What do the numbers on the map mean exactly?

[benki]

I am playing on expert mode (which still is not really challenging, since I still make almost twice as much profit as the AI, even when are on much more oil-rich map tiles) and I thought in the past that the numbers on the maps tiles mean the amount of available oil in that mission in thousands of barrels (let's call them kbarrels).

I paid a little closer attention last time and noticed that if I fully drain a field, it is about 10% more than what is later shown as a number on that tile. Can you confirm that the number is just an indicator or does it have a real relation to some value from that mission?

Incidentally I also noticed that on my last three missions I was getting exceptionally bad missions (low amount of available oil) whereas the AI was getting much better missions (although still about average). Is expert mode working to rein you in by giving you a lower amount of oil in your missions if you get too far ahead?

[Gamious]

Hey,
The number is an indicator. Higer=more oil. But it's not an exact KBarrel number.
The numbers in the plots are not part of the Expert Mode AI. We don't hold players back by giving them bad plots. Those numbers are determined at the start of the campaign. So you just had some bad luck or made some poor choices. Use Anthony and a diamond to point you towards one of the 3 best plots available. Especially in the beginning of an area.

[erikleppen]

Originally posted by benki:

Is expert mode working to rein you in by giving you a lower amount of oil in your missions if you get too far ahead?

No.

There is no unfair play in either mode. The amount of oil in each piece of land is pre-determined, and the part that generates the level does not know what the opponents have chosen. In fact, the level generator doesn't even know it's in a campaign. ;)

So I think you just had a streak of bad luck there.

Can you confirm that the number is just an indicator or does it have a real relation to some value from that mission?

The numbers on the map are pre-determined when you start a new campaign. When a level is generated, it reads the number on the chosen plot, and oil wells are added until that amount of oil is reached. So the amount of oil is at least that number, and in most cases, a little bit more.

I know my answer is similar to that of my colleagues above, but I wanted to give you the programmer's perspective as your questions are mainly in the realm of code :)

[benki]

Originally posted by erikleppen:

The numbers on the map are pre-determined when you start a new campaign. When a level is generated, it reads the number on the chosen plot, and oil wells are added until that amount of oil is reached. So the amount of oil is at least that number, and in most cases, a little bit more.

Thanks, this makes it pretty clear for me.

Now what remains is the very strange behaviour of the AI: in the desert they barely made 10k from a 40ish plot and in the plains one of them made over 100k from a 60ish plot. Are you actually simulating the AI playing a certain mission or is it just a random number with some coefficients based on the upgrades? I know this has nothing to do with the original question.

[erikleppen]

What the AI does is use the upgrades and the oil and gas supply to "generate" in sequence:

- the amount of oil and gas in the level (depends only on the chosen plot)
- from that, the amount of oil and gas found (depends mainly on scanning upgrades)
- from that, the amount of oil mined (depends mainly on rig/pipe upgrades)
- from that, the amount of oil sold (depends mainly on wagon upgrades)
- the amount of gas used (depends on the amount of gas and gas upgrades)
- from those, the average selling price (depends on the gas used and some upgrades)
- the spendings (this is mostly random, and is moslty there to enable the possibility of having negative profits)

From that, the profit is computed as income minus spendings.

So it does not "play" the level, but the randomness is somewhat "smartly chosen" to resemble the oil and money flow like in normal play.