RE: Mutilple maps?

[Lincoln Peters <peters2000 at mindspring dot com>]

On Tue, 2002-06-18 at 12:24, Hans Ronne wrote:
> One way to implement several of these ideas is simply to allow multiple
> worlds/areas in a game. In your specific case a starmap (galaxy) plus
> various planetary maps. You would not necessarily need to mess with
> coordinates or scales within each map. I believe this would be
> comparatively easy to do since xconq already supports multiple map windows.
> You would also need some rules for transition between the maps, as Stan
> pointed out, but they could be very simple. Example: only a spaceship may
> leave (disembark) a planetary map. It is then transported (with its cargo)
> to the corresponding cell in the star map. Furthermore, only starships can
> move at all on the star map.

That is essentially what I was thinking about.  Hopefully if the code is
flexible enough, it could do what I'm talking about and what Stanley's
talking about with little fuss.

Having a star-system level (which I hadn't considered until now) in
addition to a planetary level and galactic level also sounds like a good
idea.  Until I thought of that, I wasn't sure how to make shuttles the
least bit useful, but I imagine that a small shuttle would be much
faster and much more maneuverable in a star system than a big starship. 
As I think about it further, it would also make shuttles essential for
moving between planets, starships and orbital facilities, at least until
the discovery of the transporter.

> 
> The D&D type 3D maze that started this thread could even be implemented
> without multiple maps. You would create a big map that contains a row of
> "dungeon levels", 100 cells apart and physically separated. Each level
> would contain a special cell (portal) that allows you teleport exactly 100
> cells right or left, i.e. to the next level. Teleportation would probably
> require some new kernel code, but it should be a relatively simple thing to
> do.

That might not work so well for me, because I wanted to use a hexagonal
(flat) map for the galaxy and a cylindrical (wrap-around) map for the
planets.  The teleportation idea sounds interesting, though, because it
would let me implement time-space distortions such as wormholes (and, of
course, the transporter that I mentioned above).