I want to try my designs and battle around but making a diverse group of enemy ships to fight is annoying.
So how about a button in the combat setup which would open a window where you input a cash value and the games choose randomly designs from AI usable ships with a total value about up to what you input and places them against you the same way it is done in conquest.
Other parameters you could set would be if it is allowed to choose ships, landships or buildings, technologies it has access to, if it can also use designs from your library, and maybe a max cost per ship, so with a low per ship cost, it would field many small ships and with a high one it would prefer fielding fewer large ships.
And while i'm at it, maybe buttons allowing you to generate every kind of monster encounter you would find in conquest.
Why random? We should be able to upload 5k or 10k fleets into the workshop so that other people can download them and test themselves against our awesomeness. Actually the introduction of folders makes that a bit simpler, you should be able to load a folder of ships directly into the game.
And there should be a championship where we can watch online the computer play itself using every uploaded fleet against every other one!
On the code side, generating these enemy fleets would pretty much use the same code that produces the enemy encounters in conquest. For the monster encounters it would be the exact same code, for the normal enemy generator, it would be a bunch of RNG rolls to pick a design in the AI ships folder (or yours if you select that), check if that design fits the selected parameters, if yes put it in using the exact same code that place the enemy ships on the field in conquest, if no pick another until the money cap is reached. I could almost code that myself (actually most likely not).
And as Stracker says, (yes he words it in a ridiculous way) we could just select a different source folder of designs for the ennemy (which could maybe be generated from a collection of ships on the workshop but that's getting complicated).
I’m not sure that’s how enemy encounters are generated in Conquest. It seems everything, including monster nests, operate on an economy logic a lot like the play (if not exactly the same)
Well that's how the designs are selected, but here we'd use RNG for that. The code that places them on the battlefield would be the one from conquest.
For the monster nests, i think there is something similar to the max value i suggested, which grows while the nest is left undefeated. Here we could maybe input it, or just use a median value.
Ah, alright. Yeah, battle deployments can be generated.
On another note, I really liked the earlier idea that Straker brought up: making fleet deployments savable and uploadable to the workshop. I know I'd get some good use out of saved fleets, especially for multiplayer matches. I could save a generic fleet (one for each level of match budget) to save on time-till-ready and customize it on the fly for my opponent, instead of starting with a blank slate every time.
"In-Game Folders" left me wanting. Maybe there's a little misunderstanding;
"customDataDirectoryLocation" needs to be changed by hand/installer. That wont be changed by Steam. You could distribute all your 10ks the same way as before.
Don't think the new in-game folder system is working properly. Currently it deploys the first folder opened then loads.... from the beginning? No clue. Easy replication...
EDIT
...with an obscene number of designs. That immersion thing is a barrier for-sure. As for rando-gen you can't rely on a seed to give competent designs - there are a great deal of bad dicerolls and it's a matter of creating "AI Limitations". Surfaces touching, which segments should touch and at what rate, etc. Even Minecraft repeats itself.
@Psyringe I think you're misunderstanding the request. They aren't requesting for randomly generated SHIPS, but rather randomly generated FLEETS, made from saved designs.
Ah, got it. Yea, that ties back into Missions. Been complaining about that for ages though, should probably give it a rest. :)
EDIT
Actually, Zarkonnen could create the OP's request in a sitting using the ConstructionAffinities but I didn't say anything like that. Thought it was per-design, but OP meant per-battle, so yea. That's doable.
Warrant Officer
I want to try my designs and battle around but making a diverse group of enemy ships to fight is annoying.
So how about a button in the combat setup which would open a window where you input a cash value and the games choose randomly designs from AI usable ships with a total value about up to what you input and places them against you the same way it is done in conquest.
Other parameters you could set would be if it is allowed to choose ships, landships or buildings, technologies it has access to, if it can also use designs from your library, and maybe a max cost per ship, so with a low per ship cost, it would field many small ships and with a high one it would prefer fielding fewer large ships.
And while i'm at it, maybe buttons allowing you to generate every kind of monster encounter you would find in conquest.
Commodore
that may be quite difficult to code, but it might be possible? not really anything on the list atm i would think
Commander
Why random? We should be able to upload 5k or 10k fleets into the workshop so that other people can download them and test themselves against our awesomeness. Actually the introduction of folders makes that a bit simpler, you should be able to load a folder of ships directly into the game.
And there should be a championship where we can watch online the computer play itself using every uploaded fleet against every other one!
And...and...
Warrant Officer
On the code side, generating these enemy fleets would pretty much use the same code that produces the enemy encounters in conquest. For the monster encounters it would be the exact same code, for the normal enemy generator, it would be a bunch of RNG rolls to pick a design in the AI ships folder (or yours if you select that), check if that design fits the selected parameters, if yes put it in using the exact same code that place the enemy ships on the field in conquest, if no pick another until the money cap is reached. I could almost code that myself (actually most likely not).
And as Stracker says, (yes he words it in a ridiculous way) we could just select a different source folder of designs for the ennemy (which could maybe be generated from a collection of ships on the workshop but that's getting complicated).
Lieutenant
I’m not sure that’s how enemy encounters are generated in Conquest. It seems everything, including monster nests, operate on an economy logic a lot like the play (if not exactly the same)
Warrant Officer
Well that's how the designs are selected, but here we'd use RNG for that. The code that places them on the battlefield would be the one from conquest.
For the monster nests, i think there is something similar to the max value i suggested, which grows while the nest is left undefeated. Here we could maybe input it, or just use a median value.
Lieutenant
Ah, alright. Yeah, battle deployments can be generated.
On another note, I really liked the earlier idea that Straker brought up: making fleet deployments savable and uploadable to the workshop. I know I'd get some good use out of saved fleets, especially for multiplayer matches. I could save a generic fleet (one for each level of match budget) to save on time-till-ready and customize it on the fly for my opponent, instead of starting with a blank slate every time.
Commodore
"In-Game Folders" left me wanting. Maybe there's a little misunderstanding;
"customDataDirectoryLocation" needs to be changed by hand/installer. That wont be changed by Steam. You could distribute all your 10ks the same way as before.
Don't think the new in-game folder system is working properly. Currently it deploys the first folder opened then loads.... from the beginning? No clue. Easy replication...
EDIT
...with an obscene number of designs. That immersion thing is a barrier for-sure. As for rando-gen you can't rely on a seed to give competent designs - there are a great deal of bad dicerolls and it's a matter of creating "AI Limitations". Surfaces touching, which segments should touch and at what rate, etc. Even Minecraft repeats itself.
Lieutenant
@Psyringe I think you're misunderstanding the request. They aren't requesting for randomly generated SHIPS, but rather randomly generated FLEETS, made from saved designs.
Commodore
Ah, got it. Yea, that ties back into Missions. Been complaining about that for ages though, should probably give it a rest. :)
EDIT
Actually, Zarkonnen could create the OP's request in a sitting using the ConstructionAffinities but I didn't say anything like that. Thought it was per-design, but OP meant per-battle, so yea. That's doable.
Put in money, pair affinity(ies), have battle.