Questions for Astrosynthesis Users

[SpaceBadger]

I have been working (slowly) on translating the Near Star Map from 2300AD into a 2-D Traveller-style hex map. Obviously the 3-D can't be simply squashed down to 2-D, so I am having to move things around, but mainly trying to preserve the relationships of systems that make up the Arms even if I am distorting their real world positions to do that. OTOH, if I have a good enough 3-D tool to actually use the 3-D NSM data in-game, then I could save myself a lot of work and trouble by just working in 3-D rather than making the 2-D maps.

I've searched and read a few other threads on various other CotI subfora that mentioned Astrosynthesis, and have also read the listing and looked at screenshots at DriveThru, but none seem to really answer my main questions about use in-game, which I'd like to have a better idea about before laying out $35 to try it myself.

It appears that Astrosynthesis would be very handy as a GM's tool, but I can't really tell from the screenshots whether it might be possible to let the players use it as a combination ship navigation system and system data library.

Q1. Have you found Astrosynthesis useful in-game for the players to use to see where they are and what is nearby, or is it mainly a GM's tool?

Q2. If used as both a GM's tool and player-tool in-game, how easy is it to separate these so that the GM can have some info not available to players?

The listing text talks about creating planet surface maps, importing maps from other sources, and exporting maps to Fractal Mapper, but was a bit light on actual details of how that works.

Q3. Is Fractal Mapper necessary for creating/viewing planetary maps, or can Astrosynthesis handle that itself?

Q4. Can Astrosynthesis create Traveller-standard icosohedral planetary maps?

Q4-B. If not, can it at least import, store, and display icosohedral maps that you create with some other tool?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

[Kilgs]

CAVEAT: My attempts to get mileage out of computer programs is equivalent to an ape (with no insult intended for our simian brethren) banging on a hard drive with a stick. I’ve had AS for several years but have only been experimenting with it in depth the past five months on and off.

Q1. Have you found Astrosynthesis useful in-game for the players to use to see where they are and what is nearby, or is it mainly a GM's tool?

Never used it in-game. I believe there is a view setting that removes much of the GM stuff and math. I have not experimented with it.

I do PLAN on using it in-game as the setting I'm creating requires some travel planning and various routes are possible.

Q2. If used as both a GM's tool and player-tool in-game, how easy is it to separate these so that the GM can have some info not available to players?

Depends on the information. There is a GM notes section that can be locked but, as stated above, I’m not sure about other information. AS is far more a number cruncher and mapper than a place to store campaign information. It displays pretty basic information and you can add to this in the notes section.

One thing I do like about the system is that you can create a sector/system report directly in HTML that lists off all information about a system/sector. I think there is an example on the NBOS website. That is a really neat way of displaying a significant amount of information.

The listing text talks about creating planet surface maps, importing maps from other sources, and exporting maps to Fractal Mapper, but was a bit light on actual details of how that works.

Q3. Is Fractal Mapper necessary for creating/viewing planetary maps, or can Astrosynthesis handle that itself?

No. It comes with Fractal World Explorer which is a program that generates maps based on the surface. You can alter precipitation, elevation, sea level and surface colors (representing foliage/desert etc) without getting anything else.
I looked into Fractal Mapper but did not purchase it because there were not good examples of how much more it added to the basic map created in AS. And since I still have nightmares with the learning curve of Campaign Cartographer, it looked similar.

You can use the basic World Explorer to create a surface map that will wrap the globe in AS and appear as such on the stellar map.

Q4. Can Astrosynthesis create Traveller-standard icosohedral planetary maps?

No. The images are square-shaped representations of the map. You can use Fractal Mapper, as I understand it, to place that map on a globe and play with it. There may be ways to map the traveler style maps in Fractal Mapper but not in AS. And I do not know if you can import the AS image into whatever template may exist for FM as I have not attempted it.
I was interested in the same thing but found no way to accomplish it. That was over a year ago though and I haven’t looked into it since. The traveler style maps are rare in gaming programs. There was some discussion about using GIMP to create the template from the AS file but it sounded more complicated than my beat-stick could handle.

Here is an example of a surface map. I added the cities with MS Paint (since I am useless at a computer). Resolution is also lower because of bandwidth concerns in my gallery.

http://www.tundric.net/gallery/var/albums/Traveller/Karsimv2.jpg

Q4-B. If not, can it at least import, store, and display icosohedral maps that you create with some other tool?

You can use your own map images to display as the surface map for AS but I have not done this and don’t know how effective it is. You can use image files to display as the planet or wrap them around a planet to display the actual appearance of it. I have only used the AS generated maps to do this. The result is awesome but I don’t know how it works with maps generated elsewhere. As mentioned above, AS isn’t a place to link files to planets or store detailed information. It is just an astrographic program not a campaign manager.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Never used it in-game. I believe there is a view setting that removes much of the GM stuff and math. I have not experimented with it.

Thanks for all the info, Kilgs. If I figure out any cool uses for it in-game, I'll let you know.

One thing I do like about the system is that you can create a sector/system report directly in HTML that lists off all information about a system/sector. I think there is an example on the NBOS website. That is a really neat way of displaying a significant amount of information.

I saw that screencap. I hope there is a handy way to let the players view it in -game. I try to run my office as green as is practical, so if I have info in a computer I prefer to keep it there rather than printing to dead trees if possible - and that goes double if the data is something like 3-D images that can actually be manipulated and viewed better in the computer than on paper.

I was interested in the same thing but found no way to accomplish it. That was over a year ago though and I haven’t looked into it since. The traveler style maps are rare in gaming programs.

Someone recommended an icosohedral mapper called Wilbur - I downloaded it but haven't tried it yet.

Here is an example of a surface map. I added the cities with MS Paint (since I am useless at a computer). Resolution is also lower because of bandwidth concerns in my gallery.

http://www.tundric.net/gallery/var/albums/Traveller/Karsimv2.jpg

Looks nice. Can you zoomin to view all the little fractal details of coastline, etc?

I will let you know if I find out any good way of getting the Wilbur maps into Astrosynthesis.

 

[Kilgs]

Looks nice. Can you zoomin to view all the little fractal details of coastline, etc?

I will let you know if I find out any good way of getting the Wilbur maps into Astrosynthesis.

You can zoom in to the extent of any image file. But, no, not like a map zoom feature to the level you're hoping for.

On Wilbur, please do. I'd like to be able to do the maps more accurately myself.

The nice thing about the HTML sector reports is that I plan on just posting them online.