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Returning back to places in the infinite universe?

#1
Okay so let me just place this here for some clarification..

When we initially spawn In game at any given location I previously read that the connections we make with NPC's, the possible factions and the wars and status quo of certain Areas in the game universe will run parallel from the players perspective.

So lets say star System A is in the middle of a War with two factions.. and the player decides to Haul Ass and flee 100 systems in any given direction.., what happens when the player returns to that initial Star system A? after a set amount of Real time has passed? as i stated before, the game running in parallel with the player slowly stops in phases or a certain distance from the player the level of simulation falls off a bit.

the main question is, to save ram and performance, does the simulation of the universe "end" or "pause" given enough distance has been traveled from the initial starting point?

My reaction is to not say this should not happen, but rather to see how it goes as the status Quo of star systems 100 star systems away as paused kinda makes things maby? more easier to manage as a player.
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Re: Returning back to places in the infinite universe?

#5
Jerek Adams wrote:That's good or there would be an exploit that would allow you to fly a certain distance away and then return knowing exactly what you need to get a more favorable out come. Especially in the markets. Could also cause some good incentive for exploration.

In any case it doesn't matter as its simulated anyways.
As I understand it, the goal is a simplified simulation for faraway places but still close in result to what would happen in a detailed simulation.

If everything works as planned, the differences in outcome will be in the range of the random differences we might get in a detailed simulation anyway.
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Re: Returning back to places in the infinite universe?

#6
Rabiator wrote:
Jerek Adams wrote:That's good or there would be an exploit that would allow you to fly a certain distance away and then return knowing exactly what you need to get a more favorable out come. Especially in the markets. Could also cause some good incentive for exploration.

In any case it doesn't matter as its simulated anyways.
As I understand it, the goal is a simplified simulation for faraway places but still close in result to what would happen in a detailed simulation.

If everything works as planned, the differences in outcome will be in the range of the random differences we might get in a detailed simulation anyway.
Perfect
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Re: Returning back to places in the infinite universe?

#7
Very cool.
So to draw parallels, it would be as in the X games where "out of sector" systems close by are simulated in detail, each ship has a specific destination, a specific job, military ships near you fire specific shots that hit or don't hit based on their aiming.
But further away, several star systems away, things are simplified and simply "happen". A battle between two fleets might be simplified down to a single "1 or 0" for the winner.
But when the player approaches after said battle, the simulation will expand to include precicely how many "possible" ships still survived, and what their current jobs might be (escape, patrol, dock to repair etc).


At least that's how i understood it. Sounds pretty good to be honest. And it makes sense, there's no point in simulating things in exquisite detail that the player "can't know about" anyway. If a battle is taking place 50 systems away from you, it doesn't really matter if each individual missile trajectory is fully simulated or not. The only thing that matters to the player and to the universe is which side wins the battle.

This also of course brings to mind a very interesting concept, which not only philosophers have considered by also Haruhi Suzumiya :D :P
The idea that things only happen if there is someone there to observe it.
In a sense, this is what the game is doing. It's Schrödinger's Cat in space.
The destroyer "Bob" from the empire might be both alive and dead, until the player gets close enough for the reality of the state of "Bob" to be decided. :mrgreen:
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Re: Returning back to places in the infinite universe?

#8
Baleur wrote:Very cool.
So to draw parallels, it would be as in the X games where "out of sector" systems close by are simulated in detail, each ship has a specific destination, a specific job, military ships near you fire specific shots that hit or don't hit based on their aiming.
But further away, several star systems away, things are simplified and simply "happen". A battle between two fleets might be simplified down to a single "1 or 0" for the winner.
But when the player approaches after said battle, the simulation will expand to include precicely how many "possible" ships still survived, and what their current jobs might be (escape, patrol, dock to repair etc).
In principle yes. I'm not sure if a battle between fleets can be simplified all the way down to a single "1 or 0", but the idea is to get rid of the full 3D simulation to reduce the CPU load.

The trick is getting it right. The X series has a OOS system that is more like a "classic" MMORPG, where evasive maneuvers don't count and the bigger guns usually win. Gazz has put in a lot of work to fix it via a mod that lowers the OOS DPS of big guns, to emulate the fact that nimble fighters can often evade the big guns .
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Re: Returning back to places in the infinite universe?

#9
The "OOS Rebalance" has been incorporated into "official" X3:AP. In an even better way since I got a 2nd damage column in the main weapons table, completely separating IS and OOS damage values.
And I could re-work the math used in the "real" damage formulas so I had access to some variables like maneuverability that the script engine cannot read.

The S&M approach was good. Actually exceeded all expectations. Doing It Right is better.

It's still not perfect because if you had tried to design weapons/combat in a way that makes them hard to balance, you could hardly have done a better job. =P
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.

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