Comments on the Spartan Map threads

[Skanky Burns]

I'm planning on having all images load in the thread, with most of the pictures I take being 1024x768.

Would people prefer the larger ones to just be linked to rather than being shown directly in the thread?

[Kassiopeia]

I like it the way it is now.

[Googlie]

You can always zoom out on the map to condense it somewhat (eg for the rover to The Hive map)

[Snoddasmannen]

Being an unfortunate soul who does not own a copy of SMAX I greatly appreciate the maps, and I think they work very well so far. I would keep the inlined pictures, much more comfortable to view imo.

I can't for the life of me figure out why we keep changing colours though, from white to yellow to reddish-brown? I thought Spartans were supposed to be black?

[Maniac]

Great work Skanky.

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
I can't for the life of me figure out why we keep changing colours though, from white to yellow to reddish-brown? I thought Spartans were supposed to be black?

I don't know sure if this also is in the original SMAC, but normally if you open the Alpha Centauri.ini file in the main SMAC directory, you should see something like this:
Faction 1=GAIANS
Faction 2=HIVE
Faction 3=UNIV
Faction 4=ANGELS
Faction 5=MORGAN
Faction 6=SPARTANS
Faction 7=PEACE
This determines the faction graphics of the first, second... seventh faction in the turnplay order list. Problem is that this list doesn't update when you open a multiplayer game (like this ACDG), so you'll see the faction graphics of the last single player game you opened.

[Skanky Burns]

I've unlocked the map thread so that the turn player can add pictures in there for turns-in-progress, should they so wish.

[Googlie]

*** Housekeeping ***

One of the things we should do is prune out-of-date maps and graphics from old posts to ensure faster loading of relevant pages (eg here)

[Skanky Burns]

I was thinking that all the maps would stay in that thread so people could see at a glance how our faction started out and how we got to where we are now turn-by-turn. If we want a single thread with the current map only in it, it would probably be best to have a new thread with just a single, continuously edited first post.

[Googlie]

Hmm - good point.

I made the comment as when I was having some rig troubles, I found that thread took forever to load 'cos of all the graphics

But it would be a good historic record of how our faction grew, prospered and conquered all before it

Maybe 2 threads - a current map and base status thread and an archives of maps and bases thread? [the latter one also containing snapshots from time to time of some of the F2 screens - our military nexus, base production, population and garrison, etc (for team members who don't have smax)]

[Skanky Burns]

Every 10 years should be good for those F2 etc screenies. Although the thread may get unweildy with that many images in it so we will probably have to open a new map thread every 10 years.

I've got a Current Map thread so that people can see where we are at now without waiting for several megs of pictures to download.

A base status thread is also a very good idea. I'll give you the honour of starting that one.

[Skanky Burns]

And if you could replace those removed maps, that would be appreciated too.

[Googlie]

Hmm - using the post edit feature, there's no way to hang an new attachment once the original has been removed, so I had to go the upload route

(I don't recall whether, when I modded ACDG2, I could edit someone's post to hang an attachment on it - I don't think I could - or even if I ever tried)

I'll start a n "Internal Intelligence" thread in 2110 for ten-year incremental upgrading

[Skanky Burns]

Yeah, I was presuming upload would be used for the current map. At least with the permanent Map Thread we can use attachments and save our valuable upload space for, well, whatever else we want to upload.

While on the subject, if people run out of upload space I'll be happy to upload Spartan pics for them using my upload space.

[Googlie]

Yikes!!

Note that the nearest Hive (we presume) base is only 8 tiles away from Chiron Knights

Our border is 5 tiles south of Sparta Command (and we know that a border is equidistant from two bases), ergo there is another faction's base ten tiles from Sparta Command

We should get Rolling Thunder and Chiron Knights down there ASAP

[Googlie]

Panic over - my mistake (territory never extends further than 7 tiles from a base. (edit; But why isn't our southern border then 7 tiles from Sparta Command?)

I still think we should send the 2 rovers south (together) ASAP

See:

Originally posted by Maniac
I read years ago in some civ2 manual that the game, when calculating distance (for corruption purposes etc), considers a diagonal connection between two tiles as having length 1,5. A straight distance between two tile counts as 1 of course.

If this is still true, the border distance of 5 directly south of SC1 can be explained like this:

1,5 * 5 = 7,5 rounded down to 7. So it matches.
Anyway, this way borders around a base more or less resemble a circle, instead of a square.