I must admit when I first saw a motherlode explode I was mighty impressed 
ie: I thought some super clever modeling and coding was taking place, so any large enough asteroid could be broken apart real time via some clever engine code.
But instead it appears we have just a single hard coded motherlode asteroid model (per ring type)?
Ok, so putting that disappointment aside - and I can understand why FD have done what they have - this does mean we have the small issue than that motherlodes are therefore less of a surprise/challenge because you can spot one if you're familiar with the model used in that hotspot!
Which then brings us to the connected question of, how random is the "break up" of a motherlode? Is that hardcoded too? With exactly the same chunks each time, or a couple of hardcoded variations of them?
I suspect the breakup is hardcode? Anyone able to comment/confirm?
Hopefully, if a motherlode does break up the same/similar way each time into X chunks, what FD can do is simply have a couple of variations of each chunk and each motherlode is therefore a random (Frankenstein) combination of them? eg: So the 3-4 chunks can each have 2-3 (surface) variations, therefore meaning motherlodes can have significant variations overall?
ie: Even if there were just 2 variations of each chunk, and there's only 3 chunks, that's 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 variations of how a motherlode can look. Which is far less predictable hopefully
And if there were 3 variations of each of say the the 3 chunks making up a motherlode, that means it's surface appearance could vary 3 x 3 x 3 = 29 variations which gets into the realms of truly random then IMHO.
Anyhoo, just some thoughts...
ie: I thought some super clever modeling and coding was taking place, so any large enough asteroid could be broken apart real time via some clever engine code.But instead it appears we have just a single hard coded motherlode asteroid model (per ring type)?
Ok, so putting that disappointment aside - and I can understand why FD have done what they have
- this does mean we have the small issue than that motherlodes are therefore less of a surprise/challenge because you can spot one if you're familiar with the model used in that hotspot!Which then brings us to the connected question of, how random is the "break up" of a motherlode? Is that hardcoded too? With exactly the same chunks each time, or a couple of hardcoded variations of them?
I suspect the breakup is hardcode? Anyone able to comment/confirm?
Hopefully, if a motherlode does break up the same/similar way each time into X chunks, what FD can do is simply have a couple of variations of each chunk and each motherlode is therefore a random (Frankenstein) combination of them? eg: So the 3-4 chunks can each have 2-3 (surface) variations, therefore meaning motherlodes can have significant variations overall?
ie: Even if there were just 2 variations of each chunk, and there's only 3 chunks, that's 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 variations of how a motherlode can look. Which is far less predictable hopefully
And if there were 3 variations of each of say the the 3 chunks making up a motherlode, that means it's surface appearance could vary 3 x 3 x 3 = 29 variations which gets into the realms of truly random then IMHO.
Anyhoo, just some thoughts...
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