ORIGINAL: ralphtrick
ORIGINAL: a white rabbit
..and what's the fascination of the phrase raise to the power of ? 20 formations or units or whatever is multiply by 20, not to the 20th power, which is a much smaller number, one that he can now handle ..
I'm sorry, but it is the power of. Let's say you have one piece you could move one hex. That's six possible locations. If you have two pieces, then since they'd move independently, but said the first one moves north, the second one can move any one of the six the first one moves northeast, the second one can still move anyone of the six, and so forth. That's six times six locations or six to the power of two locations.
Let's say a unit can move six hexes. The number of hexes that he can move to is six times six times PI or about a hundred hexes. Those two pieces have a possible 10,000 or so locations.
While it would be simple,keeping track in that way simply isn't possible.
Ralph
..for
a unit i agree, but 20 units still only have the same decisions to make, 20 times, not to the power of..
..but Elmer already does that, on a unit by unit, detailed examination of the ground, and whilst comparing to the basic objectives he's given (minus some greek letter that represents the non-passable hexes, and another for the partially passable, and so on)..
..when you zoom out, the formations stop being units and become one thing, a blob, a crowd isn't individuals, it's a mass, and you handle it as such, you don't worry about the cells that compose it. Zoom out and minor terrain details become irrelevant, so accept the simplifications that the new view gives, give him a new map type at that level if need be, one that only shows formation level obstructions..
..zoom out again, corps level ? and again, the decisions are still the same as for a unit, the divs are now irrelevant, the corps is one counter, and the map is simpler again, the hexes cover more area, so the decison-making process is still no worse than for a unit, and that he already does..
..i like maps, i like map-making, as a farmer i use them a lot. Some are very detailed, in-close raised bed by raised bed focus, some are zoomed out for general planning, i can get them all on A4,
but if i tried to make a general planning map at bed-by-bed / tree-by-tree focus, it'd need a whole wall, and then some..and be totally unusable, ..so i have several levels of zoom.
..The same applies in Toaw, if my basic unit counter is a corps (25k/hex)then the map is different to the basic unit btn map (2.5K/hex), it looks similar, but that's only because we use the same terrain markers, at 25k much of the terrain has disappeared, whole villages gone, small towns at village status, rivers vanish and so on. Elmer can play on any of these maps, his decisons are the same, just they cover more ground..
..yes, it may mean more work for the designer, maybe he'll have to draw the maps for Elmer, so ? the ODD makes that easier, maybe he'l have to do the OOB for each level, again so ? Maybe the ODD will be able to do the zoom out maps automatically one day soon, maybe a simple program can write the basic zoom-out OOBs. Maybe Elmer'l need 12 hours to do a deep-think move, so ?, and need GBs of temp storage, again so ? We got the machinery, let's use it, it's what it's there for..
