10-28-2010, 05:27 PM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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[Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
A while ago I was working on a game aid to take most of the drudgery out of generating star systems and planets using the star system and world generation sequences in GURPS Space 4e. The project has ground to a halt as a result of unresolved errata on p.117 of Space, and I no longer have any interest in completing it. However, a number of forum members have said nice things about the last beta version, and others seem to want whatever help they can get with the large task of generating a system. So I have decided to make the last beta version, beta21, available on an abandonware basis.
My GURPS Handbook of the Planets is an Excel workbook without macros. It will open and run okay in Open Office and perhaps other spreadsheet programs capable of importing Excel workbooks. The Handbook implements the Basic and Advanced starsystem generation and planet generation sequences up to the point of calculating economic volume, provided that the user specifies TL and population. A carrying capacity is calculated if the user specifies TL, but population is not calculated. Spaceport class, government type, and installations are not calculated: I decided that those were too specific to setting parameters and GM intentions to be worth troubling with. The Handbook does implement features of the GURPS Space system generation sequence that allow the user to choose some of the features of the system (e.g. mass, number, and age of the star[s], arrangement of gas giants, mass, orbital radius, and orbital eccentricity of the 'first' gas giant) and have others generated randomly. It also implements features that allow the user to design a planet and insert it into a randomly-generated system, and to choose the basic features of a designed planet and have the details filled in at random. However, the user cannot generate the 'early' features of a planet randomly and then step in to choose later features. And if a designed planet be placed in circumstances where the orbital mechanics dictate that it will be tide-locked, the parameters affected by tidal locking over-ride input parameters. The Handbook is so designed that the user's chosen "personal user number" and a "system number" for the system are combined to make a seed for the generation of pseudo-random numbers. That means that if the user puts in the same settings at different times, or if two different users put in the same settings, the Handbook will re-create the exact same system. This version is released as an incomplete beta version, with no warranty as to fitness for purpose. It is an amateurish game aid, unsuitable for commercial use, and you ought not to rely on it for any important purpose. Known issues
If anyone who maintains a repository of GURPS material on-line, in some place where players are likely to find it, wishes to put up a copy of this game aid on their site, that is fine with me. If you do so, would you please post an announcement in the forums, for example with a post in this thread. Important notices
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 10-08-2013 at 04:38 AM. Reason: updating main notice |
10-28-2010, 07:23 PM | #2 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
More known issues
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10-28-2010, 09:23 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Jeffersonville, Ind.
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
If I had the will and the time it probably wouldn't be impossible to write an actual program that would generate a system with a single click. Couple it with a random system name generator and a way to randomly assign coordinates and it could theoretically churn them out by the... whatever number you needed on a hex or Cartesian grid.
In fact I recall one based on Space 2nd on the Macintosh Classic platform.
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10-28-2010, 09:46 PM | #4 | ||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
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What I do with this beast is to add a sheet into which I put a data table that feeds ten thousand consecutive numbers into the "system number" or "universe number", and then treats selected cells (spectral class, maximum habitability, gravity of the world with highest habitability, number of worlds with habitability 4+) as output. On my Mac this will update in about twenty minutes (or a list of only a thousand systems in two minutes). Then I can pick anything interesting out of the list and re-generate it. Or attach colour-coded system numbers to points on maps or names in lists. If necessary, I can fine-tune the search by using the control panel. Another of my tricks is to attach a sheet including data from a star catalogue (I use HYG for this purpose). Then a couple of LOOKUP statements will import data from the catalogue into the control panel, and then a data table will produce a list of nearby stars with chosen characteristics such as the habitability of their most-habitable planet or moon. This list can be copied and sorted to produce a list of, say, habitable planets in a chosen version of the universe, and the details of the systems can be re-created knowing the universe number and system number. Last edited by Agemegos; 10-29-2010 at 02:41 AM. |
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10-28-2010, 10:29 PM | #5 | |||
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Jeffersonville, Ind.
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
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The user formerly known as ciaran_skye. __________________ Quirks: Doesn't proofread forum posts before clicking "Submit". [-1] Quote:
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10-28-2010, 10:47 PM | #6 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
Don't no one be dissing the Bret-meister. I for one appreciate the in depth attention to accuracy and sheer hard work he put in for us ungrateful slobs.
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10-28-2010, 11:31 PM | #7 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
I'm sure there are 19,000 registered users on the forums who do not wish to use this aid. You don't all have to post to tell me so.
I'm equally sure that the members list includes several hundred better programmers than me who could produce a better product if they had the time and were willing to spend it. That's fine. I'll say it myself to save you all the trouble. I am also perfectly aware that the approach I took in designing this thing was eccentric to the edge of madness, and makes it very difficult to maintain and modify, besides being downright weird. There you are. Point conceded. No need to flog a dead horse. So if you find it useless, awkward, clumsy, a folly to have begun and madness to have carried through, just ignore the damned thing, okay? There's no need to pee in the punchbowl. I'm out of here. |
10-28-2010, 11:36 PM | #8 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
I've used the heck out of it personally.
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10-29-2010, 07:31 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
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The star system generation sequence in GURPS Space is no mere random generator. It has a monstrously clever feature that allows you to generate a world to your liking by choosing results in the World Design Sequence in chapter 4 (basic world building) and then it inserts your planet into its correct place in a star system using the Star System Generation Sequence in chapter 5 (advanced world building). This feature is implemented in my GURPS Handbook of the Planets. It does take rather more than one click to tell the workbook what you want, but it will guide you through the ranges of possibility for designing a planet and its moons, and then it will insert the planet you have designed into a system orbiting either a random star or a star with any characteristics you specify.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 10-29-2010 at 08:37 PM. |
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10-29-2010, 09:06 AM | #10 |
Experimental Subject
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: saarbrücken, germany
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Re: [Space] GURPS Handbook of the Planets
Thank you for sharing this. I truly appreciate your effort, and you making the result available.
Downloaded. (Do you, by any chance, have a game aid which will allow me to generate one or two additional players?)
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Like a mail order mogwai...but nerdier - Nymdok understanding is a three-edged sword
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planets, space, star system generator, system generation, world generation |
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