Steve Jackson Games Forums - [Space] System Generator

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Re: [Space] System Generator

Oh, it's so cool.

I found (what I think is) a really neat and unusual system -- Universe 155, System 65. It has a double planet in the habitable zone! And three planets (well, two planets and a moon) that would be decent terraforming candidates in my campaigns. All around a blue-white star.

As far as I can tell, it works like a charm. However, for Traveller campaigns, stellar diameter would be a useful statistic to have in the system display.

Thanks so much for putting this together.

Re: [Space] System Generator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I have specified a star and planet to be as much like Sol and Earth as I can make them. (Interestingly, I had to give Sol an age of 3.5 billion years to get it's luminosity to come out right. At 4.5 billion years it is 9% too bright, and Earth's year ends up 2% too long. But at 3.5 billion years Earth's year ends up 4% too short, and you have to lower its surface temperature from 288K (the correct figure) to 284K to get its year to come out right.

Such planets nearly always come out tidally locked to their moons, because Space puts most terrestrial planet's major moons a lot closer than Earth's, and the tidal braking is brutal. It goes with the inverse sixth power of the moon's distance. When I modify the sheet for my own use I think I had better place moons between, say 25 diameters and 40 diameters rather than between 5 diameters and 40 diameters. And meanwhile I think users designing planets had better have control of the size and distance of any moons, annoying though it is going to be to code it.

I've played with the beta version a bit. So far, so good, although with a number of solar systems, when I plug in numbers for a specific world, I get some solar systems where all the cells just say #VALUE!

Yes, I like the idea of being able to control the size and distance of moons. If it is possible to add that feature, that would be great. (If it not feasible, though, don't worry about it. One can always plug in 0 major moons when generating solar systems and then just add them "manually" as necessary.)

Mark

Re: [Space] System Generator

I don't know if someone has mentioned this already, but could ring systems be added as a line in the system display or otherwise indicated on system or planet display? Just one line saying either Ring System or Large Ring System. They are described on p 112 of Space, and I mention it because they are perhaps the most plausible location for Empire Strikes Back-style chases-through-a-debris-field. Also, they're pretty. And a source of water, reaction mass, and oxygen.

Re: [Space] System Generator

I so wish my hard drive crash way back when hadn't eaten my Windows Office program.... And my subsequent move gremlin hadn't eaten the CDs.

I refuse to pay over 140 bucks when all I want is the freakin' Excel.
Open Office seems to read most of your stuff ok, but won't allow modifications.

This life story brought to you by the "Can I bum some habitable system results off somebody?" association.

Re: [Space] System Generator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agemegos

What do you need?

Campaign TL? Planet TL? Carrying capacity? International units or US?

Aesthetically I prefer IU, but being american I want everything my way. So either's fine.

Mainly I want backdrop planets on which to place pre-space exploration species... so variable TL.

Conducive to complex life could force me to come up with some interesting biologies... then again some of those high habatibility examples look pretty harsh.

Re: [Space] System Generator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I'll give you SI units, then.

I'll leave TLs blank, then. Which means you won't get carrying capacities, incomes, economic volume etc.

Do you want the spreadsheets, each with its planet keyed to show the habitable planet? PDFs would be a lot more compact, I guess.

Oh PDFs would be peachy, you wonderful game material pimp you. :)

Re: [Space] System Generator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Oh PDFs would be peachy, you wonderful game material pimp you. :)

And there's my daily dose of wrongness and icky bad thoughts to keep me awake and shivering at night. ;)

Re: [Space] System Generator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icelander

And there's my daily dose of wrongness and icky bad thoughts to keep me awake and shivering at night. ;)

I'm sorry that you don't have a game material pimp to keep you all giggly into the cold dark nights of Iceland.

Re: [Space] System Generator

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I'm sorry that you don't have a game material pimp to keep you all giggly into the cold dark nights of Iceland.

Do you want me giggling into the night with Papa DD Agemegos, with a double D for a double dose of the pimpin'?

I thought not. The image is disturbing. ;)

Re: [Space] System Generator

Just got the new beta version.

I put in an Earth-like world (normal diameter, density, etc.). One of the first solar systems I generated came up with a moon-sized airless moon, orbiting at 375,000 km., and the planet has a fairly normal day (15 hours) while the moon, tidally locked, has a solar day lasting about one month.

So far, this seems to be working, and it is very cool.

Mark