Orbital Yards for iOS now available in the iTunes App Store

[agorski]

Trapped in a waiting room? Design a starship!

Orbital Yards lets you create and store a collection of spacecraft and starship designs using the rules in Book 5 High Guard 2nd Edition, as amended by the Consolidated Errata and Trillion Credit Squadron. It doesn't support multiple weapon types per turret, collapsible fuel tanks, or spare systems.

I did add the ability to adjust stateroom allocation in starships between normal, full staterooms for all officers, and full staterooms for all crew so you can build really roomy designs.

Here's the iTunes Preview link with screenshots:

Orbital Yards

An iPad is highly recommended, as this gets you a completed IN Form 3 with Universal Ship Profile, which I couldn't squeeze into an iPhone form factor.

It's free, so Happy Holidays to everyone here!

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Trapped in a waiting room? Design a starship!

Orbital Yards lets you create and store a collection of spacecraft and starship designs using the rules in Book 5 High Guard 2nd Edition, as amended by the Consolidated Errata and Trillion Credit Squadron. It doesn't support multiple weapon types per turret, collapsible fuel tanks, or spare systems.

I did add the ability to adjust stateroom allocation in starships between normal, full staterooms for all officers, and full staterooms for all crew so you can build really roomy designs.

Here's the iTunes Preview link with screenshots:

Orbital Yards

An iPad is highly recommended, as this gets you a completed IN Form 3 with Universal Ship Profile, which I couldn't squeeze into an iPhone form factor.

It's free, so Happy Holidays to everyone here!

Fantastic

 

[agorski]

Found a bug:

On the IN Form 3, if their are any auxiliary bridges, the value that gets displayed is the power plant code. Doh. That's what I get for copying and pasting code. This does not affect any other calculations like tonnage or cost.

If you launch the app in portrait orientation on an iPad, you just see the splash screen and you have to realize that you need to rotate to landscape or swipe from the left side of the screen to see the other side of the split view. I'll add a warning message to the splash screen that only appears in portrait orientation.

I'll hold off on an update in case me or someone else finds any more bugs I need to stamp out.

Tip:
* Rotate the iPad to portrait to display only the IN Form 3.
* Take a screenshot by holding down the Home and Power buttons simultaneously (not too long or you'll get a reboot!).
* The image goes into your camera roll and the Photos app if you're using iCloud photo sharing.
* From these places you can use the iOS Sharing Panel icon to send the image to another app. In my case I sent it to my wireless printer and got a great quality printout of the form.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Your last post solved the issue I was just about to mention.

I was wondering if you were going to produce a CT Book2/HG version?

 

[agorski]

I was wondering if you were going to produce a CT Book2/HG version?

Although HG says you can use standard Book 2 hulls, I've got no plans to incorporate that.

 

[agorski]

Another tip:

Designing a ship is a spreadsheet-like activity where you have to iterate to a solution. If you make a change, especially to hull tonnage or tech level, you can invalidate many previous choices. There's no way to guess how these should be readjusted, so for the most part the app just displays warning messages and you have to fix things manually yourself. Always remember to revisit all sections of the app to see if there's something wrong in the design.

 

[MThompson016]

I've dowloaded it today, and I'm finding it interesting to use. Wish basic small craft were included.

 

[agorski]

I've dowloaded it today, and I'm finding it interesting to use. Wish basic small craft were included.

You can easily design any small craft you want to. The app adjusts for vessels of less than 100 tons and changes what you can and can't do, or at least warns you that you can't have stuff like a Jump Drive.

In fact, to add a carried craft of any kind to a design, you have to design it first as a separate design.

 

[agorski]

Another tip:

HG 2e only gave info for about 4 ship's vehicles. And who really needs a hovercraft? Orbital Yards defaults to the data for an Air/Raft when you add a new vehicle type, and you need to edit all the fields. But where do you get the data? Might I suggest my VehicleMaker iOS app for T5? While T5.09 rules for vehiclemaker are dodgy, if you're careful you can come up with a reasonable design for any kind of vehicle.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Thanks, looks good. A few small problems...


A planetoid hull can install weapons based on hull size, not "non-waste space". E.g. a 1300 dT buffered planetoid hull can install a bay and three turrets.


You can make ships with a jump drive, but without jump fuel, instead relying on e.g. exterior tanks. [TCS, p13]


Small craft require minimum 1 dT fuel. [TCS, p13]


It is invalid to install more power consuming equipment than the power plant can power. E.g. A 100 dT ship with PP-2 produces 2 EP; it cannot install a computer m/5 (that uses 3 EP). [HG, p28]


I think drives can be installed in any size desired, they are then rated to an integer value. E.g. a 100 dT ship that wants to jump with a 50 dT drop tank attached needs drives sized for 150 dT, not 100 dT, and can use a 3 dT M-Drive (2% of 150 dT) rated to M-1.

I would appreciate an option to automatically resize the power plant to power any installed computer & weapons plus the desired agility.

The LBB5 design system specifically allows LBB2 drives to be used.

 

[agorski]

A planetoid hull can install weapons based on hull size, not "non-waste space". E.g. a 1300 dT buffered planetoid hull can install a bay and three turrets.

Do you have a reference for this? I can't find it explained that way anywhere.

You can make ships with a jump drive, but without jump fuel, instead relying on e.g. exterior tanks. [TCS, p13]

Not sure how to implement this, it will require a lot of code. So I'll hold off on this for now.

Small craft require minimum 1 dT fuel. [TCS, p13]

Thanks. I'll fix this in the next update. In the meantime, just add extra fuel.

It is invalid to install more power consuming equipment than the power plant can power. E.g. A 100 dT ship with PP-2 produces 2 EP; it cannot install a computer m/5 (that uses 3 EP). [HG, p28]

Yes, and I decided to just inform the user with EP Remaining. If it's negative, you've got a problem to fix.

I think drives can be installed in any size desired, they are then rated to an integer value. E.g. a 100 dT ship that wants to jump with a 50 dT drop tank attached needs drives sized for 150 dT, not 100 dT, and can use a 3 dT M-Drive (2% of 150 dT) rated to M-1.

Another one that I'm not sure is easy to implement, so I'll hold off on this.

I would appreciate an option to automatically resize the power plant to power any installed computer & weapons plus the desired agility.

I just leave it the user to adjust the Power Plant and see the Agility change.

The LBB5 design system specifically allows LBB2 drives to be used.

Yes, but I decided not to implement this.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Any plans for an eventual port of the app to Android?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Do you have a reference for this? I can't find it explained that way anywhere.

I have examples:

CT S9 FS, p44: A 50 kT Planetoid Monitor with a 1 kT spinal and 490 hardpoints, not all filled.

JTAS 10, p39: Cisor class: 19980 dT buffered planetoid ship with a 2000 dT spinal and 3 + 28 * 6 = 171 turrets.

JTAS 10, p39: Wasp class: A 1000 dT buffered planetoid with a single bay.

The Hull: The foundation of the starship is the hull, into or onto which all other components are placed. Hulls are identified by their mass displacement (expressed in tons; one ton equals 14 cubic meters) and by their configuration.

It is possible to select a planetoid as a hull, hollowing out spaces within it for drives and equipment. Such planetoids are generally available for the finding. However, a planetoid must allow 20% waste space (tonnage) for structural integrity; a buffered planetoid has greater ability to withstand combat damage, but must allow 35% interior waste space. Although a planetoid is essentially free, ...

Turrets: Weapons may be mounted in turrets emplaced on the hull. Turrets require only that a hardpoint be designated and created during construction. One hardpoint is allowed per 100 tons of hull not otherwise allocated to weapons. For example, a 50,000-ton ship carrying a 5,000-ton type A meson gun and twenty 100-ton bays may designate 250 hardpoints for turrets.

I would argue that allowed weapons, just as drives, are based on the hull size. The hull size is not changed by the planetoid configuration. You just lose some waste space.

Not sure how to implement this, it will require a lot of code. So I'll hold off on this for now.

It might be manageable? In my spreadsheets I allocate jump fuel in blocks of 10% of the ship, and default the number of blocks to the Jump number.
Just make the numbers of blocks a variable, defaulting to the jump drive number. Let the user change the variable with the same widget you use to select drive numbers?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

If you build a small craft 2 couches more than the crew needs are allocated by default and cannot be removed.

Fixed mounts not available.

In an empty craft 1 dT seems to be allocated to power plant, it's confusing.

If you add a turret to a small craft, it says "-1 turret left"

Ships less than 200 dT, e.g. 150 dT, does not need Engineers or Medics.

Ships of 200 dT (or less) do not need Navigators.

A ship of 1000 dT with a Bay weapon allocates no Gunners.

Ships smaller than 1000 dT can add bays, better to use the same turret only mechanism as small craft?

If I add a Missile bay, then add a Missile turret, the Missile bay is overwritten in the USP. Adding Missile batteries when Missile batteries are already present should be invalid. Default type of turret is Missile, Invalid only shown if other type selected.

Factor for Particle turret and Particle barbette transposed?

Turret weapons allowed at all TLs.

Add 1.5 passengers, app crashes.

No simple way to add Frozen Watch.

 

[whartung]

I would argue, that if you wanted a "1000 dTon" planetoid, then you need to be a 1200 dTon "blank" and carve out the 1000 dTons of holes in to it. That carving process costs 1,000 Cr per ton, so that would be 1000 Cr x 1000 dTons. To be pedantic, the "hauling it to the shipyard" cost should be the overall tonnage of 1200, so 100 Cr x 1200. But I'd forgo that as well.

But outside of the hauling cost, a planetoid and buffered planetoid will cost the same.

Now, the mounts/dTon metric (turret/100 dTon, bay per 1000 dTon) you can argue is really a surface area mechanic, and thus perhaps the 1200 ton planetoid has room to mount 12 turrets instead of 10.

But, from a rules POV, it seems that "hull size" is the amount of free space (since HG does not take in to account the volume of the hull material at all), so we're back to 10 turrets for a 1000 dTon free space cut in to a 1200 dTon planetoid.

It certainly makes everything else easier also (notably ship size DMs).

So, simply, a planetoid hull costs 1000 Cr per dTon, and gets a "free" +3 or +6 armor.

Otherwise it's just a cloud of edge cases that overcomplicates everything.

 

[agorski]

If you build a small craft 2 couches more than the crew needs are allocated by default and cannot be removed.

Yeah, without a bridge. Fixed. Will be in a future update.

Fixed mounts not available.

Nope, not on large craft.

In an empty craft 1 dT seems to be allocated to power plant, it's confusing.

Fixed. Will be in a future update.

If you add a turret to a small craft, it says "-1 turret left"

Fixed. Will be in a future update.

Ships less than 200 dT, e.g. 150 dT, does not need Engineers or Medics.

Ships of 200 dT (or less) do not need Navigators.

I'll have to research this.

A ship of 1000 dT with a Bay weapon allocates no Gunners.

Cool! You found the edge case that only happens at exactly 1000 tons with a bay weapon. The crew requirements for this condition are actually not defined anywhere, so I'm adding 2 gunnery ratings. Fixed. Will be in a future update.

Ships smaller than 1000 dT can add bays, better to use the same turret only mechanism as small craft?

How is this even possible? Anyway, I'm not implementing it.

If I add a Missile bay, then add a Missile turret, the Missile bay is overwritten in the USP. Adding Missile batteries when Missile batteries are already present should be invalid. Default type of turret is Missile, Invalid only shown if other type selected.

It's difficult to prevent the user from doing something wrong but I'll think about how to improve this. The IN Form 3 and USP correctly show that you messed up.

Factor for Particle turret and Particle barbette transposed?

Not that I can see.

Turret weapons allowed at all TLs.

Added warnings. Fixed. Will be in a future update.

Add 1.5 passengers, app crashes.

Prevent input of decimal point in fields expecting an integer. Fixed. Will be in a future update.

No simple way to add Frozen Watch.

No. The Crew summary view shows the number of crew sections. It's up to you to install the correct number of low berths.

 

[agorski]

Any plans for an eventual port of the app to Android?

Nope. The Xojo IDE I'm using doesn't support Android (yet) and I don't own any Android devices for testing.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I would argue, that if you wanted a "1000 dTon" planetoid, then you need to be a 1200 dTon "blank" and carve out the 1000 dTons of holes in to it. That carving process costs 1,000 Cr per ton, so that would be 1000 Cr x 1000 dTons. To be pedantic, the "hauling it to the shipyard" cost should be the overall tonnage of 1200, so 100 Cr x 1200. But I'd forgo that as well.

That would only complicate things.

Drive sizes are based on the total ship size, so including the planetoid overhead.

To get 1000 dT usable space we would need an asteroid of 1000 / 0,8 = 1250 dT or 1000 / 0,65 = 1538,46 dT. All percentage calculations such as drives and jump fuel would be based on the larger tonnage.

It is much easier to use the system described in the rules: a 1000 dT planetoid simply wastes 200 dT, but is still a 1000 dT hull.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Ships less than 200 dT, e.g. 150 dT, does not need Engineers or Medics.

Ships of 200 dT (or less) do not need Navigators.

I'll have to research this.

LBB2, p16.

Ships smaller than 1000 dT can add bays, better to use the same turret only mechanism as small craft?

How is this even possible? Anyway, I'm not implementing it.

Sorry, I was unclear. It should not be possible, but it is possible in the app now.

Factor for Particle turret and Particle barbette transposed?

Not that I can see.

Adding a Particle turret gives me a factor 2 battery. Adding a Particle barbette gives me a factor 1 battery. Seems the tables are transposed?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Fixed mounts not available.

Nope, not on large craft.

AM6 Solomani, p42.

But OK, they are not very good, and will probably rarely be used.