After twenty years, I've started to pull together a program that runs the sector generation process from
GURPS Traveller: First In. A lot of things I hadn't expected have shown up, like how the most common lifebearing worlds seem to be Icy (Subsurface Ocean) moons, because there are generally so many more of them than Earthlike planets.
Randomly-Generated Sector Image:
https://imgur.com/a/7Qfb013
Randomly-Generated Sector Stats:
https://pastebin.com/raw/zu0NjuBs
At any rate, I've gotten to the point where I'm implementing trade routes and trade classes from
GURPS Traveller: Far Trader, and ran into an issue about the Ice-Capped (Ic) trade classification:
GURPS Traveller: Far Trader describes the following on T:FT13
Quote:
Ice-Capped (Ic): Hydrographics contained in polar ice caps. An icy rockball world
with a Trace atmosphere or less (<0.10 atm) and surface “water” >5%.
|
My issue is: The
GURPS Traveller: First In rules will not generate any such worlds. T:FT71 states:
Quote:
A world may have hydrographic coverage if it is of Large, Standard or
Small size class, has at least a Very Thin atmosphere, does not fall in the inner
zone, and is closer to its primary star than three times the snow line distance
|
On T:FT68, only Very Small or Tiny worlds in the Outer Zone get classified as Icy Rockballs. T:FT69, under step 13: Atmospheric Pressure, Tiny worlds get No atmosphere, Very Small worlds get Trace, at best. So none of these worlds will fit all the qualities of an Ice-Capped World by Far Trader.
What would be the best option for worlds that First In can produce for the Far Trader Ice-Capped trade Class?
- Any Icy Rockball World?
- Any Icy Rockball Moon with Subsurface Oceans?
- Any Earthlike world with Frozen or colder Climate and >5% hydrographic coverage?
- Any Desert world with > 5% hydrographic coverage?
- Any world Tide-Locked to its star that has >5% hydrographic coverage?
- Any Middle-Zone or Outer-Zone world with >5% hydrographic coverage?
Something else, or some combination of the above? I'd prefer to keep the First In Rules as close to as-is as possible, and put the burden on the Far Trader trade class definitions.