BUG v1.2.3: Number of unoccupied planets

[PLAYLIFE]

The number of unoccupied planets is incorrect with version 1.2.3.

Instead of 10 you get 9. Instead of 150 you get like around 50 

Please fix it. Thanks! 

[Minus]

Sort of. You can set it to any number, but it's limited by the size of the map.

You're right about the 'unoccupied' number though - all the home planets are counted towards that number for some reason. So three people start a game of 18 unoccupied planets, and the home planets (3) plus unoccupied number (15) will be in the map.

[Chris]

Right; the setting is just a "wish", there's no guarantee that you'll actually get that many planets. Sometimes it runs out of room to place more planets. Sometimes it thinks it has run out of room even though it actually hasn't. This is just a side-effect of how the generator works, not a bug per se.

You're right about the 'unoccupied' number though - all the home planets are counted towards that number for some reason. So three people start a game of 18 unoccupied planets, and the home planets (3) plus unoccupied number (15) will be in the map.

I'm not seeing this. If I start a random map with size Small, two AI players and 5 unoccupied planets, then I get 8 planets in total (5 unoccupied + 1 for me + 2 for the AI).

[Minus]

Hmm. I just made an internet game with an AI, set it for 15 unoccupied planets, and got 12 unoccupied plus our homeworlds. This is probably the effect you were talking about here -

Sometimes it thinks it has run out of room even though it actually hasn't.

[Chris]

Yeah, I'd say so.

Basically it just tries to place planets randomly, and then checks to see if that placement was valid (not too close to other planets). If not, it removes the offending planet and tries again. There has to be a limit on the number of times it retries, however, since otherwise it could get stuck in an infinite loop (if there truly is no room). The unfortunate side effect is that this behaviour causes it to sometimes give up too early.

There's more to the random map algorithm than that (e.g. it actually generates lots of random maps and then uses a scoring system to pick the "best" one) but that's enough detail to explain why this happens.