As to the other comments, I've supported the idea of making this data available in a controlled but less resource-intensive way. Course plotting is one of the most CPU intensive activities in the game. If the goal is to allow players to have a map early on or immediately, why not just allow the game to give that to them?

I've also explored ways to completely disallow ztm, but that's still a bit sketchy. But if there's ever a way to control access to map data, it's going to require controlling ztm. Otherwise, players will just use ztm if they can generate the map before the game is scheduled to expose map data to them.

Aside from controlling the speed of acquiring a map, the main objective of pacing is to keep from overloading CPU while plotting courses, and the current pace achieves that.

I suppose one way to make a dent in ztm use without slowing course plotting too much for general use would be to have a progressive delay. For short bursts, course plotting would work as fast as it does now. But as you rack up thousands of plots, the delay would start to climb. We could work out an algorithm so that we can set a "time to ztm" that's well above the time at which the game exposes the data through cim or some other efficient means. Then ztm would be obsolete. Ztm is a cool algorithm, but it's just so inefficient.

The thing is, a ZTM takes time. If you provide that info immediately, then people have a map the first day right out of the gate. That's a huge advantage, the things I can do with an immediate ZTM and a little cash are frightening.

If you offer that, it has to be very balanced. In some games it would work, but there needs to be more to that option. If you do make that an option, just open up the in-game CIM warpspec. We're already used to parsing that, so it wouldn't require a bunch of new stuff. You might want to add a configurable delay to that option, too. So that people don't have to ztm, but don't get the map until 6 hours (or whatever) after bang. That initial time is very important.

A minimum timing of 250ms would be fine. Having the ability to bump that up would allow us to slow down mapping, however, and give people more time at the start w/o a map. I would probably use 500ms as the default, since that's what people are currently used to.

If you add a cumulative delay, you'll only make different methods more popular. ZTM will be distributed amongst corpies and delayed after the pauses start coming just long enough for the game to give up.

Good point on distributive algorithms.

In general, I just want to be able to provide the map info without requiring plots. As long as we can make ztm less easily available than the mapping info, it'll safe on a lot of unnecessary server load.

In some games, this'll work. But the biggest difference is the first 5 hours of the game. That's a pretty big deal, because there's not much grid and nobody has anything to defend with, a single hunter can follow along and track a casher back pretty easily. There's also a tendency for ppl to start cashing near the MSLs, too, and you can find those in about 10 plots. With a map, this capability is amplified a lot. You can find ppl's bases while they're building them. Without a map, this gets more difficult and it's hit-or-miss. Fog of war, and all.

That means that giving people a map the first day creates a more aggressive and violent game. That's not always a bad thing, but it's not always what sysops want, either. If you want to reduce the amount of first-day mapping, providing a delayed map would probably help. Not very many people would bother to map if 3 hours into the game (say after the first extern) the map was suddenly available in the warpspec. Some might still do a first-pass however, just to get a basic layout before the map comes available, but that is a minority of plots (Out of 30k plots, there's only 5k in the first pass). You could slow that down further by offering sysops the ability to toggle up that delay, or by ratcheting it up (as an option, preferably) after 10 plots a minute.

It todays's age, I don't think anone would turn a mapping delay option on. When I first played we didn't have any helpers, so it would really only be an option for a gameop that wanted a really really old old old school game. Certianly not a game I would want to play though.

I think a lot of GameOps would like to make the maps instantly accessable though.

There is something to be said about forcing people to actually VISIT a sector to know about it.

I only ZTM games about 25% of the time opting instead to make a plan to EXPLORE it. I do not see the need to adjust the speed at which a ZTM can be performed, JP is right, set it to a static value that meets the need CPU wise and leave it at that. I would, however, love to see the ability to block ZTM in a game as Sysop if i wish. ZTM to me is just another way to circumvent the realistic feel of the game.

Of course, I can go to the local 7-11 and buy a map of a city I've never been in before... (hmmm)

i always plan to explore it all. leaving in my wake a path of debris, and a fig in every sector.

It was a lot harder to find other players before ZTM.

Hey, maybe you could buy a map at stardock and pay more for larger more detailed maps.

Ive heard more good idea's today then I have in a long time!

Or the games when SD was NOT displayed, now those are fun! You'd pay a kings ransom to the first player you saw in a SD purchased ship to learn the location!

Oh wait, I think I just saw one of those... 750 turns, 1k sector universe.

To remove the capability to ZTM you will have to remove computer plotting of courses. This will break a lot of scripts and the non-scripter will be the one at a disadvantage - they cannot adapt their scripts.

Instant ZTMs can be a death sentence for your reds in an unlim.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

another side effect of ZTM is that it forces a team to practically take a player out of the action for the duration of the ztm activity. (i know you can ztm outside of CIM mode, but still it's inconvenient to be stuck doing ztm.) also, that player will most often need to be fedsafe. i'm just saying that ztm is a logistical consideration for teams in the early hours of a game - it's more than just the inconvenience of having to wait several hours before a full map is available.

Perhaps offer 3 choices for ZTM delay:
Default (500 ms)
Minimal (40 ms)
By Game Age (500 ms - (100 ms * Age of Game)) - minimum of 40 ms

As a separate option, you could make the CIM warps available after X days, configurable in TEdit.

please ensure that there is a choice for how it is now...

That wont stop ZTM. Sit at Terra or wherever, script sends "M11^MN"
through "M5000^MN". i.e., "says" No to "engage autopilot". Repeat from SD with 1-10 as avoids and omit surrounds. It will not be a complete map, but way better than nothing.