Near Star List/Colonial Atlas online

[yatima]

Hi all, Here's a first post from a long-time lurker. I recently got back into 2300/2320 thanks to lurking on this board and those helpful folks at NobleKnight. Can't wait to get my hands on the updated background from Colin.

I was thinking of something to do to contribute to the 2300 community and it occurred to me how cool it'd be to have an online near star map with a sort of hypertext planetary gazeteer. Like an online, hypertext version of the Colonial Atlas.

This could be put together using Astrosynthesis (I see from the archives Colin and others use this) with some really zippy planetary and system maps put together using Fractal Terrains. We could publish a nice version online, like a resource a citizen of 2320 could access, and make the source files for fractal terrains and astrosynthesis available for download by all.

We could divide the various arms and worlds up between interested parties, so the workload was shared. Any interest?

 

[kafka47]

Sounds like a worthy project if I had the technical know-how to accomplish the task. The only provisio I wouldn't mind seeing. All the systems that Colin & GDW did not create we use something like Malenfant's planetary generation system to generate the most realistic worlds possible.

 

[yatima]

Thanks kafka47. I'm sure we could discuss the system we would use here on these forums, I'm not familiar with Malenfant's system but more detail sounds good to me.

As for technical know-how, I was thinking of a simple export from the astrosynthesis programme, which can export a planetary or system profile in HTML format. With some more thought and effort, we could do a lot more I'm sure. I have some space on a virtual server we could use to publish the project, all I'd have to do is get a decent domain name for it.

One concern is, of course, copyright. I wasn't thinking of publishing descriptions from any past or future versions of the Colonial Atlas, but rather of providing an online map and quick reference to astronomical and planetary data, travel times orbits etc. And some much-needed planetary maps.

 

[Colin]

2320AD provides maps for all colony worlds, along with Earth and the alien homeworlds. Most of the maps were generated with Fractal Terrains, with some cusstomization.
IIRC, the world descriptions also include system descriptions, though, as yet, we don't have system maps. I am considering it, however.
I think something like this could be useful, but I'm not sure of the copyright issues. QuikLink Interactive owns the maps I made, and Far Future Enterprises owns 2300AD. It could be complicated.
The star maps that are going into the production version of 2320AD were done by Ted Lindsey, using a custom program to generate output for a 3D modeling program. They were created from original NSL data, compiled by me, and then error-checked by both Ted and myself. A couple of serious map errors in the American Arm, that can't be reconciled using the NSL data, but other than that, everything pretty much worked out.

 

[yatima]

I'm really glad to hear that 2320 will have world maps, Colin. System maps would be a boon, as there's a lot of in-system play possibility that is a little hidden in many SFRPGs.

You're right that copyright could get complicated, though, I'm already having second thoughts. Still it would be sweet to have all of this data in astrosynthesis and be able to share it, gratis. I'm sure there's a way to do this that won't impact sales of existing or future products as it's more of a digital play-aid that I have in mind than any kind of competitor to the source materials.

What's your advice on how to proceed, Colin? I'd be happy to contact Marc or Hunter to seek permission.

 

[Colin]

Eventually, I would like to see an online, interactive atlas for 2320AD. I'm not sure that Astrosynthesis is the tool for that, though. I'll look into this.

 

[yatima]

Thanks Colin. Meanwhile, does anyone have the NSL data in CSV or XML format that I can have for my own use? Importing this into astrosynthesis would save me a lot of time.

 

[Colin]

I do, in several formats. Send me a PM with an email address.

 

[TWILIGHT]

this is why i love this community. games for real gamers. for the love of it.

 

[Uncle Bob]

If only Fractile Terrains would support icosohedral maps...

Fractile Terrains is also a little resistant to making airless worlds or worlds without icecaps. Mayve it is just me and I haven't found the trick.

 

[Colin]

Fractal Terrains exports icosehedral maps. All the maps in 2320AD, for instance

.

The Gaia render view always puts in ice caps, but you can get around that with some creative altitude coloring, and use the altitude view.

You may not be able to directly create an airless world, but you can fake it.

 

[nyrath]

Originally posted by Colin:
The star maps that are going into the production version of 2320AD were done by Ted Lindsey, using a custom program to generate output for a 3D modeling program.

My, that sounds fascinating! I have played around with writing Python programs that import star data in *.csv format and producing Adobe PDF files and *.gml files that can be edited in yEd. I should experiment with outputting data that can be imported into something like Blender (a free 3D modelling program).

May I ask what 3D modelling program Mr. Lindsey used?

I'd send you a PM requesting a copy of your NSL, but your inbox seems to be full.

 

[Colin]

I think Ted uses Cinema 4D XL. He frequents these boards, though, and he'd be able to give you more information the next time.

It's full? Ack! I'll try top clear some out tonight.

 

[foxx]

I did some work a year back on the Near Star List in which I entered all the data into an Excel spreadsheet. I then added additional star data from Gliese Catalog version 2, which contained the source data that GDW used.

There were about 700 stars in the NSL and using the Gliese data, I added another 385 that were within 50 light years of Sol but GDW had not included. I then expanded to 60 ly from Sol and added another 450 stars.

I wrote all of this up on my website at http://www.foxx-industries.com/2300ad/circular.htm#nsl

If anyone wants my source data, let me know.

 

[yatima]

Terry K - Looks like a good piece of work. It'll be interesting to fit this work together with Colin's revisions of the NSL. I'd love to have your data, please, thanks for offering. I'll PM you with an email address if that's OK.

 

[nyrath]

Terry K, you should look into Cafe Press. On your website you describe printing out your map piecemeal and gluing it to plywood, which sounds very tedious and painful.

With Cafe Press, you can have your map printed as a poster, with sizes up to 23" x 35".

You can also make a web store to sell your work, but if that would infringe copyright, you can just have it done for your own personal use.

Cafe press is here:
http://www.cafepress.com/

You can see some sample maps I made here:
http://www.projectrho.com/smap12.html#winchPoster

 

[foxx]

Assembling the map was certainly not fun, but seeing the entire 4 foot x 4 foot map with all of the stutterwarp routes in its entirety was worth it.

 

[foxx]

If anyone is looking for planetary maps, you should check out

http://dw.malesevich.com/index.php

This is Dave Malesevich's website and he has a CD-ROM that you can order with his 2300AD work. It contains maps for every planet plus a ton of other stuff, including military armaments, vehicles, and star ships.

 

[yatima]

I just want to expand this thread a little further, and talk about computer tools that can help visualise the 2300/2320 universe. But first let me say why I'm focused on this.

When GDW released 2300, publishing a game was a largely analogue process. The main medium was paper, art was expensive (still is) and many design elements were labour intensive and prone to human error. Read Marc's description of how the original Near Star Map was created to get a feel for this dark age of not-so-long-ago.

That's all changed with the advent of fast computing, 3D modelling and digital publishing media. Just witness the drool-inducing art previews Colin has been kind enough to share on these forums. And the reason this is important to me is that I have always wanted more art, more maps, more detail, more background for every game I play. I want to know what it's like to be there on Aurore.

So I'm interested in how QLI and this community can generate really useful, really evocative images, maps and background information for this universe to put us all there on the spot. Etranger is a great example of this kind of effort, Laurent's work especially let's us see 2300 ships rather than just read dry-as-dust descriptions and tables of numbers.

I'm compiling a little digital toolkit in preparation for my own 2300/2320 campaign and hope to make good use of it and share whatever I create. I'm interested in other tools and ideas you folks have along the same lines, so let me start with a list of tools and how I plan to use 'em:

</font>

• Astrosynthesis: Used to create a 3D interactive map of the Near Star List with profiles of worlds - I may output a hyper-linked HTML version from this for use as a reference in play.</font>
• Fractal Terrains: Used to generate planetary surface maps, which can be imported to Astrosynthesis or into an image editor to add extra layers of information.</font>
• Campaign Cartographer and City Designer: Used to enhance maps from Fractal Terrains and for the design of city maps.</font>
• Silo: A cheap 3D modeller, I have no experience of this but want to get into it to output models of equipment, weapons, aliens etc.</font>
• Mojoworld Standard: Very interested in the ability to generate whole worlds and their astronomical setting. Sounds like Fractal Terrains on steroids.</font>

I have all of these now except for Mojoworld, which I plan to get later when my credit card gets out of rehab.

What tools have I missed? How many of you use computers at the gaming table? Are there any ideas or opportunities I haven't thought of yet to use digital media?

 

[nyrath]

Originally posted by Yatima:
What tools have I missed? How many of you use computers at the gaming table? Are there any ideas or opportunities I haven't thought of yet to use digital media?

If one is making campaign star maps, don't forget the previously mentioned yEd program. Especially since it is free.
http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.htm
Maps are easy to draw, and the program has a suite of automatic formatters that can move the nodes around so the paths are not crossed.

I have not used this, but I've heard nice things about Inspiration Pad
http://www.nbos.com/products/ipad/ipad.htm

Insane power-gamers with lots of disposable income set up computer opaque projectors to project dynamic playing maps on the table top.
http://www.d20srd.org/extras/mapProjection.htm
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=122099