Resource Distrobution

[Zedrackis]

I would like to a expansion to the server configure file, which is already pretty bloated, that would allow server op's to layout the asteroid spawn rates for galaxies. I suggest something like this, for each asteroid type have a min, max, left, right and size scalers. The left and right would be degree's off of galactic north, min and max would be 0 to 1 scalers for the distance from galactic center, and size a scaler from normal (current) asteroid sizes varying with distance from galactic center.

Say for example you as server op only wanted the blue asteroids to spawn near the edge galactic north in sizes that got bigger as you went farther out. You could set those to -45 left, 45 right, min 0.9, max 1.0, and a scaler of 0.2. The asteroids would then appear only in systems 45 degrees off of galactic north and only in the last 10% of the galaxy. While growing from normal sizes near the inner side of that 10% up to 20% bigger than normal near the very edge of the galaxy.

Essentially, making people leave their home systems and go look for resources in other parts of the galaxy. Server op's could on the other hand limit the ranges to systems closer to galactic center forcing players to at least mine the systems near the center of the galaxy or create narrow corridors for certain resources that would be favored by both asteroid miners and pirates alike.

Maybe even allow multiple entries per asteroid type creating a patch work for spots were some resources occur and others do not.

 

[Kaisaurus]

Scientifically it makes no sense, and I think devs are trying to keep a more or less realistic game, especially astronomically talking.

The base idea is pretty good still, and I think that this is true that people tend to just stay in their system and should move further to obtain some special ressources.

 

[Valck]

The only problem I see with this suggestion is that there isn't one but virtually unlimited galaxies, and it wouldn't do if every one of them had the same, predictable asteroid distribution - even if the "sectors" were rotated by a random amount per-galaxy, and even accounting for the different galaxies having varying star densities in their respective resource sectors. On the other hand, it's simply impossible to define separate distribution tables for every galaxy, at least manually.

Configurable "resource sectors" sounds like a good start in the right direction; one idea might be to shuffle around the asteroid types randomly in other galaxies, such that the sectors defined in the config file were retained, but say Chabaz was substituted for Dolom, etc.
This way, servers would have control over the starting galaxy's resource distribution while still retaining the element of unpredictability over what there is to find in other galaxies, and where. Basing the "shuffle factor" off the galaxies' center coordinates or some other seed value, the server can build the distribution tables on the fly, which should be a comparatively cheap operation that can be buffered or recalculated as needed.

Allowing multiple entries for the same asteroid type is a must-have.