March 07, 2005

My thoughts on the galaxy generation in Moo2

Recently, I have been taking a little time to re-examine the effects of the /nobh on galaxy generation. I am not entirely happy with its effects on the galaxy. It seems to be throwing off the balance of thing.

The game forms the entire star field first. Black holes are handled as a type of star (type 6). After the star field is formed, the planets are added to the systems based on the type of star in each system.

As some of you may know, currently the /nobh switch converts black holes into red stars as the stars are formed. My reasoning for implementing such a simple transformation was because the game manual states red stars 'rarely have planets with abundant mineral resources or easily habitable environments' however the game manual seems incorrect.

I have noticed in many cases that there is very little difference between the grades of the planets in systems with one type of star versus another. The manual specifically states many things that seem completely wrong if taken literally.

For example, in the case of brown stars the manual says brown stars have 'no planets orbiting these extremely rare stars, but they`re more likely than other systems to have a system special'. It is true that these stars are rare but they often have planets. Also, the manual states that yellow stars 'almost always have planets with moderate mineral resources and environments tolerant of, if not friendly to, life' when in fact these systems rarely have nice worlds.

Overall, I don`t see very much difference in the quality of systems with one type of star versus the other. It seems almost random. I do notice this however. There are more red stars in the galaxy than any other type when the /nobh switch is used.

I believe a change is still needed to reduce the number of red stars . As such, I will make a change in the next release of the patch. The type of star the black hole is converted to will be randomized.

Copyright 2005-2019 Shawn Meunier