Astrosynthesis vs Universe

[balzacq]

(Hi! First post.)

Why just use the habitable systems to establish jump routes? What happens when the players say "What about all the M-class stars that are supposed to be all over the place? Why can't we jump to one that has a gas giant and then jump to the next [otherwise-unreachable] world?"

I got Astrosynthesis a couple of months ago in preparation for running a somewhat-variant Traveller campaign (first one in twenty years).

I'm expecting to use all of the star systems that aren't black holes, supergiants, nebulae, etc. The hospitable ones will be the high-pop worlds and political centers (the campaign will be set in the Long Night, sort of), the habitable ones will be lower-pop colonies (some terraformed and some not), and the uninhabitable ones will be refueling posts and mining colonies.

In order to get a map that wasn't overly interconnected, I had to turn down the stellar density to two clicks less than the default, and then reduce J1 to 3.1 ly and J2 to 5.7 ly.

The J1 mains are reasonable, with an average 2.6 connections per system (min 0, max 12). J2 is more problematic, with average 12.5 connections per system (min 0, max 49). Contrast to standard Traveller 2D mapping, with average 3 J1s and 6 J2s.

My setting assumes reinvention of J2 within the last 20-40 years, so overly-connected systems isn't such a huge problem since only ~10% of ships have it, and one of the main themes is going to be exploiting new connections between previously-separated mains.

In order to turn the 3D visuals of Astrosynthesis into usable 2D maps, I've turned to the yED Graph Editor (and see instructions here). Unfortunately the J2 connections are so dense that the maps are illegible in the center; I'm still working on a solution to this.

Last, since I'll be using the GURPS rules, I need to get a copy of G:Space (since GT:FI is ~$160 on eBay) and fill in the system details using that, mostly to override the AS population figures but also to tweak habitability where necessary.


-- Bryan
(no sig yet)

 

[jappel]

balzacq,

Sure, nothing restricts you from travelling using the other systems. I wasn't so much showing all the possible jump routes as routes traffic would naturally flow to and through. All that traffic has to have a destination, after all. Think of these as the arterial routes, or high-traffic routes.

Also, some people (I'm not one) are pretty strict about unrefined fuel and misjumps, and not every ship has scoops and a purification plant. Others assume bulk traffic is going to be in large, non-streamlined vessels, sometimes using lighters, and those are going to need to travel between populated systems.

Actually, in this regard, Astrosynthesis shares the inherent flaw of any largely random system for generating regions: it can't take into account what's around it, the demographic and "stellar-political" situations if you will. Some places don't really become significant until there are populations around and passing through them. Hence, a lot of manual tweaking. For example, in your situation, an obvious spot for some entrepenurial folk to set up a refuelling station might become obvious when looking at the map, so you can go in and add people (either on some planetary body or a space station).

Sounds like you've got an interesting campaign shaping up. Let us know how it goes!

- John

 

[balzacq]

Originally posted by jappel:
balzacq,

Sure, nothing restricts you from travelling using the other systems. I wasn't so much showing all the possible jump routes as routes traffic would naturally flow to and through. All that traffic has to have a destination, after all. Think of these as the arterial routes, or high-traffic routes.

Of course -- once I've tweaked the worlds and placed the populations I'll analyze the whole thing for trade routes (aren't databases wonderful?) and then drop all the unpopulated, no-fuel, no-resources, out-of-the-way worlds off the working map.

Also, some people (I'm not one) are pretty strict about unrefined fuel and misjumps, and not every ship has scoops and a purification plant. Others assume bulk traffic is going to be in large, non-streamlined vessels, sometimes using lighters, and those are going to need to travel between populated systems.

Right -- that's why there will be fueling stations in between. And in 3200 systems there are 1200 'Habitable' ones (using the very loose Astrosynthesis definition of 'habitable') and 49 'Hospitable' ones, so there are plenty of Hab/Hosp-Hab/Hosp routes already.

Actually, in this regard, Astrosynthesis shares the inherent flaw of any largely random system for generating regions: it can't take into account what's around it, the demographic and "stellar-political" situations if you will. Some places don't really become significant until there are populations around and passing through them. Hence, a lot of manual tweaking. For example, in your situation, an obvious spot for some entrepenurial folk to set up a refuelling station might become obvious when looking at the map, so you can go in and add people (either on some planetary body or a space station).

I'm planning on doing a quick-and-dirty colonization simulation, starting from 2-3 entry points and assuming J-3 capability, which means pretty much everything will be accessible and population will end up on all the nice and most of the decent planets. This will also give me a feel for cultural affinities, especially on long-separated mains.

Sounds like you've got an interesting campaign shaping up. Let us know how it goes!

- John

Thanks! I'll move anything else to the IMTU forum.

-- Bryan