I dont agree. Ive got a heck of a lot of pleasure out of creating things in Traveller that were never used in any games. In fact almost all of my time with Traveller has been spent outside of games. Maybe that's unusual for a role playing game but CT always enabled me to do that. Mind you I think I would have hated using CT in an actual game it was far too unwieldy. I think though Traveller can provide both aspects - creative design and gaming rules/ideas.
Which is just fine. But when designing an actual worldgen system, it should be modular enough to either feed various universe/genres to include pulp or golden age as well as latest science. Modularity would also assist the latter as newer information modifies the ‘as we know it’ changes in stellar system composition.
I am a keen follower of John Z.'s on Patreon, and his recent changes to AoW. He's been "doogfooding" AoW, creating systems for some of his other work. My implementation of AoW has stalled at the protoplanetary disk stage, as I'm waiting for some announced changes.
I keep up mostly through being friends on facebook, is your implementation an automated system generator?
Yes, I am a supporter of his as well. I think you were the one who clued me in. AoW is fantastic.
There are times I wish I hadn't withdrawn from social media. Reading your first sentence was one.
3D maps are great. The density map at 4 is interesting, and it is basically what I have found mapping out 521 of the closest star systems is that they have a tendency to cluster together. Someone noticed on my tech chart I have "jump 3" at TL 11, and that is because Jump 3 really opens the universe. Then one can jump from system to system, and cluster to cluster, there still are voids, though not as much. Like I just published a book Andromeda Dragons name so because of the Upsilon Andromedae, plus Chi and Sigma Draconis stars are the brightest in their zones. Inside the clusters, Jump 2 is sufficient for a lot of Jumps, and there is a Jump 2 main, if one bridges at 61 Cygni, it reaches back to Sol, that I figured initial expansion traveled on. I used GURPS Space which john wrote, as well as regular sources, CT up through T5; I like the RTT System gen though haven't used it. I also have used some of the system generation from AstroSynthesis, and where actual exoplanets are in catalogs such as exokyoto, I just adapted the data to traveller, adding it in. I am always interested in a new system generation program.
So true. J3 has virtually no limits to travel whatsoever once the portion of space volumes that have systems hits about 25%. I ended up tweaking the math to allow for numerous "mains" of 1.5 parsec or less distances, separated by more challenging jumps. Sometimes the routes are only cyclical or temporary, such as those created by the alignment of stars in widely separated binary systems. When I generate a new volume of space, I use a network analysis tool (networkX) to check for clusters and paths between them, hoping for strategically "interesting" arrangements of routes. Geography has so often dictated the limits of human interaction, exchange, and warfare, that I think it's useful to draw on that same abstraction for games played by humans.
The interesting thing about cluster density, is that one can get 5 or so 1-2 jump systems, and then those clusters are separated out by longer jumps. That topography can be added to, by finding real life back door, one little system bridging to the clusters. It sort of reminds me of a brain, with neurons, galaxy wide.
