetrical layout does not qualify as ugly to me.
However. good luck with what you are trying to make happen. It doesn't have to make sense to me if it works for you.
It isn't perfectly random looking but I'm totally okay with it. Even if it was 1 out of every 10.
Have you looked into orbital resonances? They are not the same thing, but they are WICKED-cool, and they show up a lot in the Solar system. We are still trying to see if they are common... from what I recall, it isn't looking like it.
They are meant to be, but that is pretty irrelevant. What matters is how YOU see them.
Thank you! You are right, it is just aesthetics, and everyone has their own sense of it. For better or worse, I think the devs were trying to make things actually look better! Those triangles are rare, and they probably didn't notice.
Like erischild said, it really is a matter of aesthetics, and it isn't as big a deal with the default systems. And, like I said, maybe in somebody's astrology it actually means something...
Thanks everyone for the feedback! Especially erischild for going to the trouble of looking and taking a screenshot!
D/R: when a game window pops up, it temporarily has the contents of the last game window; it is then updated AFTER the window is loaded on screen. Windows should be at least cleared before popped up.
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