GURPS Space: Star Creator
DataPacRat
agreement' for a program I wrote, called 'GURPS Space: Star Creator',
which automates all the random dice rolling to create systems and
civilizations in GURPS Space.
Now, I just have to go see if they've made it available yet on their
computer aids page (http://www.sjgames.com/general/gm-aids.html)...
Happily,
--
DataPacRat: amateur alchemist, agnostic Gnostic, and memetic engineer.
The Rrangoon species is at http://home.earthlink.net/~ryan_wynne/
Scott
news:yEXs9.2211$Kf.4...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> I just received in the mail, the signed 'software GM aid license
> agreement' for a program I wrote, called 'GURPS Space: Star Creator',
> which automates all the random dice rolling to create systems and
> civilizations in GURPS Space.
What's the difference between your program and StarGen?
___ ______________________________________ ___
(___| Scott K. Schmeelke |______________________________________||___)
DataPacRat
> "DataPacRat" <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote:
>> I just received in the mail, the signed 'software GM aid license
>> agreement' for a program I wrote, called 'GURPS Space: Star Creator',
>> which automates all the random dice rolling to create systems and
>> civilizations in GURPS Space.
> What's the difference between your program and StarGen?
I wanted to generate systems in bulk, without having to fiddle with
one-star-at-a-time on a map, so GSSC simply takes your parameters (TL,
cluster vs core vs spiral arm, XYZ volume, frequency of life, etc), and
outputs its results as an easily-searchable text file.
Also, StarGen won't create planets when more than one star is in a cubic
parsec, while GSSC will; and StarGen is 2D, while GSSC is 3D.
(One irony is that StarGen is a DOS program that outputs graphics, while
mine is a Windows program that outputs text.)
Thank you for your time,
SD Anderson
> agreement' for a program I wrote, called 'GURPS Space: Star Creator',
> which automates all the random dice rolling to create systems and
> civilizations in GURPS Space.
>
> Now, I just have to go see if they've made it available yet on their
> computer aids page (http://www.sjgames.com/general/gm-aids.html)...
Not yet. If it will let us customize worlds a bit more than Star
Gen does I'll be quite happy, ie if I want a biozone Oxy nitrogen
terrestrial world with vast radioactive deposits, I don't end up with
a silicate world in the biozone and a metal rich rockball at the end
of the system which is rich in all kinds of metals but has no
radioactives.
Bruce Grubb
DataPacRat <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote:
>Scott <schm...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> "DataPacRat" <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote:
>
>>> I just received in the mail, the signed 'software GM aid license
>>> agreement' for a program I wrote, called 'GURPS Space: Star Creator',
>>> which automates all the random dice rolling to create systems and
>>> civilizations in GURPS Space.
>
>> What's the difference between your program and StarGen?
>
> I wanted to generate systems in bulk, without having to fiddle with
>one-star-at-a-time on a map, so GSSC simply takes your parameters (TL,
>cluster vs core vs spiral arm, XYZ volume, frequency of life, etc), and
>outputs its results as an easily-searchable text file.
>
> Also, StarGen won't create planets when more than one star is in a cubic
>parsec, while GSSC will; and StarGen is 2D, while GSSC is 3D.
>
> (One irony is that StarGen is a DOS program that outputs graphics, while
>mine is a Windows program that outputs text.)
Stargen is actually both DOS and Mac. You are right about the functionality
of the program though. It is very clumbersome though that is in part it
hasn't been updated in nearly a decade.
DataPacRat
you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
Thank you for your time,
Brandon Cope
> (Shhh... it hasn't been announced on the Daily Illuminator yet, but if
> you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
First, I generally like it better than the old DOS program from the
early 90's. A few comments:
* The Tech Level box needs to be larger; it only shows one digit.
* I'd like to see some numbers for non-mainworlds, such as diameter,
density and gravity. Some systems do not have this information (Dwarf
stars, for one).
* Could a 'civilization generator' be included, to generate social
stats?
Brandon
SD Anderson
> you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
>
>
> Thank you for your time,
Downloaded it, works fine, though for file space saving time and to
avoid that "This file is too large for Notepad, would you like Wordpad
to open it instead?" message, perhaps the files should be saved as
.doc rather than .txt. I think every program that can read a .doc
file can handle pure ascii.
Also, just for the sake of separating wheat from chaff, I recommend
that you pick a high chance of getting planets and generate small
sectors, then increase the volume of that sector retroactively. ie
generate a 6 x 6 x 6 sector to find the *significant* systems with in
it then spread them out in a 20 x 20 x 20 sector (or size of
preference) to get whatever system to system travel times you find
best.
Now if you and the guy who did the "Heaven & Hell" system
generation program for Traveller could swap notes...
DataPacRat
> DataPacRat wrote:
>> (Shhh... it hasn't been announced on the Daily Illuminator yet, but if
>> you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
>> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
>> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
> Downloaded it, works fine
I'm glad to hear it. :)
> though for file space saving time and to avoid that "This file is too
> large for Notepad, would you like Wordpad to open it instead?" message,
> perhaps the files should be saved as .doc rather than .txt. I think
> every program that can read a .doc file can handle pure ascii.
Well... to put it bluntly, I don't like Microsoft's bloated, proprietary,
ever-changing, macro-virus-ridden .doc format. Plus, I'm afraid that .doc
wouldn't save any space; whenever I receive such a file, I simply use a
text editor (even MS-DOS's 'edit') to strip out the garbage, and then save
the remaining plaintext, almost always with no loss of information. One
file went from 22K to 2K, recently.
Now, if you'd asked for an open file format, such as HTML, I would have
seriously considered it. But I happen to have a grudge against .doc...
> Also, just for the sake of separating wheat from chaff, I recommend
> that you pick a high chance of getting planets and generate small
> sectors, then increase the volume of that sector retroactively. ie
> generate a 6 x 6 x 6 sector to find the *significant* systems with in
> it then spread them out in a 20 x 20 x 20 sector (or size of
> preference) to get whatever system to system travel times you find
> best.
I'm not completely sure what you're asking for here - are you suggesting
I rewrite the program, or is this just a way to use it that I hadn't
thought of? What do you mean by 'significant'? And so forth?
> Now if you and the guy who did the "Heaven & Hell" system
> generation program for Traveller could swap notes...
Do you mean 'Heaven & Earth'? :)
I've avoided the Traveller books so far, as once I focus on a particular
setting, I do my best to learn everything about it, and my budget just
can't cover too many more. For example, I probably have one of the most
complete collections for TSR's "Mystara" setting there is; and before the
switched Dragonlance to the 'Saga' system and I gave up on it, I had a
full set of the novels.
From what I've gathered from the outside, though, I understand that 'Far
Trader' and 'First In' have their own, complete, generation systems, which
have already been programmed. Is this true?
Thank you for your time,
DataPacRat
> DataPacRat wrote:
>> (Shhh... it hasn't been announced on the Daily Illuminator yet, but if
>> you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
>> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
>> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
> First, I generally like it better than the old DOS program from the
> early 90's.
Thank you kindly.
> A few comments:
>
> * The Tech Level box needs to be larger; it only shows one digit.
Hm. Must be a difference between our systems; it shows '16' fine on the
ones I've tested. If you don't mind my asking, could you check your
system's "Display Properties", and let me know which font, and which size
of font, you're using?
> * I'd like to see some numbers for non-mainworlds, such as diameter,
> density and gravity. Some systems do not have this information (Dwarf
> stars, for one).
I wrote GSSC simply as a way to run through the process in 'GURPS:
Space', which is where I got the information for such numbers from. This
leaves a few odd details, such as all G V stars - including our own Sun -
having 1.1 Stellar Masses.
If you don't mind my asking, which sort of Dwarf stars are missing which
numbers - Black dwarf, Brown dwarf, White dwarf (Class D), or Subdwarf
(Class VI)?
> * Could a 'civilization generator' be included, to generate social
> stats?
When the random numbers turn up an intelligent species (IQ 8+; you can
increase the chances of life appearing in a system by picking 'Common
(+3)'), GSSC automagically rolls up a civilization for that planet. (If
you don't believe me, it starts on line 2,200 of the .frm file. <grin>)
Or, are you asking for a seperate little program, just for civilizations?
If that's the case - since some of the attributes of an alien race depend
on already-rolled details of the planet (especially their 'Natural
Environment' and 'Preferred Terrain Type'), what I usually do is simply
crank up the "Frequency of Habitable Worlds", crank out a 50-cubic-parsec
sector, and then use a text editor to scan through it for the phrase 'IQ
8'.
David Pidcock
> SD Anderson <10225...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> > DataPacRat wrote:
>
> >> (Shhh... it hasn't been announced on the Daily Illuminator yet, but if
> >> you just happen to browse over to
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
> >> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
> >> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about...
<grin> )
>
> > Downloaded it, works fine
>
> I'm glad to hear it. :)
>
>
> > though for file space saving time and to avoid that "This file is too
> > large for Notepad, would you like Wordpad to open it instead?" message,
> > perhaps the files should be saved as .doc rather than .txt. I think
> > every program that can read a .doc file can handle pure ascii.
>
> Well... to put it bluntly, I don't like Microsoft's bloated, proprietary,
> ever-changing, macro-virus-ridden .doc format. Plus, I'm afraid that .doc
> wouldn't save any space; whenever I receive such a file, I simply use a
> text editor (even MS-DOS's 'edit') to strip out the garbage, and then save
> the remaining plaintext, almost always with no loss of information. One
> file went from 22K to 2K, recently.
>
> Now, if you'd asked for an open file format, such as HTML, I would have
> seriously considered it. But I happen to have a grudge against .doc...
>
I think he means use the ASCII format, but save it with a .doc extension
only. That way he wouldn't have to see that pop-up message in windows, but
he'd still get an ascii file format.
Of course, you might just be better off being able to save to XML as another
option. :)
Brandon Cope
> Brandon Cope <cop...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > DataPacRat wrote:
>
> >> (Shhh... it hasn't been announced on the Daily Illuminator yet, but if
> >> you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
> >> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
> >> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
>
> >
> > * The Tech Level box needs to be larger; it only shows one digit.
>
> Hm. Must be a difference between our systems; it shows '16' fine on the
> ones I've tested. If you don't mind my asking, could you check your
> system's "Display Properties", and let me know which font, and which size
> of font, you're using?
I don't have any font showing ... that box is greyed out. Might be
because I'm using a VGA monitor by trying to fool the computer (and
the @&@%$ video adaprer that it's an SVGA monitor). I can tell you I
can only display at 640x480 resolution.
> > * I'd like to see some numbers for non-mainworlds, such as diameter,
> > density and gravity. Some systems do not have this information (Dwarf
> > stars, for one).
>
> If you don't mind my asking, which sort of Dwarf stars are missing which
> numbers - Black dwarf, Brown dwarf, White dwarf (Class D), or Subdwarf
> (Class VI)?
White Dwarf. Although, I found one with a terrestrial world that *did*
include planetary numbers. Most white dwarfs have only hot rockballs,
which aren't detailed further.
> > * Could a 'civilization generator' be included, to generate social
> > stats?
>
> Or, are you asking for a seperate little program, just for civilizations?
Not necessarily separate. It could be a subprogram off the main one.
I'm not really talking about alien civilizations; a world that was
colonized 400 years ago by humans would have civilization data, for
example.
Brandon
Pizaz
A good start. Since you're just learning the only suggestion i'll make is
that you always use Option Explicit. You used it in Module1 but not in
frmMainForm. If you add that to frmMainForm you'll notice that your code
wont compile since there are quite a few undeclared variables. Also it
would have pointed out two bugs:
If NumberMoonMedium > 0 Then
In the above line of code, you mispelled the declared variable
NumberMoonsMedium by forgetting the letter "s". Thus, the undeclared
variable "NumberMoonMedium" always evaluates to 0. The exact same problem
occurs with the following line using NumberMoonLarge. You left off the
letter "s" here too. The effect of these bugs is that in the text output,
no planets will ever have large moons or medium sized moons.
Anyway, eventually you'll want to start using functions to break up the code
into a more readable version. From the dates in the readme and the dates of
some of the src files, its been over a year since that version was written.
Perhaps you already have a new version that fixes the aforementioned bugs
and structured the code a bit better?
-Mike
"DataPacRat" <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote in message
news:yEXs9.2211$Kf.4...@news20.bellglobal.com...
SD Anderson
> SD Anderson <10225...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> > DataPacRat wrote:
>
> >> (Shhh... it hasn't been announced on the Daily Illuminator yet, but if
> >> you just happen to browse over to http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/
> >> and scroll down to the end of the GURPS section, you just might find a
> >> program which the programmer is interested in feedback about... <grin> )
>
> > Downloaded it, works fine
>
> I'm glad to hear it. :)
>
>
> > though for file space saving time and to avoid that "This file is too
> > large for Notepad, would you like Wordpad to open it instead?" message,
> > perhaps the files should be saved as .doc rather than .txt. I think
> > every program that can read a .doc file can handle pure ascii.
>
> Well... to put it bluntly, I don't like Microsoft's bloated, proprietary,
> ever-changing, macro-virus-ridden .doc format. Plus, I'm afraid that .doc
> wouldn't save any space; whenever I receive such a file, I simply use a
> text editor (even MS-DOS's 'edit') to strip out the garbage, and then save
> the remaining plaintext, almost always with no loss of information. One
> file went from 22K to 2K, recently.
*Saving* space isn't the issue. Notepad point blank will not open
any file over about 50k. Period. It' will ask if you want to use
Word/Wordpad instead. Using the .doc extension would simply rid that
minor annoyance.
>
> Now, if you'd asked for an open file format, such as HTML, I would have
> seriously considered it. But I happen to have a grudge against .doc...
>
>
> > Also, just for the sake of separating wheat from chaff, I recommend
> > that you pick a high chance of getting planets and generate small
> > sectors, then increase the volume of that sector retroactively. ie
> > generate a 6 x 6 x 6 sector to find the *significant* systems with in
> > it then spread them out in a 20 x 20 x 20 sector (or size of
> > preference) to get whatever system to system travel times you find
> > best.
>
> I'm not completely sure what you're asking for here - are you suggesting
> I rewrite the program, or is this just a way to use it that I hadn't
> thought of? What do you mean by 'significant'? And so forth?
A 20 x 20 x 20 sector generation (which is the 'standard' for the
space atlas series IIRC) builds a LARGE file and you may have to go
through it thoroughly to find the habitable worlds among the systems
that don't have any habitable worlds but do have worlds etc.
Generating small but densely populated numbers and diluting through
a volume increase is a fast way to get X numbers of significant
systems without the large number of insignificant ones.
>
>
> > Now if you and the guy who did the "Heaven & Hell" system
> > generation program for Traveller could swap notes...
>
> Do you mean 'Heaven & Earth'? :)
Yep. Any system that puts world maps in the ahem proper ahem form,
which I'm not about to attempt to spell at this hour, is good.
H&E just generates Traveller specific numbers. I'd love to see
GURPS numbers attached to those graphics etc.
Peter Fabricius
> *Saving* space isn't the issue. Notepad point blank will not open
> any file over about 50k. Period. It' will ask if you want to use
> Word/Wordpad instead. Using the .doc extension would simply rid that
> minor annoyance.
>
Only partly true. Notepad in Windows 95 / 98 / ME will not, but Notepad
in Windows NT4 / 2000 / XP has no such limitation.
Unfortunately while the version from 9x will run under NT/2k/XP the
opposite is not possible.
Peter
DataPacRat
> A good start. Since you're just learning the only suggestion i'll make is
> that you always use Option Explicit. You used it in Module1 but not in
> frmMainForm. If you add that to frmMainForm you'll notice that your code
> wont compile since there are quite a few undeclared variables. Also it
> would have pointed out two bugs:
> Anyway, eventually you'll want to start using functions to break up the code
> into a more readable version. From the dates in the readme and the dates of
> some of the src files, its been over a year since that version was written.
> Perhaps you already have a new version that fixes the aforementioned bugs
> and structured the code a bit better?
Because of the above-mentioned bugs, plus a few mentioned to me in
private email, in a few days I'm going to fix everything I can, and have
the kind folks at sjgames.com replace gssc.zip with gssc-11.zip. So if
there's anything you'd like me to fix, now's the best time to let me know.
Thank you for your time,
DataPacRat
> DataPacRat <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote in message news:<IZVy9.8031$w07.1...@news20.bellglobal.com>...
>> Brandon Cope <cop...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> > * The Tech Level box needs to be larger; it only shows one digit.
>>
>> Hm. Must be a difference between our systems; it shows '16' fine on the
>> ones I've tested. If you don't mind my asking, could you check your
>> system's "Display Properties", and let me know which font, and which size
>> of font, you're using?
>
> I don't have any font showing ... that box is greyed out. Might be
> because I'm using a VGA monitor by trying to fool the computer (and
> the @&@%$ video adaprer that it's an SVGA monitor). I can tell you I
> can only display at 640x480 resolution.
'Sokay; I spend most of my time on a monochrome, 640x480 VGA, 486 laptop.
(In fact, I spend most of my time in text mode, running DOS instead of
Windows.) I'll see if I can fix this for v1.1.
>> > * I'd like to see some numbers for non-mainworlds, such as diameter,
>> > density and gravity. Some systems do not have this information (Dwarf
>> > stars, for one).
>>
>> If you don't mind my asking, which sort of Dwarf stars are missing which
>> numbers - Black dwarf, Brown dwarf, White dwarf (Class D), or Subdwarf
>> (Class VI)?
>
> White Dwarf. Although, I found one with a terrestrial world that *did*
> include planetary numbers. Most white dwarfs have only hot rockballs,
> which aren't detailed further.
Ah, I see what you mean, now. That's a result of the way GURPS: Space set
up the planet-generation process - any star might have a 'greenhouse
world' or 'hot rockball world', and no further details are listed in the
book.
What do you think - should I include an option to generate
terrestrial-type details for such worlds?
>> > * Could a 'civilization generator' be included, to generate social
>> > stats?
>>
>> Or, are you asking for a seperate little program, just for civilizations?
>
> Not necessarily separate. It could be a subprogram off the main one.
> I'm not really talking about alien civilizations; a world that was
> colonized 400 years ago by humans would have civilization data, for
> example.
Actually, the Native Intelligence generation system does include 'Human
colony (perhaps lost)' as one of the possible results.
I think I'm going to keep the civ-generator as part of the main program
(for now, at least); I want to concentrate on GSSC as a whole, rather than
splitting it up. Plus, since you have the source code, there's nothing to
stop you from compiling your own version... :)
DataPacRat
> DataPacRat <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote in message news:<nFVy9.7651$EY2.1...@news20.bellglobal.com>...
>> SD Anderson <10225...@compuserve.com> wrote:
>> > though for file space saving time and to avoid that "This file is too
>> > large for Notepad, would you like Wordpad to open it instead?" message,
>> > perhaps the files should be saved as .doc rather than .txt. I think
>> > every program that can read a .doc file can handle pure ascii.
>>
>> Well... to put it bluntly, I don't like Microsoft's bloated, proprietary,
>> ever-changing, macro-virus-ridden .doc format. Plus, I'm afraid that .doc
>> wouldn't save any space; whenever I receive such a file, I simply use a
>> text editor (even MS-DOS's 'edit') to strip out the garbage, and then save
>> the remaining plaintext, almost always with no loss of information. One
>> file went from 22K to 2K, recently.
>
> *Saving* space isn't the issue. Notepad point blank will not open
> any file over about 50k. Period. It' will ask if you want to use
> Word/Wordpad instead. Using the .doc extension would simply rid that
> minor annoyance.
Ah, now I think I understand - your favorite text editor is Notepad from
Windows 9x. Long ago, I simply had Windows open all .txt files with
Wordpad, precisely to stop noticing that particular... feature.
About all that I can suggest is, if you'd like the output textfiles to
use the .doc extension, that you enter that in the Filename box instead of
the default "sector-001.txt".
>> > Also, just for the sake of separating wheat from chaff, I recommend
>> > that you pick a high chance of getting planets and generate small
>> > sectors, then increase the volume of that sector retroactively. ie
>> > generate a 6 x 6 x 6 sector to find the *significant* systems with in
>> > it then spread them out in a 20 x 20 x 20 sector (or size of
>> > preference) to get whatever system to system travel times you find
>> > best.
>>
>> I'm not completely sure what you're asking for here - are you suggesting
>> I rewrite the program, or is this just a way to use it that I hadn't
>> thought of? What do you mean by 'significant'? And so forth?
>
> A 20 x 20 x 20 sector generation (which is the 'standard' for the
> space atlas series IIRC) builds a LARGE file and you may have to go
> through it thoroughly to find the habitable worlds among the systems
> that don't have any habitable worlds but do have worlds etc.
>
> Generating small but densely populated numbers and diluting through
> a volume increase is a fast way to get X numbers of significant
> systems without the large number of insignificant ones.
Hm... I suppose you could always say that the co-ordinates represent some
distance larger than 1 parsec each. :)
Hm... a second thought. What would you say to a future version of GSSC
generating a file such as "sector-index-001.txt", which logs the
coordinates of, say, systems with Intelligent Life, or an Oxy-Nitro
atmosphere, or an "Extremely plentiful!" mineral, so you could more easily
find them in the main "sector-001.txt" file?
>> > Now if you and the guy who did the "Heaven & Hell" system
>> > generation program for Traveller could swap notes...
>>
>> Do you mean 'Heaven & Earth'? :)
>
> Yep. Any system that puts world maps in the ahem proper ahem form,
> which I'm not about to attempt to spell at this hour, is good.
>
> H&E just generates Traveller specific numbers. I'd love to see
> GURPS numbers attached to those graphics etc.
Well, as I've probably said elsewhere, I know nothing about Traveller;
GSSC is completely from "GURPS: Space", no specific setting. If somebody
who's reading this has a copy of "Traveller: First In", would you mind
describing how its system-generation compares to "GURPS: Space"'s?
JefWilson
<spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> writes:
> Well, as I've probably said elsewhere, I know nothing about Traveller;
>GSSC is completely from "GURPS: Space", no specific setting. If somebody
>who's reading this has a copy of "Traveller: First In", would you mind
>describing how its system-generation compares to "GURPS: Space"'s?
System generation is completely compatible. First In is more detailed than
Space. Culture and government generation is slightly different since First In
is specifically designed for the Traveller universe, but still fairly
compatible. Once again, First In is more detailed.
I haven't had a chance to look at your program yet. I'll undoubtedly have more
comments when I do.
Jeff a. Wilson
http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/
SD Anderson
> SD Anderson <10225...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> > DataPacRat <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote in message news:<nFVy9.7651$EY2.1...@news20.bellglobal.com>...
> >> SD Anderson <10225...@compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> >> > though for file space saving time and to avoid that "This file is too
> >> > large for Notepad, would you like Wordpad to open it instead?" message,
> >> > perhaps the files should be saved as .doc rather than .txt. I think
> >> > every program that can read a .doc file can handle pure ascii.
> >>
> >> Well... to put it bluntly, I don't like Microsoft's bloated, proprietary,
> >> ever-changing, macro-virus-ridden .doc format. Plus, I'm afraid that .doc
> >> wouldn't save any space; whenever I receive such a file, I simply use a
> >> text editor (even MS-DOS's 'edit') to strip out the garbage, and then save
> >> the remaining plaintext, almost always with no loss of information. One
> >> file went from 22K to 2K, recently.
> >
> > *Saving* space isn't the issue. Notepad point blank will not open
> > any file over about 50k. Period. It' will ask if you want to use
> > Word/Wordpad instead. Using the .doc extension would simply rid that
> > minor annoyance.
>
> Ah, now I think I understand - your favorite text editor is Notepad from
> Windows 9x. Long ago, I simply had Windows open all .txt files with
> Wordpad, precisely to stop noticing that particular... feature.
"Favorite" has nothing to do with it. If I had my druthers, it'd
open with PC Write!!! Unfortunately that requires going to DOS.
Notepad at least is good for ditching formatting on text. Wordpad has
the "lovely" feature of defaulting to RTF pastes. Generally when I
want text, I want TEXT.
>
> About all that I can suggest is, if you'd like the output textfiles to
> use the .doc extension, that you enter that in the Filename box instead of
> the default "sector-001.txt".
Howabout a way to set the default file title?
>
>
> >> > Also, just for the sake of separating wheat from chaff, I recommend
> >> > that you pick a high chance of getting planets and generate small
> >> > sectors, then increase the volume of that sector retroactively. ie
> >> > generate a 6 x 6 x 6 sector to find the *significant* systems with in
> >> > it then spread them out in a 20 x 20 x 20 sector (or size of
> >> > preference) to get whatever system to system travel times you find
> >> > best.
> >>
> >> I'm not completely sure what you're asking for here - are you suggesting
> >> I rewrite the program, or is this just a way to use it that I hadn't
> >> thought of? What do you mean by 'significant'? And so forth?
> >
> > A 20 x 20 x 20 sector generation (which is the 'standard' for the
> > space atlas series IIRC) builds a LARGE file and you may have to go
> > through it thoroughly to find the habitable worlds among the systems
> > that don't have any habitable worlds but do have worlds etc.
> >
> > Generating small but densely populated numbers and diluting through
> > a volume increase is a fast way to get X numbers of significant
> > systems without the large number of insignificant ones.
>
> Hm... I suppose you could always say that the co-ordinates represent some
> distance larger than 1 parsec each. :)
>
> Hm... a second thought. What would you say to a future version of GSSC
> generating a file such as "sector-index-001.txt", which logs the
> coordinates of, say, systems with Intelligent Life, or an Oxy-Nitro
> atmosphere, or an "Extremely plentiful!" mineral, so you could more easily
> find them in the main "sector-001.txt" file?
>
Sounds good!
>
> >> > Now if you and the guy who did the "Heaven & Hell" system
> >> > generation program for Traveller could swap notes...
> >>
> >> Do you mean 'Heaven & Earth'? :)
> >
> > Yep. Any system that puts world maps in the ahem proper ahem form,
> > which I'm not about to attempt to spell at this hour, is good.
> >
> > H&E just generates Traveller specific numbers. I'd love to see
> > GURPS numbers attached to those graphics etc.
>
> Well, as I've probably said elsewhere, I know nothing about Traveller;
> GSSC is completely from "GURPS: Space", no specific setting. If somebody
> who's reading this has a copy of "Traveller: First In", would you mind
> describing how its system-generation compares to "GURPS: Space"'s?
>
Traveller Planet Codes go numerically with single digits then use
the alphabet to continue as single digits what would otherwise be
double digit values. Earth being the standard and Earth like being
valued at 7. Thus a denser world with a heavier gravity than Earth
might rate a diameter of 6 and gravity of 8.
It's... annoying to translate those codes back into real world
figures. ;)
Admittedly true Traveller fanatics live and breathe Planetary and
Character Profile codes, so translation for them is automatic. <W>
Pizaz
describe the offsets for each sector. It could also have a summary field to
note sectors of "interest" (however you choose to define that). The index
could be used by another program to view the sectors in single page views at
a time.
Just a thought.
-Mike
>"DataPacRat" <spam.datap...@warren.kill.com> wrote in message
news:P2Fz9.2024$md7.2...@news20.bellglobal.com...
>> SD Anderson <10225...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> > A 20 x 20 x 20 sector generation (which is the 'standard' for the
> > space atlas series IIRC) builds a LARGE file and you may have to go
> > through it thoroughly to find the habitable worlds among the systems
> > that don't have any habitable worlds but do have worlds etc.
> > <snip>
> Hm... a second thought. What would you say to a future version of GSSC
> generating a file such as "sector-index-001.txt", which logs the
> coordinates of, say, systems with Intelligent Life, or an Oxy-Nitro
> atmosphere, or an "Extremely plentiful!" mineral, so you could more easily
> find them in the main "sector-001.txt" file?
<snip>
Mornir
Anderson) wrote:
> "Favorite" has nothing to do with it. If I had my druthers, it'd
>open with PC Write!!! Unfortunately that requires going to DOS.
>Notepad at least is good for ditching formatting on text. Wordpad has
>the "lovely" feature of defaulting to RTF pastes. Generally when I
>want text, I want TEXT.
Ah...why don't you change the default? It's not hard.
Windows is piss poor, I admit, but you can just go into the settings
and change the link for text files to point to another program. Then
you don't have to have Notepad or Wordpad, or whatever.
--
<Mornir - mor...@despammed.com - http://www.livejournal.com/~booklog/>
SD Anderson
> On 11 Nov 2002 11:16:14 -0800, 10225...@compuserve.com (SD
> Anderson) wrote:
> > "Favorite" has nothing to do with it. If I had my druthers, it'd
> >open with PC Write!!! Unfortunately that requires going to DOS.
> >Notepad at least is good for ditching formatting on text. Wordpad has
> >the "lovely" feature of defaulting to RTF pastes. Generally when I
> >want text, I want TEXT.
>
> Ah...why don't you change the default? It's not hard.
> Windows is piss poor, I admit, but you can just go into the settings
> and change the link for text files to point to another program. Then
> you don't have to have Notepad or Wordpad, or whatever.
As I noted above, the program I prefer to use runs in DOS. Quite
frankly I don't WANT any non pure ASCII programs messing with files I
have as .txt. If it's possible for formattting crap to get saved in a
file I explicitly want formatting crap free, Murphy and his Law will
see crud happens. So KEEPING notepad as the default .txt editor is a
good thing for me.
Saving the Ascii data under a .doc extension would be a convenience
for anyone else dealing with that 50K restriction. I'll just have to
change the .txt to .doc manually.
Rob Kelk
<snip>
> As I noted above, the program I prefer to use runs in DOS. Quite
> frankly I don't WANT any non pure ASCII programs messing with files I
> have as .txt. If it's possible for formattting crap to get saved in a
> file I explicitly want formatting crap free, Murphy and his Law will
> see crud happens. So KEEPING notepad as the default .txt editor is a
> good thing for me.
>
> Saving the Ascii data under a .doc extension would be a convenience
> for anyone else dealing with that 50K restriction. I'll just have to
> change the .txt to .doc manually.
I suppose you wouldn't be interested in looking at other text-only
editing programs for Windows? (I like Programmer's File Editor - it's
freeware. <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/default.htm>) It
isn't a perfect solution in your case, but I'd think that that would be
easier than changing the default file extension...
--
Rob Kelk Personal address: robkelk -at- jksrv -dot- com
Any opinions here are mine, not the Government's.
DataPacRat
> Because of the above-mentioned bugs, plus a few mentioned to me in
> private email, in a few days I'm going to fix everything I can, and have
> the kind folks at sjgames.com replace gssc.zip with gssc-11.zip. So if
> there's anything you'd like me to fix, now's the best time to let me know.
If anybody's interested, v1.1 is going to be slightly delayed; my
desktop, the machine I program on, went into the shop today. My data drive
is perfectly fine (sitting next to me as I type (on my 486 laptop, too
li'l to install Visual Basic on), in fact), so as soon as I have a working
computer to plug it into, I'll be able to get right back where I left off.
(And there's another benefit of having made the source code available with
the executable - if my drive crashed, I'd still be able to write
improvements.)
(Hm, is there any way to make this post more directly related to GURPS?
How about making a comment about the rules for maintenance needing a bit
of tweaking to better reflect random computer crashes? :) )