Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: BFG on February 14, 2013, 02:42:05 AM

Title: Would a list of every possible unit be of any practical use?
Post by: BFG on February 14, 2013, 02:42:05 AM

I've been thinking about writing a Visual Basic script to list every legal unit in Microsoft Excel or a similar application.  It would include the chassis/reactor/weapon/armor, cost, special abilities, etc.  But before I do, can anyone envision any practical use for such a list?

Estimates are that between 2 and 4 million unique units are possible in SMAX.

Title: Re: Would a list of every possible unit be of any practical use?
Post by: testdummy653 on February 14, 2013, 02:46:36 AM

Quote from: BFG on February 14, 2013, 02:42:05 AM

I've been thinking about writing a Visual Basic script to list every legal unit in Microsoft Excel or a similar application.  But before I do, can anyone envision any practical use for such a list?

It might be useful for guide.

Some one could also make a faction that uses the most crappy units possible and use your list.

Title: Re: Would a list of every possible unit be of any practical use?
Post by: ete on February 14, 2013, 11:48:30 AM

Perhaps more worthwhile/possible would be a google spreadsheet (so people don't have to download) with dropdowns for all the unit variables? Once you get spreadsheets with millions of lines, computers don't like it. Old versions can only have 65,536 rows while even the new ones max out at 1,048,576 rows. Four million would require around four sets of columns, probably massively lag any computer opening it, and be a HUGE file to download.

Title: Re: Would a list of every possible unit be of any practical use?
Post by: BFG on February 14, 2013, 07:28:49 PM

Quote from: ete on February 14, 2013, 11:48:30 AM

Perhaps more worthwhile/possible would be a google spreadsheet (so people don't have to download) with dropdowns for all the unit variables? Once you get spreadsheets with millions of lines, computers don't like it. Old versions can only have 65,536 rows while even the new ones max out at 1,048,576 rows. Four million would require around four sets of columns, probably massively lag any computer opening it, and be a HUGE file to download.

That might make more sense.  If a few more people think this would have a practical purpose (or at least be of interest), I'll probably do both.  I'll do a collection of spreadsheets - one per chassis - to make it more managable, and also a "calculator" that lets you plug in different characteristics to see the cost, etc.

Two things that would help me immensely:
(1) An ACCURATE cost calculation formula that takes all variables into account - not just chassis/weapon/armor/reactor type, but also things such as Industry SE.  (This might help yitzi and kyrub see flaws in the present calculation mechanism?)
(2) A copy of the formula SMACx uses to calculate battle odds (when "Always Confirm Battle Odds" is enabled).  If the weakest possible unit - which I would assume to be something like a Very Green Formers with no armor or enhancements - was set to an arbitrary value of 1, what is the value of, say, a Singularity Quantum Gravship?  I'd like the sheet to include the relative "value" of every single unit in combat.