Good Progress This Week

I was able to make some good progress this week on some improvements to the Modern Units Database as well as the script drawing the Random Earth Map.  I’m hoping to get some of these updates posted this weekend.  In the event I don’t, here is a quick update for this Leap Day.

First, let’s talk about MUD.  At the suggestion of a friend, I took a deeper look at the more serious issues and tested some alternatives.  It turns out that the bug preventing air units from being useful had a workaround.  After some quick tests, I decided this is an overall improvement and makes air units playable which was an important factor to my original disappointment.  Moreover, it appears to be backward compatible which was a factor in my decision.  Because the change is significant departure from, I plan to properly document the changes which is why I haven’t posted it yet.

Over the past two days, I’ve spent my time working on the Random Earth Map generator.  The first thing I want to clarify is that you do not need to run the script to build an all inclusive version!  I promise those of you ran the script into the ground on Wednesday that I will post the all inclusive maps once I’m satisfied that the data points are working correctly.  If you insist on pulling the current version, it’s going to keep changing and invalidate your version of the map.

That said, the tweaks I did to the terrain drawing method was a success.  I’m still not happy with the river algorithm but my attempts to update this showed it to be a much more detailed process than I’m ready for right now.  I’ll post more on that later.  Lastly, I modified the data sources as I found some of the larger sets had GPS values that didn’t really work with this set.  As a result, the data produces locations that are far more integrated with this map, although some will argue they are also less accurate.

In short, expect some updates to be posted in the next few days.