Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004 Location: Third star to the left
Well, that does seem more complex than my own code.
I like the bit where player order is shuffled around.
One problem I see with your "divide and conquer" strategy for HW placement is that it might create too regular (and predictable) placements. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Otherwise it seems a neat way to speed things up, even if it forces you to search the planet actually nearest to the HW coordinates you chose.