Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
My pleasure. Be happy to get back home and get the rest in.
Excel Ship Designer v2025.02.02a
- Thread starter Arkathan
- Start date
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
Out of curiosity, what functionality were you hoping to get out of that integration?
Well as it sit now each ship is its own excel file. By integrating it with access you have one access database with all your ships in without having to manually enter each into the database. This gives you easier access to your ships plus you can look for a ship using a search for a specific aspect of the ship you’re looking for. Set up right instead of opening an excel file you click on add record and the database runs the excel spreadsheet and stores you final version. You can even add deck plans and art to the ships record.
J. L. Brown
Emperor Mongoose
Mildly off-topic: I would love to put together an all-in-one Traveller Campaign tool. What I am envisioning is a single (large) zip archive which contains a simple installation batch file PLUS: The entire TravellerMap.com; the entire TravellerWiki.com; and a system / world mapping tool similar (but superior) to TravellerWorlds.com -- which can render icosohedral world maps as spheres (with realistic-ish land, water, and clouds); plus a campaign-logger (doing speech-to-text - through throat-mics, and bone-speakers for everyone - on several channels so that the GM can interact with any or all players; and an AI making succint summaries at the end of each session) to track the timeline of events. Oh yeah, and maybe a VTT, which can do augmented reality (or maybe add a set of VR headsets for everyone) of pre-defined areas that the GM constructs. And a poni, while I am wishing for stuff.
The idea is for a GM to be able to modify the all the assets for the campaign without touching the originals; and to authorize their players (or cheap tablet-computers - running a VPN or internet tunnel to the database - they hand out to the players) to look at portions of the campaign-specific assets. The tools would periodically scrape the original tools for updates and new entries; and would track the changes the GM made to the 'Official' versions so that they could be saved and/or submitted.
I hit upon the genius (/s) idea of doing all this with an no-server open-source NoSQL JSON-based database; and then the LSD started wearing off. I have barely enough programming acumen to write a 'Hello World' program in BASIC, so I need to learn how to 1} use all the above tools, and 2} re-write them to fit into such a package. It ain't happening, but I can dream.
In that paradigm, the players' ship would be a wiki-entry, of a specific 'notable example' of whatever class of starship.
While I applaud your audacious dream as someone who actually has programming experience my ideal is far more realistic. A large percentage of PoS (Point of Sale) software is at its core Access and Excel with a VBA framework making things look original. While I’ll probably not go so far are make the whole thing I will probably work on a ships database as my winter project
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
VBA is a nonstarter for me. I don't use scripts and I have avoided getting the new version of Windows Office in order to the keep this accessible to people with the free reader versions and of relatively easy conversion to rival products.
Not being able to use IFS statements, instead of all of the nested conditionals I use gets maddening sometimes.
Not being able to use IFS statements, instead of all of the nested conditionals I use gets maddening sometimes.
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
Gimme a couple of weeks, yeah?
J. L. Brown
Emperor Mongoose
If you are serious, I have time to learn some new skills; I will be happy to help, to whatever limited degree I can manage. But there is also something else (very, very important) which I would need for that package to happen: permission.
The individual devs who are working on all of those tools are doing so seemingly out of love for the game; maybe permission (and their assistance) would not be impossible to get; but it is still an important first step.
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
Yes. Yes there is... as long as you do not want a Torpedo Grapple. The image does not match the stats, and it can be added using the user defined section. Until I get a kick in the rump, I refuse to include that thing.
NEW VERSION: 2024.11.15
Implemented equipment from Rim Expeditions... except for the stupid Grapple Torpedo.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
No grapple torpedo? How will the Batmospaceship catch the Jokercorsair?
I understand not wanting to use scripts tho I’ll point out that any version of office you run will work with VBA. I can see keeping to an older version tho it’s been a while since people bought office as a one and done so most people will automatically be updated to the latest version. But I understand your concerns and why you made the decision to keep things simple
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
None of the off-brand conversions will run VBA, though. Even simple check boxes breaks the sheet for non-Microsoft users. Found that out in an early overhaul.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
In the Element-Class Cruisers book, it lists the Exploration Pod as having a specialist control center that doesn't match any of the options. Here is the pod and the writeup for the control center type. Maybe the tonnage and cost difference is because High Guard was updated after this?
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Oh wait! What's this? Another example of Mongoose spreading the ship construction rules over a million books. How are future authors supposed to write official material for Traveller or for the OTU if the rules for said construction is spread over a million different books? Mongoose is setting themselves up for a serious quality control problem due to sloppy organization (Edit: Perhaps lack of sufficient oversight is a more appropriate term) of the published materials.
It is simple guys... If it is a ship construction rule, it goes in High Guard. If it is a vehicle construction rule, it goes in VH, etc.
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Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
I am not going to attempt to reconcile bridge sizes from additions/editions that occurred prior to the HG revision. HG'22 stands.
The rule uses auxilliary small bridges and standard bridges as a dedicated component command center. This seems to be mostly a fluff thing.
I have added a field so you can designate available Aux Con's as SCC's. The notes for the Record Sheet or the Capital Ship SSD would be the logical area to denote which SCC's go where.
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Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
1. Recalculate everything.
2. Depends on the area of control, pod versus entire spacecraft.
2. Depends on the area of control, pod versus entire spacecraft.
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
At 40 tons, that is a small bridge, converted to an SCC. It cannot be set up as a ship's control center.
