"F" it! Keep the magic in hexadecimal

[Leitz]

Sorry, couldn't resist...

There are some tables, like hull code and Soc, that are written to go above decimal number 15. The original Traveller system seems to be based on a hexadecimal system with values from 0-15. For those of us coding stuff, staying with 0-15 is a very good idea.

I know this is a science fiction game and there needs to be a wide range of options. Why not break them into multiple characters instead of breaking the hexadecimal? Two hex digits (15 * 15) gives 225 options and three (15 * 15 * 15) gives 3375.

 

[kilemall]

CT starship design, the original breaker of the F barrier, was designed more for fitting the starship data on a 3x5 index card.

The principle of the quick UPP/UWP string got stretched to near uselessness with big strings defining HG ships and robots and later things like orgs, so I'm not terribly concerned about breaking those, forcing a disruption to the single string.

But I'm not really up for multiplying hex numbers while designing or trying to use a definition just to get a value, or not be able to read a UWP at a glance.

 

[Leitz]

I was thinking more along one character for scale and another for variant in that scale. Taking ship hulls as an example the first digit could be tonnage and the second the multiplier of 10, where 1 is straight tonnage, 2 is first digit * 10, 3 is first digit * 100, etc.

• 50 would be a 5 ton hull
• 51 would be a 50 ton hull
• 52 would be a 500 ton hull

And so on. Sets people up for those planet sized ships. Note that this is an idea, I've not really thought it fully through yet. Hopefully smarter people will improve it or chuck it for something better.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Being an old code monkey who learned to read EBCDIC and hexadecimal, but tried and failed to learn ASCII, my experience is that not every system or symbolic is easily learned.
My questions are:
What is your goal in changing the existing system?
What dissatisfies you about the current one or looking to enhance?

There is coding and then there presentation.

On a coding level, CT broke the purely hexidecimal system other levels.
Once the aliens were introduced, the other characteristics could go above 15 as they can now in Cepheus. The formal codifying of SOC above F is more recent IIRC.
Tech-Levels above F like the Darrians.

For presentation, the purpose of using psuedo-hexadecimal was to present a trait in your profile (UPP, UWP, etc.) with a single character. CT supplements from Paranoia Press attempted to extend them in non-sequential ways, but those did not stick.

Essentially, you a proposing a psuedo logarithmic system using base-16 instead of base-10.

 

[mike wightman]

Traveller hexadecimal is not true hexadecimal.

TL G should be TL10

16 = 10
17 = 11
18 = 12 etc

31 = 1F

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I use both dec and hex on my character sheets. The UPP box is in hex. The attribute boxes are in dec.

 

[Leitz]

Traveller hexadecimal is not true hexadecimal.
TL G should be TL10

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Traveller 5.09 uses TL 33 for TL 33. It's DEC, if I remember.

 

[infojunky]

Sorry, couldn't resist...

There are some tables, like hull code and Soc, that are written to go above decimal number 15. The original Traveller system seems to be based on a hexadecimal system with values from 0-15. For those of us coding stuff, staying with 0-15 is a very good idea.

Naw, I am happy with Traveller's Base₃₄ system....