How would you implement the D2 seed map generator?

[athanasios]

Better not. Then you would both be inside Shai Hulud!

[Nyerguds]

Umm, I mean in general. Harvesters are kind of existing machines, you know? :P

[ShadowDog]

Couldn't Oil Wells could be considered harvesters? And speaking of harvesters, I just realized that's Westwood way of handling harvesters makes no sense in Dune 2/k due to the way the books define them (Ironically, YR's Slave Miner is almost exactly it, besides the fact that they're employees in Dune). Of course, I played CnC first, so I never realized this.

MrFlibble, what's your TVTropes username?

Also, I'm trying to compile Seed2Map with VS2005 Express. It's not going so well:

1>------ Build started: Project: GIANT Map, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------

1>Compiling...

1>SEED.C

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(53) : error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'canAddSpiceTo'

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(53) : error C2059: syntax error : ';'

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(53) : error C3409: empty attribute block is not allowed

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(53) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ']' before 'constant'

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(149) : error C2065: 'canAddSpiceTo' : undeclared identifier

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(149) : error C2109: subscript requires array or pointer type

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(160) : error C2109: subscript requires array or pointer type

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(181) : error C2109: subscript requires array or pointer type

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(196) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'

1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\LuftballonResearch\GIANT_Map\GIANT Map\Debug\BuildLog.htm"

1>GIANT Map - 9 error(s), 0 warning(s)

========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

It's choking on this part:

//Which types of terrain can contain spice
bool canAddSpiceTo[10]={
     true, //sand
     false,
     true,//dunes
     false,
     false,//rock
     false,
     false,//mountains
     false,
     true, //spice
     true  //muchspice
};

I changed it to:

//Which types of terrain can contain spice
int canAddSpiceTo[10]={
     1, //sand
     0,
     1,//dunes
     0,
     0,//rock
     0,
     0,//mountains
     0,
     1, //spice
     1  //muchspice
};

And now it's only giving me 3 2 errors (one was because I didn't know about do-while loops. Because come on, really...):

1>------ Build started: Project: GIANT Map, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------

1>Compiling...

1>SEED.C

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(202) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'

1>c:\luftballonresearch\giant_map\giant map\seed.c(238) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'

1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\LuftballonResearch\GIANT_Map\GIANT Map\Debug\BuildLog.htm"

1>GIANT Map - 2 error(s), 0 warning(s)

========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

There was also a reference somewhere about unreferenced variable "d" somewhere.

Thanks.

EDIT: Logic? This! Is! Visual Studio!

So yeah, everything's compiling now.

[MrFlibble]

Couldn't Oil Wells could be considered harvesters? And speaking of harvesters, I just realized that's Westwood way of handling harvesters makes no sense in Dune 2/k due to the way the books define them (Ironically, YR's Slave Miner is almost exactly it, besides the fact that they're employees in Dune). Of course, I played CnC first, so I never realized this.

I don't remember that harvester workers in Dune would leave the harvester and work on the open sand. I've always assumed that they operated the machinery inside, while the harvester itself would "mop up" sand that was later separated from the spice inside the harvester.

MrFlibble, what's your TVTropes username?

Ehh, I'm no active troper, I only read 'em

[Nyerguds]

He did say "almost exactly". Looking at the newer C&Cs, the M.A.R.V tank from C&C3: Kane's Wrath is exactly like the Dune harvester though.

[MrFlibble]

C&C4: Kane's Wrath

I thought Kane's Wrath is an expansion to C&C3? Never played those new games, anyway.

[Nyerguds]

lol, whoops, yea, C&C3.

Anyway, it was basically a giant mammoth tank that harvested all tiberium it drove over. It was directly collected as money, without need for unloading.

[MrFlibble]

I just got it that ShadowDog meant by Slave Miners being more accurate that the harvesters in the book refined the spice on site, without the need for a stationary refinery. On the other hand, they still had to dump the spice somewhere for it to be distributed among the silos.

There's also the possibility that the harvesters just separated spice from sand, and it most probably had to be further refined before it could be used for consumption or any other purpose. Anyway, the in-game harvester animation in all Westwood Dune games shows sand being dumped from the harvester while in the spice field, suggesting that the process of separating spice from sand takes place on site, as described in the book.

[Nyerguds]

Right. The only real difference is that according to the book, the refining process itself already happened in the harvester, so all it'd need to do in its base station was dumping it.