GoblynByte
SOC-8
Why is the Native Intelligent Life/Native Status note not included in the Second Survey Format?
NIL not in Second Survey?
- Thread starter GoblynByte
- Start date
Because the format hasn't been fully brought to T5 compliance. It's essentially legacy data that's being updated. The process is ongoing. There's a lot of data from a wide group of sources.
GoblynByte
SOC-8
Cool. Thanks.
As I understand it though, this shouldn't be too much of a problem when it comes to updating the format.
Because the T5 data format is self documenting - with a header that defines the fileds in the file and the field order - adding new fields should be streghtforward and allow for backwards compatibility. Parsers designed for older versions of the format should just ignore new fields, and newer parsers will just need to set a default value or something to read older data files.
Simon Hibbs
Because the T5 data format is self documenting - with a header that defines the fileds in the file and the field order - adding new fields should be streghtforward and allow for backwards compatibility. Parsers designed for older versions of the format should just ignore new fields, and newer parsers will just need to set a default value or something to read older data files.
Simon Hibbs
A lot of the T5 data simply does not exist in the older materials.
No prior edition notated for it.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
There is also the factor that you (or Marc) can only go so far with randomized UWPs before thought and creativity are required. There is a LOT of the map where this has not happened beyond making sure the world names coming out of the word generators are actually readable. Alien races fall firmly into the "thought and creativity" realm even with the Sophont Maker, so it can take a while to grind through all of those sectors.
And then, the third party generated stuff... some in FASA materials, some in Gamelords materials, 3 in DGP generated materials. where the data has been hand massaged already for the initial run.
To be clear: the T5-centric data interchange formats documented at travellermap.com/doc/fileformats are my own creation, to describe the input/output of my site. The canonical T5SS data is actually in a spreadsheet.
T5 (the book) defines NIL Native Intelligent Life / Native Status, and gives values of: Natives, Exotics, Transplants, Extinct, Vanished, Transients, Settlers, and Corporate or Colonists. The book also gives the rules for assigning those (e.g. Pop 7+, Atm 2-9, TL 1+ = Natives). So given a UWP, you can determine the NIL. It's not necessary to include it in the data, just like RU. That's true for most of the remarks codes as well, of course.
I could generate NIL codes (and RU, etc) for inclusion in T5-format output from the site, if there's demand for it. However... there's also the detail that the OTU is not required to be derived from the rules. As Aramis mentions, it's hand-massaged. So blithely following the rules doesn't guarantee useful results. And a complete audit of all the worlds in the T5SS for NIL (among other data) has not happened (yet).
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