Is there any information on how the ship generators work?

Venima

I've been browsing the Haven.generator.txt, and there are a few parts that have me quite confused.

Is the RotationWeights field required, even when UseWeightedRotations is false?
```
UseWeightedRotations = false
RotationWeights
{
	RotZeroWeight = 1
	RotOneWeight = 1
	RotTwoWeight = 1
	RotThreeWeight = 1
}
```

Why does the Reactor require a Part field, when the Cockpit doesn't?
```
Name = Cockpit
IsEnabled = true

Name = Reactor
Part = reactor
IsEnabled = true
```

When surrounding the cockpit with armor, the PartToAdd is armor, but Parts are thrusters?
```
Type = SurroundWithPartsStage
PlacementStrategy = None
Parts
[
	{
		Part = small_thruster
		Score = 1
		Weight = 1
	}
	{
		Part = med_thruster
		Score = 2
		Weight = 2
	}
	{
		Part = big_thruster
		Score = 4
		Weight = 3
	}
]
ReplaceableParts
[
	corridor
]
Name = "Cockpit Armor"
IsEnabled = true
PartToAdd = armor
PartToSurround = cockpit
Layers = 1
```

When placing weapons, Part is shield_generator? Also, is 'Avoid' a mandatory field with this Type, or can it be omitted?
```
Type = PlaceWeaponsByScoreStage
Parts
[
	{
		Part = med_cannon
		Score = 1
		Weight = 2
	}
	{
		Part = big_cannon
		Score = 3
		Weight = 1
	}
	{
		Part = "small_laser"
		Score = "1"
		Weight = "3"
	}
]
ReplaceableParts
[
	corridor
]
Name = "Weapons"
Part = shield_generator
PlacementStrategy = None
UseWeightedRotations = true
RotationWeights
{
	RotZeroWeight = 4
	RotOneWeight = 2
	RotTwoWeight = 1
	RotThreeWeight = 2
}
Iterations = 2
ContiguousPathSearchLength = 16
SearchRange = "5"
PlaceNear
[
	{
		Part = "small_laser"
		Weight = "2"
	}
	{
		Part = "med_cannon"
		Weight = "3"
	}
	{
		Part = "big_cannon"
		Weight = "6"
	}
]
Avoid[]
```

Parts are crew quarters, Name is "exterior armor", Replaceable is corridors, but Part is armor. I'm guessing this is placing crew quarters down? Maybe? What's 'Part' actually do?
```
Type = PlacePartsOnPerimeterStage
Parts
[
	{
		Part = quarters
		Score = 6
		Weight = 6
	}
	{
		Part = bunk
		Score = 2
		Weight = 2
	}
]
ReplaceableParts
[
	corridor
]
Name = "Exterior Armor"
PlacementStrategy = None
UseWeightedRotations = false
RotationWeights
{
	RotZeroWeight = 1
	RotOneWeight = 1
	RotTwoWeight = 1
	RotThreeWeight = 1
}
Part = armor
PlaceNear
[
	{
		Part = med_cannon
		Weight = 1
	}
	{
		Part = big_cannon
		Weight = 3
	}
]
Avoid[]
ContiguousPathSearchLength = 16
Iterations = "2"
```

What does 'FillOrder = SixBySix' mean? And what's the difference between ContiguousPathSearchLength and SearchRange?

I can appreciate generators might not be ready yet, but I'm still really curious what's going on 😛

Footnote: If this is in the wrong category, I do apologise.

Walt

Okay, the reason you're confused is because these files are actually themselves generated by a GUI, not by hand. As a result, they're not really intended to be easily edited or understood by humans. The GUI tends to leave behind a lot of unused values (such as Parts in "Cockpit Armor" or Part and Avoid in "Weapons") and sometimes changes the order of things.

The ship generators are also a really old system that I haven't really maintained as the game has evolved. Originally my thinking was most of the ships in the game would be procedurally generated, but for both design and performance reasons I've since decided against that. I've thought about deleting it altogether, but I'm keeping it around because it might come in handy some day.