Random Universe Generator?

I'm curious, has anyone made (or thought about making) a random universe generator? A program that randomly creates syst resources at certain intervals, so that if you're doing a TC with an all new Galaxy, but you don't really care how the systems in that Galaxy are laid out, you can just click a buttom to get a random, fairly even distrubtion of star systems? Afterwards, you'd go in, giving them all governments and spobs and all that.

I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure how hard it would be, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that's beyond the capabilities of a fairly good programmer with some time on their hands.

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TomWoozle started on this, but never finished. It was called Systematic. I believe it was decided that it would take the creativity out of making good TCs.

~ SpacePirate

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Eat blazing electric death!

What we really need is a nice editor in the style of the old EVedit system editors. The concept was nice, the program was a bit bad.

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I believe AriosSW's evone has a graphical editor in the same style as ev-edit did. Anyone confirm this? I don't use it...

As for the random generator... yeah it could work. You could have several different pattern styles, you know? But, who would make it?

~A~

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"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

Yes, EVONE has a comparable system editor to EV-Edit. The interface is rather different, but it performs the same functions in a similar way.

As for the Random Universe Generator... I can't help but think it's a waste of time. Placing the systems for my TC, The Resurgence, took no longer than an hour - it's populating those systems with stellars, ships, outfits, missions, governments, and so on that takes up the time.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
japanese woman, you broke my heart, now you must play the part, where you come running back to me, don't be so surprised, I cried for you while you were sleeping

Yeah, I suppose that system placement can't take that long. And the other stuff couldn't realistically be handles by a random program.

~A~

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"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

Quote

Originally posted by Raemon:
**I'm curious, has anyone made (or thought about making) a random universe generator? A program that randomly creates syst resources at certain intervals, so that if you're doing a TC with an all new Galaxy, but you don't really care how the systems in that Galaxy are laid out, you can just click a buttom to get a random, fairly even distrubtion of star systems? Afterwards, you'd go in, giving them all governments and spobs and all that.

I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure how hard it would be, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that's beyond the capabilities of a fairly good programmer with some time on their hands.

**

That would be cool.

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Destroyer E is the name of my ship and the name has a good meaning.

Quote

Originally posted by Raemon:
**click a buttom to get a random, fairly even distrubtion of star systems? Afterwards, you'd go in, giving them all governments and spobs and all that.
**

Mmmm, random and evenly distributed are two different beasts. I could cook up a spread sheet that would give you 2000 random systs, but they wouldn't be even close to evenly distributed; there'd be clumping and dead zone, etc.

Having said that, you could write a progam that would make random points. If a point was too close to another point, it wouldn't get placed. In this way, you would get a somewhat random distribution of points.

<psuedo code>

###make 1000 systems
for do until length(theSysts)==1000
     ###define max x and y
     Max=1000
     Min=1000
     ###+ or - x?
     sign=rand(1)
     if sign=1
          x=0-rand(1000)
     else
          x=rand(1000)
     endif
     ###+ or - y?
     sign=rand(1)
     if sign=1
          y=0-rand(1000)
     else
          y=rand(1000)
     endif
     ###find the closest point to the newly made point
     for i in Systs
          otherSyst=Syst(i)
          otherX=otherSyst(1)
          otherY=otherSyst(2)
          otherDist=((x-otherX)^2+(y-otherY)^2)^0.5
          if  otherDist<presentDist
               presentDist==otherDist
               closest=otherSyst
          endif
     next
     ###now see if the new point is too close (closer than 20 pixels)
     if presentDist>20 then
          theSysts=theSysts+{X,Y}
     endif
next

Automagically linking all the systems you make is annother problem. It, too, would be a n^n-1 problem, so it'd be sloooooowwwwwww (assuming you don't want random links and only want the first 3+/-2 closest)

You could even throw in some code to automatically make spobs and place them in systems.

Is it worth it? Debatable.

-STH

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**Yeah, I suppose that system placement can't take that long...

**

Yeah right! It takes freaking forever using ResEdit and then going into Nova off and on just to check if the s˙st are placed in the position that was imagined in your head.

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

Quote

Originally posted by getcrack4me:
**Yeah right! It takes freaking forever using ResEdit and then going into Nova off and on just to check if the s˙st are placed in the position that was imagined in your head.
**

EVOne is way better than using ResEdit to make and place systems graphically. While it lacks some options that would greatly improve it (hotkeys for placement options),it is wysiwyg, so it'll help you out a great deal.

-STH

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Mac<-->PC pilot file Conversions: (url="http://"http://phair.csh.rit.edu/~seant/EV/PilotConvert/")http://phair.csh.rit...V/PilotConvert/(/url)
"Create enigmas, not explanations." -Robert Smithson

Quote

Originally posted by seant:
**While it lacks some options that would greatly improve it (hotkeys for placement options),it is wysiwyg, so it'll help you out a great deal.

**

Explain what you mean and they will be added. Seriously.

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com")Arios SoftWare(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/products/evone/")EVONE 1.0pb2 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by AriosSw:
**Explain what you mean and they will be added. Seriously.

**

Wow.Ok: One can choose 3 different types of arrows: a plain one for moving systs around, one for linking them, and another for making them. I'd be soooo nice if command 1 would toggle the moving arrow, command 2 toggled the link arrow and command 3 toggled the creation arrow. Then one wouldn't have to move the mouse to change tools.

I mentioned the desireto have coloured circles to represent different govts in a different thread. I think I also mentioned how nice it would be to be able to toggle visbits on and off.

A bug I have run into: when using the syst linking tool, most times I'll link two systems, but then I'll have a line coming from the syst I just linked to, all ready to be linked to a new system. Kinda annoying.

-STH

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Mac<-->PC pilot file Conversions: (url="http://"http://phair.csh.rit.edu/~seant/EV/PilotConvert/")http://phair.csh.rit...V/PilotConvert/(/url)
"Create enigmas, not explanations." -Robert Smithson

Quote

Originally posted by seant:
**Wow.Ok: One can choose 3 different types of arrows: a plain one for moving systs around, one for linking them, and another for making them. I'd be soooo nice if command 1 would toggle the moving arrow, command 2 toggled the link arrow and command 3 toggled the creation arrow. Then one wouldn't have to move the mouse to change tools.

I mentioned the desireto have coloured circles to represent different govts in a different thread. I think I also mentioned how nice it would be to be able to toggle visbits on and off.

A bug I have run into: when using the syst linking tool, most times I'll link two systems, but then I'll have a line coming from the syst I just linked to, all ready to be linked to a new system. Kinda annoying.

**

They have all been added to the database, let me explain:

The first is an excellent idea and will be in the next version. I had never thought of something like that.

I will look into different colors for govts. It should not be too hard to do and may be in the next version.

Visbit toggling is somewhat more difficult. I will work on it, but it probably will not make the next version.

The syst linking algorithm (especially the click delays) has been rewritten a couple of times to fix similar bugs. I will look into it.

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com")Arios SoftWare(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/products/evone/")EVONE 1.0pb2 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by AriosSw:
**
The first is an excellent idea and will be in the next version. I had never thought of something like that.
**

HUG! That change alone would make it a lot more fun to use.

-STH

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Mac<-->PC pilot file Conversions: (url="http://"http://phair.csh.rit.edu/~seant/EV/PilotConvert/")http://phair.csh.rit...V/PilotConvert/(/url)
"Create enigmas, not explanations." -Robert Smithson

Quote

Originally posted by Raemon:
**I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure how hard it would be, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that's beyond the capabilities of a fairly good programmer with some time on their hands.

**

I could write something up in which you take a government, and click and drag a rectangle in which that government has control. You would need to set up the borders for every government, the density of the planets in that area, and make names yourself, but it will distribute the systems evenly through the domains. As I said above, it takes (nearly) all of the creativity out of it, and as Mazca said, it really isn't hard to do it yourself with EVONE or even Mission Computer's Cryptographer. The real problem is making the planets to go in these systems, and though these can be created from random types, tech levels, and positions, it would seriously take all of the creativity out of making TC's.

~ SpacePirate

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Eat blazing electric death!

Quote

Originally posted by seant:
**HUG! That change alone would make it a lot more fun to use.

-STH

**

Implemented. Now you just have the wait for the next update. Blame Hurricane Isabel for the delay, but it shouldn't be too long now though I can't promise anything.

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com")Arios SoftWare(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/products/evone/")EVONE 1.0pb2 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

If someone is still interested to that topic, I made a random universe. You can visit it here:
Random Universe Generator

After three years, I seriously doubt that.

Moreover, how is this in any way related?

If it created syst resources...