Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

I started this thread in Sep 2009, but this is the second thread on the subject. The first thread got eaten by the great forum migration of 2009, which also ate a few of my earlier development notes (I'd made the mistake of keeping them all on the forum, instead of backing them up locally like I do now). I don't remember exactly when I released the first version, but GURPS Spaceships was released in late 2007, so it was likely in 2008.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Not sure if this is to do with using Excel '16 on a Mac, but I'm getting the following error when I open RC11 for Excel 2007:

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

My earliest spaceship design stored in your Spaceships.xls is from 2010.

And I have a file named Spaceships119-2007.zip, so that'd push your date back further.
NB: The spreadsheet inside it has a date modified of 2010 though.

ETA: What's the difference between calling a version v2.11 and v2.0 Release Candidate 11?
I can make a guess, that there are non-release versions between RC's, is that it?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

In typical software development...

Version 2.11 is the eleventh minor version released in the 2.x major version series. It's a “normal” version, nothing special about it.

Version 2, Release Candidate 11 is the eleventh candidate to be come the release that will be labelled version 2.0. A release candidate is not a release — it's essentially the last stage before release, after the beta versions. In most development cycles, if a release candidate doesn't have any new issues found or complaints filed within a certain amount of time, an identical version of that candidate is published as the actual release version.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

OK, I'm uploading RC12 right now. I'm reasonably certain I fixed this issue, along with another related one that can affect any Excel version.

I will likely use the v2.1 (or v2.2, or v2.11) for large milestone releases. Right now the next big milestone will probably be when I can fix macros in OpenOffice again and bring the two sheets back into line with one another, so that will be v2.1.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Dude, it's been on 2.0 for at least 4 years! I've got 2.0 beta 15 downloaded, and there's a lot of work and a huge difference between it and RC11.

But don't mind me, I'm kidding, I was just asking out of idle curiosity. I haven't actually used the spreadsheet for ages, but it was definitely a godsend when we had a spacey (... fantasy-ish, ... supery) game going.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

So it's the opposite of what I said? There'll be any number of RC's between 2.0 and 2.01, say.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

I do a number of versions as I increment changes. I normally number them 2.0.XXX as I make the changes. This is necessary because Excel will, on occasion, corrupt a file on saving it, or crash and take out some changes, or start pitching errors that I can't easily track down without a file to compare the changes to... or any number of other things. Some of these are particularly more likely when I'm programming Macros than in general usage, because Macros can do things that you're not supposed to do and cause Bad Things (TM) to happen.

Once I have reached a point where everything seems stable and bug free I can delete all the mid-points and just increment the RC for the new release.

All I really need, though, is a way of versioning the file so that I can track specific changes that are made. Beyond that it doesn't matter if it's v2.0 RC 11, or v2.0.11 or v2.11, I just need to be able to version the sheets. Ultimately, I'm just one guy piddling around with some programming stuff, not a professional and not a programming studio, so I just need something that works for me. I went with Release Candidate numbers because it was an easy transition for me from the Beta Release numbers.

As for what I use versioning for, mostly this is used to track where certain data cells are located in previous versions so that I can read an older version of the file and import ships from it. Although there are some slight speed improvements that I have implemented based on what version of the sheet a ship was created in - basically I don't need to worry about renaming some ship systems or options if the ship is from a more recent version of the sheet. Similarly, this is also why I dropped support for importing from v1.x of the sheet a few release candidates ago; at this point I expect anyone importing ships will be doing so from a v2 RC, and I was running into some overhead limitations in Excel trying to maintain compatibility. Basically, older versions of Excel only have a limited amount of memory space for variables, and I was hitting the ceiling trying to keep the older compatibility that nobody really needed, and if by some chance somebody did - which they haven't so far - I could provide an older v2.0 RC of the to import ships into, and then import from the older to newer v2.0 RC. Or they could just import the ships manually by entering in the data.

The -2007 zip files contain Excel 2007 versions of the file, either .XLSM or XLSX, as opposed to Excel 2000 versions which are .XLS

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

... yet doing the work of Kromm.

Yeah, I realised that might've been the case when I looked again at your download list.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

I'm getting ready to add a new system to my spreadsheet and Optional Rules, but would like some opinions/suggestions on it.


Energy Bank (TL5) [Any]

"Energy Banks" feature prominantly in many fictional universes, being used to quickly power-up FTL drives (particularly Jump drives), to provide extra emergency power for combat, or even as a backup power source should the main reactor go down. Batteries are also used in many real-world designs such as electric cars and non-nuclear submarines. These energy banks can represent realistic Battery Banks or "Capacitors," or they may be superscience Power Cells with far greater energy density than realistic batteries.

Instead of providing Power Points (PP) Energy Banks are rated for providing power over a number of hours - for instance they may be rated at 4 Power Point Hours (4PPh), which allows them to provide 1 PP for 4 hours, 4 PP for 1 hour, or even 2 PP for 2 hours. If powering long-term systems (such as an FTL drive) simply calculate duration by dividing PPh capacity by the number of PP all active systems require.

For tracking energy usage during space combat the bank will also be rated in Power Point Turns (PPt); this is equal to the PPh multiplied by a factor based on turn length (see table below). Each Power Point drained from an energy bank for a Space Combat turn costs one PPt; e.g. if you are powering a Force Screen for 2PP, a Weapon Battery for 1 PP, and a Reactionless Drive for 1PP this would cost a total of 4PPt for every turn that the bank is being used to power those systems.

Power Cells may also represent Magical or Psionic energy reserves (see SS7, p. 20-21); this cuts the cost to half-price but means that the bank may only power and be recharged by Magic or Psionic sources. Energy Banks may also be Compact (see P3/30, p. 7), multiplying cost by x1.5 and making them Volatile (p. SS1, p. 62), and doubling the PPh & PPt capacity.