Software

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

I'm just about through with the initial version of my Classic Traveller character generation program; it's shaping up pretty well. Every once in a while during testing it spits out a pretty cool character; I thought I'd share some. Yesterday it came up with a 6 term merchant, but I forgot to save that one. Here's 5 term Navy character to start with:

Retired Navy Lt Cmdr 5A4C44 Age 38 5 terms Cr71000
Blade-1, Electronic-2, Gunnery-1, Jack-o-T-1, Laser Rifle-1, Mechanical-2
Blade, High Passage, Travellers'


-FCS

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Here are a few more:

Retired Noble Knight 542596 Age 50 8 terms Cr210000
Administration-1, Computer-1, Foil-1, Ground Car-2, Jack-o-T-1, Navigation-1, Ship's Boat-2, Water Craft-1
Dagger, Foil, High Passage x2, Yacht

Retired Bureaucrat Executive 5979A8 Age 42 6 terms Cr90000
Administration-2, Carousing-1, Computer-1, Instruction-2, Liaison-1, Pike-1, Winged Craft-2
Middle Passage x2

-FCS

 

[DaveShayne]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by FlightCommanderSolitude:
Here are a few more:

Retired Noble Knight 542596 Age 50 8 terms Cr210000
Administration-1, Computer-1, Foil-1, Ground Car-2, Jack-o-T-1, Navigation-1, Ship's Boat-2, Water Craft-1
Dagger, Foil, High Passage x2, Yacht <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

1 part governor to 3 parts dilletant. Why do I keep thinking of pre presidency JFK?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Retired Bureaucrat Executive 5979A8 Age 42 6 terms Cr90000
Administration-2, Carousing-1, Computer-1, Instruction-2, Liaison-1, Pike-1, Winged Craft-2
Middle Passage x2

-FCS<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My only question is when did this executive feel the need to wield a pike?

Cool charecters. Something that might be helpfull in the output is grouping skills by the term in which they were received. I find that helps me create a back story for a charecter.



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I am increasingly of the opinion that RPGs are by the nature of their creation subjective phenomenon. due to the interaction between game designers, game masters, and game players all definitions, rules, settings, and adventures are mutable in acordance with the uncertainty principle as expounded by Heisenburg. This is of course merely my point of view.

David Shayne

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DaveShayne:
My only question is when did this executive feel the need to wield a pike?

Cool charecters. Something that might be helpfull in the output is grouping skills by the term in which they were received. I find that helps me create a back story for a charecter.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In answer to the first part, that was the exact question I posed some time ago in the "Blade-1" thread. The answer most everybody gave was "because if you fired a gun you'd depressurize your spaceship," which is about the sorriest excuse I've ever heard. So what does this businessman do instead when he takes a High Passage? I don't think a pike can be safely stored in the overhead compartment!

As for the second comment, the software can be instructed to optionally dump the entire character generation process, giving results like this:

798987
Bureaucrat
Bureaucrat term 1
[s 4+ => ( 4+0) = 4]
[c 6+ => ( 7+0) = 7]
Received commission as Clerk
[p 7+ => ( 4+1) = 5]
Skills: 3
Skill: Vehicle
Skill: Instruction
Skill: Computer
[r 3+ => ( 7+0) = 7]
Bureaucrat term 2
[s 4+ => ( 7+0) = 7]
[p 7+ => ( 6+1) = 7]
Received promotion to Supervisor
Skills: 2
Skill: Instruction
Skill: Carousing
[r 3+ => ( 3+0) = 3]
Bureaucrat term 3
[s 4+ => ( 7+0) = 7]
[p 7+ => ( 7+1) = 8]
Received promotion to Assistant Manager
Skills: 2
Skill: Administration
Skill: Administration
[r 3+ => (11+0) = 11]
Bureaucrat term 4
[s 4+ => (10+0) = 10]
[p 7+ => ( 7+1) = 8]
Received promotion to Manager
Skills: 2
Skill: +1 Education
Skill: Blade Combat
Aging: -1 Strength
[r 3+ => ( 4+0) = 4]
Bureaucrat term 5
[s 4+ => ( 5+0) = 5]
[p 7+ => ( 7+1) = 8]
Received promotion to Executive
Skills: 2
Skill: Vehicle
Skill: Liaison
Aging: -1 Endurance
[r 3+ => ( 5+0) = 5]
Bureaucrat term 6
[s 4+ => ( 4+0) = 4]
[p 7+ => ( 2+1) = 3]
Skills: 1
Skill: +1 Education
Aging: -1 Strength
Benefits: 9
Benefit:
Benefit: Cr80000
Benefit: Middle Passage
Benefit:
Benefit: Cr0
Benefit: Cr10000
Benefit: Middle Passage
Benefit:
Benefit: +1 Social
Retired Bureaucrat Executive 5979A8 Age 42 6 terms Cr90000
Administration-2, Carousing-1, Computer-1, Instruction-2, Liaison-1, Pike-1, Winged Craft-2
Middle Passage x2

-FCS

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

I should add that the Bureaucrat code needs some work, in particular the reenlistment test. Also, he must've picked up Pike-1 as the Blade Combat skill; it just doesn't note which blade weapon was chosen until the end.

-FCS

 

[DaveShayne]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by FlightCommanderSolitude:
In answer to the first part, that was the exact question I posed some time ago in the "Blade-1" thread. The answer most everybody gave was "because if you fired a gun you'd depressurize your spaceship," which is about the sorriest excuse I've ever heard. So what does this businessman do instead when he takes a High Passage? I don't think a pike can be safely stored in the overhead compartment!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I suppose I was imprecise in the way I posed the question. I wanted to say something more along the lines of what is the story behind our intrepid paper pusher's surprising skill - perhaps even proper puisance - with pole arms? Did he/she take a class in a martial art that stresses the long spear. Or was he/she stranded on a TL1 (or law 7) world and needed to reach for an equalizer?

These are the kinds of character details I like to flesh out.

The verbose charecter listing looks like just the right sort of thing for me so keep up the good work.




------------------
I am increasingly of the opinion that RPGs are by the nature of their creation subjective phenomenon. due to the interaction between game designers, game masters, and game players all definitions, rules, settings, and adventures are mutable in acordance with the uncertainty principle as expounded by Heisenburg. This is of course merely my point of view.

David Shayne

 

[SgtHulka]

Flight Commander, have you finished your program yet? Can I download it somewhere? It looks terrific!

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SgtHulka:
Flight Commander, have you finished your program yet? Can I download it somewhere? It looks terrific!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not yet; I was writing it in C++ but that got tedious so I started over in Perl. However, I also have created code to:

a. generate worlds according to Bk 3;
b. generate subsectors according to same (much like the online tool at zho.berka.com, which is very cool);
c. generate animal encounter tables, given world information, as in Bk 3;
d. some other stuff that I can't remember right now.

Because it's in Perl, it's now a command-line thing, and also requires the (free) Perl distribution for your computer platform. Before I released it I'd try to make it all as easy as possible for people to use; furthermore the code would be available for other people to tinker with. Futher-furthermore, there would be the possibility of making web-based tools from all of these, eg a web page where you could say, 'Generate 8 random characters' or 'Generate 20 Marines'.

I've recently begun work on it again, so I'll keep you posted.

-FCS

 

[tuzzdeny]

[
Not yet; I was writing it in C++ but that got tedious so I started over in Perl. However, I also have created code to:

a. generate worlds according to Bk 3;
b. generate subsectors according to same (much like the online tool at zho.berka.com, which is very cool);
c. generate animal encounter tables, given world information, as in Bk 3;
d. some other stuff that I can't remember right now.

 

[tuzzdeny]

Hmmm, I guess I need to learn how to post/quote/reply. I keep on messing up Quotes.

I was going to ask. Any chance of this coming out in T20 format? I havn't been gaming in years and I'm trying to gathering together the tools (and players) to run a T20 game in the near future.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Any chance of this coming out in T20 format?

Unfortunately, no - I'm not really interested in doing a T20 version [although I might change my mind in the future].

However, I suspect that there will be plenty of software for T20 at some point.

In other news, I did just code up the name generators that appeared in the JTAS reprints - so you can automatically generate Vilani, Zhodani, and Vargr names. Pretty cool!

-FCS

 

[Zolomion Shoul]

I think I have an answer about the Pike skill...
the guy is short armed and is playing golf

 

[Bishop]

I myself wouldn't use a pike. A swordfish would be better, since it has a pointy nose.

Thomas

 

[binky]

Originally posted by Tuzzdeny:
Hmmm, I guess I need to learn how to post/quote/reply. I keep on messing up Quotes.

I was going to ask. Any chance of this coming out in T20 format? I havn't been gaming in years and I'm trying to gathering together the tools (and players) to run a T20 game in the near future.

You may want to check out PCGen (http://pcgen.sourceforge.net) which is a character generator for the D20 system. Written in Java so it runs on practically everything (there's even a character viewer for Palm OS!).

No T20 support yet but I believe it's on the cards.

- Neil.