Losing crops

[SekoETC]

I once tested how to change map graphics, so technically it would be possible to have a new, smaller world, but making the borders match the drawn islands would be difficult. Apparently they used to have some sort of a tool for that but it got lost.

[Piscator]

However, I could see a Cantr beta with a select population that ran parallel to the real game. The staff could try out changes to get an idea of how they work in a mini setting.

This already exists. It's called the test environment, and I have no idea of how to get in.

The TE is not a fully functional mini-server and doesn't allow true beta-testing, which is why I like Chris' idea a lot.


As for island borders, if they are stored as a series of interconnected dots like roads or rivers, wouldn't it be possible to manually draw a polygon to match the borders and then note the positions of the corners?

[EchoMan]

That is probably what the mysterious "tool" does. In reality it's not as simple as you make it sound, since the map itself is just an image without real coordinates.

[RedQueen.exe]

Why not just have the map as an image with very specific colors for land, water, etc. (which perhaps it already is?) And then ship collision detection just checks the color of the pixel? Is that not possible?

[Doug R.]

Why not to try solve the "reset" debate through the creation of different rounds? ... The original game would get a round called "everlasting" or something like that and the other round(s) would have timers on them (say 500-1000 days) before they reset again. Thus we would preserve the original game and give those wishing for a reset a chance to test out their theory. Obviously this isn't a fully thought out suggestion but does anyone else think this is worth exploring?

Something like this is being discussed. It is generally agreed that the optimum shelf-life of Cantr is approximately 5 real years. The suggestion is to start another game with a fixed 5-year life, while the current game is allowed to still run. That way, if the original game is terminal, meaning that any changes we make are simply too late to reverse the atrophy, we have a reset world with a known termination date where the changes may, in fact, work from the beginning.

[EchoMan]

Why not just have the map as an image with very specific colors for land, water, etc. (which perhaps it already is?) And then ship collision detection just checks the color of the pixel? Is that not possible?

Again: that is probably what the tool does, but it's lost. And rewriting it is not as simple as it may sound.

[Alladinsane]

If the world were to shrink...wouldn't pirates love that?

Or genocide wars become easier?

Thats if the islands were closer to each other. Now if the islands were smaller, maybe that would work but it sounds like it might not be doable. I still wish that we had more incoming players filling up the world we have. But the idea of a second and unexplored cantr on a different map, might be fun and might draw the primary simming players back in.

[Chris]

If the world were to shrink...wouldn't pirates love that?

How do you figure that? Pirates benefit from a large world in which they can hide from pursuers. The smaller the world is, the easier it is to enforce laws. Pirates strike first, but unless their victory is devastating, the response will wipe them out.

[Piscator]

That is probably what the mysterious "tool" does. In reality it's not as simple as you make it sound, since the map itself is just an image without real coordinates.

If you load the map image into a conventional image editor, it should be easy to read out the position of any pixel you choose. Every image that's made up of pixels has a built-in coordinate system.

[Alladinsane]

If the world were to shrink...wouldn't pirates love that?

How do you figure that? Pirates benefit from a large world in which they can hide from pursuers. The smaller the world is, the easier it is to enforce laws. Pirates strike first, but unless their victory is devastating, the response will wipe them out.

Of course...they wouldn't be very good pirates if they didn't win like true pirates. Piracy should be aggressive it seems, aggression is a force multiplier as some of the massacres on treefeather showed. But seeing the distance between islands would not just be islands I think...the 'race wars' (best term I have atm) would be easier to prosecute.

[EchoMan]

That is probably what the mysterious "tool" does. In reality it's not as simple as you make it sound, since the map itself is just an image without real coordinates.

If you load the map image into a conventional image editor, it should be easy to read out the position of any pixel you choose. Every image that's made up of pixels has a built-in coordinate system.

Code it then, if it's so darn simple.

[Piscator]

I never talked about coding. A tool would be convenient, but if the issue is no more complicated than defining a couple of dozen map points as corners of the border polygon (and I don't know if it is), it could theoretically be done manually. It would be a bit tedious, but if we only need a new map every five years or so, it should be fine.

[Navi]

Something like this?

to

With the right library, this takes less than a page of code, including also outputting a list of all the edge pixels (coordinates) it finds.

[SekoETC]

The game doesn't keep track of every pixel in the outline, instead it uses polygons that match the shoreline roughly, on some areas more accurately than others. The whole world consists of 2825 connected dots, and not all of those are parts of island outlines, some are outlines of lakes or forests etc. That's a pretty compact in my opinion.

[Piscator]

To demonstrate the concept:




2825 dots are too many to easily handle them manually, but on a smaller map with compact continents we could probably reduce the number of points to 100-200.