Originally posted by robject:
I might throw out Sunbane and use AotI... is the AotI data online somewhere?
Robject,
Trying to pay attention to both payload AND delivery here. You have my apologies, by the way.
AFAIK,
AotI is only available online at eBay. And, as Daryen can tell you, it's not worth the prices it normally sells for. FFE must have it in the Reprint pipeline, but your guess is as good as mine regarding a release date.
However, if you do use
AotI for locations, hi-pops, and starport, you'll still have to generate your own UWPs. UWPs that will not be canonical.
That's the central problem in all this;
We simply do not have the basic data required. And we can't generate the data/UWPs either. You generate one set, I generate another set, and we won't produce the same results. Why? Population code multipliers is why.
Check out this example. It only takes two UWP pop-code 8 worlds with a pop multiplier of 5 equal one hi-pop world. Yet, it requires ten UWP pop-code 8 worlds with a pop multiplier of 1 to do the same thing.
So, you roll the 'right' pop multipliers and your generated subsector has the equivalent of another hi-pop world; a 'virtual' hi-pop world as it were.
Then, using the SAME subsector as you used, I roll the 'wrong' pop multipliers and my version of what was SAME subsector doesn't have that 'virtual' hi-pop world.
Now the 'Cascade o' Consequences' begins:
- The 'virtual' hi-pop world found in your version of the subsector will greatly influence trade routes in that subsector.
- Those routes will in turn greatly influence the economy of the subsector.
- Those subsector routes and the larger internal subsector economy they represent will then make larger the trade route links the subsector has with the subsectors around it.
- In some cases, additional trade routes between the subsector and the surrounding subsectors will be created.
- Finally, those different/larger/additional trade routes will effect the economies of the surrounding subsectors they link to.
On the other hand, ny subsector - which was the SAME as your's until ONE die roll was applied - is completely different. The subsector I generated has:
- Different/smaller/fewer trade routes.
- A smaller subsector economy.
- Different/smaller/fewer links with the surrounding subsectors.
- Smaller economies in the surrounding subsectors.
For those who are counting, a bare handful of pop multiplier rolls in a single subsector end up effecting the economy of that subsector, the economy of the surrounding eight subsectors, the economy of the sector in which they're located, and finally economy of the Imperium as a whole. Talk about the Butterfly Effect!
You can generate UWPs from now until the Heat Death of the Universe and figure economies and budgets from each set. However, unitl those UWPs are
canonical UWPs your numbers mean nothing. We don't have the canonical UWPs and we can't generate the canoniocal UWPs so your well meaning effort is doomed to where an 'IMTU' label. I can use the same methodology as you and come up with an entirely different picture thanks to ultimately random nature of
Traveller system generation.
I suppose you could generate a few thousand Imperiums and come up with a mean of some kind. However, that would still be a rough approximation. We simply don't the real data we need, the real UWPs. And we'll never have them.
Daryen was kind enough to correct my failing memory with regards to TNE's 'Regency Sourcebook'.
Daryen,
Mea culpa.
RSB does not incluce any portion of Corridor.
GDW's 'laziness' regarding their copying of DGP's previous work; the ca. 1117 UWPs, allows us to see just how poor DGP's original work was.
The DGP UWPs were not generated in accordance with either
LBB:6 Scouts or
MT's sysgen rules. I have no doubt that they were meant to be generated in accordance with those to systems, but the method used to generate them was poorly programmed and/or applied. DGP also failed to 'reality check' the results their UWP generator produced. While there are other examples of this, the best known is Esperanza/New Islands/Reft.
Esperanza was originally 'crafted' as part of a the
A:5 Trillion Credit Squadron wargame. GDW was first, foremost, and always a wargmaing company. They brought the wargaming idea of 'play balance' to all their work. The various worlds in
A:5 were 'crafted' with
LBB:3 in mind and thus before the inclusion of pop code multipliers into
Traveller sysgen. However, the eight major worlds in
TCS were carefully 'play balanced' with regards to TL and population. When DGP produced their UWPs for the Reft Sector, any 'play balance' in
TCS was destroyed.
DGP produced and published a pop code multiplier for Esperanza that turned it into the 363.63kg gorilla of the Islands Cluster. Where the world had 10 billion people before, it now had over
FORTY billion thanks to DGP.
Because of DGP's failure to 'reality check' the extended UWPs they generated for
MT for either incorrect generation or failure to fit pre-existing canon, I am more than squeamish to accept any of their UWPs. And, because,
TNE merely copied DGP's known flawed work, I am more than squeamish to accept any of
RSB's UWPs.
IMTU, the only 'canonical' UWPs are those in the Spinward Marches, Solomani Rim, and Gvurrdon. All others are suspect, including those in
T20 because I am not sure of their 'ancestry'; i.e. are they copies of DGP's work, Sunbane data, or something new?
Have fun,
Bill
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