31 replies to this topic

[Yurec]

Hi All,

When PR was released, I was pretty disappointed by how my machine handled 'Galaxy far, far away' campaign. It was laggy as hell. So some time later, I sat down and wrote really simple galaxy map editor, and then repositioned some planets, removed other planets, and removed many trade routes.
As a result, campaign become much smoother, at least on my machine. It's still a bit sluggish, but nothing compared to what it was before.
Please note that this is an alpha version, it was tested about 10 minutes, all kind of bugs are possible.
I only edited empire campaign. I hope this will be useful.

MAKE A BACKUP BEFORE TRYING.

If anyone is interested, I can also upload editor itself.

Attached Files

•  Campaign_lite.zip   66.91KB   132 downloads

[Sausage]

Thank you kindly.

I have restarted the GFFA map about 15 times now and keep quiting for one reason or another. Most recently I gave up because it has become impossible to defend territory if you are spread over a large area. You either have to give them up and let the AI take them or you fight for it and will loose it regardless.

I hope your map is more reasonable and has choke points.

[Sausage]

Yurec is the Campaign file based off of Zarkis's AI mod? I ask because I use that mod for PR and the Campaign file is one that he modified. God knows what will happen if I switch them out. I'll try it regardless but it would be good to know if you based your file off his or not. Most people seem to use his mod for PR.

Thanks

[Sausage]

Ok the map is unplayable. At least it's unplayable with how I have my game setup (already using AI mod).

What happens is that every 10-60 seconds the AI grabs another planet and simply won't stop. Ever. No need to tell you what happens after a few weeks of this.

This is because there aren't any Pirates on any planets and therefore the AI doesn't need to build up a fleet strong enough to remove the Pirates.

Sorry bud but this won't work.

EDIT:

Also the way you have the planets setup it "seems" like it's impossible to defend and you must keep a fleet on probably twice as many planets as before to defend it. I wasn't able to test out how to move around because most worlds aren't visible to me but the AI does seem to have the ability to move from those worlds I can't see yet into my own, which was an issue before as well.

Edited by Sausage, 31 March 2008 - 04:54 AM.

[Yurec]

Ok the map is unplayable. At least it's unplayable with how I have my game setup (already using AI mod).
What happens is that every 10-60 seconds the AI grabs another planet and simply won't stop. Ever. No need to tell you what happens after a few weeks of this.

Also the way you have the planets setup it "seems" like it's impossible to defend and you must keep a fleet on probably twice as many planets as before to defend it.

As I wrote earlier, this is alpha version, it's not intended to be balanced or finished. It's just a quick test to see if removing some planets and trade routes will help with stuttering. Have you experienced any improvement in that regard?

P.S. I installed AI mod before editing the campaign, so it's probably compatible with AI mod.

Edited by Yurec, 31 March 2008 - 11:19 AM.

[keraunos]

I could use your editor, as I'm about to create new campaign map (no, not for PR )... Could you upload it?

[Yurec]

I could use your editor, as I'm about to create new campaign map (no, not for PR )... Could you upload it?

Here you go:

http://rapidshare.co...lMapEd.zip.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/rsofbv

And also attached in post.

Short readme is included. Just don't expect much from the editor - it's very simple and crude.

Attached Files

•  EAWGalMapEd.zip   126.69KB   99 downloads

[Sausage]

Ok the map is unplayable. At least it's unplayable with how I have my game setup (already using AI mod).
What happens is that every 10-60 seconds the AI grabs another planet and simply won't stop. Ever. No need to tell you what happens after a few weeks of this.

Also the way you have the planets setup it "seems" like it's impossible to defend and you must keep a fleet on probably twice as many planets as before to defend it.

As I wrote earlier, this is alpha version, it's not intended to be balanced or finished. It's just a quick test to see if removing some planets and trade routes will help with stuttering. Have you experienced any improvement in that regard?

P.S. I installed AI mod before editing the campaign, so it's probably compatible with AI mod.

Yes it does seem to run a bit smoother. Just as if I was playing a smaller campaign.

When you do decide to seriously balance a map I think it would be good to try create lots of choke points. This way you still need to defend a large territory but at the same time it doesn't become frustrating to play.

Sure it's not exactly canon but neither is the Empire's lack of overwhelming forces it used to defend its territory.

[keraunos]

Thanks a lot I don't need anything too fancy, and I'm sure it will be really helpful

As for campaign, as I'm currently in the middle of modding myself, I won't try it anytime soon. I surely could use something that runs smoother As for chokepoints - I'm against them, it's space, so units should be able to run pretty freely And AI is already far weaker then player - I find no problem in defending planets against it (well, AI is able to achieve space superiority, but it's too weak to beat me on land, so it's unable to progress any further).

[Yurec]

When you do decide to seriously balance a map I think it would be good to try create lots of choke points. This way you still need to defend a large territory but at the same time it doesn't become frustrating to play.

Thing is, the amount of choke points is a matter of personal taste... I played edited campaign a bit (on hard) and I must say that without choke points it's much more challenging and interesting. If you have, say, 2-3 choke points to defend, you just mass huge force there, and AI simply can't touch you. Then you mass even larger force, build Executors etc., and just pwn AI very hard. This is simply not fun... but I'll probably make version with choke points as well.

Thanks a lot I don't need anything too fancy, and I'm sure it will be really helpful

As for campaign, as I'm currently in the middle of modding myself, I won't try it anytime soon. I surely could use something that runs smoother

It seems that still after a 25-30 weeks it becomes unplayable, at least on my machine... but still it's an improvement. I'll experiment more.

As for chokepoints - I'm against them, it's space, so units should be able to run pretty freely And AI is already far weaker then player - I find no problem in defending planets against it (well, AI is able to achieve space superiority, but it's too weak to beat me on land, so it's unable to progress any further).

Exactly - it's simply not fun to play when you have to defend just 2-3 planets.

BTW, I updated editor to 1.01:
- Fixed resource leak
- Added displaying planets and routes count
- Added ability to plot routes from each planet to all planets
in hyperspace range

http://rapidshare.co...lMapEd.zip.html

Edited by Yurec, 02 April 2008 - 07:48 PM.

[keraunos]

Thanks

I went through your link to download it but is is asking me to pay for it
Did I do something wrong, do you think you can post it on filefront?

You have to choose an option on the right (free download)

[Kitkun]

Yeah, rapidshare has a free option, but it's currently asking me to enter 6 characters into a box that only holds four. I hate rapidshare. (I've used them before, though.)

[TheEmpire]

Rapidshare is annoying. It asks you to pay money for downloading stuff that other people put on it.
And it also makes you wait 2 minutes doing nothing for no reason if you are using it for free. It says you are waiting in a line but I doubt it.

[keraunos]

Yurec, I finally gave your GC map editor a trial, but I can't get it to work. Could you post what exactly you write in command line, as example? Also, do you use 'normal' command line, or just edit shortcut (and add parameters in target line)?

[Yurec]

Yurec, I finally gave your GC map editor a trial, but I can't get it to work. Could you post what exactly you write in command line, as example? Also, do you use 'normal' command line, or just edit shortcut (and add parameters in target line)?

Sample command line:
EAWGalMapEd.exe Planets.xml Campaigns.xml Sandbox_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_E

Planets and Campaigns files should be in the same folder as exe file, or you should specify full path.
You can use both normal command line or shortcut, it doesn't matter if everything is set up right (i.e. file names and pathes are correct, working folder in shortcut is correct etc.)

What exactly isn't working? Is there any error message?

[keraunos]

Everything is fine now. Thanks a lot for this really useful tool

[keraunos]

Yurec, could I ask you to slightly modify this program? All I'm asking is to list eventual position (X,Y) in program itself as well, like Coruscant (0,0). As I'll be changing many things (not map positions only) I'd like to edit postion manually.