Beating the 255 barrier

[Kling]

I don't know it is a stupid question or not, but what is so special about the 255 system limit? There can't be very much data to store on a single system and with todays computers...

[Atrocities]

King, the 255 limit is a hard coded issue that has to do with the programing abilities and such of Languages that ware bing used to program these type of games. Currently 255 is the TOP of the programing limitations.

If you break a game down;

20 players = rougly 10 systems or about 75 planets to each player factoring out black hole systems, asteroids, and simple single - bi - tri star systems.

In a game with 20 players, the neighbor hood gets croweded awful quick with a limitation of 255 systems.

[Lisif Deoral]

quote:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:
20 players = rougly 10 systems or about 75 planets to each player factoring out black hole systems, asteroids, and simple single - bi - tri star systems.

In a game with 20 players, the neighbor hood gets croweded awful quick with a limitation of 255 systems.

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Well, I suppose it depends on your point of view... IMO, even 5 systems per player are a LOT of space!

[Askan Nightbringer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:
King, the 255 limit is a hard coded issue that has to do with the programing abilities and such of Languages that ware bing used to program these type of games. Currently 255 is the TOP of the programing limitations.

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255 is no hard coded issue in regards to language used (in SE4's case I think its Delphi). No programming language i know of limits anything to 255 ,which is the maximum unsigned integer in a single byte (or 8 bits). If SE4 stores system identifiers using a byte then its a limit to SE4.

The 255 system limit (should actually be 256 coz I see nothing wrong with a "zero" system) is either a design flaw in SE4 or more likely a "practical" limit so memory and perfomance doesn't get out of hand.


Askan

[Kling]

quote:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:
King, the 255 limit is a hard coded issue that ...

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Ah, Kling that is. Not King.

Since people are trying to find a way around the "limit" on 255 systems, it is obviously set to low. Limit a system id to one byte might be practical for various reasons, but my point is that with some knowledge of basic algorithms and data storage/compression... .. . I don't know what my point is, but 255 seems really low. The program language can't be held responsible for this, more likely it is the choice of algorithms. Or it is simply a design decision were we disagree with the developers.

Use sixteen bits and let people create all the systems they want. This game will be great for a number of years, and by then the computers can probably handle vastly more information than today.

[Val]

Does anyone know what the 'official' reason is for the limit?