scripting

[metarinka]

great game guys! I've been an avid fan since I saw the game featured in play and I was  holding my breath for an update.  I really like the game and the update added much needed depth and variety.

My observations:
--defensive trees are a nice touch, I find that I usually only ever use maybe 1-2 trees on "choke points" or high traffic  asteroids. otherwise I feel its better to invest in a tree that will give me more trees
--the limited sphere of influence is a nice touch and really forces you to start on the small scale. I also like the asteroid  spheres, but... it would be nice to have a more streamlined method of getting your bots from say the back of your empire to the front lines, it would nice to be able to set waypoints or some such way to move troops between your own asteroids.
--seeds are still listed under an asteroids count until the second they touch another asteroid meaning sometimes it's hard to tell how many seeds are actually ON the asteroid or say split them into 2 groups becuase it appears that you're moving them all at once.
-- I know this is way outside the scope of the game at the moment but if this game ever had multiplayer it would be extremely entertaining. I think it would be interesting to see  other humans go about playing the game and against each other.

question:
can you give me any clue on how to build scripts and  hwo to add them to the menu? I was actually tweaking the rather short variables list in the first release and giving myself interesting objectives. I'm not sure I understand the script structure completely. Any hints? I think my first goal will be making some harder levels, I find I can fly through the game pretty easilyr ight now

[metarinka]

well I've made due and guessed at most of the scripting commands. I've included a list along with my guess (or accurate assumption) of commands. Any further clarification would be greately appreciated

Asteroids, Non scripted asteroid properties
•   Max trees: Max number of buildable trees
•   Min Radius: Minimum asteroid size
•   Max Radius: Maximum asteroid size
•   Size From energy: Factor from energy that determines asteroid size
•   Size From Strength: “”
•   Size from Speed: “”
o   Is it largest factor = asteroid size, or a sum?
AI, Global computer AI settings
•   Grace: Grace period in seconds (?) before they will attack
Agents ?? does this refer to the seeds??
•   Check for enemies timer:??, time between checks to see if target is in range?
•   Attack repeat time: ??, time between shots
•   Minimum agent Damage: Minimum damage a shot can do
•   Maximum agent Damage: “”
•   Agent damage power rule: Factor between an asteroids power size and damage from seed?
•   Attack agent Distance: max distance agent can shoot?
•   Minimum health : min health allowed
•   Max health: “”
•   Energy health power rule: Factor between an asteroids power size and seed’s energy

Structures, refers to trees
•   Cost: Cost in seeds for a tree
•   Min/Max Health: limits for tree health, I believe this is based on how long a tree has been growing? Or does it have to do with asteroid factors?
Missles, pods sent from defensive trees
All this stuff is self explanatory
Game, Basic game variables
•   Enemy factions min/max: limits of # of starting factions
•   Belt Radius: Min Distance from the center sun of asteroids, if this is set very high and asteroid count is low, you won’t notice any “curve” if this is small with high asteroid count you’ll get the “donut” effect
•   Belt Width: width of belt, if this is small asteroids would be in a circle around the sun, if large asteroids will be in a clump based on min/max distance rules formula.
•   Asteroids: Asteroid count
•   Minimum asteroid separation: Minimum distance to nearest neighbor, small values create no choke points and make a dense cluster that might not form a ring around the sun
•   Starting Seedlings: starting seedlings for unscripted factions
•   Max asteroid neighbor distance: max distance one asteroid can be from each other? Is this global i.e every tree has to be within X of every asteroid? Or max distance from closest tree?
Menu
   Max send distance= largest possible your select radius can be for a given asteroid, doesn’t apply to AI, I think??

Scripted asteroids, special asteroids given to player or enemies at start of game
<!-- This one given to the player and has 25 seedlings -->
  <asteroid pos="600,900" attribs="0.3,0.3,0.8" owner="1" trees="1,1" seedlings="30" static="false"/>

Asteroid pos: X,Y: position relative to sun? Can have neg or pos value.
Attribs: Energy,Strength,Speed:  from 0-1 1 being full
Owner: 1= player, 2-12= enemies
Trees: Seed, Defensive.  Number of starting trees can’t be higher than game limit
Seedlings: starting number of seeds
Static: No clue?
Radius: size of planet if specified, I.E mother asteroids
Grace: grace period for AI owned planets, set very high for planets in “defense”