Masamax
07-25-2005, 11:19 AM
Okay, so the title is a little long, and the topic if this question is a little vague, but bear with me here. I do not know a lick of Java, but I am asking this question as a player of an online game with the hopes of finding a way to impliment a feature that thus far appears a pipe dream. The game developer is quite open to player suggestions, so I'm asking so I can give a better proposal to him.
The Current Situation:
The game I play is a java browser based multiplayer political party simulator (http://www.particracy.net). The world is made up of regions, with each nation encompassing 5 regions (provinces/states in this case). The game right now is made up entirely of passing bills (although things like war, international trade, etc on on the to-do list). Every region has a set of opinion bars representing what the average opinions are in each region (plus a national average). These opinions shift currently shift randomly each month, the shift being a very small range. Whenever a party votes on a bill, it's vote will be registered. At each election, the game takes all the bills voted on during that inter-election period and calculates the election results based upon the current opinion values of the region. Currently, each election results in 6 such calculations, 5 for each region and 1 for the leader of the nation (the national leader based upon the national average). This is represented as a proportional representation system where parties get seats in the legislature based directly on the amount of votes they recieved.
My Pipe Dream:
I also play a lot of hex-based tabletop wargames, which is where my idea comes in. I would like to see this game mapped into a hex system came about. There will be war implimented in the future, but currently the main reason is to add both more detail to the map (ie, instead of having one giant region with a single climate and terrain type, and a single idea, you could have city squares, rivers, etc) and allow the implimentation of a realisitic first-past-the-post election system where people elect a single person to represent their constituency. Initially this doesn't appear to be a difficult problem. I thought, why not just make each grid a region. However, according to the coder, each election takes about a minute of computing, that is, 10 seconds on average for each region, and another 10 seconds for the national leader vote. This makes a country with the equivalent of 200 or 300 regions impractical, as we are talking 30-45+ minutes for a single election calculation. The guy who code's it expects he can optomize the election code to require 2-3 times less time, but this still makes the idea impossible.
So, I am asking for suggestions I can pitch to him. I'm not sure how much you guys can help, given the limited information, and if you have any questions, go ahead. However, your knowledge in java defeats mine. If you want to see the game yourself, the link again is http://www.particracy.net, and I'm sure I can get the coder to look at this if you come up with any suggestions. If you want to flame me for being a moron for not knowing Java, go ahead too, as long as you have a suggestion to go with it. :)
The Current Situation:
The game I play is a java browser based multiplayer political party simulator (http://www.particracy.net). The world is made up of regions, with each nation encompassing 5 regions (provinces/states in this case). The game right now is made up entirely of passing bills (although things like war, international trade, etc on on the to-do list). Every region has a set of opinion bars representing what the average opinions are in each region (plus a national average). These opinions shift currently shift randomly each month, the shift being a very small range. Whenever a party votes on a bill, it's vote will be registered. At each election, the game takes all the bills voted on during that inter-election period and calculates the election results based upon the current opinion values of the region. Currently, each election results in 6 such calculations, 5 for each region and 1 for the leader of the nation (the national leader based upon the national average). This is represented as a proportional representation system where parties get seats in the legislature based directly on the amount of votes they recieved.
My Pipe Dream:
I also play a lot of hex-based tabletop wargames, which is where my idea comes in. I would like to see this game mapped into a hex system came about. There will be war implimented in the future, but currently the main reason is to add both more detail to the map (ie, instead of having one giant region with a single climate and terrain type, and a single idea, you could have city squares, rivers, etc) and allow the implimentation of a realisitic first-past-the-post election system where people elect a single person to represent their constituency. Initially this doesn't appear to be a difficult problem. I thought, why not just make each grid a region. However, according to the coder, each election takes about a minute of computing, that is, 10 seconds on average for each region, and another 10 seconds for the national leader vote. This makes a country with the equivalent of 200 or 300 regions impractical, as we are talking 30-45+ minutes for a single election calculation. The guy who code's it expects he can optomize the election code to require 2-3 times less time, but this still makes the idea impossible.
So, I am asking for suggestions I can pitch to him. I'm not sure how much you guys can help, given the limited information, and if you have any questions, go ahead. However, your knowledge in java defeats mine. If you want to see the game yourself, the link again is http://www.particracy.net, and I'm sure I can get the coder to look at this if you come up with any suggestions. If you want to flame me for being a moron for not knowing Java, go ahead too, as long as you have a suggestion to go with it. :)