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Subsector generation.

mike wightman

SOC-14 10K
This is probably an exercise in grandmothers and egg sucking, but here goes.

A lot of people don't like the random combinations of physical details vs social data that the LBB3 world generation throws up.

I had a thought.

Why not:
</font>
  • roll to determine if a world is in a subsector hex.</font>
  • generate the physical stats for each world - size, atmosphere, and hydrographics - and allocate each stat block to a world location</font>
  • generate the social stats - population, government, and law level - for the number of worlds generated, list them, and then allocate them to the physical stat block of your choosing</font>
  • generate the starport types for the number of worlds generated, list them, and then allocate each one to the world of your choosing.</font>
Or as above, but allocate a location once all the world data has been put together.


Random generation, but with choice ;)
 
And now for an example, first the subsector:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">O - O O O - - O
O O - O - - - O
O - O O - - O O
O O - - - - - -
- O - - O - - -
O - - - - - - O
- - O O - O - -
- O O - O O O O
- O - - - - - O
- O O - - - - -</pre>[/QUOTE]
 
Next, thirty three sets of physical characteristics:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">365 100 524 678
888 782 551 594
457 515 120 677
300 6B0 AAA 510
463 888 628 662
340 100 313 321
7A3 140 655 637
7A0 97A 554 646
542</pre>[/QUOTE]Then I go through the list and highlight the choice worlds for human habitation - atmosphere 5, 6, and 8, some water.
I'll indicate them with a *.
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">365* 100 524 678
888* 782* 551* 594
457* 515 120 677
300 6B0 AAA 510
463* 888* 628 662*
340 100 313 321
7A3 140 655* 637
7A0 97A 554* 646
542</pre>[/QUOTE]These worlds are where I'll probably have the higher population rolls I'm about to make.

I'm also on the lookout for worlds that would make good industrial planets - atmospheres 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, or 9. I'll show those with an i.
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">365* 100i 524i 678i
888* 782* 551* 594i
457* 515i 120i 677i
300i 6B0 AAA 510i
463* 888* 628i 662*
340i 100i 313i 321
7A3 140i 655* 637
7A0 97Ai 554* 646
542i</pre>[/QUOTE]
 
Next thing to do then is to generate the social stats.
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">103 321 400 220
784 677b AEBh 105
667c 677b 669c 87Ab
256 979hb 753 223
421 860c 675b 8BC
033 642 520 667c
330 410 442 869c
895 8AC 233 410
530</pre>[/QUOTE]Hmm, two high population worlds(h), and six with a population of 8.

Five worlds have captive governments(c) - is there a bit of "expansion" going on?

There are five balkanised worlds - including one of the high pop worlds... hmmm

There appear to be two blocs within this subsector - five worlds have government 2 (participating democracy), while four have government 3 (self-perpetuating oligarchy).
They could co-exist on the balkanised worlds, and the captive governments could be the result of...

I love the way Traveller writes itself ;)
 
Sigg,

I assume you've heard of Jim Vassilako's alternate World Generation method, which he integrated into Galactic as an option. It does many of the things you're doing here, save that it modifies die rolls for social based on physical, and then starport based on Pop and physical stats.

Here it is, for your reading enjoyment (3rd article on the following page):

http://au.geocities.com/ca_barnett/traveller/misc/worlds.htm

Hope this helps,
Flynn
 
Assigning randomly generated sets of physical stats to randomly generated social stats to randomly generated starports, seems little different than what is already going on. Creating "the most appropriately" assigned states rests on integration of the social stats with the physical stats, and then the starport based on all of these, and not on pure randomness.

In an ideal evironment, the presence of other nearby worlds would be taken into account during the random generation process.

For example, the Spinward Main, if it really is a grand procession of enormous amounts of trade, should have a quite different galactography than it does. Each world along it should influence the stats of all the other, and further the special nature of the Spinward Main itself should play a part in determining the social stats and starports, as well.
 
RoS:

Ideally, yes.

Realistically? Is this level of detail achievable without a simulation/modelling iterative approach?

Also, which way does one flow the process?
 
Originally posted by RainOfSteel:
For example, the Spinward Main, if it really is a grand procession of enormous amounts of trade, should have a quite different galactography than it does. Each world along it should influence the stats of all the other,
IMTU I'm coming around to the notion that trade in the Marches (and perhaps in general in Charted Space) is much more localized, sporadic, and haphazard than is depicted in later sources. Megacorps with multi-kiloton ships still ply the main Hi-pop tradeworlds, but once you step a parsec or two off the beaten trail the universe becomes a place where subsidized merchants and free traders really make the difference in keeping worlds in communication with one another. I like the notion that out on the fringes of the Imperium whether the PCs in their Type A2 visit one world or another really matters to the inhabitants of those worlds.
 
Jeff's solution is sort of the way I think about it, too, and paints a decent-enough (romanticized?) 17th century "age of sail" thing.
 
IMHO trade in CT is driven by the high TL worlds selling their high tech stuff to the lower TL worlds - especially components for fusion power plants, jump drives, and computers - while in return those lower TL worlds manage to sell a limited quantity of novelty items and luxuries back to the high TL worlds.

Hence the low TL worlds rarely invest in raising their own TL base because it is cheaper for them to import stuff.
 
Originally posted by RainOfSteel:

For example, the Spinward Main, if it really is a grand procession of enormous amounts of trade, should have a quite different galactography than it does. Each world along it should influence the stats of all the other, and further the special nature of the Spinward Main itself should play a part in determining the social stats and starports, as well.
This actually raises a question I have always had about the Marches, but never remembered to ask.

Were the Marches a complete random generation in its initial form? How much "tweaking" was done to it in order to make it into its published state?
 
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