What would you want from a sector/universe editor?

[Terry Mixon]

I've merged a change that increases the max jump rating to 40 which I think will allow for up to hop-4. As it's not really full hop drive support, you'll probably need to override the Fuel Per Parsec value in the ship configuration as well. I've not used hop drive rules before, but I believe you'll want to set it to 1/10th of whatever the fuel per parsec value would be for a ship of that tonnage and the same level of jump drive. For example, the Fuel Per Parsec for a hop-3 ship is 1/10th the Fuel Per Parsec of a J-3 ship of the same tonnage.

The change has been merged to the repository, but it's not in an installer yet and probably won't be for a while, so you'll need to either clone the repo or download it as a zip file. If you've not done that before, there are instructions in the readme.

Thank you.

 

[CthulhuStig]

Unfortunately that can get a little complicated, because there's a bit of feedback and a lot of logic (well, math and conditional statements, whether its logical enough is another issue) involved.

@coolAlias did a great job making a generator of out of the rules
(see https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/utilitarian-star-system-generator.124969/ )

I'll need to read through the World Builder rules again. I did have a look through them not long after they came out, with an eye on if I thought it would be possible to do some kind of implementation of the rules. From what I remember, there wasn't anything that jumped out as being too hard to implement, but it was long enough ago the details are pretty fuzzy. Just be warned I might be pestering you for clarifications

 

[rinku]

Sounds interesting, but I'm not sure what you mean by sensible details for colour in this context. Are there published rules for doing what you're thinking, or could you give of a example of a UWP/stellar data and what kind of thing you'd like generated?

Well, starting with the UWP you can say if the planet should be in the Hab zone or if it doesn't matter, mostly based on atmosphere. If you have the data for world temperature that Mongoose does you can usually place a world in inner system, hab zone or outer system.

Star type gives hab zone and orbital period at a given distance. Also if tidal locking is likely. The length of the year usually doesn't matter, unless it's a very short period, but tidal locking or similar affects the description of the world and may be relevant to the stories told.

After that, a few procedurally generated colour details such as day length, axial inclination and any moons. Or if the world is a gas giant moon itself (which isn't a trivial detail, especially if the starport doesn't have fuel). Maybe some sparse details of other features such as any other worlds in the system. I'm thinking broad sketches that can be expanded later, but which are generated here at a low level to keep things consistent. As an example:

Exampleooine, C555555 -A. Gas giant, G5 V primary. Temperate.

Place this in the Hab zone. Orbital period will be something shorter than an earth year. See if the world is a GG moon. Generate an axial tilt and day length, roll up presence of moons, maybe their orbital distance from the planet. Roll up other system worlds. At this point number is probably enough, maybe place them in inner or outer system. If it ever comes up that you need to go there you really don't need exact orbits... the actual distances needed to travel vary, and constant acelleration thrust travel flattens the time taken out anyway - Jupiter varies from around 633 million km to 968 million km distance from Earth, but time taken at 1G is about 6 days or 7 days respectively.
In any case, orbit order and zone is enough.
"Examplestar system has 7 planets, two in the inner zone, the hab zone mainworld of Exampleooine, then a Gas giant and three smaller outer zone worlds."

Now that I think of it, I might sit down and do a simplified way to generate that sentence for any system using rough WBH methods.

 

[CthulhuStig]

@rinku thanks for the great example. When I'm doing my re-read of the world builder rules, I'll have a think about how something like that might fit in. It sounds like a similar idea to what I was thinking for the guided sector creation but for individual systems.