Heaven and Earth program
- Thread starter Murph
- Start date
I've used it. As far as I can tell, its very good, but I own an old system and it runs very, very, very slowly on a P150. My only quible is that all the maps it generates for a system are based on the same geography, ie if the main world is a desert world, all the others in the system are mapped as such. I have only used the CT rules to generate systems, so can't comment on how well it models the other rules that I am unfamilure with. Final comment, its free!
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Traveller, if you go to Sparta, tell them you have seen us lying here as the law commands.
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Traveller, if you go to Sparta, tell them you have seen us lying here as the law commands.
Christopher Jennings
SOC-9
I've used quite recently and I have to say that I am impressed by what it can kick out. Now it is a monster of a program and is a bit slow even on 300+ mhz machines, but it kicks out ALOT of usable stuff in the end so it is worth the wait. It will even generate encounter tables, cargos, and important contacts if the system has anything to offer. Personally, the only big problem that I see is that if your running a "wandering" type adventure you might have to spend a pretty fair amount of time on systems that the party "might" visit. Oh, and you have got to have one of the servey books to have the base-line data to imput into the program.
Bottom line-is it worth haveing and using, I think so.
Bottom line-is it worth haveing and using, I think so.
Christopher Jennings
SOC-9
I agree, while the program is a little slow by todays standards the quality and amount of information that H&E can spit out is just increadible. I've played the game since the first little black box set, and the things that are available to support a GM today is fantastic. And the price is right too!
daryen
SOC-14 1K
My impressions of H&E.
First, if I did not have access to H&E I could not have done all of the landgrab things I have done. I have grabbed more than my fair share and still done others just for the heck of it. I will probably end up doing something for each of the Daryen worlds, and there is no way I could have done any of this without H&E.
(I have not used its sector generation capabilities. I have only ever used its world creating capabilities. So I can't really comment on the former, only the latter.)
It is very comprehensive and not only spits out a huge amount of data, but spits out a huge amount of USEFUL data that works with the rules. For me, the biggest thing is the maps, and the map editor.
That said, there are a reasonably large set of problems that I really wish were fixed. (It does not appear that the author is actively supporting it anymore.)
- It can be unstable. You learn to just not try certain things.
- It "clutters" the sector data file when making changes. (The defaults need to be fixed.)
- You can't adjust orbits. (I end up changing sun size to get a world temperature I need.)
- It can be a bit non-intuitive to use.
I have used both the last release, 1.0.4, and the last beta, 1.0.8. I continue to use the beta because the 1.0.4 features are more stable in 1.0.8 (like map editing), though the new features (like detail editing) are so buggy as to be unusable.
Overall, despite its flaws and apparent non-support by its author, I still highly recommend using it as I have not found anything that even remotely comes close to duplicating its working features.
First, if I did not have access to H&E I could not have done all of the landgrab things I have done. I have grabbed more than my fair share and still done others just for the heck of it. I will probably end up doing something for each of the Daryen worlds, and there is no way I could have done any of this without H&E.
(I have not used its sector generation capabilities. I have only ever used its world creating capabilities. So I can't really comment on the former, only the latter.)
It is very comprehensive and not only spits out a huge amount of data, but spits out a huge amount of USEFUL data that works with the rules. For me, the biggest thing is the maps, and the map editor.
That said, there are a reasonably large set of problems that I really wish were fixed. (It does not appear that the author is actively supporting it anymore.)
- It can be unstable. You learn to just not try certain things.
- It "clutters" the sector data file when making changes. (The defaults need to be fixed.)
- You can't adjust orbits. (I end up changing sun size to get a world temperature I need.)
- It can be a bit non-intuitive to use.
I have used both the last release, 1.0.4, and the last beta, 1.0.8. I continue to use the beta because the 1.0.4 features are more stable in 1.0.8 (like map editing), though the new features (like detail editing) are so buggy as to be unusable.
Overall, despite its flaws and apparent non-support by its author, I still highly recommend using it as I have not found anything that even remotely comes close to duplicating its working features.
alexhawman
SOC-3
I think that for the time pressed GM that H&E is possibly the bets tool I have seen yet, you can get an aweful lot of information and ideas out of the vast amount of material it generates.
My computer is quite fast, and it runs great and quick unless I generate a compleate sector with detailed planets maps and sytems, I think that running windows 2000 is probably the safest platform based upon the architecture of it.
My computer is quite fast, and it runs great and quick unless I generate a compleate sector with detailed planets maps and sytems, I think that running windows 2000 is probably the safest platform based upon the architecture of it.
I've been impressed with what I've seen. I do have one question. I'm familiar with just about every version of Traveller, but I don't understand the difference between the two versions of UWP it can generate (from the rules tab.) IIRC they are listed as "Standard UWP generation" and "Non-Standard UWP generation". Can anyone help with this? Do they differ for every version of the rules (CT, TNE, Gurps etc.) or for just one of them.
thanks
thanks
I was once fortunate enough to be a part of the Beta team, before work got in my way and I had to stop. The Non-standard UWP generation refers to the alternate method offered in Jim V's Galactic software, to help cover some of the functionality that other world gen software packages offered. Stuart did a great job, in my opinion!
Enjoy,
Jason "Flynn" Kemp
Enjoy,
Jason "Flynn" Kemp
In Stuart's defense on the issue of bugs and inefficiencies in H&E, let me just point out that the program is essentially in permanent beta status, and it's also written in Visual BASIC - an easy language to work with, but not necessarily the one I would have chosen.
That said, it is still probably the best program I've seen, bar none, for generating worlds in detail and in bulk - the only thing that I'd really like to see is a non-lossy way to move data between H&E and GAL, both directions.
That said, it is still probably the best program I've seen, bar none, for generating worlds in detail and in bulk - the only thing that I'd really like to see is a non-lossy way to move data between H&E and GAL, both directions.
Skylinkdave
SOC-8
Ok, for those of us who've never used it, where can we get it, so we can judge for ourselves?
<edit>
Er, nevermind, but to save everyone else a bit of digging, here's the link:
Heaven and Earth
</edit>
Dave
<edit>
Er, nevermind, but to save everyone else a bit of digging, here's the link:
Heaven and Earth
</edit>
Dave
