Complete System Generation

[Vargas]

There are all sorts of freeware programs out there to generate mainworlds for Traveller, but are there any which generate entire systems?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I have an Excel program that does that (LBB6). I will have to tweak it up, as my single system generator hasn't kept pace with my subsector generator. you will need:
Excel 2000 or better
Analysis Toolpak add-in (to do hexadecimal)
An unzipper
Quite a bit of space on your HDD, as it's a 100+ MB (it's all the calculations)
(The one that generates a subsector is 500+MB!)
An understanding of Copy and Paste Special

PM me if you would like me to send it to you.

 

[Gadrin]

I think Heaven & Earth does, though I never really got into it because I use the Spinward Marches for the most part.

However I'm getting a hankering to do my own sector, as a long term project.

I've heard good things about GURPS First In & the GURPS Space 4e system generators. I don't recall exactly, but I think Heaven & Earth offers you different types of formats using First In & Space 3e (not new 4e, unless a new version has come out). I don't have H&E on this pc.

 

[flykiller]

well I have a little basic program that spits out book 6 systems. here's a 1 meg text file listing a bunch of them, if you like. easy to edit.

ma = meteor activity
100d = local star's 100d limit in light seconds
ls = solar orbital object orbit radii in light seconds
H = habitable zone
h = sort-of habitable zone
i, o = inner, outer zones
bs = biosphere
ra = resource accessibility

the moon orbit radii are not ordered correctly, but they're easy to fix.

 

[G K Zhukov]

A fellow by the handle of agemegos is developing a quite impressive excel utility to generate star systems (under the latest, state-of-the-art GURPS Space 4th Edition rules). Check this thread:

[Space] System Generator

 

[Arthur Denger]

I think Heaven & Earth does, though I never really got into it because I use the Spinward Marches for the most part.

Yes, the Heaven & Earth program download by Stuart W. Ferris does just that. It can generate an incredible amount of system data, and it is pretty detailed. If you're looking to create a detailed (sub)sector from scratch, this is probably the faster way to do so.

There are also several other cool downloads at the Freelance Traveller website.

 

[Qstor2]

As mentioned in another thread Heaven & Earth is good but has a few bugs in it. Some of the systems generated don't have realistic stats for the planets. The main world's are sometimes barely habitable.

Mike

 

[Daneel Olivaw]

I've been working on a GURPS Space 4e system generator Excel utility for quite some time. It generates the physical data OK, but I need to add settlement info (population, tech level, government, etc.) and create a good format for the final output.

I've wanted a way to generate a sector where each world has a chance to influence the development of other worlds. I'd like a way to propagate major worlds, colonies and outposts throughout a sector, based on regional powers, randomized (but logical) events and influences. For example, a high-population, technologically advanced garden world would tend to increase the likelihood and extent of development on other worlds nearby; a major conflict or disaster on a major world could affect trade, refugee migrations and political unrest on nearby worlds.

This being said, I have little time for this sort of thing these days. It may remain no more than a thought-experiment until I retire or win the lottery.

 

[Vargas]

It looks like I'll give Heaven and Earth a try. Thanks to all.

 

[Gadrin]

I've been working on a GURPS Space 4e system generator Excel utility for quite some time. It generates the physical data OK, but I need to add settlement info (population, tech level, government, etc.) and create a good format for the final output.

on the Winbatch Scripting site I visit one of the guys there used Excel's Web Query feature to import local .htm or .html files and display them into excel.

he'd scrape HTML data off web sites compile a local .htm file and then import that into Excel via what was essentially Excel macros (but written in the Winbatch language, similar to VBScript). You could even record a macro to do the coding for you.

so using HTML to put the data into a colored, specialized font and table display could be an option if you're ever so inclined. Just over-write the same HTML file each time and use .WebQuery to import it.

 

[cooks]

Traveller Software for Mac's

Are there any good programs out there for Apple Mac's as I don't really want to do all the work on paper if I can get a program to do it for me

 

[Higgipedia]

Yeah, I will echo the call for the Mac programs... ALthough, I plan on getting Boot Camp or Parallels when I get back to the states, so it might make it moot.

 

[aramis]

There was a good one for MacOS 8...

Metator, IIRC.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

A quick question: does anyone know how to code a XML stylesheet to allow for "collapse all" and "expand all" capabilities? I have two sectors of systems in xml (well, 1 sector and 2 subsectors with more to put in xml tonight) and it would be nice to load it collapsed, and allow for complete re-collapse at any time.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jfetters]

Fritz,

What behavior are you trying to have your sheet perform? do you want to list the worlds heirarchically and have the sheet display the stats when clicked?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Here is a sample of the data:

<catalog>
<sector name="Columbia">
<subsector number="A" name="Kally">
  <system hex="103" name="" star="F5 V" uwp="A9857A9-A" trade="Ag" pbg="702" alleg="Arc">
    <orbit num="0" type="Planet" name="" uwp="Y20016A-9"></orbit>
    <orbit num="1" type="Planet" name="" uwp="YS00129-9"></orbit>
    <orbit num="2" type="Planet" name="" uwp="Y300000-0"></orbit>
    <orbit num="3" type="Planet" name="" uwp="Y500000-0"></orbit>
    <orbit main="Y" num="4" type="Planet" name="" uwp="A9857A9-A"></orbit>
    <orbit num="5" type="SGG" name="">
        <orbit num="3rad" type="Ring"></orbit>
        <orbit num="7rad" type="Planet" name="" uwp="Y10016C-9"></orbit>	
        <orbit num="9rad" type="Planet" name="" uwp="Y400000-0"></orbit>	
        <orbit num="40rad" type="Planet" name="" uwp="Y300000-0"></orbit>
    </orbit>
</system>
......close the subsector
......close the sector
......close the catalog

With a sector's (or even a subsector's) worth of data, its unreadable. (Print preview gave 513 pages IIRC at work. ) It works much better when most of it is collapsed (which IE and Firefox do nicely - if you start clicking on the minus signs...). If it would open like this:

<sector name="Columbia">
<subsector number="A" name="Kally">
  +<system hex="103" name="" star="F5 V" uwp="A9857A9-A" trade="Ag" pbg="702" alleg="Arc">
  + ......next system
  + ......next system
......close the subsector
......close the sector
......close the catalog

That would be great. That way, info would accessible by opening a system (or whatever) rather than having to minimize everything to clear the clutter.

(Notice, there are only a handful of objects: sector, subsector, system, and orbit. Everything else is an attribute.)

 

[coliver988]

You're going to have to dig into XSL, which is the XML transformation stuff. there are several free editors out there (do a search). However, for a lot of XML/XSL transformations, the results can vary by browser (see Opera now suing MS, partly for 'breaking standards').

With a proper XSL style sheet, you can make it look like fancy reports, organize it better, whatever. I'm just not sure about collapsing the structures down automatically. The closest I've dealt with this is creating the style sheet that mimics our paper bills from the XML bill we send to the printer. And that pretty much created a format for viewing the raw XML, not a method for displaying the data as-is.

One suggestion would be to have a front-end to pick what you want shown (Kally/103) then using the style sheet & XPATH stuff, grab that subset of data & display it.

But I think you are out of luck if you just want to directly display the XML in collapsed mode to begin with - from a browser that will be browser-dependent and likely to change with each iteration of the browser

 

[Fritz_Brown]

You're going to have to dig into XSL, which is the XML transformation stuff.

Yes, I know I'm going to have to write a stylesheet or two. I was hoping to have someone save me the trouble of finding what appears to be an obscure XSL reference.... :smirk: (As it is, I'll have to pull my books back out - I haven't done this in a while... ) I was hoping for a brilliant, obvious, easy method from the folks here.

 

[aramis]

You should be able to set up a javascript/EMCA-Script to open/close multiples.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Easy for you to say... ? ?
Any idea how to do that?