Trade network link mechanics - odd no-squares effect reply-explained
Sins Forums
Hi,
Is the trade network, the auto linking of worlds to form a chain, known to be buggy? Or does it have some odd undocumented mechanic where one must take care to extend the endpoints of the existing initial chain?
I played a FFA on Small map Balance of Power against x2 Hard (on the latest Entrench patch), and not yet being one of the ancient worthies of legend, had to scrape and finesse for every tidbit I could snag as a Sins novice, and so after stabalizing early rush I made a trade network, which is a modest thing on that 3 player 12 node map, but helped me tip.
mid-game it was linking 3 instead of 4 nodes, and later game (well after tipping point), despite having what seemingly should have been a link network of 7, it arbitrary path linked only 5. (I assume here that when I mouse over income and it pops up a hover and lights the map with a bright white line between nodes, that said bright white line is illustrating the connected worlds.)
-?-
Interestingly, to experiment I scuttled a trade point midchain to break the 5, and with that node inelgible it repathed a 6 (instead of a still seemingly eligible 7 via a different but clear routing). Wondering if that reset anything, I readded the trade port, and it reverted to it's former 5 path, making me think it's a fixed algorithmic method of some kind.
Except that is a little weird, as I program by dayjob and would have thought the algorithm to work out longest paths is a well-known piece of logic from the standard programming literature, and not that computation intensive. Though I suppose any code can have bugs.
I DID have, for context on this setup, both the star and an asteroid, at the late game point, supposedly eligible via starbase with trade module constructed. So perhaps that is a factor. Except that I've seen it route using SB trade nodes before.
On the other hand, in the early game, when I had a trade route of 3, and should have had 4, no starbase were in the picture. 4 that was not in route's white highlight was my homeworld, for the lol of it's sake, although in retrospect, that did have the mild twist that the trade port was a late addition there after scuttling other structures. And yes, the structure was built, not queued or building. Seemed a legitimate / eligible trade port.
Very puzzled. Will probably experiment some more with the save. Advice, however, is welcome.
-evoke
