Conquer Data Display Routines
Cartography in Conquer
With Conquer version 5.0, hexagonal sectors and relative coordinate systems were introduced. Combined, these changes can be more than a bit disorienting for players of the older versions of Conquer. But, both of these changes greatly enhance game play by introducing more realism.
The shape of the sectors may be selected during world creation, with the hexagonal map being the recommended choice. With this setup, motion in any of the six directions results in a relocation of equal distance. With rectangular sectors, distances become non-uniform, as can be demonstrated by having motion one sector east followed by one sector north being equivalent to motion one sector to the north-east.
The numbering of coordinates is along both the north-south axis and the east-west axis. This can be somewhat confusing for the hexagonal coordinate system, with there then being zig-zagging rows, but this provides a one-to-one relationship between the displayed map coordinates and the internal data representation used. Thus, some complex computations are avoided.
The Displaying of Data
With information a key element to game play, being able to quickly view data is a must. The display system in Conquer is designed to allow concise viewing of data through character representations and display highlighting.
There are three levels of detail available for the map display. The farthest out displays the most sectors, but the closest in has a display of up to four characters for each sector. This allows for a greater amount of data for each sector to be shown. When on the detailed zoom setting, one of the four characters is designated as the focus character and is indicated by the positioning of the cursor within the sector. There are a number of different types of data which may be shown in each character slot, and there are also many methods of highlighting which may be employed upon each character slot.
It is possible to build different combinations of character displays and highlights to provide informative methods of gathering data. The grouping of such display and highlight settings is called a "display mode". There are a number of pre-built "display modes", or others may be constructed using the display editing commands.
Display Commands
There are a number of commands available to allow for the adjustment of the display settings. These commands range from zooming controls and information mode toggling to outright editing modes for display settings.
The zooming commands are "zoom-in" and "zoom-out" which slide between the various zooming levels. To shift the focus between the four character slots, there are the "shift-focus" and "shift-focus-back" commands which rotate the focus clockwise and counter-clockwise respectively.
For those times when you want to get more information about the current sector (such as production, consumption, and minor designations) there is the "info-mode". When running under the info-mode, the main conquer display devotes a larger portion of the screen to show information concerning the current sector. The right side of the screen is totally devoted to listing the military units in the sector, and the map portion is relegated to a smaller section of the screen, in the upper left. The "toggle-infomode" command is used to switch between this mode and the normal conquer map display.
One quick command which can sometimes come in handy is "troop-listing". This command clears the entire right column of the screen and then uses this space to list all troops belonging to other nations within that space. This is useful whenever there are so many troops within the sector that they do not fit within what little space is leftover after the listing of your own troops.
There are two commands which provide customizing of the display routines. The simplest is the "adjust-view" command which allows the user to change the symbols used to represent the designation, vegetation or contour values. Simply enter the selection to be changed and then give a printable character to use for the display. The much more complex command, "customize-display" allows interactive creation or editing of new display modes. Once the display mode has been created, it may be selected using the "adjust-display" command.
Finally, because the highlighting of certain sectors can be a very quick method for interpreting data, there are a number of commands that allow the quick adjustment of the highlighting patterns. Those commands are: "highlight-all", "highlight-current", "highlight-horizontal", "highlight-upleft-lowright", "highlight-upright-lowleft", and "highlight-vertical".
The two pages which follow give the complete list of all of the display and highlighting styles which conquer supports. These lists are used as the basis for the display modes themselves.
List of Display Styles
- (c)ontour
- Show the elevation for all of the sectors on the screen.
- (d)esignation
- Display the major designation value for any sectors whose designation is known.
- (f)ood
- Display the food production ability for all habitable sectors.
- (j)ewel
- Show the approximate jewel production ability of all habitable sectors.
- (m)etal
- Show the approximate metal production ability of all habitable sectors.
- (n)ation mark
- Display the nation mark of the owner for all owned sectors.
- (p)eople
- Display the approximate population level for owned sectors. Arabic numerals (0 to 9), indicate hundreds of people, and Roman numerals (I, V, X, L) indicate thousands of people.
- (r)ace
- Show the first letter of the race of the sector owner. The races are: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Orc, Nomad, Pirate, Savage and Lizard.
- (v)egetation
- Show the type of vegetation contained within a sector.
- (w)ood
- Show the wood production ability for those sectors able to produce wood.
- (y)our desg
- Display designation for sectors owned by the current nation, and the nation marks for others.
- (A)rmy mcost
- Display the relative cost for a land based unit to enter each sector. This cost is used for caravan units as well as army units.
- (D)efense
- Show defensive value for a sector based on the vegetation and elevation of the sector.
- (F)light mcost
- Display the cost, in movement points, for a flying unit to enter each sector.
- (M)agic value
- Display the magical potential of the sectors.
- (N)aval mcost
- Show the cost, in movement points, for a ship to enter a sector. A `+' indicates that the sector may only be entered by landing the ship.
- (T)good desgs
- Display designations necessary to take advantage of the special items in sectors.
- (V)alues
- Show tradegood values for each sector. With jewel, magical, and metal tradegoods, the "mineral" value is shown, while other tradegood types will have the potency of the tradegood shown.
- (W)eights
- Display the relative weighting values of all supply centers within the nation. This display is useful to get a feel for where materials will be dispersed after production.
- (b)lank
- No information is to be shown in this display position.
- (K)eep
- This option indicates that the current display style in this position should not be changed. If this is encountered in the actual display, it behaves like the blank display.
List of Highlight Styles
- (N)one
- Disable highlighting.
- (a)llies
- Highlight sectors owned by nations friendly to the current nation.
- (d)esignation
- Highlight any sectors containing a specific major designation.
- (e)nemies
- Highlight those sectors owned by nations unfriendly to the current nation.
- (m)inor desgs
- Highlight any sectors containing a specific minor designation (construction).
- (n)eutrals
- Highlight those sectors which are neutral to the current nation.
- (o)wned
- Highlight those sectors owned by a specific nation.
- (r)ange
- Highlight those sectors within supply range of a supply center in the current sector.
- (s)couts
- Highlight sectors which contain scouting units.
- (u)nits
- Highlight sectors containing armies, navies, or caravans.
- (y)our units
- Highlight those sectors containing armies, navies or caravans owned by the current nation.
- (M)ovable
- Highlight sectors which contain units which have movement ability remaining.
- (R)egion
- Highlight owned sectors within the range of influence of the supply center in the current sector.
- (S)upported
- Highlight those sectors, owned by the current nation, which are within support range of any of their supply centers.
- (T)radegoods
- Highlight those sectors whose tradegoods are of a specific tradegood class.
- (U)nsupported
- Highlight those sectors which are owned by the current nation, yet are beyond the support range of their supply centers.
- (K)eep
- Do not change the highlighting when this display mode is selected. If this style is encountered in the actual display, it behaves as if the "None" highlighting style is set.
The Normal Conquer Display Mode
As you have probably noticed, the normal Conquer display shows a map of the world in most of the screen area. This map will contain one or more character representations of the various sectors which are visible to your nation. The position of the characters gives an indication of the relative location of the sectors on the map. Sectors towards the top of the map are north of the sectors towards the bottom, and sectors to the left of the map are west of the sectors on the right of the map.
The current sector is indicated by the position of the cursor. More information about the current sector, such as who owns it, what the actual coordinates of the sector are, and what, if any, of your troops are within the sector, will be shown along the right-hand column of the display. You can see an example of such a screen below:
*Wzrd 1 x=250 p=10
m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
__ >Mage 2 x=50 p=5
__/ -\__ m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
__/ %\__/ %\__ >Mage 3 x=51 p=5
__/ -\__/ -\__/ -\__ m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ %\__/ -\__/ %\__/ -\ >Mage 4 x=50 p=5
\__/ %\__/ -\__/ -\__/ m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ %\__/ -\F_/ %\__/ -\ >Mage 5 x=51 p=5
\__/ -\t_/ -\F_/ -\__/ m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ %\__/ -\C_/ %\__/ -\ --- more ---
\__/ %\F_/ #\F_/ %\__/ sector [0,0]
/ ^\__/ %\__/ -\__/ %\ owner: Aereol
\__/ -\__/ -\__/ ^\__/ Capital Elf
\__/ %\__/ -\__/ Forest Flat
\__/ \__/ pop: 16628 move: 1
food: 8 wood: 8
item: drama (c)
If you possess units within the current sector, information about each of the individual troops will be shown, with two lines of information for each unit. For armies, the information will contain the type of unit, the id number of the unit, the size of the unit, and the status and movement capabilities of the unit. For navies, the id number of the fleet, the number of each class of ship within the fleet, and the status and movement capabilities of the unit will be shown. And finally, the caravan units will have the size, id number, status and movement capabilities of the units shown. The currently selected unit within the sector will have a marker other than the `>' sign next to it. Usually this will be a `*', but a `+' is used to indicate the leader of a group of army units or a ship or caravan which is carrying items onboard.
The above map shows all of the world which is visible to a nation "Aereol". The currently selected sector is the capital located at sector [0,0] which is surrounded by a number of farming sectors. There are a number of troops within the sector, including the nation leaders and Ruler, the "Wizard", which is currently selected.
Zoooooom...
Conquer has support for both hexmap and rectangular coordinate systems. There are also three levels of "zooming" available, where clarity of information will be traded off with the number of sectors visible as the scale increases. Below are examples of each level of zooming, with the hexmap coordinate system on the left and the rectangular coordinate system on the right.
~ % % % ~ - F b ~ - %-~~~~~~~--%%-j%,,
% - - ~ ~ F F % - ~~~~~~~~~%-FFF%jb,
, , % % ~ ~ C b % % ~~~~~~~~~-%~CFi%j-
~ i ~ ~ ~ ~ F % i b~~~~%~s~--%FF,ii%
% , ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ , ~~~~~~~~~%-%-,^--j
At the "full" zoom setting, only one display "slot" is available, but many sectors are visible at once. It should be noted, though, that on the hexmap, it is not possible to travel directly east-west, and that sectors are, however, connected with those directly to their north or south. The rectangular system gains a much more compact display because of the rectangular orientation of the screen.
% ~ - F b ~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - - % % - j
~ ~ F F % - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ % - F F F %
% ~ ~ C b % % ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - % ~ C F i
~ ~ ~ F % i % ~ s ~ - - % F F , i
~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ , ~ ~ ~ ~ % - % - , ^ -
At the "medium" zoom setting, less sectors are shown, but the sector positioning is more apparent for the hexmap. For your reference, the "designation" display style is being used here, with the vegetation and elevations of the sectors being shown when there is no designation present.
/ %\__/~~\~~/ -\__/ %\__/ ^\ |~~|~~|~~| %| -| ^| ^| %| %|
\__/~~\~~/~~\__/ %\F_/ %\__/ |~~|~~|~~|__|__|F_|F_|F_|__|
/ %\~~/~~\~~/~~\F_/ -\F_/ ^\ |~~|~~|~~| -| %|~~| %| ^| #|
\__/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\C_/ %\__/ |__|~~|__|__|__|__|C_|F_|__|
/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\F_/ -\ | ^|~~| -| -| %| ^| %| ^| ^|
\~~/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\~~/ -\__/ |s_|~~|__|__|__|F_|F_|__|__|
/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\__/ -\ |~~|~~| %| -| %| -| %| ^| -|
\~~/~~\~~/~~\~~/~~\~~/ -\__/ |~~|~~|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|
Finally, the "detail" zoom shows more information for each sector and demonstrates very clearly the directional relationship between neighboring sectors. The important thing to note here is that there are now four characters of information for each sector.
The Information Mode
When it is desirable to obtain more information about the current sector than the standard conquer display provides, the information mode is what you are looking for. To enter the information mode, simply use the "toggle-infomode" command, and it will switch between the standard conquer display and the information mode.
The information mode is very much like the standard conquer display, but the map takes up much less of the screen, and the extra space is filled by a section which will show as much information about the sector as the nation knows. The right side of the screen is then totally devoted to the listing of the troops within the sector.
An example of what might be shown in the information mode is:
__/ %\__/ %\__ Capital of aereol [128] *Wzrd 1 x=250 p=10
__/ %\__/ %\__/ %\__ m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ ^\__/ %\__/ -\__/ %\ Attract: 151 Constructions >Mage 2 x=50 p=5
\__/ %\__/ ^\__/ -\__/ Weights: 128 fortified m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ ^\__/ ^\__/ %\__/ ^\ Defense: 60% >Mage 3 x=50 p=5
\__/ %\F_/ -\F_/ ^\__/ Recruits: 8000 m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ ^\__/ ^\C_/ -\__/ #\ Range: 3.0 >Mage 4 x=50 p=5
\__/ %\F_/ v\F_/ -\__/ Talons: 200000 m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
/ ^\__/ %\F_/ %\__/ ^\ Jewels: 15000 >Mage 5 x=50 p=5
\__/ %\__/ -\__/ %\__/ Metals: 15000 m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
\__/ %\__/ ^\__/ Food: 40000 >Mage 6 x=50 p=5
\__/ ^\__/ Wood: 15000 m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
\__/ >Mage 7 x=50 p=5
Produce Consume m:100 sp:= st:Dfd
sector [0,0] Talons 154011 7500 >army 200: 175 inf
owner: aereol Jewels 0 0 2 m:0(-) st:Grsn
Forest Flat Capital Metals 0 860 >army 201: 75 inf
people: 23335 Elf Food 8 23335 2 m:100(=) st:Dfd
food: 8 wood: 8 move: 1 Wood 8 2620 >army 202: 75 inf
item: drama (c) 2 m:100(=) st:Dfd
The display shown above concerns the Capital of the nation aereol. The left portion of the screen is devoted to the map of sectors around the capital, the right column to the troops within the capital area, and the middle of the screen shows a good deal of information about the supply center itself.
At the top of the information portion of the screen, the sector designation will be shown, with the value of the designation shown in parenthesis. For supply centers, this will be the weight assigned to the sector; for farms, it will be the food value; for metal mines, the metal value; etc.
Below that will be listed all of the constructions, a.k.a. minor designations, as well as the attractiveness of the sector to the civilians. Immediately below the attractiveness is the sum of the weights of all supply centers within support range of the sector. [In the above display, this shows that the capital is the only supply center within range] Below that is the defensive value of fortifications within the sector. At the very bottom, the production and consumption summary is given, so that you can determine just where all of the national resources are going.
If the sector is a supply center, such as the capital above, there will be some added information, such as how many volunteers are in the sector, what the influence range of the supply center is, and what materials are stored within the supply center. Otherwise, the number of civilians actually working within the sector will be shown.
See also: Sector Information
The customize-display Command
As stated earlier, a display mode consists of a specification for all four character slots, highlight specifications, and a focus. There are, therefore, many possible combinations of display modes available. The command "customize-display" is used to create a specific combination, and perhaps give a name to it, so that it can be put to use at a later date.
When first executed, the list of currently defined display modes is listed. Simply specify the name of the display mode you wish to edit, and press return. If the display mode is not already defined, a new display mode will be created under that name.
The bottom portion of the screen should look something like:
Name: "Standard" Display and Highlighting Selections __ Focus: low-left blank / owned | contour / owned / -\ '?' for commands ---------------------+--------------------- \C_/ 'q' to exit your desg / owned | blank / owned
The name of the mode being edited, the current focus position and the two brief command selections are listed on the left. The settings for each position (or slot) are listed in the middle. And a view of the current sector using the display mode under construction is on the right.
So, you use the space to change the focus of the display mode, then use the `d' key to change the display style for a given position. You can also change the highlighting using the `h' key, or any of the highlighting keys available in the normal conquer mode, and the name using the `n' key. If you wish to return the settings to the original values, the `r' key will perform a reset. All of these keybindings are mentioned when the `?' key is pressed, if you should forget.
Finally, when you leave the display customizer, using the `q' key, it will store your newly created display mode in the list of defined display modes. It will then be accessible via the "adjust-display" command. If you specified to edit the current display mode, conquer will ask you if you wish to try to save the settings under some new name so that it will not be lost when you switch to another display mode. An important bit of information here: the position of the focus when leaving the customizer is the value of the focus in the actual display mode.
Be aware, though, that the customized display modes only remain in existence for the duration of the current conquer session. You may have conquer store the settings, though, using the "conquer-options" command and its "store-settings" subcommand.
Predefined Display Modes
Conquer comes with a default list of display modes, so that players need not design their own unless they wish to. The list of predefined modes is:
name low-left | low-right | up-left | up-right | focus
============= ===========|===========|============|===========|===========
Standard designation| blank | blank | contour | low-left
Designation designation| keep | keep | keep | low-left
Own Designati own desg | keep | keep | keep | low-left
Nation Marks keep | keep |nation mark | keep | up-left
Race keep | keep | race | keep | up-left
Population keep | people | keep | keep | low-right
Contour keep | keep | keep | contour | up-right
Vegetation keep | keep | keep |vegetation | up-right
Tradegoods keep |Tgood desg | keep | keep | low-right
Jewels keep | keep | jewels | keep | up-left
Magics keep | keep |Magic value | keep | up-left
Metals keep | keep | metals | keep | up-left
Values keep | keep | Values | keep | up-left
Food keep | keep | food | keep | up-left
Wood keep | keep | wood | keep | up-left
Defense keep | keep | Defense | keep | low-left
Army Move keep | Army Move | keep | keep | low-right
Navy Move keep | Navy Move | keep | keep | low-right
Flight Move keep |Flight Move| keep | keep | low-right
Weights keep | Weights | keep | keep | low-right
Blank blank | blank | blank | blank | low-left
Note that all of the default display modes have a highlight style of "Keep" to assure that they will not alter the current highlighting method.