Change fire, it's wrong

[ZAPTONE_Z]

i doubt that

[BladeSabre]

It's possible.

[BlitzJoker]

I also think that fire is given to players in their board more often than in the real game.

It is the same probability as everything else, which is the wasy CGD worked. You must also remember that not all the items are implemented so you have a higher probability to get everything for the time being.

[ultswordsman]

i like #3 its better if fire kills its creater because then they will have to think when to use it and where  because  they will have to make it start far away from them  so id say make it #3

[matlu]

I just uploaded new version, and I changed the fire a bit.

Probably some people would not like it, but my opinions & requirements are:

1. I don't want fire to be "ultimate weapon". I don't think that anybody should expect it to kill the enemy commander. I want it to be a device, which creates some kind of wall, protecting you (for some time!) and giving you time to build army.
2. I don't want the fire to be able to cover whole screen.

So I tried to change the fire according to these requirement. What I did, is:
- each fire cell has 10% probablility to die out (each turn)
- fire will start spreading quite fast (little bit faster than before)
- its speed strongly depends on its size. The bigger the fire gets, the slower it spreads. At some point it stops spreading (because "die-out-rate" will at some point equal "spread-rate"). But it will still keep moving&changing.

- I spent long time trying to set good parameters, but it is very difficult. It is possible that you will not like it. It is possible that I will change it again.
- REMEMBER, that it still greatly depends on luck. You may have quite fast fire in one game, and slower in other game
- REMEMBER, that if your commander, monster or building stands next to fire, it is probably slowing it down - because the field to which the fire spreads is selected randomly, and if it is occupied then nothing happens, the fire won't spread this turn. But it also depends on luck, of course.

[BlitzJoker]

Matlu, I think you did the best that could be done to solve the problem. This is definatly fine with me. Good work!

[Bakster]

Although I have only played this game for 2 hours most, I think the fire spreads way too quickly.

I have played opponents that use a combo of fire and alien goo. Before long, in about 5 turns, it quickly forms a 'wall' between you and your opponent. This means that it is hard to get through, and it will likely result in a draw. This happened in all of the games that fire/alien goo was used.

Even though the fire may 'die out', it takes a long time to do so, and I don't know if the alien goo dies out or not.

[SiR gUt]

no i think the fire and goo spread prefectly. I like how those 2 work. Matlu i think you should leave those alone

[HellsRage666]

  Dont mess with the fire and goo. It's so useful un sticky situations, it helps sooo much when ur in trouble and need to get away. Plz plz plz plz dont do anything to any of it, it's perfect the way it is!

[flamingdragon]

Here is how fire exactly works (currently):

- At the end of each beam-down phase, do following for EACH field with fire on the board:
- generate random number in range 1-12. (I will reffer to this number as "R")
- *IF*  R >= 1 AND R <= 7  than fire spreads to some adjacent field (there are 7 adjacent fields) . If it's not possible for some reason (there is 'friendly' monster, or building, or the field is out of board) than do nothing
- *IF*  R = 8  then this fire cell dies out
- *IF* any other number, then do nothing

- there is special check, to prevent the fire from dying out completely

It is clear, that fire speed is heavily influented by this random number range (1-12). I experimented with it a bit, but this speed seemed to me best.

Am I missing something or is there not 8 adjacent fields? I don't see how this big an error could go unnoticed...

[matlu]

right, there are 8 fields So it probably doesn't work exactly that way I will check it after Easter.

[flamingdragon]

Ah, well thanks. The server also seems to be down at the moment, fixing that would be nice. 

[matlu]

So there is actually quite strange formula:

- for each fire cell a random number is generated with range from 0 to 9, if the number is 0 the cell dies out. The last fire cell never dies out
- another random number is generated with range from 0 to (11 + total_fire_cells/2). If the number is from 0 to 7 then the fire spreads to according nearby cell, otherwise it doesn't spread.

This 11 + total_fire_cells / 2 upper limit makes the fire spread slower when it gets bigger. I probably had some reason to make it this way, likely to prevent the fire from covering whole board rapidly.

[Dodger]

Like goo does.