Matrix Games Forums

does this modification to night surface combat follow the historical moon phases for the time period?

We implemented historic moonlight for the period of the game.

Bill

Check out http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1943&country=1 for all your moon phase needs.

Never knew moonlight followed historical patterns. This belongs in the updated manual!

Now if we can just get our major naval battles to occur around Guadalcanal on the historic dates we will be set!

I remember that Kenneth Roberts, a bestselling historical novelist who wrote in the 1920s to 1940s, checked the moon phase historical record while writing one of his books, probably Rabble in Arms. He noted that the history texts said that the moon was in a certain phase during a particular battle (probably Saratoga), but that he found that it was instead full.

ORIGINAL: wdolson

We implemented historic moonlight for the period of the game.

Bill

Bill, I thought it was limited to percentage of moonlight. Historic would imply rising and setting times, too. Do you mean that?

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I remember that Kenneth Roberts, a bestselling historical novelist who wrote in the 1920s to 1940s, checked the moon phase historical record while writing one of his books, probably Rabble in Arms. He noted that the history texts said that the moon was in a certain phase during a particular battle (probably Saratoga), but that he found that it was instead full.

Books are full of moons**t.

I have no idea what you mean.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: wdolson

We implemented historic moonlight for the period of the game.

Bill

Bill, I thought it was limited to percentage of moonlight. Historic would imply rising and setting times, too. Do you mean that?

I've never paid attention to the moonlight patterns, but this is a good point. Because of the planet's orbit, it won't be on a pattern that matches only the moon's orbit. I was going to say that doing a simple equation for that would be easy enough, but combining the 2 together would be annoying. Maybe easier on everyone to just have a table with 2000 rows [:'(].

I have noticed that the amount of moonlight changes in the middle of a turn. Don't know if that was meant to represent anything or is just an artifact of the way the turn is run.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: wdolson

We implemented historic moonlight for the period of the game.

Bill

Bill, I thought it was limited to percentage of moonlight. Historic would imply rising and setting times, too. Do you mean that?

I've never paid attention to the moonlight patterns, but this is a good point. Because of the planet's orbit, it won't be on a pattern that matches only the moon's orbit. I was going to say that doing a simple equation for that would be easy enough, but combining the 2 together would be annoying. Maybe easier on everyone to just have a table with 2000 rows [:'(].

I have noticed that the amount of moonlight changes in the middle of a turn. Don't know if that was meant to represent anything or is just an artifact of the way the turn is run.

Middle of the turn would be beginning of the Morning phase, so the moonlight setting gets updated to be ready for the next evening?

Just put on the Beethoven and everything will be alright.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: witpqs



Bill, I thought it was limited to percentage of moonlight. Historic would imply rising and setting times, too. Do you mean that?

I've never paid attention to the moonlight patterns, but this is a good point. Because of the planet's orbit, it won't be on a pattern that matches only the moon's orbit. I was going to say that doing a simple equation for that would be easy enough, but combining the 2 together would be annoying. Maybe easier on everyone to just have a table with 2000 rows [:'(].

I have noticed that the amount of moonlight changes in the middle of a turn. Don't know if that was meant to represent anything or is just an artifact of the way the turn is run.

Middle of the turn would be beginning of the Morning phase, so the moonlight setting gets updated to be ready for the next evening?

I think it's kind of in the middle of the night phase. I noticed it once while running a turn a few days ago.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I have noticed that the amount of moonlight changes in the middle of a turn. Don't know if that was meant to represent anything or is just an artifact of the way the turn is run.

I haven't noticed that. Haven't looked that closely, but I will now.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I have noticed that the amount of moonlight changes in the middle of a turn. Don't know if that was meant to represent anything or is just an artifact of the way the turn is run.

I haven't noticed that. Haven't looked that closely, but I will now.

Of course, I just ran a turn and didn't look.

ORIGINAL: wdolson

We implemented historic moonlight for the period of the game.

Bill

ORIGINAL: witpqs
Bill, I thought it was limited to percentage of moonlight. Historic would imply rising and setting times, too. Do you mean that?

We didn't take into account rising and setting times because the game engine doesn't run on a 24 hour clock. It has three distinct phases and events happen in sequence during a phase, but not at a specific time. It will calculate how long something takes like flight time and a unit with a 2 hour flight will arrive at a target before a unit with a 4 hour flight time (with randoms for take off times), but it doesn't keep track that it's now 3 PM, 3:30, etc. We also don't take into account latitude or time zones. It's night in Karachi at the same time it's night at Pearl Harbor, even though in reality those two places are only briefly in the dark at the same time if ever.

But we do have an algorithm that calculates what phase the moon was in on a given day and the moon phase in the game follows that pattern. So if you go and look up the phase of the moon on say January 6, 1942 you will find the moon in game is in the same phase as it was on that date in history.

I believe there is also something in the moonlight calculation for combat that takes into account local weather conditions. So even if the moon is full, if the combat is taking place in a hex with heavy clouds or rain, the moonlight will be diminished. I haven't looked at the code, but I would bet there are randoms involved. There are few things in game that happen without randoms.

Bill