Software I'd like to see

Don't rule out basic client-only DHTML/JavaScript in the browser either. This is a character generator for MegaTraveller. I also threw a proof-of-concept sector generator up on COTI to show it could be done.
 
Well, I wrote a pretty complete implementation of MGT world generation today in Ruby. It'll generate any number of worlds, implements the Space Opera and/or Hard SF optional rules, and will also produce subsector listings. It also generates names for the planets, and the population number (randomly generated within the limits of the UPP digit)

Sample output:

Code:
0101	Anamter             B18B667-6 N S T      NI Ri                [   4M]
0102	
0103	
0104	Guiacoda            E372754-3            Lt                   [  81M]
0105	
0106	Sipuncpan           D679344-3 S          Lo Lt                [3862 ]
0107	
0108	Venroa              D1A5ACE-8            Fl Hi                [  33B]
0109	
0110	Siriceottine        C4A3544-8 P          Fl NI                [ 992K]
0201	Shrovphorus         C681678-6            NI Ri                [   3M]
0202	Physophaga          C642666-8 S C        NI Po                [   3M]
0203	Nickiones           C813530-8 S          IC NI                [ 880K]
0204	
0205	
0206	
0207	Deuteryld           B266A9A-9 N T        Hi                   [  16B]
0208	
0209	Squahve             D836777-5 S P        Lt                   [  52M]
0210	Chdina              B5409DC-7 T          De Hi In Po          [   9B]
0301	
0302	
0303	Galliophora         D50078B-8            Na Va                [  28M]
0304	
0305	
0306	Percolium           E605697-8            IC NI Va             [   3M]
0307	
0308	
0309	Clethidae           B57A000-0 S          Ba Lt Wa             [    0]
0310	Phillen             E77B88A-6                                 [ 749M]
0401	Rumesidaceae        C512326-8 S          IC Lo                [8111 ]
0402	
0403	
0404	
0405	Colt                B363554-9 N S        NI                   [ 682K]
0406	
0407	
0408	Oryzoinidae         B621358-9 N T C      Lo Po                [6031 ]
0409	
0410	
0501	Gaetric             D6B698B-9 S          Fl Hi                [   2B]
0502	Ismaeiput           C124312-7 R P        Lo                   [9327 ]
0503	Menscury            B831436-5 N T        Lt NI Po             [  87K]
0504	
0505	Aplacomino          EA00122-8            Lo Va                [  49 ]
0506	
0507	Protogenea          D41059D-8            NI                   [ 245K]
0508	Mishikhwadil        B392611-6 N C        NI                   [   2M]
0509	Spondylerism        C773269-5 S R P      Lo Lt                [ 424 ]
0510	
0601	Plasmodimbura       C9788B10-4            Ga Lt                [ 499M]
0602	Urry                C5AA158-8            Fl Lo Wa             [  58 ]
0603	Ubiquiochelys       C637733-5            Lt                   [  80M]
0604	Melolongism         C461530-7 S R        NI                   [ 450K]
0605	Casuarutal          C1A1265-8 S          Fl Lo                [ 724 ]
0606	Nasicnian           D5408AC-4 S          De Lt Po             [ 812M]
0607	Tobacterium         B357653-8 S R T      Ag NI                [   9M]
0608	
0609	Belgombrian         DA78958-4            Ga Hi In Lt          [   1B]
0610	Rupiana             C400201-8 S C        Lo Va                [ 906 ]
0701	Isidtherium         C935576-8 S          NI                   [ 118K]
0702	
0703	Patophora           C3A679B-8 S T        Fl                   [  44M]
0704	
0705	
0706	
0707	Bahtidor            D170AEE-3 S          De Hi In Lt          [  78B]
0708	Mobussa             C9C8410-A            Fl NI                [  77K]
0709	Trdetus             C5B3266-9            Fl Lo                [ 648 ]
0710	
0801	Protoccera          D49A899-3 S          Lt Wa                [ 717M]
0802	
0803	
0804	Artinyja            CAC6520-A S          Fl NI                [ 159K]
0805	
0806	Sirennca            C536321-5 C P        Lo Lt                [2649 ]
0807	
0808	
0809	
0810

I need to add temperature scale generation, but that's about it. Anybody wants it, just PM me. By default it uses the dictionary file on unix systems, searching for nouns, and splices them to produce new words - I want to add a genuine word generation function to it too though.

I"ve generated literally tens of thousands of worlds using this today, and it shows up a few oddities in the MGT world gen system - most notably that you can have ridiculously large populations on tiny worlds, with no impact on tech level. I think I'll add some extra optional rules to add a negative DM for population if the world is very small, and the opposite if it's super-habitable, like a garden world.
 
Gee4orce said:
I"ve generated literally tens of thousands of worlds using this today, and it shows up a few oddities in the MGT world gen system - most notably that you can have ridiculously large populations on tiny worlds, with no impact on tech level. I think I'll add some extra optional rules to add a negative DM for population if the world is very small, and the opposite if it's super-habitable, like a garden world.

Careful with that last one, as the characteristics of "super habitable" are also the characteristics of the "Rich" tradecode. Too much of a bump in population will bump a world right out of Rich, and getting above "A" population also starts to strain the reality of habitable.

A real world example might be useful: A population of 'B' on Earth is the equivalent of modern day, but every person has 100 friends that weren't here yesterday, don't overlap with anyone else's new friends, and all of whom may need to stay in your living room...
 
BenGunn said:
It won't be cheap. I'd estimate a good CharGen to run at 40-50 Person-Days IF written by someone who has basic knowledge about the rules system etc, quite a bit of that going into GUI-Design/Interfaces. Sure that will give you an expandabel framework type of program, running in JAVA and all but still.

WorldGen is easier, I'd say 15-20 days

TradeTool should be doabel in 10-15, same for SpaceCombat Tool

Shipbuilding is again more complex. Assuming you want all features it's 30-40 days

[chuckles to himself, shakes head and leaves the thread]
Good luck with those estimates mate.
 
Paladin said:
[chuckles to himself, shakes head and leaves the thread]
Good luck with those estimates mate.

The guts of worldgen are not that complex if the language you are using behaves in expected ways. I've been hacking on Chipmunk Basic for a sector generator this past week, and the foibles of the interpreter have been the major time killer. I'm up through bases already, with output to file already dealt with (using MT sector format), and that's maybe 12 hours total. Maybe. This is old school Basic programming, though. The only input I'm asking for currently is the name of the output file...
 
The first version of the browser based sector generator took me about two hours. The version with editing, mapping and save/restore capability took a couple of weekends.
 
GypsyComet said:
Gee4orce said:
I"ve generated literally tens of thousands of worlds using this today, and it shows up a few oddities in the MGT world gen system - most notably that you can have ridiculously large populations on tiny worlds, with no impact on tech level. I think I'll add some extra optional rules to add a negative DM for population if the world is very small, and the opposite if it's super-habitable, like a garden world.

Careful with that last one, as the characteristics of "super habitable" are also the characteristics of the "Rich" tradecode. Too much of a bump in population will bump a world right out of Rich, and getting above "A" population also starts to strain the reality of habitable.

A real world example might be useful: A population of 'B' on Earth is the equivalent of modern day, but every person has 100 friends that weren't here yesterday, don't overlap with anyone else's new friends, and all of whom may need to stay in your living room...

Yeah - the point is the rules can, as it stands, generate pops of A or or B on world sized 4 or even less - that really stretches credibility, especially when the TL is low too. When you can quickly generate thousands of worlds you see these patterns jumping out.

Another oddity is the generally low tech levels that are generated - Traveller is a SF game, yet the typical world generated is not much higher tech than Earth today, and TL 5 an 6 are very common.

Personally I think MTU will be using 2d6 + dms for TL....
 
I'm kinda wondering when some bright spark will come up with an Traveller expansion for Quickbooks or Simply Accounting... I think if that ever happens then the bean-counting will have gone too far.
 
EDG said:
I'm kinda wondering when some bright spark will come up with an Traveller expansion for Quickbooks or Simply Accounting... I think if that ever happens then the bean-counting will have gone too far.
LMAO!

You know, I'm sure there are a couple of open-source accounting programs out there. Probably easier to take one of those and mod it than write a Traveller module for Quickbooks.
 
I've been polishing my Ruby world generator. It now generates entire sectors if you like, or just a single subsector, or just a selection of worlds if that's what you want. I now produces nice subsector maps too, using Rmagick.

I supports all the optional rules from the main rulebook too, and calculates population figures (in the square brackets) and temperature of the world. It also works out Red and Amber travel zone codes too (although the frequency needs a little tweak). All names are generated randomly too, some using Vilanii generation tables, and other splicing English proper-nouns.

Here's a snippet of output for one subsector, build with the base MGT rules, plus the map for that subsector:

Code:
Subsector J: 
Kistrum Subsector
0101	Mustianist          	 D639440-5 S          Lt NI                A [  29K] Cold      -10C  Representative Democracy , Remnant
0106	Prionelia           	 C586251-7 S          Ga Lo                  [ 881 ] Roasting  128C  Feudal Technocracy , Recovering
0109	Pholayllaceae       	 C200300-8 C          Lo Va                A [6433 ] Hot        60C  None , Unusual Custom: Lifecycle
0201	Sigouin             	 D464795-5 S          Ag Lt                  [  14M] Frozen    -86C  Impersonal Bureaucracy , Unusual Custom: Nobility
0202	Scician             	 D667544-5 S          Ag Ga Lt NI            [ 753K] Cold      -15C  Representative Democracy , Degenerate
0203	Pentctici           	 C86488B-8 S          Ga Ri                  [ 981M] Temperate  20C  Civil Service Bureaucracy , Ritualised
0205	Corinthidae         	 C401643-8            IC Na NI Va            [   4M] Frozen    -74C  Representative Democracy , Unusual Custom: Nobility
0206	Pygobrle            	 C500544-8 S          NI Va                  [ 834K] Temperate   4C  Representative Democracy , Unusual Custom: Social Standing
0301	Geneille            	 E464698-6            Ag NI Ri               [   6M] Temperate   6C  Impersonal Bureaucracy , Nexus
0308	Antibuoia           	 D567366-6            Ga Lo                  [8771 ] Temperate  10C  Captive Government , Progressive

(formatting's a bit screwed here)



Click for larger size, but even this is reduced from the 300dpi original (good quality for printing)

Still to do: symbols for bases. I think I'll leave X-boat routes as a manual task for the referee to add though.

Because of the licence restrictions about producing software, I can't make this freely available, but if you would like a copy of the script them please just private message me and I'll be glad to send you it. And if you're from Mongoose offering me wads of cash for this, I'm all ears :D
 
Ironically, I made a suite of Traveller software in high school back in 1982.

Original plan was one program, but it was too large for the memory of the computer. Had to break it down into 3 parts.
1>Character generator and equipment purchase.
2>Subsector and world generation with trade details.
3>World specific encounter tables with creature stats/generation.

It was my semester project, got an A.
The other semester project was a title page drawing program that would output the picture as usable/importable code. It also got an A.
(If you don't know why someone would need a tool like that, back then you couldn't just import a picture, you had to code the pixels on the screen.)

Ancient history.
Hope to see the results of all your attempts soon. I don't think I'm going to spend the time on this project, I've got some others to do still.
 
BenGunn said:
It won't be cheap. I'd estimate a good CharGen to run at 40-50 Person-Days IF written by someone who has basic knowledge about the rules system etc, quite a bit of that going into GUI-Design/Interfaces. Sure that will give you an expandabel framework type of program, running in JAVA and all but still.

What do you mean by expandable framework? IMHO one goal of a character generation tool would need to be the ability to design your own careers within the application, and based on that concept I think your estimates are probably reasonable. Making it extensible in that way wouldn't make the chargen engine more complex, but would considerably complicate the UI design as you'd essentially need two UIs, one for character generation and one for career design.

WorldGen is easier, I'd say 15-20 days

Again purely implementing the world generation system in code is a matter of a few days work, but graphics generation and world customizability would take a bit longer. I'd also want to be able to adjust the world generation parameters within the application to customize it for a campaign setting so again that's more work because you can't hard-code the design sequence and also need a customization UI.

TradeTool should be doabel in 10-15, same for SpaceCombat Tool

A space combat tool would be useful, not a full game but a 'calculator'.

Shipbuilding is again more complex. Assuming you want all features it's 30-40 days

I think it would be more complex than character generation. High Guard actually complicates things more that it at first seems. The additional options for fuel types, weapon limits and hull sections in capital ships, and damage chart creation add requirements for whole chunks of functionality not required by the TMB system. All doable, but a significant addition of complexity over the core system. Still, 40 days is about 2 months full-time work and that should be enough to come up with a decent application.

I've given this area a lot of thought and overall I agree with your conclusions. The key point in my mind is that a freeware/home grown set of tools could be created quite quickly with basic functionality, but a professional grade set of tools would need to offer a lot more in terms of customisability and features.

Simon Hibbs
 
BenGunn said:
Actually all times are based on "The rules as written. NO CUSTOMISATION" since I expect Official stuff to do official rules only.

Mongoose are positioning Traveller as a generic game system, and plan to publish a number of settings for it. They actively suggest and encourage variants, so under those circumstances what counts as official is hardly set in stone.

A commercial application would only sell based on it's utility to it's customers, and a lot of Traveller GMs use variants rules so I believe that at least some customizability would be a vital feature to secure commercial success in the long term. Also as supplements come out with new careers, ship design options and world creation rules you'll need to have a way to add those to the product, so you'll need it to be customizable. You could do it all through hard-coding add-ons but in the long term that would probably turn out to be more work.

I think there would still be a market for hard coded applications, and for example an application that started hard coded but then added customization features in later releases might be an optimal strategy. That way you can get to market more quickly, capturing the market for a more limited product sooner and then grow the market by adding value over the life cycle of the product.


Simon Hibbs
 
barasawa said:
Original plan was one program, but it was too large for the memory of the computer. Had to break it down into 3 parts.
1>Character generator and equipment purchase.
2>Subsector and world generation with trade details.
3>World specific encounter tables with creature stats/generation.
.

There is a collection of Windows programs out there called the Traveller Utility. It jives with Classic Trav but much of the stuff is the same. It does those three things, has a Library, and a few other things.
 
Kilgs said:
...
There is a collection of Windows programs out there called the Traveller Utility...

That's interesting, but somehow I doubt it has anything to do with a program I wrote in 82 for a high school semester project. :wink: (Unless maybe I inspired them at some point...)
 
Well, I'm nearing completion of v1 of my own traveller utility written in Excel. At the moment, it can:

- Generate worlds, inc. travel zones (but not name them - would love to know more about what you've done here GeeForce!) (not yet coded for alternative worldgen rules)
- Generate subsectors and map them (ugly Excel-based map at the moment which certainly needs tweaking)
- Generate characters, inc. mishaps, events and fiddly mustering out benefits, for Core Rulebook careers (not yet done Psionic testing, Anagathics or bonus skills for Connections and Group Packages. Also need to add function for fully random characters for NPC generation)

Future plans could include rewriting all this for OpenOffice, adding Trade and Shipbuilding, possibly splitting it off into separate spreadsheets for convenience... but more likely will involve getting it to 95% complete and then finding a sparkly new "project" that piques my interest more :)
 
Paladin said:
Out of curiosity, are you a software developer/involved in the industry at all?


You made me lolz




Anyways, if somone hired me an intern then i would write them all except for the char creation. some of it is already done
 
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