I may be reworking the test map today. What would be the best layout, considering the following (or add/edit to fit what you all feel we need):
1. Very few (1-5) hexes of territory per cartel. This can be either under an empire toward the map edges to stay out of the way of blanket neutral hex testing, or in empire neutral space toward the map edges or combined under empire and neutral to give us the option of testing cartel interaction.
2. DV ranges to vary with a maximum of what? Originally I put 100 DV on HWs, 30 on core worlds and BATS, 20 on BSes, 10 on 6 hexes around HWs and some of the empire neutral hexes, and 5 for the balance of empire and neutral "blank" hexes. With a per-mission DV effect of 1 to better measure results, high DVs would take too long for just a few players to flip. Maybe we don't need to worry about flipping, though, since the real question is boosting. If we lose in empire hexes under PvP to weaken them, that will allow us to concentrate on boosting them as defenders. For neutral hexes, I'm thinking lower DV is better so we can test neutral coop and flipping at the same time.
3. Economy should be high on HW, but spread out econ to all hexes to make sure we have plenty for ship production. DVs and econs should match so it is easy to tell a full-health hex from a weakened/restored one.
I think I recall the DV flip threshold is hardcoded, and not changeable via .gf settings. If memory serves, the flip was at roughly .2 of starting DV, though I am not certain. If this is true, DV restore percentage must be at least .2 to avoid having a hex that flips even if you win a boosting mission when the boosted value would still be under .2 of total. I recommend a .25 restore just to be safe. If the kits were changed at some point to allow flips to happen at 0 instead of .2, then we don't need to worry about this. I've never seen mention of this having been changed, though I would frankly prefer to have the ability to determine flip percentage.
So, what do we need?