Sector Creation

[enderra]

This is SO MUCH WORK. And while the trailing sector is only there because somehow my pre-civil war Empire ended up blobbing out of the map, I've always know I should at least create one adjacent "circle" of subsectors so I can properly design worlds that are right on the map's edge.

WIP screenshot with heavy compression:

Does anybody actually create their own sectors? How do you handle it? How detailed do you make them? How long does it take you to create and/or flesh out one of these? And how much of it do you actually use?

I've got some scripts written - no more dice rolling needed - and a pretty good "production pipeline", but having to fix the rng results even somewhat, and actually turning all those lines of numbers into a coherent setting is taking a LOT of time.

I obviously think it'll be worth the work but can't help but wonder if I may be missing something.

 

[sideranautae]

Does anybody actually create their own sectors? How do you handle it? How detailed do you make them? How long does it take you to create and/or flesh out one of these? And how much of it do you actually use?

I created more than a sector a few decades ago. By hand. A pain in the nebula.

Once I complete my new sys gen design I will put into OO Calc and use its built in Rnd engine to generate about 3 sectors. One sector "inhabited" and about 2 sectors worth of sub-sectors surrounding it.

 

[Matt Wilson]

I went through a star list provided by Constantine Thomas and flattened a sector's worth. I left out the stars that strayed too far from the X/Y plane, such as Beta Canum Venaticorum. It's not terribly accurate, but it works well enough for Traveller purposes. Probably not too many people will look at it and say "OMG that's totally not where Gliese 842 should be!" and flip the table.

Then I put together a python program that generates star systems based on a mix of the original 2300 and GURPS Traveller: First In. It's kind of intense. I definitely wouldn't want to do this part by hand.

So I feed the star list into the python program and it creates a star system for each star. For the mainworld I generally choose the most suitable one, or the one with highest pop/best starport/highest TL.

Right now I'm using it to create a kind of expanding Terran Empire with a frontier area around the outer edges of the sector. It's somewhat inspired by Outer Veil, which is a neat non-imperium setting if you're interested in that sort of thing. I just have some time on my hands and wanted to do my own from scratch. RPG Worldbuilding is kind of like model railroading, except I don't clutter the place up nearly as much.

 

[dragoner]

I have an area of six sectors made, three heavily detailed, out on the frontier Spinward of the old Imperium and Rimward of he old Zhodani Consulate:

 

[Infojunky]

I have done so before and am considering it again though the primary are is only going to be around a 100 systems. The plans is to do it organically starting with just the base physical characteristics. All the die rolling and mapping will be manual but sorting and population and tech level advancement will be handled the aid of a spreadsheet base database.

 

[enderra]

Collective reply:

I created more than a sector a few decades ago. By hand. A pain in the nebula.

Once I complete my new sys gen design I will put into OO Calc and use its built in Rnd engine to generate about 3 sectors. One sector "inhabited" and about 2 sectors worth of sub-sectors surrounding it.

By hand. Cripes. I tried that too. I got as far as rolling for the positions of planets, and after that I decided that I really needed to script the work.

If you are changing the rules, feel like sharing your thoughts? I've attempted to fix the rules up a bit, and I get much fewer odd results than I used to, but it's not exactly a great customization. (And yeah I can post my variations too, I think I even have them in a half-decent writeup.)

It's not terribly accurate, but it works well enough for Traveller purposes. Probably not too many people will look at it and say "OMG that's totally not where Gliese 842 should be!" and flip the table.

It won't be accurate in 2D anyway, so yeah. I considered doing that - did work on it for a while, though not in a Traveller context - but decided that I didn't like the realworld baggage.

Then I put together a python program that generates star systems based on a mix of the original 2300 and GURPS Traveller: First In. It's kind of intense. I definitely wouldn't want to do this part by hand.

So I feed the star list into the python program and it creates a star system for each star. For the mainworld I generally choose the most suitable one, or the one with highest pop/best starport/highest TL.

That's cool. I thought about doing entire systems, but I didn't have any great rules to go with and thought I had enough data as-is. In retrospective I sometimes regret this. Constantin's modifications to the 2300AD system are great, and I thought about bribing him for the rules or better yet his scripts. Or hell, just a big data dump. But in the end I thought I should get away with much more manageable amounts of data with UWP only so I didn't bother him.

RPG Worldbuilding is kind of like model railroading, except I don't clutter the place up nearly as much.

[/quote]

Quoted for truth.

I have an area of six sectors made, three heavily detailed, out on the frontier Spinward of the old Imperium and Rimward of he old Zhodani Consulate.

By hand? That's a lot of territory.

I have done so before and am considering it again though the primary are is only going to be around a 100 systems. The plans is to do it organically starting with just the base physical characteristics. All the die rolling and mapping will be manual but sorting and population and tech level advancement will be handled the aid of a spreadsheet base database.

I almost did this. With 100 worlds tops, I think you are going to be okay, but much beyond that things become ugly really quickly. I thought about trying to find a few people and run sort of an interactive "simulation", or RPG version of building the universe. You know, ask the players what policies the empires set, where exploration parties get sent and so on. Would have been great fun but seemed to be an unreasonable amount of time and work. Plus such a grand campaign probably has a high risk of collapsing at some point.

Do you have a blog and will you write about the development? It might actually be interesting to see how such a setting grows/develops over time.

 

[Infojunky]

I have done so before and am considering it again though the primary are is only going to be around a 100 systems. The plans is to do it organically starting with just the base physical characteristics. All the die rolling and mapping will be manual but sorting and population and tech level advancement will be handled the aid of a spreadsheet base database.

I almost did this. With 100 worlds tops, I think you are going to be okay, but much beyond that things become ugly really quickly. I thought about trying to find a few people and run sort of an interactive "simulation", or RPG version of building the universe. You know, ask the players what policies the empires set, where exploration parties get sent and so on. Would have been great fun but seemed to be an unreasonable amount of time and work. Plus such a grand campaign probably has a high risk of collapsing at some point.

Do you have a blog and will you write about the development? It might actually be interesting to see how such a setting grows/develops over time.

My plan is to do a grand game of colonization and conflict in a smallish cluster, read that all 100 systems are a J1 main. The map as penciled in is the 4 central subsectors of a sector map. The gimme here on system generation is that I am generating planetary belts and Gas Giants with a possibility of 1 to 3 "habitable" worlds per system (If I get truly masochistic I might try to figure out how to explicitly handle binaries and the possibility of even more worlds). Mind you my 1st pass at detailing with be just the presents of planets, belts and GGs, the second pass will be just the physical description part of UWP. With further economic/cultural detail being added once the players get their choices in. Right now the player development rules are a mashup based Pocket Empires.

 

[sideranautae]

By hand. Cripes. I tried that too. I got as far as rolling for the positions of planets, and after that I decided that I really needed to script the work.

I would have too but, when I did that, I couldn't get the time on the Main frame... :lol:

 

[simonh]

StarBase is a free, open source desktop application specifically designed for setting creation. It's written in Python, but there's a pre built Windows executable version. The world generation scripts are Python files dynamically loaded at runtime though so it's very easy to customise.

It has built in graphical tools for creating links/routes between worlds and in addition to editing the attributes of individual worlds, you can select a region and apply simultaneous changes such as setting an attribute to a specific value across all selected worlds, limiting an attribute to a minimum or maximum value, or applying a global modifier. It even has an auto naming function to randomly assign space opera sounding world names, if you want.

Check out the link in my sig for details.

Edit - I see from your web site you're a Unix/Mac user? Me too, but initial StarBase development predates my adoption of the Mac. It's written using PySide, a Python wrapper of the Qt library, and I've never quite got it working properly on the Mac. However the source runs perfectly well on Linux once you have the PySide and other required packages installed. If you need a hand getting it working, please get in touch.

Simon Hibbs

 

[dragoner]

I have used various stuff, though Heaven and Earth seems to work best, but I have gone back over every detail, and have a copious amount of notes. It has taken years.

 

[Infojunky]

StarBase is a free, open source desktop application specifically designed for setting creation. It's written in Python, but there's a pre built Windows executable version. The world generation scripts are Python files dynamically loaded at runtime though so it's very easy to customise.

I would use the heck out of it simon, the problem I have with it is that Starport class and gas giants aren't part of the display.

 

[simonh]

I would use the heck out of it simon, the problem I have with it is that Starport class and gas giants aren't part of the display.

I did have that feature, but removed it when I rewrote the way stats are stored and never got it working again. It's actually the feature that in theory is currently 'under development', except I've not had any time to work on StarBase over the last year.

My plan is to make it optional which attribute code is displayed on the map so you can have starport as the default, but can select whatever you like. Want a map showing population codes? Fine!

Gas giants are more problematic. I don't want to implement them as a regular attribute with a code value. At the moment they, and trade codes, are just recorded as text in the system attribute description. What I'd like to do is implement a special attribute that's really just a collection of boolean flags represented by check boxes. That would handle stuff like gas giant presence, trade codes, bases and such. Each flag would be associated with a character (which could be a symbol) that could optionally be represented on the map.

Trouble is I'm not likely to have much time to work on this for a while, but it's incredibly useful to get feedback like this about what features people need. A few of the features have been implemented and prioritized because someone said they needed it. It's very motivating.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Matt Wilson]

It's written using PySide, a Python wrapper of the Qt library, and I've never quite got it working properly on the Mac.

No love for the mac users. I have to make my own maps in Illustrator. Granted, they look great.

 

[AndrewW]

No love for the mac users. I have to make my own maps in Illustrator. Granted, they look great.

Nothing wrong with making ones own maps, I do that as well (though Linux, Inkscape in my case).

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I have an excel spreadsheet that does the stats for a subsector.
here is one subsector:
Parent Primary Binary Trinary
Trade Natural Parent Star Giant Primary Stellar Data Giant Binary Giant Trinary
Name Hex # WORLD UWPs Bases Trade Classification Bal Climate Temp. Resources Zone P B G Allegiance Presence # of stars Star Cl Dec Size hab Descriptor Descriptor Cl Dec. Size Descriptor Descriptor Cl Dec. Size Descriptor Descriptor Cl Dec. Size
0101 0
0102 0
0103 C 4 6 0 4 3 0 -7 S Po 0 Frigid -35 4 5 1 1 System 3 Primary K 0 V Main Sequence Star K 0 V Red Dwarf M 2 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0104 B A 9 6 9 A B -A In 8 Frozen -41 13 8 1 2 System 1 Primary M 1.5 V Red Dwarf M 1.5 V
0105 X 8 A 7 4 6 6 -3 -1 Frozen -41 8 2 1 1 System 2 Primary M 3 V Red Dwarf M 3 V Red Dwarf M 3 V
0106 A C G A 6 7 4 -H N Wa 13 Frigid -35 13 9 0 1 System 1 Primary M 3.5 V Red Dwarf M 3.5 V
0107 0
0108 0
0109 A C 9 7 7 7 B -9 N S Ag 9 Torrid 61 15 9 2 1 System 1 Primary M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0110 0
0201 B F E A 3 6 8 -F Wa 15 Frozen -41 15 3 0 1 System 2 Primary G 5.5 V Main Sequence Star G 5.5 V Red Dwarf M 0 V
0202 0
0203 0
0204 0
0205 0
0206 X 5 3 3 5 4 6 -5 Po -8 Very Hot 55 1 1 0 2 System 1 Primary M 2 V Red Dwarf M 2 V
0207 0
0208 B 6 6 0 9 4 5 -E N In Ri Po 8 Torrid 61 7 4 2 2 System 2 Binary M 9.5 V Red Dwarf M 4 V Red Dwarf M 9.5 V
0209 0
0210 0
0301 0
0302 B 8 8 7 6 6 1 -5 N S Ag Ri 7 Torrid 61 9 5 0 1 System 1 Primary M 4.5 V Red Dwarf M 4.5 V
0303 A 8 9 3 A 5 4 -H In Po 6 Tropical 25 7 7 0 2 System 1 Primary M 5 V Red Dwarf M 5 V
0304 X B C 6 8 7 4 -5 4 Chilly 0 16 1 1 1 System 2 Primary M 6.5 V Red Dwarf M 6.5 V Main Sequence Star G 4 V
0305 0
0306 0
0307 C 9 9 5 6 2 0 -9 Ag 8 Chilly 0 12 3 2 1 System 1 Primary M 7 V Red Dwarf M 7 V
0308 0
0309 0
0310 0
0401 C 8 8 7 9 7 5 -A In Ri 5 Warm 35 7 9 0 1 System 1 Primary M 7 V Red Dwarf M 7 V
0402 0
0403 0
0404 0
0405 A 7 5 8 9 9 8 -F N In Ri 7 Torrid 61 7 3 0 1 System 2 Primary M 5 V Red Dwarf M 5 V Red Dwarf M 5.5 V
0406 A 7 7 6 6 5 4 -F Ag Ri 7 Frozen -41 6 8 3 1 System 1 Primary M 3 V Red Dwarf M 3 V
0407 0
0408 0
0409 0
0410 0
0501 0
0502 0
0503 0
0504 A B G 8 7 8 8 -F S 2 Very Hot 55 6 6 0 1 System 2 Primary M 8 V Red Dwarf M 8 V Red Dwarf M 5 V
0505 0
0506 0
0507 B A B 6 7 B B -B 4 Torrid 61 11 4 0 1 System 1 Primary M 3.5 V Red Dwarf M 3.5 V
0508 X 6 4 6 9 8 5 -4 In -3 Temperate 15 7 1 2 2 System 1 Primary K 0 V Main Sequence Star K 0 V
0509 0
0510 A A E 5 9 E F -H In 15 Frozen -41 16 4 0 0 System 1 Primary M 0 V Red Dwarf M 0 V
0601 0
0602 0
0603 0
0604 0
0605 0
0606 D 3 3 2 9 9 8 -B In Po -3 Warm 35 4 8 1 2 System 1 Primary M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0607 0
0608 0
0609 0
0610 0
0701 X A C 8 6 7 A -5 -2 Chilly 0 10 2 2 0 System 2 Primary G 4.5 V Main Sequence Star G 4.5 V Main Sequence Star F 3 V
0702 0
0703 0
0704 0
0705 0
0706 A 8 8 7 7 9 7 -E N S Ag Ri 9 Hot 45 10 6 1 2 System 1 Primary M 9 III Ordinary Giant M 9 III
0707 E 8 A 7 7 6 6 -5 -5 Cool -15 5 2 0 3 System 1 Primary M 4.5 V Red Dwarf M 4.5 V
0708 0
0709 X B 8 5 7 7 6 -2 Ag Ri 4 Cool -15 13 7 0 2 System 1 Primary B 1.5 V Main Sequence Star B 1.5 V
0710 0
0801 D 7 8 6 9 8 B -8 In Ri 3 Torrid 61 10 5 1 1 System 2 Primary M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V Bright Giant M 3 II
0802 X 6 0 6 8 5 5 -4 -3 Torrid 61 10 1 0 1 System 1 Primary M 3 V Red Dwarf M 3 V
0803 0
0804 E 7 A 5 6 6 5 -8 -2 Frozen -41 6 1 0 2 System 2 Primary M 6.5 V Red Dwarf M 6.5 V Red Dwarf M 9 V
0805 0
0806 X 5 8 6 6 5 7 -5 Ag Ri -3 Hot 45 6 2 1 1 System 2 Primary M 5.5 V Red Dwarf M 5.5 V Red Dwarf M 5 V
0807 0
0808 0
0809 B D E A 8 9 9 -C S Wa 5 Frozen -41 13 7 1 3 System 1 Primary G 3 V Main Sequence Star G 3 V
0810 A 6 7 3 6 4 5 -D S Ri Po 8 Tropical 25 8 6 2 0 System 3 Binary M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 8 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 3.5 V


Here is another:

Parent Primary Binary Trinary
Trade Natural Parent Star Giant Primary Stellar Data Giant Binary Giant Trinary
Name Hex # WORLD UWPs Bases Trade Classification Bal Climate Temp. Resources Zone P B G Allegiance Presence # of stars Star Cl Dec Size hab Descriptor Descriptor Cl Dec. Size Descriptor Descriptor Cl Dec. Size Descriptor Descriptor Cl Dec. Size
0101 D 7 5 4 9 7 3 -A S In Ri 7 Cold -25 9 4 0 2 System 1 Primary M 7.5 V Red Dwarf M 7.5 V
0102 D E G 7 9 C E -B S In 6 Cool -15 14 4 0 3 System 1 Primary M 1.5 V Red Dwarf M 1.5 V
0103 0
0104 0
0105 0
0106 B B 6 4 7 4 2 -B N Ag Ri 13 Frozen -41 14 5 0 2 System 1 Primary M 3.5 V Red Dwarf M 3.5 V
0107 0
0108 0
0109 X 9 9 8 8 7 7 0 -2 Torrid 61 12 2 0 1 System 1 Primary M 4.5 V Red Dwarf M 4.5 V
0110 0
0201 0
0202 0
0203 D C E 6 8 A 8 -8 4 Hot 45 14 4 0 0 System 2 Primary M 1 V Red Dwarf M 1 V Red Dwarf M 0 V
0204 0
0205 X B 9 7 8 B B -4 4 Torrid 61 18 2 0 1 System 2 Primary M 5.5 V Red Dwarf M 5.5 V Ordinary Giant M 5.5 III
0206 0
0207 C B C 7 7 7 A -B S 8 Torrid 61 16 5 0 0 System 1 Primary M 7.5 V Red Dwarf M 7.5 V
0208 0
0209 X C A 8 6 5 5 -3 -4 Very Hot 55 8 2 0 1 System 1 Primary M 0.5 V Red Dwarf M 0.5 V
0210 0
0301 0
0302 E 6 9 4 4 4 0 -3 1 Tropical 25 8 0 0 4 System 1 Primary M 3 V Red Dwarf M 3 V
0303 X 9 D 8 9 7 7 -4 In -1 Frozen -41 9 2 0 1 System 2 Primary M 6 V Red Dwarf M 6 V Main Sequence Star F 1 V
0304 X A B 6 9 E B -5 In 2 Cool -15 13 0 1 0 System 1 Primary M 9 V Red Dwarf M 9 V
0305 E D G 8 7 4 2 -8 2 Frozen -41 10 2 2 2 System 2 Primary M 2.5 V Red Dwarf M 2.5 V Red Dwarf M 1 V
0306 C 7 5 6 6 3 0 -7 S Ag 1 Very Hot 55 6 3 1 2 System 1 Primary M 7.5 V Red Dwarf M 7.5 V
0307 D 8 5 8 8 6 8 -2 S Ri -5 Frozen -41 5 4 0 2 System 1 Primary M 9.5 V Red Dwarf M 9.5 V
0308 0
0309 X 9 7 7 7 5 2 -4 Ag Ri 3 Temperate 15 11 1 2 0 System 2 Primary G 9 V Main Sequence Star G 9 V Red Dwarf M 2.5 V
0310 C B B 7 4 7 7 -A 7 Temperate 15 11 7 0 2 System 1 Primary M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0401 C F G 7 7 9 9 -B 7 Hot 45 16 4 0 3 System 1 Primary M 3.5 V Red Dwarf M 3.5 V
0402 0
0403 0
0404 C 7 8 3 7 9 B -9 Ri Po 1 Chilly 0 9 8 0 2 System 1 Primary M 8.5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0405 X 6 9 1 7 A A 0 Po -4 Frozen -41 10 0 0 3 System 1 Primary M 4.5 V Red Dwarf M 4.5 V
0406 X 7 7 7 9 D F 0 In -6 Torrid 61 8 1 0 2 System 2 Binary M 6.5 V Red Dwarf M 5.5 V Red Dwarf M 6.5 V
0407 X A F 6 9 9 8 -4 In -3 Temperate 15 8 0 1 1 System 2 Primary M 7.5 V Red Dwarf M 7.5 V Red Dwarf M 4 V
0408 X C D 6 4 2 4 -6 10 Warm 35 18 1 1 3 System 2 Primary M 9.5 V Red Dwarf M 9.5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0409 E 6 A 4 9 A 9 -B In -1 Temperate 15 7 1 0 2 System 2 Primary M 9.5 V Red Dwarf M 9.5 V Red Dwarf M 7 V
0410 0
0501 0
0502 E A A A 9 9 B -7 In Wa -1 Torrid 61 9 7 2 3 System 1 Primary M 3.5 V Red Dwarf M 3.5 V
0503 0
0504 E B C 8 5 8 7 -7 2 Torrid 61 11 1 1 0 System 2 Binary M 6.5 V Red Dwarf M 2 V Red Dwarf M 6.5 V
0505 0
0506 0
0507 0
0508 0
0509 E 5 4 6 A 5 3 -C In 3 Torrid 61 9 8 2 1 System 2 Primary M 8 V Red Dwarf M 8 V Main Sequence Star G 2 V
0510 0
0601 0
0602 X 7 6 4 4 0 2 -3 -2 Frozen -41 6 2 0 2 System 2 Primary M 5 V Red Dwarf M 5 V Red Dwarf M 0.5 V
0603 E 8 6 7 6 9 D -8 Ag Ri 3 Temperate 15 11 0 0 0 System 2 Primary M 8 V Red Dwarf M 8 V Red Dwarf M 5 V
0604 0
0605 E E G 8 7 A B -7 1 Frozen -41 12 1 1 2 System 2 Primary M 2 V Red Dwarf M 2 V Red Dwarf M 7.5 V
0606 0
0607 B 6 4 3 7 8 D -9 Po 3 Cool -15 12 8 0 1 System 1 Primary M 0.5 V Red Dwarf M 0.5 V
0608 D 9 D 4 8 5 5 -8 S 0 Torrid 61 10 1 0 2 System 1 Primary F 0.5 V Main Sequence Star F 0.5 V
0609 E 9 8 4 6 7 8 -8 Ag Ri 5 Frozen -41 11 7 0 3 System 2 Primary M 1 V Red Dwarf M 1 V Red Dwarf M 9 V
0610 0
0701 0
0702 0
0703 0
0704 E 6 2 3 7 8 8 -4 Po -8 Torrid 61 4 0 0 1 System 2 Primary M 5 V Red Dwarf M 5 V Red Dwarf M 8.5 V
0705 C 8 3 6 A A 8 -9 In 4 Tropical 25 11 6 0 0 System 1 Primary F 4.5 V Main Sequence Star F 4.5 V
0706 0
0707 C A D 8 7 9 C -B 0 Torrid 61 9 2 0 4 System 2 Primary M 8 V Red Dwarf M 8 V Red Dwarf M 6 V
0708 B 7 D 5 5 5 6 -F N 2 Warm 35 4 6 1 3 System 1 Primary F 0.5 D White Dwarf F 0.5 D
0709 D A B 4 6 A C -7 7 Frozen -41 16 5 0 1 System 1 Primary M 5 V Red Dwarf M 5 V
0710 0
0801 0
0802 0
0803 E 7 7 6 9 A 8 -9 In 5 Torrid 61 13 0 3 1 System 1 Primary M 7 V Red Dwarf M 7 V
0804 0
0805 0
0806 C A 8 6 8 8 5 -8 Ri 8 Frozen -41 15 7 0 3 System 1 Primary A 2 V Main Sequence Star A 2 V
0807 0
0808 0
0809 0
0810 0

 

[dragoner]

No love for the mac users. I have to make my own maps in Illustrator. Granted, they look great.

Nothing wrong with making ones own maps, I do that as well (though Linux, Inkscape in my case).

I use the one from Travellermap.com

http://dragonersdomain.com/forum/download/file.php?id=97

 

[pasuuli]

Back in the day, I hand-generated two subsectors. I still have those subsectors, and still want to add them into some sector, far away from the Imperium.

Nowadays, I generate new sectors using my online Perl script (http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/survey/t5-prog/t5sysgen.pl), then I copy and paste the generated header line and UWP data directly into the PosterMaker on Travellermap.com (http://travellermap.com/poster). Then I hand-build the Travellermap metadata to add routes, empires, and colors, etc.

The Perl script relies on a user-supplied seed value, which forms part of the 'signature' of the sector (along with whatever constraints are selected). I use "coordinate" names for seed values, which makes them easy for me to remember.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Back in the day, I hand-generated two subsectors. I still have those subsectors, and still want to add them into some sector, far away from the Imperium.

Nowadays, I generate new sectors using my online Perl script (http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/survey/t5-prog/t5sysgen.pl), then I copy and paste the generated header line and UWP data directly into the PosterMaker on Travellermap.com (http://travellermap.com/poster). Then I hand-build the Travellermap metadata to add routes, empires, and colors, etc.

The Perl script relies on a user-supplied seed value, which forms part of the 'signature' of the sector (along with whatever constraints are selected). I use "coordinate" names for seed values, which makes them easy for me to remember.

My excel Spreadsheet generates planet sizes larger than A, it goes all the way up to size G, which is twice the size of the Earth.

 

[pasuuli]

My excel Spreadsheet generates planet sizes larger than A, it goes all the way up to size G, which is twice the size of the Earth.

I get some big mainworlds, not very often, and they don't go to G. For example,

http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/survey/t5-prog/t5sysgen.pl?sectorkey=mw-orion-3942&tlCap=21&civ=Civilized&density=Standard&Generate=Submit+Query

Yields this one on 2128:

2128 Thebelox BFEA675-9 Ni Ho Sa {+0} (754+4) [6669] 200 0 Un G9 V

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

My excel Spreadsheet generates planet sizes larger than A, it goes all the way up to size G, which is twice the size of the Earth.

I get some big mainworlds, not very often, and they don't go to G. For example,

http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/survey/t5-prog/t5sysgen.pl?sectorkey=mw-orion-3942&tlCap=21&civ=Civilized&density=Standard&Generate=Submit+Query

Yields this one on 2128:

2128 Thebelox BFEA675-9 Ni Ho Sa {+0} (754+4) [6669] 200 0 Un G9 V

I use a 3d6-2 to generate planet size, before I roll that, I roll a 2d6, and if I get "snake eyes" (2), that means their is an asteroid belt their instead of a planet, I didn't want asteroid belts to be 1 in 216, I like 1 in 36 better. Maybe the system which generated that planet used 3d6-3 Size G worlds aren't very common, perhaps their scarcity can be justified by their tendency to turn into gas giants. I also included a type G atmosphere, which is hydrogen/helium and can be skimmed for fuel. Most common sorts of gas giants will have a type G atmosphere. If you see an oxygen/nitrogen gas giant, it probably isn't natural, and it probably would be a small gas giant if it were to have tolerable gravity.