Sunday, March 16, 2014
Yikes! New record on devlog lateness...but it goes hand-in-hand with a new record on staying up late I really have to stop falling asleep accidentally But, with the amount of productivity yesterday, it's hard to feel guilty about it So let's go...
Capability as Space (and Value) Allocation
I talked a bit about capability yesterday. I'm finally starting to see the light when it comes to what this actually means and how it fits into other systems. I've been thinking of capability as being produced by objects. Transfer unit has transference, etc etc. Well, that's close, but it's missing something.
Here's the truth: capability is created by allocating some portion of an object's total mass & value towards it! Yes. This makes so much sense. What does it mean? Well, a ship has some total volume. You can choose to devote that volume to cargo storage, or to a tech lab, or to a production facility, etc. Do not think of capability as just coming from an object, but think of it as coming from space itself.
This has some fundamental ramifications that I am still exploring, but I believe the most immediate are the disappearance of research & production units. Instead we see these capabilities arise by allocating volume for tech labs and production labs. From a practical standpoint, this doesn't have too much difference - except that you now definitely have to make a choice between capabilities when it comes to how you're going to use your ship. One cubic meter of research lab is one less cubic meter of cargo space (err, even though cargo is mass-based... ).
Very elegant.
Zone Theory
But if you thought that was an exciting breakthrough, just wait. It wasn't the best part of today. No sir, today I finally began to understand in-system space for what it is: a structured, connected graph of 'zones,' not some random homogeneous stretch of space. A 'zone' is just a point of interest, but it is useful to think of zones as objects. A system might have an asteroid field zone, perhaps a planet zone, etc. Zones can be dynamically-created. Creating a big space station in the middle of what was previously just empty space (e.g. unzoned space) creates a zone.
Zoning is more than just a naming convention, though. It's a conceptually-clear way to think about space. Zones can have names, zones can have intrinsic value, zones can have security ratings, and zones can have...owners! Yes. Now we're getting interesting. How do you own space? Well, by force. Zones are considered to be 'owned' by whoever has the strongest presence there. How is that presence measured? To be determined. Could be military force, but I'm thinking more along the lines of the total value of permanent structures. Set up the biggest space station in an asteroid field and it's considered to be controlled by you.
Wars are no longer just random clashes that happen willy-nilly. They're careful and calculated attempts to take control of zones. Zones have 'intrinsic value' related to them insofar as they are 'springs' of natural resource. Asteroid field zones have a certain capacity to sustain mining operations. Planet zones have a certain capacity to sustain surface drilling, farming, etc. Gas zones - perhaps gas extraction? The point is, every zone is like a little spring of potential wealth. Control of a zone is control of wealth. Under this model, it is easy for the player to understand that - but it's even easier for the AI, and that's really the big win here. We have reduced the problem of the AI's understanding of expansion & territorial conflict to the understanding of zone control. Much, much simpler. Furthermore, problems like how to build a transportation network are reduced (it becomes the problem of how to connect a graph of zones), and questions like what is the purpose of a patrol are answered (the owner of the zone should set up patrols proportional to how 'contested' the zone is, e.g., how desirable it is to enemies).
Keep in mind that zones are not some kind of restrictive entity - you can still fly through free space.
I love structure, and for me this is really the step that systems needed to be more structurally-coherent!
Them March Dev Logs...
A bit crazy, don't you think?
Let's see what we can cook up for tomorrow...
Post
Mon Mar 17, 2014 2:16 pm
#1
Week of March 16, 2014
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford