How many subsectors have you hand-created from scratch?

[Timerover51]

I am about halfway done with the planet names for my Piper-Norton Out Rim Sector. Once I have most of the planet names, then I will set laying them out on the sub-sector maps and sector map. Once they are in place, then I will be starting to flesh them out with UWP and narratives. More on Blog.

As for posting them to the Traveller Map, I first need to clear copyright issues with Marc, as the sector will be usable with the Cepheus Engine, and also with Classic Traveller.

 

[starship_captain62]

I have to admit, the last planetary system I created was computer generated, and the I shuffled the plants around according to what seemed most sensible. Ran a few calculations so that orbital periods increased outwards at intervals of my choosing. Moved the habitable planet so that it was in the habitable zone for Earth like planets - more calculations to verify this. The end hand manipulated version varied somewhat from the computer generated one.

Sectors and subsectors should follow a similar process. Start with a computer generated one and manipulate so that it is sensible and consitant with ones own universe.

The important thing here is not to relay just on random generators. A human input is just as important.

 

[Timerover51]

I have to admit, the last planetary system I created was computer generated, and the I shuffled the plants around according to what seemed most sensible. Ran a few calculations so that orbital periods increased outwards at intervals of my choosing. Moved the habitable planet so that it was in the habitable zone for Earth like planets - more calculations to verify this. The end hand manipulated version varied somewhat from the computer generated one.

Sectors and subsectors should follow a similar process. Start with a computer generated one and manipulate so that it is sensible and consitant with ones own universe.

The important thing here is not to relay just on random generators. A human input is just as important.

Why must it be computer generated?

 

[Timerover51]

I have to admit, the last planetary system I created was computer generated, and the I shuffled the plants around according to what seemed most sensible. Ran a few calculations so that orbital periods increased outwards at intervals of my choosing. Moved the habitable planet so that it was in the habitable zone for Earth like planets - more calculations to verify this. The end hand manipulated version varied somewhat from the computer generated one.

Sectors and subsectors should follow a similar process. Start with a computer generated one and manipulate so that it is sensible and consitant with ones own universe.

The important thing here is not to relay just on random generators. A human input is just as important.

I must admit that using SectorMaker to generate planet locations has definitely speeded things up.

 

[Ulsyus]

The important thing here is not to relay just on random generators. A human input is just as important.

More important really. While computer generation can save a ton of time if the whole thing is written effectively, we can do a far better job at adding colour and context to any & all system generation than any program currently (!) can

 

[Timerover51]

More important really. While computer generation can save a ton of time if the whole thing is written effectively, we can do a far better job at adding colour and context to any & all system generation than any program currently (!) can

All I am using is the planet locations and some of those I am changing to fit how I want things to look. As for the planet descriptions, that is all my work.

 

[Golan2072]

I built the sixteen Outer Veil subsectors by hand. Had an old Excel file with real-world star data as of 2007-2008, I "flattened" it to standard Traveller 2D maps by hand, doing the algorithm in my head. Added some "hypothetical" worlds as well. Then rolled the world stats by hand for everything.

I also did These Stars Are Ours! by hand, the two subsectors and a sketch of two more. I used the same "flattened" star data-set I used for OV, but with different "hypothetical" worlds and new world data.

I also rolled my own OTU Canopus 1248 setting, if I recall correctly that started as a quadrant. Also rolled by hand.

And some more... Shattered Federation (a setting I worked on a bit in 2010 or so) used my old Python script to generate the world physical data but I rolled the social part of things and did the map by hand (my programming skills are not good enough to generate the graphical map directly by the script).

 

[AndyW]

I've done 3 or 4 perhaps from scratch. Some for short scenario cycles and a couple that were never actually used.

After I got the Atlas of the Imperium, detailed two subsectors in Verge, adjacent to the Rift, I believe they were MTU versions of Biika and Miruu, but never actually played them.

 

[The Oz]

I have done two complete sectors plus a few isolated subsectors here and there.

Of course, I've been doing this since 1977.

 

[BRover]

In the late '70s, we had a sort of "subsector wars" going--I did at least two subsectors for that, complete with planetary and subsector navies. (We then sent out scouts/traders/probe missions to the blank neighbors to see who was there, which is where the wars would begin.)

Since then, I've done one or so subsectors just for fun. Now I'm considering another area to modify Charted Space for my own TU. Likely won't bother with computer generation; maybe will (for expanded UWPs?), developing little areas as needed.

Probably would have done more in the intervening years, but responsibilities (RL) distracted me from, well, from this sort of thing. :'(

 

[Reynard]

In the 40 years of personal Travelling, I have created more subsectors than all of Charted Space! If I don't have anything better to do (frequent), I entertain myself with hand creating subsectors, sectors and domains (a block of four sectors). I have a file with reams of paper from all the maps and system lists I've made. If my house was roomy enough, it would be interesting to line them up like a puzzle.

There used to be a great T5 based, highly detailed online sector creator allowing one to pump out lists and maps quickly (Not Heaven and Earth). Sadly it disappeared several years ago.

 

[aramis]

So many Traveller utilites of the past are no longer runnable... Rob Prior's Metator, for example...

 

[agorski]

There used to be a great T5 based, highly detailed online sector creator allowing one to pump out lists and maps quickly (Not Heaven and Earth). Sadly it disappeared several years ago.

Not on-line, but my SectorMaker Mac app died when Apple stopped supporting 32 bit apps. I have replaced it with SectorMaker for the iPad.

 

[Timerover51]

Not on-line, but my SectorMaker Mac app died when Apple stopped supporting 32 bit apps. I have replaced it with SectorMaker for the iPad.

SectorMaker for the iPad works quite well, and is readily editable. I highly recommend it.

 

[flykiller]

has anyone ever had a character that has visited every system in a sub-sector?

("I wanna be the first one to see them all!")

 

[aramis]

has anyone ever had a character that has visited every system in a sub-sector?

("I wanna be the first one to see them all!")

Multiple times. It is, after all, the basic plot for A0...

 

[vegascat]

Since I started with the Black Box of LLBs 1,2,and 3, I wore out sets of dice rolling 4 sectors before I discovered Sup 3, the Spinward Marches. Every subsector had planets with much more detail that was never seen in a game. It added color for the descriptions when the players discovered that they dropped into a religious war between 4 different religious groups with second and third planets under their control. If you didn't worship their god or profit, you were a heretic and they had a burning pole just for you. The Imperium was another discovery. Somebody was in charge of this mess???
I stole ideas from so many books and authors then mixed them up kept the players guessing. Throw in NPCs like Slippery Jim Degris, Retief of the CDT, Rico of the mobile infantry in TL15 battledress. The Kzinti looked Aslan looked and behaved like Aslan. The Vargr behaved as wolf packs. A robot empire was next to a Soviet empire of telepaths. As I was hitting college age, one of the empires was near human, but had a 20 female to male ratio. It was the Amazon Sorority. Males were kept under lock and key. Male visitors were hunted where ever they landed as fresh genetic material. You want to see a group of college guys freak out? drop them in a forest with a few hundred women hunting them with tasers, shackles, tiger pits, net traps and desperate feminine hormones. This was in the early 80s before internet ⌧ was discovered.

 

[Proneutron]

Since '78. Too many to keep track of. Many, many sectors worth

 

[Ullarsskald1957]

Since 1st game session in the fall of 1977, then getting my own books the next summer...dozens by painstaking one roll at a time, then touch ups and details.

The past several years have used online generators for sectors, subsectors, planetary systems...

Have been working on "My Traveller Universe"® for about 35 years. That region of space is about 320 parsecs wide (Trailing to Spinward) and 240 parsecs tall (Rimward to Coreward). At its Spinward edge, 4 of the sectors are taken up by a rift. From the Spinward edge of the rift to Sol is about 1200 parsecs.

Just to Trailing of the rift is a 30 - 40 parsec radius exclusion zone around a world where a remnant population of a sophont specie live. They are known as the Doonu Cá, and are an offshoot of the Ancients.

The main civilization in the region is the Farmanni Rekké. The humans here are descended from Terran "seed stock." Genetic diversity was somewhat assured by the Doonu Cá taking humans from a wide variety of places on Terra. The Doonu Cá did this into the fringes of recorded history. There are several other sophont species. Most were uplifted by the Doonu Cá from species native to the region. There are a few from Terran animals. My favorite are the ones that began as pangolins.

The Doonu Cá survived the Ancients War by putting all their effort into protecting this region of space. The Little Tear (as the rift is called) was one result of their defensive efforts.

 

[Jame]

I've rolled up a bunch. Haven't really run more than a handful, and lost a bunch of the map info too.

If I can get my current group to do Traveller, I'm going to use the Trojan Reach for a while.