Galaxy Generator for conquest games

[pendra]

I had this idea lurking in my head and had a few hours to burn so I made this:

A random galaxy generator app for conquest games. It is very simple to use, basically just a few clicks.

GGGSB2.jpg (140.92 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

Extract the content to your GSB game folder, next to the GSB.exe.
Read the GG_readme.txt.
Launch the exe and generate the galaxy you want.
Then launch GSB and conquer the galaxy.

http://www.sto-advanced.com/gsb_galaxy_generator.zip

Currently, it uses the planet setups taken from the other campaigns, but the planet pool can be increased easily.

PC only.
Have fun!

[Kemp]

This looks interesting, it'll definitely add some variety to people's lives. I'd be interested to hear about the first "unwinnable" galaxy it creates :-)

I should probably get back to working on GSBEdit, everyone will produce more useful apps than me at this rate ;-)

[pendra]

This looks interesting, it'll definitely add some variety to people's lives. I'd be interested to hear about the first "unwinnable" galaxy it creates :-)

Randomization and fine game balance rarely meet up.

Anyway, I decided to add the customization features this way:
- Starting money, crew, pilots
- Factory probability on planets (0-100%) + chance of small/large factory
- Academy probability on planets (0-100%) + chance of small/large academy
- Production probability on planets (0-100%) + chance of A Shipyard/B Shipyard/Repair facility
- Enemy fleet value From-To
- Icon size scale to fleet value
- Probability of fighter/frigat/cruiser inhibition (0-100%) a planet like that will most likely come with a shipyard to make sure you don't end up with an unaccessable area.
- Probability of various hostile planetary effects (0-100%)
- number of long range wormholes: create a few pathways between very distant planets

Finally, save settings as and save campaign as feature.

And just for fun, a little app that may introduce galaxy changes. Like pop a factory here, scrap a shipyard there, clear up radiation here, prohibit cruiser movement there. The only problem is that GSB has to be restarted to have the changes take effect.

I wish there was a command or button in GSB to "Reload assets".

[N3MES1S]

Great, this is something that the conquest campaign should have since the beginning. Good job.

[pendra]

Updated/Fixed the app. The advanced customization and the save/load doesn't work yet, but the Generate works OK now.
Added a new facility, called Spaceport, to test the random facility placement feature.
Also the stars.txt holds star names. If the file is next the the app, then the line from the file will be used to name the planets.

[disorder]

Cool thx, just tried it and it works. Great job.


The features I would like to see are selecting my own custom background, and also movable nodes.


TY

[pendra]

It is coming, too. I tested an early version, which worked fine. Managed to build the Babylon 5 universe in like 15 minutes.

[Lord Herodotus]

Does this work on Mac? And if so, how?

[TatteredKing]

That works quite well. Definitely a neat add-on for the Campaign game. I'll be interested to see some of the functions you were talking about adding, like moving the nodes about and such. Great job for a "few hours" of fiddling. :)

[pendra]

I just took the game out again and decided to polish up the generator a bit. I made the whole thing dead simple and somewhat better looking:

GGGSB2.jpg (140.92 KiB) Viewed 1507 times

You can DL it from here:
http://www.sto-advanced.com/gsb_galaxy_generator.zip

[cliffski]

Heh, that's really cool. you are making me feel like a slacker!

[jupiter6]

Great work - I look forward to trying this out..

[SleepingD]

I've been breathing some new life into the game with mods for a little while now but when I read about it on the LRR webpage I registered specifically to thank you for this, random galaxy maps is something that this game really needed and a feature I was really disappointed was not in the original conquest DLC.

I do have to ask though is there any chance of the return of the customization features? Even if it were in the form of editing some settings file or something along the lines and at the risk of creating an unplayable galaxy with the wrong setting composition I would love to have the option to fiddle for more specific scenarios, like no cruisers map, no shields map or very scarce shipyards. I know those can be set up by hand by editing the campaign files but that often defeats the purpose of randomness. Also, would it be possible to implement the generation of even larger, like Atellian expanse size, maps?

Even if those features are not in the cards this is still a wonderful thing that I'm sure will make me invest many more hours into the game, I wish I hadn't missed it the first time it was released, makes me wonder what else I might have missed...

[pendra]

I'm happy you like it! I put the customization back, but in a less intimidating and crappy looking manner. With the advanced settings, you can generate a galaxy of up 175 stars. You can also control the frequency of inhibitions and facilities.

[ItsATrap]

how come whenever I use it, I get the error-
List index out of bounds
?