I promised something, i normally keep my words, so here it is.

(PS; For those who thought the new color-picker suggested in another thread was tooooo complex, check this out!)

Ever since i've started playing GC (1, a few years back, mid 90's - included.), it boggled the heck outa me that the most important aspect of this game was Planetary developments and everything it implicates. A 12x6 grid of boxes is quite simple... what i always wanted is MORE room to expand and precise visuals on numerous variables (upgrades status and empty spots, are just two of these.)

So i sat down (stopped playing for awhile!) and started to work on the following concept...

A lot of thoughts and considerations went into the conceptual stages; thorough analysis was made, systematic processes were carefully planned and the interfacing choices designed to be as clear as possible. Mind you - this "system" certainly has some flaws or principles to iron out, new objectives to define, graphics to adapt, etc. But, i really believe it's worth any attention from SD designers and programmers. If only, to enjoy or even, to take me up (crossing fingers overhere, ya know) on that challenge!
Hold on to your X-Ray/Helmets and Laser/Beams, GC goes hyper-xeno-balistic-weirdo along with some slick geo-physical-symbolium metrics!!

First, a very basic planet (The surface layer "only" , btw) picture to get a grasp of the essentials...

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Well, indirect hexagonal shapes all over the place. Wouldn't you know - the building blocks call also be shared, matched, expanded, combined, upgraded, sealed, destroyed, scanned... (dot). Nothing like a big mysterious triangle to break some monotony.

A) Small violet triangles are some special cases (see further below).
Many different shapes and coverage of actual available Terrains.
C) Blue areas would activate by events or once some research steps have been completed.
D) Greys are adaptable multi-tasking locations which can be dragged and dropped anywhere (almost) for effective variations to the planetary framework.

Second, a couple of inserts, to "explain" what most of the features would need to address...

E) X or Y-Types hexagons, matter of perception. Or even, compatibility issues with current graphic sets.
F) Comparing a few re-sizing alternatives against the currently used box style.
G) Three upgrades per improvement means an Hexa becomes triangular and bigger.

Now, comes the fun part --

!) UnderGround-*-Surface-*-Atmospheric-*-Orbital layers (oh, noooo... 3 more!), each of which on its own map to show for. Plus, there's enough space on the actual PlanetWnd.dxpack (relative calibration is so useful) to fit a side/column or a bottom/row whose premise would be to navigate and switch to the wanted area(s). Like barely patched up on the panel below (I).

H) Connect to Zero-grav space straight up, fly to the clouds, going down takes a mine-shaft and tunnels. Bring the ladders, Jack. And, right back to the surface within a click or two.

One may perceive the newest layers as being any one of these few examples;

U- Gulag of Rura'Penthe in ST-VI
U- Moria mining in LOTR
U- Vernes' Voyage to the Center of the Earth
U- Core's drilling vehicle sent to reset the Magma/Iron region spin.
A- Nox's cloud city in StarGate SG-1
A- Lando Calrissian's commercial outpost in SW5:ESB
O- Thunderbird Five! (They will all show up in the X-Worlds mod i'm creating, pub-plug over!)
O- SkyNet UFO-Interceptors.
O- "Normal" Satellites stuff for meteorological monitoring and, what else.

and, sooooo many other well known Sci-Fi ideas, they all yell outloud to be introduced to the GCII (or 3) gameplay experience.


PROS:
- Incredibly extensive control over planet's development. Simply, directly, technically sweet as candy.
- Highly focused elements, via combined triangular matrices closely related to exact principles and design options.
- Potential for "storyline" features including some specific improvements for the new layers.
- Rapid glimpse at growth supported by visual cues or hints.
- Relative size of tiles (hex or/and triangles combos) and total quantities shown allows much more precise managing steps; just imagine a level 21 with some real continuity towards maxed out (BY player's choices) tiling.
- Variety, on screen.

CONS:
- Memory, coding, testing stages... etc.
- Maybe a little too new for most people. Although usage can nullify this effect within a matter of days and in cases, hours logged at a single game.
- The new graphics to create, cursors re-shaped/added, etc.
- Yes, i DO understand that stuff also -- it really **IS** complex.


I have to stop right here, i guess. Any constructive comments are most welcome. Except irrelevant critics without sustained proof and actual demonstration of the facts - substantiated.

Even if you don't share such a vision or the changes needed, i had fun doing/planning the above.

Please?

So, it's back to Modding overhere!!

- Zyxpsilon.

Hi!

This would work, if a player could expect to get up to 20 planets in a game. But with several hundreds of planets he can get in an all-abundant large+ game, this would simply turn into a MM nightmare, or even an unplayable game.

But what I'd immediately sign is a hexagonal grid of the galaxy, instead of the current square grid.

BR, Iztok

I was thinking that myself, but then I realized that with such a system your ships would only be able to go straight in 3 directions, instead of 4. Not that thats really a big deal, but I just think it might be strange. I would still give it a go though.

Complicated, yes, but very interesting. Probably not for GC2, but I'd say it's an option for GC3.

Duh... correct this with between 6 and twelve directions. Ask any pilots, the 11'O is a direct reference to the top left corner in pseudo-hexagons divided in 12 equal angles of 35*.

- Zyxpsilon.

Um, what? "Pseudo-hexagons"? How is something a hexagon, yet not really a hexagon?

I thought this was about space tiles. Oh well...


In any case, I would like to be able to go in the the opposite direction. I find that the planet screen tends to have the tiles that you can build stuff on all over the place. It makes it difficult to glance at a planet to get an idea to what it can do.

I would much rather to have a list of planet tiles. From that list, I would like to be able to organize the tiles into these groups: open tiles, manufacturing, science, economic, population management (morale and farms) , special structures (starport and power plant for instance), and one per galaxy structures (trade goods for instance). Basically, I want these groups to be fully customizable.

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No offense to those guys who goes through the trouble to give us these awsome looking planet maps, but tiles scatter everywhere makes it difficult to organize what I have.

A watch is round and yet is divided in 12 regions, so it's also a pseudo-polygon with smoothed out edges - indirectly. If you'd get such an odd-shape device, the angles would hit 6, 10 and 2 o'clocks for the Y-type on a "pseudo" hexagonal area represented.

- Zyxpsilon.

Bump...
putting a new link for the above since it seems i can no longer edit these old posts and i needed to fix the personal web-space.

*****
^
*****

- Zyxpsilon.