In my game, I have space ship customization that lets player pick different equipment for a ship. Every equipment type (engines, guns, radar, shields..) has its own type of "compartment", which represents available space for equipment inside ship. I''m trying to decide whether each compartment should hold only 1 equipment, or should it be allowed to hold several equipments of the same type? Like if you have gun compartment of size 5, should player be allowed to put 2 guns of size 2 and 3 inside it? Same goes for engines. Having multiple equipment in the same compartment makes code more complicated, which is bad. So I wonder if this feature is worth having.

Is it really that complicated?

Without feature:
- Compartment has a capacity attribute
- Compartment has single reference to gun object, or null if empty.
- Gun has a size attribute
- Gun object has single reference to current compartment object, or void if not installed.
- Program only allows gun and compartment to link if gun_size<=capacity
- Install dialogue: only show empty compartments where capacity>=gun_size
- Use list of installed guns for gun selection dialogue
- Use same list of installed guns for critical damage

With feature:
- Compartment has a remaining_capacity attribute
- Compartment has a reference to an array of gun object references, or null if empty.
- Gun has a size attribute
- Gun object has single reference to current compartment object, or void if not installed.
- Program only allows gun and compartment to link if gun_size<=remaining_capacity
- Program deducts or adds to remaining depending on if you install of remove a gun.
- Install dialogue: only show empty compartments where remaining_capacity>=gun_size
- Use list of installed guns for gun selection dialogue
- Use same list of installed guns for critical damage

Not all that different in complication, in my opinion.

Star Control 2: The Ur Quan Masters did it via one compartment, one function. Worked out nicely the way they did it, because you could purchase more powerful compartments later in the game. As an added bonus, the on screen graphics were spiffy too.

Instead of having one gun compartment of size 5, have 5 gun compartments?

SC2:UQM had 4 preset gun location, where you would install a gun bay that changed the way the Vindicator fought. The forward compartment was a straight fire bay, the second was a shot at left 45 and right 45, the third was perpendicular shots, and the 4th, which was in the back of the ship, fired backwards. The modules you could install into the compartments... I forget the names, but there were three with progressively got more stonger as well as more expensive. Then there were the energy cells, you could install one so energy to the weapons recovered, or two for twice as fast, or get the Shiva Furnace that was twice as expensive, but had twice the effect and only used one compartment.

You know, I remember this board game called Cathedral, that was like a combat tetris thing. Anyways, you could try making each module have a size and shape, and let the player figure out how to install them so that he can get the most bang for hs buck.

You could do as the AP suggests and have 5 gun compartments, but when the ship''s inventory is displayed, group those compartments into one.

If you have two size 5 compartments, though, you''d probably want to make sure that the player couldn''t put a size 6 gun in it, so things become more complex.

I''d probably arrange compartments into racks, where any component fills at least one compartment, but a component of more than one compartment cannot be spread over more than one rack.

CoV

I think Sundog had a pretty cool system. You could even hot-wire the system with "junk parts" for cheaper, yet they would blow out all the time!

quote: Original post by Inmate2993
Star Control 2: The Ur Quan Masters did it via one compartment, one function. Worked out nicely the way they did it, because you could purchase more powerful compartments later in the game. As an added bonus, the on screen graphics were spiffy too.

I agree. Star Control II did it well in my opinion. It allowed significant customization of your mother ship, where your placed stuff, etc. That was just for modules though (fuel,crew,etc.) Weapons just had 4 mounting places, and you could put a weapon on each, of any type. (forward, forward left, forward right, and rear IIRC).