Random Map Gen needs better generation weights

from Sins2 Forums

My starting spot ended up with 5 asteroids and an Irradiated Planet with 2 planets being volcanic. I had no Crystals except for 1 asteroid even my starting planet only had 1 crystal orbital mine.  This means I had a choice of either getting resource or tech up but not both.

There needs to be weights for planets  that certain planets are worth certain points if the point value is low then you get a bonus in one of those first 5 planets as a major bonus.  Metal in this game is next to worthless as people are always selling it  so both resource wise and income wise I had zero chance of winning. 

sins ii feedback
5,213 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Sins2 Forums Top

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Randomness is what spices things up. No game is same to the previous one. Sometimes this may throw of your plan for the game, but adaptation is the key.

If you find yourself with this much metal, you will be able to outspam your opponent with cobalt frigates, who only use credits and metal.

Furthermore, since you play TEC, you can get some early trade ports with focus on crystal income. Yes, your export points in crystal will be limited, but that gives you another way you can adapt to the situation and try to expand beyond your own sector.

Finally, if you find those generations not to your liking, you can easily make your own random maps with solarforge, and ensure that players get crystal planets.

Or you could make a mini mod, and increase the spawn probability of crystal rich planets. This approach can still random you metal heavy spawns, since randomness can be like that, but will be more satisfying to your playstyle in the long run.

Hope this helps!

Reply #2 from Sins2 Forums Top

I would say it goes a little beyond that and I'd advocate for some additional map settings for the random map generator.

In your typical 4X game, you'd have random map settings for eg number of continents, sea level, hot vs cold climate, mountain prevalence etc., to either tailor the randomness to your preference or enforce different kinds of maps.

What I wrote was obviously for terrestrial strategy games but some of that could translate into Sins 2 as well. Eg settings for

  • the hotness of the sun (more hot, volcanic vs cold, icey planets, with impacts on the prevalence of metal or crystal deposit on the map),
  • galaxy shape (spiral arms, ovoid, squarish; highly connected or few phase line connections); conscious orbiting planets will eventually change that anyway, but it could be interesting as varying starting layouts
  • Sort-of connected to that: how closely you start to other factions. eg in a spiral galaxy, it could make a difference to start at the end of a spiral arm or near the sun.
  • Presence and prevalence of neutral gravity wells and anomalies
  • Frequency and not just binary toggle for wormholes?
  • Frequency (and not just "yes/no" of random events when these make it into the game (scheduled by Q3 25 as per current roadmap)

That's what I think should be possible with the game's existing and upcoming mechanics, but ofc others may have additional ideas. Whether it's easy to implement, that's a different story.

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