I read a recent article concerning the discovery of a "super" gas giant, 12 times the size of jupiter.

Along with some other recent postings regarding stellar and planetary classification limitations imposed by UWP, I'm wondering if the existing system doesn't need to be modified somewhat to take into account new information we are learning about the universe?

Obviously it doesn't affect play style, but I think some ref's would be interested in having more variety in regards to their game settings to run adventures in.

http://news.yahoo.com/super-jupiter-dis ... 57697.html

The existing system has nothing to do with reality. But, until we have actually studied a good number of solar systems (to date we've only studied ours) you can make up a system that caters to what you want.

You need to reread the article, or the article was wrong. The planet/brown dwarf would not have been 12 times the size of Jupiter, it would have had 12 times Jupiter's mass. An interesting interaction between gravity and heat pressure is that as the mass of a planet increases above Jupiter's mass, the size doesn't actually increase that much until the mass reaches the point where nuclear fusion can occur (about 25 Jupiter masses). At that point the star balloons out due to the added energy created by the fusion.

However, your general point is still valid. There is nothing in the current world generation system that can create the newly discovered "Super Earth's" - Rocky worlds with 2-5 times Earth's mass. They would be world size C or D and start crossing the line into small gas giants.

In CT, they did at one point break up the designation for Gas Giant into "Small Gas Giant" (SGG) and Large Gas Giant (LGG). SGGs were like Neptune and Uranus, while the LGGs were like Saturn and Jupiter.

Now, we probably need THREE desigations for Gas Giants. Perhaps something like:
Small Gas Giant - Like Neptune and Uranus
Medium Gas Giant - Like Saturn and Jupiter
Large Gas Giant - From 2-20 Jupiter masses, not much bigger is size, but a lot more mass and gravity and heat.

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My friends call me Richard.
You can call me Sir.

On top of all the new objects found within systems, astronomers have now discovered a rogue planet and assume there may be many more. Add this to brown dwarves possibly being plentiful and the galaxy could be a crowded place beyond typical solar systems. The only game system I know addressing this is Alterity RPG's Cosmos 2 universe builder. The system creates 12x12x12 sectors and populates it with stars of every H-R diagram classification including, on the average, several dozen 'minor systems' of red and brown dwarves. So, you can have a more realistic system featuring LOTS of objects or you have a system that features enough to be useful without eye candy that will never be in any campaign.

I know Mongoose tends towards lean and mean minimalist but, personally, I'd like them to remake the Extended System Generator because I'm one of those detail enthusiasts especially now that Heaven & Earth doesn't work with Windows 7.

H&E doesn't work? Mine still is, unless there is something wrong and I'm not noticing it.

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Traveller - Beyond the Frontier pbp

It worked fine on my computer under XP but keeps asking for a dll on my machine with W7.

Recently I found a BASIC language (Liberty BASIC) and am programming Mongoose's combined Core/Scouts system generator including the space opera and hard science rules. This is one of those times I'm reminded I don't need super-jupiters and the brown dwatf companions are abstracted.

Most people can't get it to work on Windows 7... It's an old pgm that needs to be updated

It does it as well on my w7, asking for the twisted pixel dll, but I just hit cancel and run it anyways, seems to work fine without it.

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Traveller - Beyond the Frontier pbp

Which looks like the author of Deneb is doing right now.

edit: looks like he is building his own, we'll see how far it goes.

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Traveller - Beyond the Frontier pbp

If the problem is the file CTL3D32.DLL, you can download it and install under the C:windows/system32/ path.

Edit: Wrong. Just downloading and installing the file under the path doesn't solve the problem. I tried registering the file from the CMD line but even that didn't solve the problem. However, my version of H&E does seem to work even when I click <Cancel> on the error message that pops up ever time I boot up H&E. But then it did that before I did the download/install/register attempt.

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Sir Dhaven Hevelin, IOD, Baronet of Fulacin
Owner/Captain - S.S. Warlock

Playing RQ/BRPS/Traveller since 1978

Yes, mine does that but the program starts anyways. What does that dll do?

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Traveller - Beyond the Frontier pbp

It's a Windows 3D Controls Library. I'm not sure what Stuart Ferris (the software author) used it for. All the mapping (world and system) are 2D, not 3D.

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Sir Dhaven Hevelin, IOD, Baronet of Fulacin
Owner/Captain - S.S. Warlock

Playing RQ/BRPS/Traveller since 1978

What is it for? H&E still makes worlds and sectors on my machine, maps as well.

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Traveller - Beyond the Frontier pbp

I've tried every remedy that has been suggested. Doesn't work on my system at all. It is hit or miss from the feedback I've gotten over the last couple of years.

Not going to happen. The author stopped supporting it years ago and retained ownership of all the source code.

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Sir Dhaven Hevelin, IOD, Baronet of Fulacin
Owner/Captain - S.S. Warlock

Playing RQ/BRPS/Traveller since 1978