I am a sucker for deck plans. I must have hundreds stashed away on my Traveller drives. I even bought a large format printer (goes to 13x19) to print them out. I have printed a few of them, and we've used them a bit in gaming. I've also bought the GURPS CD #2 and it had cardboard heroes, so I bought some card stock, a cutting board and printed a sheet up. Not liking the folding aspect, I also bought some game stands that the pieces can fit into. These are 25mm scale images, although I suppose I could reduce the size and make them 15 mm scale for the plans I print out. I do like a physical layout when we have battles just so we know where people are at.
But my favorite deck plans, of which I've managed to actually use at least 2 times in my sadly finished game, are poster-sized deck plans. I've been addicted to Kickstarter for far too long, but Ryan Wolfe is one of my automatically join campaigns. Not only does he do the poster (2 sided with a variant if it is single sided) but also a mini as well as a well designed PDF that goers over the ship. While the stats are somewhat generic, I can make up the Traveller stats as needed.
His latest is sort of an oddball ship which is the start of an alien series of designs.
Friday, September 15, 2017
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Traveller Tracker - Ship Classes with High Guard types
As it says on the tin - I've added a couple of text files that list the ship types from High Guard. Long term perhaps stick them into the DB for editing but for draft 1, the classic list works for me.
I also keep forgetting that I cannot delete columns in the DB, so there is a bit of duplicate data sadly. I am hoping that eventually the SqlLite EF adds more DB handling.
I also keep forgetting that I cannot delete columns in the DB, so there is a bit of duplicate data sadly. I am hoping that eventually the SqlLite EF adds more DB handling.
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Traveller Tracker - Location
As a test I've set the API to pull the 1105 data, and that works. Currently the API is called at the start of the program so I'll default to 1105 / OTU. But I will add the era listing for the ship and allow you to reload the sectors for that era. Not sure how that works later on when picking a system and all that, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Monday, September 04, 2017
Traveller Tracker - Logs and Location
Got a little time over the Labor Day weekend to work on this. I've got basic ship log in place, and I've added the TravellerMap API to get a list of the sectors. It is a big list - I may have to add the Milieu to the ship data to restrict the list to a specific version (note the multiple copies below!)
So I'll add the Milieu to the ship data, restrict that API. Then I need to track the sector & system within the sector. I was planning on just text fields and hope that is enough - the TravellerMap APIs will work with that data so I should be good there.
Then I need to create the cargo generator as well as having it user friendly so users can enter their own cargos.
And the UI really needs help....
But I am making slow progress, but having the web API in there is nice. Although I am running out of the year as I was hoping to get this out before the end of the year. However - real life keeps getting in the way of actually playing sometimes.
So I'll add the Milieu to the ship data, restrict that API. Then I need to track the sector & system within the sector. I was planning on just text fields and hope that is enough - the TravellerMap APIs will work with that data so I should be good there.
Then I need to create the cargo generator as well as having it user friendly so users can enter their own cargos.
And the UI really needs help....
But I am making slow progress, but having the web API in there is nice. Although I am running out of the year as I was hoping to get this out before the end of the year. However - real life keeps getting in the way of actually playing sometimes.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Traveller Tracker - adding ship logs
I've added the cargo table definition and the log definition. Had to also add them to the TravellerContext to get added to the database. That took a bit of digging since it has been a few months since I looked at this sadly.
Anyway, I added an initial dialog box to get a new log entry in. It needs work, and I do believe I am going to abstract that a bit more to have a single class to handle the dialogs to centralize things a bit and minimize repeating code. I know, a class for a class, so I need to think a bit more on it.
Getting my head wrapped back around C# after more than a year of Filemaker is interesting...
TravellerContext:
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Traveller.Models;
namespace TravellerTracker.Models
{
public class TravellerContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet Ships { get; set; }
public DbSet ShipClasses { get; set; }
public DbSet Cargoes { get; set; }
public DbSet Logs { get; set; }
protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
try
{
optionsBuilder.UseSqlite("Data Source=TravellerTracker.db");
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
var a = ex;
throw;
}
}
}
}
Anyway, I added an initial dialog box to get a new log entry in. It needs work, and I do believe I am going to abstract that a bit more to have a single class to handle the dialogs to centralize things a bit and minimize repeating code. I know, a class for a class, so I need to think a bit more on it.
Getting my head wrapped back around C# after more than a year of Filemaker is interesting...
TravellerContext:
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Traveller.Models;
namespace TravellerTracker.Models
{
public class TravellerContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet
public DbSet
public DbSet
public DbSet
protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
try
{
optionsBuilder.UseSqlite("Data Source=TravellerTracker.db");
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
var a = ex;
throw;
}
}
}
}
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Traveller Tracker - Ship Classes
So I managed to get a bit more done, and not only can we save off a ship class, we can now add it to a ship. The UI still needs a LOT of work, but the ideas are there. So the basic ship stuff is there. Still to go is add the ship date and a model to handle the Imperial calendar, the ship log, location and all that.
I am thinking of adding the High Guard ship classes at least as a display or something when creating a ship class, so that you can put in the values from classic Traveller if you want. I may expand out the ship class to actually include that info. Currently the name was for that, but I think we may need the Imperial Naval Coding System prefix codes. So that the A1 class I have can be the Billy Bob class of jump 1 traders (low cost and hitting the low pop worlds mostly).
I am thinking of adding the High Guard ship classes at least as a display or something when creating a ship class, so that you can put in the values from classic Traveller if you want. I may expand out the ship class to actually include that info. Currently the name was for that, but I think we may need the Imperial Naval Coding System prefix codes. So that the A1 class I have can be the Billy Bob class of jump 1 traders (low cost and hitting the low pop worlds mostly).
Sunday, August 06, 2017
Traveller Tracker
Well, with my Traveller game finished, I'll try and spend a bit of time on the Traveller Tracker software. I've got the basic ship entry in place, and now I'm working on the ship class part. Coming from a DB background, it is all about the various parts and how they fit together.
Hopefully today I'll finish the class entry part. The class determines the ship's basic tonnage, jump, maneuver and power profile, cargo and fuel tonnage. So in theory, once I figure things out, you could get a list of all ships based on a class. In reality, the way I used this in the past was only really for 1 ship, but who knows - perhaps some players or GMs have a complete fleet.
So it is a bit slow getting back into this after a few months off: needing to add a new data migration (apparently I added the cargo tonnage later so it is not in the DB yet).
So now we have the basic ship class editor (after the DB migration et al). I need to add that list to th ship editor so that we can choose a class for our ships.
After that, I need to start the ship location side of things. I'll probably use the TravellerMap API for large chunks. Hopefully I will meet my goal of getting this into the Windows App store by the end of the year for the 4 or 5 people that will use it..
As a side note, the source code is on GitHub, so anyone wanting to try the WIP can in theory download it all and using the free Visual Studio, run it locally. It is not exactly trivial but nor is it overly complicated (well, speaking as someone who has been coding for far too long...)
Hopefully today I'll finish the class entry part. The class determines the ship's basic tonnage, jump, maneuver and power profile, cargo and fuel tonnage. So in theory, once I figure things out, you could get a list of all ships based on a class. In reality, the way I used this in the past was only really for 1 ship, but who knows - perhaps some players or GMs have a complete fleet.
So it is a bit slow getting back into this after a few months off: needing to add a new data migration (apparently I added the cargo tonnage later so it is not in the DB yet).
So now we have the basic ship class editor (after the DB migration et al). I need to add that list to th ship editor so that we can choose a class for our ships.
After that, I need to start the ship location side of things. I'll probably use the TravellerMap API for large chunks. Hopefully I will meet my goal of getting this into the Windows App store by the end of the year for the 4 or 5 people that will use it..
As a side note, the source code is on GitHub, so anyone wanting to try the WIP can in theory download it all and using the free Visual Studio, run it locally. It is not exactly trivial but nor is it overly complicated (well, speaking as someone who has been coding for far too long...)
Monday, July 24, 2017
Happy Birthday Traveller
A day past the 40th anniversary we played the last round in my current game. The good doctor Boris is doing a larger loop around the Trojan Reach before returning (possibly) to Glisten, and our young Scout, accompanied by Li as his engineer, is returning to Cyan to get his ship fixed as well as report on what happened.
I pretty much soft pedaled the adventure - originally I was thinking the Katydid would not be able to even launch, thus fixing the issue with 2 players and having 2 ships. However, as things worked out with real life, the plan changed a bit.
The Katydid was downed by an EMP, creating an impact crater on Selshor. The planet having a very thin atmosphere meant that the ship was almost safe from the local TL 6 governments. Between the high altitude requiring extensive equipment to live, and an almost impervious crystaliron hull, the ship, while scuffed and marked with repeated attempts to enter, was still safe and sound.
The first trip was a scouting trip to see how bad things were. Using a probe to create ECM, the ship's pinnace landed nearby and Travis, Francine and Ferdinando got into the ship. They had a few minutes before the local government forces arrived from their base camp a couple of kilometers away. They managed to get the ships logs and do a quick engineering survey and found that the ship was damaged but that they could probably repair it.
Another day in orbit, and Travis, Ferdinando and Boris return to the ship. They get enough fuel to get the Katydid to orbit, and start on the repairs. The local goons show up, waving submachine guns, but they are unable to get in or do any damage to the ship. Additionally, the local forces only have a couple of hours of air before having to return to the base camp.
It takes another full day to repair the Katydid enough to get her into orbit, along with the daily display of impotent machismo from the local government. Finally everything is as ready as they can make it. Travis starts up the engines, and they sputter. Assuming a fusion plant can sputter....In the meantime, Le Suroit mentions that another crawler has just reached the plateau, hauling what appears to be a howitzer of some sort. As the terrain is unforgiving, and the crawlers are slow, they do have some time. Which they needed - it was the third attempt that finally got the Katydid launched, and moments later they matched high orbits with Le Suroit.
A few days of additional repairs, and the two ships parted ways, and we pretty much finished the mini campaign.
I pretty much soft pedaled the adventure - originally I was thinking the Katydid would not be able to even launch, thus fixing the issue with 2 players and having 2 ships. However, as things worked out with real life, the plan changed a bit.
The Katydid was downed by an EMP, creating an impact crater on Selshor. The planet having a very thin atmosphere meant that the ship was almost safe from the local TL 6 governments. Between the high altitude requiring extensive equipment to live, and an almost impervious crystaliron hull, the ship, while scuffed and marked with repeated attempts to enter, was still safe and sound.
The first trip was a scouting trip to see how bad things were. Using a probe to create ECM, the ship's pinnace landed nearby and Travis, Francine and Ferdinando got into the ship. They had a few minutes before the local government forces arrived from their base camp a couple of kilometers away. They managed to get the ships logs and do a quick engineering survey and found that the ship was damaged but that they could probably repair it.
Another day in orbit, and Travis, Ferdinando and Boris return to the ship. They get enough fuel to get the Katydid to orbit, and start on the repairs. The local goons show up, waving submachine guns, but they are unable to get in or do any damage to the ship. Additionally, the local forces only have a couple of hours of air before having to return to the base camp.
It takes another full day to repair the Katydid enough to get her into orbit, along with the daily display of impotent machismo from the local government. Finally everything is as ready as they can make it. Travis starts up the engines, and they sputter. Assuming a fusion plant can sputter....In the meantime, Le Suroit mentions that another crawler has just reached the plateau, hauling what appears to be a howitzer of some sort. As the terrain is unforgiving, and the crawlers are slow, they do have some time. Which they needed - it was the third attempt that finally got the Katydid launched, and moments later they matched high orbits with Le Suroit.
A few days of additional repairs, and the two ships parted ways, and we pretty much finished the mini campaign.
Monday, July 17, 2017
Last Traveller Sunday
The upcoming Traveller Sunday may be the last - one of my players is dropping out. Hopefully due to other things in real life versus just not enjoying the game. Sometimes it is hard to tell.
The Selshor system is a red zone system. The primary reason, outside of being outside the Imperium, is the rabidly xenophobic residents. Yes, another xenophobic planet, but at least this one is not a dictatorship - it is a balkanized world (well, one of the governments could be a dictatorship).
It is a small planet with deep crevasses where the population lives in one of 3 major or a few of the smaller valleys where the air is merely thin versus very thin. Most of the planet is high plateaus, which is where the Katydid, Travis' Scout ship, crashed down. The reasons are not yet known as to why the ship crashed, and the Scout that managed to escape, one of the scientists aboard Le Suroit, has only hazy recollections other than an almost dire fear of the planet itself.
During the week in jump, between research on Girly Girl the Lord Fish and trying to study up on astrogation, the Travellers learn what they can about Selshor. Beyond the physical information on the system (11 planets and a planetoid belt, 3 gas giants) not much is known about the actual population. The last ISS survey as 11 years ago and apparently they did not get too close to the population at the time. It is estimated that there are about 800-900,000 people, all human, split into 3 major population centers in 3 different canyons that support human life. The planet is a desert planet with no surface water, although there must be underground water for the nearly 1 million residents.
The Selshor system is a red zone system. The primary reason, outside of being outside the Imperium, is the rabidly xenophobic residents. Yes, another xenophobic planet, but at least this one is not a dictatorship - it is a balkanized world (well, one of the governments could be a dictatorship).
It is a small planet with deep crevasses where the population lives in one of 3 major or a few of the smaller valleys where the air is merely thin versus very thin. Most of the planet is high plateaus, which is where the Katydid, Travis' Scout ship, crashed down. The reasons are not yet known as to why the ship crashed, and the Scout that managed to escape, one of the scientists aboard Le Suroit, has only hazy recollections other than an almost dire fear of the planet itself.
During the week in jump, between research on Girly Girl the Lord Fish and trying to study up on astrogation, the Travellers learn what they can about Selshor. Beyond the physical information on the system (11 planets and a planetoid belt, 3 gas giants) not much is known about the actual population. The last ISS survey as 11 years ago and apparently they did not get too close to the population at the time. It is estimated that there are about 800-900,000 people, all human, split into 3 major population centers in 3 different canyons that support human life. The planet is a desert planet with no surface water, although there must be underground water for the nearly 1 million residents.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Traveller Sunday
We sped through a couple of planets: Candia was a desert planet ruled by yet another dictator. Le Suroit stopped by the gas giant, made a few wilderness runs with Travis learning to fly the pinnace, the regular maintenance by the engineers, a very successful research roll, then on to the next system. T'yana is a rich garden world. Travis and Li restocked with fresh produce as well as frozen and packaged supplies while the pinnace made a few trips reloading fuel and cargo. There was yet another very successful research roll, so Dr. Boris is making headway on the Lord Fish issue.
This is where they left off: our next session we'll see how well Travis does on his astrogation, how well the doctor and scientist manage to continue their research on Girly Girl (the name of the Lord Fish, who is in a huge tank in the main lab).
Selshor is where the Katydid crashed more than 6 months ago, getting on to a year now. Selshor is outside the Imperium, so while the physical status are well known, the politics and society are not as well known. Dr. Francine Occa, who was a crew member of the Katydid and managed to escape, only knows that the population is even more xenophobic than Cyan's ruling class, and that the ship crashed on a high plateau with extremely thin air. Her rescue was quite fortunate - Selshor does not get many passing ships. She recommends extreme caution in their approach.
This is where they left off: our next session we'll see how well Travis does on his astrogation, how well the doctor and scientist manage to continue their research on Girly Girl (the name of the Lord Fish, who is in a huge tank in the main lab).
Selshor is where the Katydid crashed more than 6 months ago, getting on to a year now. Selshor is outside the Imperium, so while the physical status are well known, the politics and society are not as well known. Dr. Francine Occa, who was a crew member of the Katydid and managed to escape, only knows that the population is even more xenophobic than Cyan's ruling class, and that the ship crashed on a high plateau with extremely thin air. Her rescue was quite fortunate - Selshor does not get many passing ships. She recommends extreme caution in their approach.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Traveller Sunday
Well, it was a shorted than normal session. Both players were tired, and the open sandbox universe can be a bit slow at times when playing law abiding citizens. So all we ended up doing was some site seeing in Pargu Arcology, and set up the charter for the next day. Travis went bar-hopping a bit so he could watch the fireworks. The Black Rose Bar had a yuppie crowd, and young Mr. Roanoke fit in fairly well, He was even invited to a private game in the corner after a bit. He lost a few credits, got mildly buzzed from some light beer, and eventually returned back to the Hotel 76 rooms he and the good doctor were sharing.
Next session we'll get out on the open seas in our attempt to capture a Lord Fish. And another call from Ferdinado indicates that the Aslan ship that landed a couple of days ago is still at the class D port, but most of the crew has left the ship. There is little traffic at Kyslion Downport, so the two SPA officers do tend to get chatty, and Li does like to get a lay of the land. She has sent a message to our Travellers to be aware of strange Aslan.
As a side note, some of the acreage devoted to mudda herds are controlled by Aslan - with their almost primordial need for land, the arcologies are not a place for them. There is a small clan that manages a couple of large mudda herds nearby. So the arcology does see a few non-humans, predominately Aslan, but also including Vargr, Bwaps, and several other alien species. There is even a doctors office with a Virushi, as they really enjoy the dense atmosphere.
Day 2 is seeing cloudy skies and choppy seas. Hopefully no one will get seasick!
Next session we'll get out on the open seas in our attempt to capture a Lord Fish. And another call from Ferdinado indicates that the Aslan ship that landed a couple of days ago is still at the class D port, but most of the crew has left the ship. There is little traffic at Kyslion Downport, so the two SPA officers do tend to get chatty, and Li does like to get a lay of the land. She has sent a message to our Travellers to be aware of strange Aslan.
As a side note, some of the acreage devoted to mudda herds are controlled by Aslan - with their almost primordial need for land, the arcologies are not a place for them. There is a small clan that manages a couple of large mudda herds nearby. So the arcology does see a few non-humans, predominately Aslan, but also including Vargr, Bwaps, and several other alien species. There is even a doctors office with a Virushi, as they really enjoy the dense atmosphere.
Day 2 is seeing cloudy skies and choppy seas. Hopefully no one will get seasick!
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Traveller Sunday
Due to miscommunication (I blame the X-Boats) we did not get to play last Sunday. And this Sunday Bryson & I are out of town, so it looks like it will be June 25th before we get to play again.
In our game universe, the gaming respite can be reflected by the celebration of Day 001 - Holiday. So it is now 001-1105, and we're firmly into the Golden Age of Traveller so to speak. There will be celebrations even though it is very unlikely that Kryslion has a 365 day year (I need to dig back into the world stats).
So enjoy the holiday!
In our game universe, the gaming respite can be reflected by the celebration of Day 001 - Holiday. So it is now 001-1105, and we're firmly into the Golden Age of Traveller so to speak. There will be celebrations even though it is very unlikely that Kryslion has a 365 day year (I need to dig back into the world stats).
So enjoy the holiday!
Monday, June 05, 2017
Traveller Sunday
One of my players was out of town, so no Traveller gaming this weekend. I did get in 3 games of Munchkins with my son & his girl friend, so at least there was some gaming involved.
I also created the rough deck plans for the air cushion vehicle to be used for the charter fishing trip (a 3 hour cruise...). I've generated the encounter tables from Heaven & Earth (gotta love old software that just works), and hunters (fishermen and women) using Supplement 4, and have the seaside town all ready to go.
Maybe I'll try & update the basic image from Google Draw using GIMP or something to make it a bit better. I just never have enough time it seems (or time that intersects with desire).
I also created the rough deck plans for the air cushion vehicle to be used for the charter fishing trip (a 3 hour cruise...). I've generated the encounter tables from Heaven & Earth (gotta love old software that just works), and hunters (fishermen and women) using Supplement 4, and have the seaside town all ready to go.
Maybe I'll try & update the basic image from Google Draw using GIMP or something to make it a bit better. I just never have enough time it seems (or time that intersects with desire).
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Traveller Sunday - Kryslion Cultural Profile
Dug out my old Grand Census book, and generated the cultural profile for Kryslion. I will have to see about making IS Form 22 later...also adding some T5 stuff from TravellerMap (great resource!)
But here is what I rolled up:
High Common TL: 9
Low Common TL: 8
Energy: 9
Computers: 9
Communications: 8u
Medical: 8
Environmental: B (with a breathable but dense atmo, this was an interesting roll)
Religious Profile
Just a single predominant religion: 68A5C6-7
God View 6 - Influential monotheism: God interacts with sophonts only at key moments in life.
Spiritual Aim 8 - ethical and moral standards are their own reward
Devotion Req A - quarterly, every 3 months
Organization 5 - loose hierarchy
Liturgical Formality C - informal study groups
Missionary Fervor 6 - ordinary and willing to convert any sophont
Number of adherents 7 - 10,000,000 0 - 99,999,999: say 90 million or so.
I'll try and update the guide at some point.
But here is what I rolled up:
High Common TL: 9
Low Common TL: 8
Energy: 9
Computers: 9
Communications: 8u
Medical: 8
Environmental: B (with a breathable but dense atmo, this was an interesting roll)
Land Transport: 9 - early grav, ultra-high speed trains
Water: 8 - triphibian vehicles, early gills (hovercraft are quite common per my interpretation with the dense atmosphere)
Air: B - personal g-tubes, heavy grav modules
Space: 9 - Jump 1, sublight interstellar
Personal Military: 9 - laser weapons
Heavy Military: 9 - lightweight composite laminates
Importance: 0 - unimportant
Homogenity: B - discordant
Acceptance: A - very friendly
Strangeness: 6
Symbols: A
Next are two values per item - first is how they profess to be, 2nd is how they really are.
Progressiveness: Conservative / Indifferent [A/A]
Aggressiveness: Unaggressive / Peaceable [9/B]
Extensiveness: Discordant / Friendly [B/5 - used T5 value]
Uniformity of Law: Territorial 9-999A9
9 - overall (UWP)
9 - Weapons
9 - Trade
9 - Criminal Law
A - Civil Law (guess with this population it gets interesting)
9 - Personal Freedom
Cultural Notes
As previously noted, tattoos are a way of showing social status, including what region you are from. Each arcology has its own symbol and some residents enjoy showing arcology pride. This applies to most of the population.
Additionally, children often care for their elders.
Just a single predominant religion: 68A5C6-7
God View 6 - Influential monotheism: God interacts with sophonts only at key moments in life.
Spiritual Aim 8 - ethical and moral standards are their own reward
Devotion Req A - quarterly, every 3 months
Organization 5 - loose hierarchy
Liturgical Formality C - informal study groups
Missionary Fervor 6 - ordinary and willing to convert any sophont
Number of adherents 7 - 10,000,000 0 - 99,999,999: say 90 million or so.
I'll try and update the guide at some point.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Traveller Sunday - NPC Crew Interactions
The NPCs have been relatively quiet and part of the background without any real personalities.
I've generated a NPC interaction graph, and we'll base the interrelationships off those rolls using the reaction table. Having a 2 in there really indicates some serious hatred for some reason....someone wit ha 12 and the other NOC with a much lower score for may indicate unrequited love...
And it looks like I forgot Li...will have to add her. So you read the table down the left hand side for that person and how they react to the others. So Franklin really dislikes Purity but gets along well enough with everyone else. Purity does not seem to like Franklin any better.
I need to add more NPC interactions I think to our play.
I've generated a NPC interaction graph, and we'll base the interrelationships off those rolls using the reaction table. Having a 2 in there really indicates some serious hatred for some reason....someone wit ha 12 and the other NOC with a much lower score for may indicate unrequited love...
And it looks like I forgot Li...will have to add her. So you read the table down the left hand side for that person and how they react to the others. So Franklin really dislikes Purity but gets along well enough with everyone else. Purity does not seem to like Franklin any better.
I need to add more NPC interactions I think to our play.
Franklin
|
Ferdinando
|
Purity
|
Francine
|
Quentin
| |
Franklin
|
-
|
6
|
3
|
11
|
9
|
Ferdinando
|
5
|
-
|
9
|
8
|
5
|
Purity
|
4
|
11
|
-
|
8
|
2
|
Francine
|
5
|
10
|
4
|
-
|
11
|
Quentin
|
10
|
12
|
6
|
8
|
-
|
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Traveller Sunday - On To Kryslion
Away from one dictator and to another! At least this one is charismatic. I've started working on the Kryslion guide ( Kyrslion ), and they turn out to be a gregarious people who love crowds and tattoos. Hey - it was what was rolled up, and with a population of 50 billion, liking crowds is a good thing!
Traveller Tracker
Not too much to post here. I did start on the ship view, which will allow you to edit the ship. I've got the basic data binding in place, but want to make the view a bit prettier. Bit at least I got the initial databinding in place! Next to see if I can go back & update the data as well as reading it.
But it seems there is a VS update all the time, so once I got that at least something done, I went with the update. So maybe some more this week depending on how much time I get. Real life is not always nice, so my time with this is more limited than I would like, especially once I get started.
But it seems there is a VS update all the time, so once I got that at least something done, I went with the update. So maybe some more this week depending on how much time I get. Real life is not always nice, so my time with this is more limited than I would like, especially once I get started.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Traveller Sunday - Leaving Cyan
After a day of recovery (that fast drug works miracles apparently, although Travis is still sore and Pennity will be in the hospital for a few months) our Travellers take the Renegade Scout Ship to the Way Station. I had the poster of the ship laid out & we got to look that over a bit, but as it was just a 2 day trip or so to the Way Station, it was simply there to look at.
The first stop in the belt was at Ming Station, the main administrative hub. They met the Way Station Scout Commander, transferred the funding form the Countess for the new fuel purifier, and opened some initial talks about possibly sharing research from the Lord Fish deal.
They then took a shuttle with the scientists from Le Suroit to a Vanguard class station (another poster map, again just there for looks) where they caught up with the engineers who were finalizing the ship updates. The Lab Ship now has a spoke that goes all the way through, which contains both the fuel purification system as well as enough fuel so that they can still do a Jump-1. Their manuever spped has dropped a little, so intead of 1G they have something like .95G - close enough not to worry about. Ferdinando has the drives all recalibrated for the new mass and volume. While Travis went on a simulator to verify he could still pilot the updated ship (and had 2 very unsuccessful rolls with finally getting a succes - we pictured the scene in Galaxy Quest when the pilot takes the ship out, scraping the port), Li made the rounds and I made reaction rolls for each of the crew. Even without a persuade DM, the lowest was a 7, the highest a 10. So the new crew member apparently fits in quite well.
Sadly, I really had nothing at the Way Station that needed doing despite having my nice big map of Flash Gordon references. So after another day of getting things packed up, the crew move out 100D from the belt, and make the jump to Kryslion. Travis rolled a 7, so the just while successful will be a bit further out than 100D.
And so I need to start the Kryslion world work up.
The first stop in the belt was at Ming Station, the main administrative hub. They met the Way Station Scout Commander, transferred the funding form the Countess for the new fuel purifier, and opened some initial talks about possibly sharing research from the Lord Fish deal.
They then took a shuttle with the scientists from Le Suroit to a Vanguard class station (another poster map, again just there for looks) where they caught up with the engineers who were finalizing the ship updates. The Lab Ship now has a spoke that goes all the way through, which contains both the fuel purification system as well as enough fuel so that they can still do a Jump-1. Their manuever spped has dropped a little, so intead of 1G they have something like .95G - close enough not to worry about. Ferdinando has the drives all recalibrated for the new mass and volume. While Travis went on a simulator to verify he could still pilot the updated ship (and had 2 very unsuccessful rolls with finally getting a succes - we pictured the scene in Galaxy Quest when the pilot takes the ship out, scraping the port), Li made the rounds and I made reaction rolls for each of the crew. Even without a persuade DM, the lowest was a 7, the highest a 10. So the new crew member apparently fits in quite well.
Sadly, I really had nothing at the Way Station that needed doing despite having my nice big map of Flash Gordon references. So after another day of getting things packed up, the crew move out 100D from the belt, and make the jump to Kryslion. Travis rolled a 7, so the just while successful will be a bit further out than 100D.
And so I need to start the Kryslion world work up.
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Traveller Sunday - The Rescue of Purity
Over breakfast on the day Purity was to return so that they could go to the Scout Way Station, our Travellers got a frantic call from Purity as she was approaching the starport in the grav APC. She got cut off in the middle of warning about an incoming object. Travis, Boris & Li rush to the starport administration building, and call the prison Warden. He has just found out that the APC was shot down on the east end of Startown, and has no further word. He urges our adventurers to contact the Marine and port Authority. The Marines convene a quick meeting. Due to the political situation, they cannot mount a heavily armed response to this situation. They do not want a repeat of the riots from 5 years ago, which is what brought the Marines in the first place.
However, lending them Pennity and Pagille, along with a modified ACV (air cushion vehicle or hovercraft) cargo van, our heroes sally forth from the port. Both characters managed to fail negotiating with the customs official for exiting the port; however, a fortuitous roll by Pennity let them pass through the gates without much more of a delay. They had their guns in hidden ports - handy having access to high technology which can bypass the local authority's scanning devices as the Marines have discovered for several covert excursions.
I had 3 encounters listed in my maps. The got through customs easily enough. The warehouse district I managed to roll citizens, and only 2 of them. So while the reaction roll was pretty low, 2 locals against 4 in a hover van are not good odds so they just gave our group dirty looks. Finally closing in on the light industrial area, I had everyone roll for surprise. No one surprised anyone.
As our group approached the rising plume of smoke that they could now see, and noticing people walking in what was obvious to our Marines as a search pattern, they were stopped by 2 well armed soldiers. A brief conversation lead nowhere when there were suddenly shots heard against the roof of the van. Fortunately, the van had been updated to carry armor. However, the two soldiers in front pulled back and started shooting as well.
At this point Pennity, at the urging of one of the players (sad I can't recall who now...) managed to speed up and take out one of the gunmen, while Pagille rolled down hos window and started shooting as well, managing to take out the other gunmen. It was at this point more shots were being fired, and Pennity, seeking cover closer to the downed APC, smashed through the loading dock of a small warehouse, crashing to a halt next to several barrels of beer.
Pagille had been shot during this maneuver, and Dr. Duk-Lyle was using first aid to stabilize him. At first, due to the positions of Pagille in the front, it was not a particularly successful staunching of the wounds. While Boris moved the injured Marine to the read seats, Travis leapt out the front and grabbed Pagille's gauss rifle. Pennity had left her side with a trusty laser rifle, and was going out the other side of the vehicle.
Pagille was stabilized, and Travis shot very badly several times. While not hitting anyone, he came close to hitting his boots. Pennity manged to take out at least one gunman but then was almost fatally wounded by a very successful shot. Boris was quick to the rescue and managed to ably stabilize her. At this point they got unexpected help from above - apparently the APC driver and Purity were in this building, and the driver was lending support from the second floor. Purity came over to the doctor and Pennity, and getting the Marine's gun started shooting as well.
Travis got hit hard, and falls unconscious to the ground. Purity is not particularly successfully shooting either, but the gunmen are falling back, and the Marines do have more support coming in.
With a lucky shot, the pilot takes down the leader of the group, and the rest flee as the Marines finally show up.
All are rushed back to the port and get hospitalized and taken care of. Pennity will be recuperating for some time (she was down to 1 point left). Travis opted for the medical slow drug and is hooked up to intravenous feeding for the next 24 hours.
The doctor gets a commendation for his aid, Travis gets free medical care.
Also discovered that these soldiers are actually from the Blade mercenary group from Kryslion. Aphix hired them as plausible deniability several months back, for both training and covert acts against the rebels. Fearing that Purity had discovered something at the prison (she did not) she wanted her killed before she could report anything.
Fortunately the APC has great airbags as both Purity and the pilot survived without injury. THe Baldes commander is getting sent to Imperial Prison. All this fits in with the latest issue of the Freelance Traveller where the mercenary group is described. As this takes place in 1104, and in the article the leader of the 2nd Platoon is in Imperial Prison, this worked out well to bring in some flavor from some one else's OTU.
However, lending them Pennity and Pagille, along with a modified ACV (air cushion vehicle or hovercraft) cargo van, our heroes sally forth from the port. Both characters managed to fail negotiating with the customs official for exiting the port; however, a fortuitous roll by Pennity let them pass through the gates without much more of a delay. They had their guns in hidden ports - handy having access to high technology which can bypass the local authority's scanning devices as the Marines have discovered for several covert excursions.
I had 3 encounters listed in my maps. The got through customs easily enough. The warehouse district I managed to roll citizens, and only 2 of them. So while the reaction roll was pretty low, 2 locals against 4 in a hover van are not good odds so they just gave our group dirty looks. Finally closing in on the light industrial area, I had everyone roll for surprise. No one surprised anyone.
As our group approached the rising plume of smoke that they could now see, and noticing people walking in what was obvious to our Marines as a search pattern, they were stopped by 2 well armed soldiers. A brief conversation lead nowhere when there were suddenly shots heard against the roof of the van. Fortunately, the van had been updated to carry armor. However, the two soldiers in front pulled back and started shooting as well.
At this point Pennity, at the urging of one of the players (sad I can't recall who now...) managed to speed up and take out one of the gunmen, while Pagille rolled down hos window and started shooting as well, managing to take out the other gunmen. It was at this point more shots were being fired, and Pennity, seeking cover closer to the downed APC, smashed through the loading dock of a small warehouse, crashing to a halt next to several barrels of beer.
Pagille had been shot during this maneuver, and Dr. Duk-Lyle was using first aid to stabilize him. At first, due to the positions of Pagille in the front, it was not a particularly successful staunching of the wounds. While Boris moved the injured Marine to the read seats, Travis leapt out the front and grabbed Pagille's gauss rifle. Pennity had left her side with a trusty laser rifle, and was going out the other side of the vehicle.
Pagille was stabilized, and Travis shot very badly several times. While not hitting anyone, he came close to hitting his boots. Pennity manged to take out at least one gunman but then was almost fatally wounded by a very successful shot. Boris was quick to the rescue and managed to ably stabilize her. At this point they got unexpected help from above - apparently the APC driver and Purity were in this building, and the driver was lending support from the second floor. Purity came over to the doctor and Pennity, and getting the Marine's gun started shooting as well.
Travis got hit hard, and falls unconscious to the ground. Purity is not particularly successfully shooting either, but the gunmen are falling back, and the Marines do have more support coming in.
With a lucky shot, the pilot takes down the leader of the group, and the rest flee as the Marines finally show up.
All are rushed back to the port and get hospitalized and taken care of. Pennity will be recuperating for some time (she was down to 1 point left). Travis opted for the medical slow drug and is hooked up to intravenous feeding for the next 24 hours.
The doctor gets a commendation for his aid, Travis gets free medical care.
Also discovered that these soldiers are actually from the Blade mercenary group from Kryslion. Aphix hired them as plausible deniability several months back, for both training and covert acts against the rebels. Fearing that Purity had discovered something at the prison (she did not) she wanted her killed before she could report anything.
Fortunately the APC has great airbags as both Purity and the pilot survived without injury. THe Baldes commander is getting sent to Imperial Prison. All this fits in with the latest issue of the Freelance Traveller where the mercenary group is described. As this takes place in 1104, and in the article the leader of the 2nd Platoon is in Imperial Prison, this worked out well to bring in some flavor from some one else's OTU.
Monday, May 01, 2017
Sunday Traveller
The morning started with another light snowfall, covering the port's ;anding fields and buildings. The snow softened the harsh outlines of the older buildings, and covered the ravages of the riots that, five years on, still lingered.
Boris, Travis and Li are having breakfast at the hotels small canteen when their comm's buzz with an incoming call. Li does not yet have a ship comm, she will have to wait until you get to the ship at the Way Station. It's Purity - she was nearing the port in a prison grav APC when a small rocket launched grenade hit the vehicle, causing it to crash in the eastern part of Startown. Apparently grav APCs are fairly resilient as she and pilot both survived the crash, but the vehicle itself is pretty much totaled. They have moved to a nearby industrial building and are trying to hide as it appears a small, armed crowd has arrived. She is unable to determine if the crowd are the ones who fired the grenade or have just shown up. Her final words are, "I don't exactly blend in here well, but we'll continue on foot to approach the port and..." as the transmission gets cut.
Below is the map - the orange circle is where they went down. Talking with the port warden and military officials, due to the current state of affairs on Cyan, the do not recommend a full scale Imperial military approach - they do not want another riot. They are recommending a more nuanced approach. They have several local ground vehicles that have been modified somewhat to offer better protection, and advise dressing more like the locals. They will also supply the two Marines that accompanied Boris & Travis on their prison research. Arms will be concealed in the vehicle and should be able to pass through customs. So you can bring your pistol and cudgel if you so desire (there is always a chance, however, that you may get caught in customs; however, the Marines assure you that they've done this on more than one occasion for a variety of reasons).
From what the port can tell, there is interference in that area of Startown - the comms are being jammed. Additionally, no one has claimed credit for the attack. The port's opinion is that it is not the rebel faction - while not directly pro-Imperial, they do want further trade and access to Imperial goods and services. However, like any movement there are a variety if factions. They are also not ruling out the local Army, particularly as rocket launched grenades are not easy to come by.
The point of impact is about 10 kilometers out, in a light industrial area.
Boris, Travis and Li are having breakfast at the hotels small canteen when their comm's buzz with an incoming call. Li does not yet have a ship comm, she will have to wait until you get to the ship at the Way Station. It's Purity - she was nearing the port in a prison grav APC when a small rocket launched grenade hit the vehicle, causing it to crash in the eastern part of Startown. Apparently grav APCs are fairly resilient as she and pilot both survived the crash, but the vehicle itself is pretty much totaled. They have moved to a nearby industrial building and are trying to hide as it appears a small, armed crowd has arrived. She is unable to determine if the crowd are the ones who fired the grenade or have just shown up. Her final words are, "I don't exactly blend in here well, but we'll continue on foot to approach the port and..." as the transmission gets cut.
Below is the map - the orange circle is where they went down. Talking with the port warden and military officials, due to the current state of affairs on Cyan, the do not recommend a full scale Imperial military approach - they do not want another riot. They are recommending a more nuanced approach. They have several local ground vehicles that have been modified somewhat to offer better protection, and advise dressing more like the locals. They will also supply the two Marines that accompanied Boris & Travis on their prison research. Arms will be concealed in the vehicle and should be able to pass through customs. So you can bring your pistol and cudgel if you so desire (there is always a chance, however, that you may get caught in customs; however, the Marines assure you that they've done this on more than one occasion for a variety of reasons).
From what the port can tell, there is interference in that area of Startown - the comms are being jammed. Additionally, no one has claimed credit for the attack. The port's opinion is that it is not the rebel faction - while not directly pro-Imperial, they do want further trade and access to Imperial goods and services. However, like any movement there are a variety if factions. They are also not ruling out the local Army, particularly as rocket launched grenades are not easy to come by.
The point of impact is about 10 kilometers out, in a light industrial area.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Traveller Tracker Overview
I've got the basic framework set up as below (most to be actually filled in). The main screen has a frame where all the content goes based on the the menu options on the left and the active ship. The plan is you pick or add a ship, and can track your cargo, fuel and all that. Repeating what I already did 7 years ago but for UWP and to actually publish on the Windows App store. Hopefully I'll have the ship and class editors in place soon and can actually start seeing if this works.
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Traveller Tracker
Having learned that foreign keys are not good, I can still set the data models up the way I want to, then I comment out the code in the migration script that deals with foreign keys. It does mean that I nave to manually link things together, but that's not particularly difficult.
I've added a new page to edit the ship details - not much is there yet, but I can navigate to it. I am going to rewrite the main page to reflect my initial design - I've added a frame which is where we navigate to. So the left hand will be navigation style buttons, the main part will be the actual data.
I think the options will be (going vertically down the left):
I've added a new page to edit the ship details - not much is there yet, but I can navigate to it. I am going to rewrite the main page to reflect my initial design - I've added a frame which is where we navigate to. So the left hand will be navigation style buttons, the main part will be the actual data.
I think the options will be (going vertically down the left):
- List - list the ships in your database. There will be a button or link to get to the details
- Ship - details of the ship. Allow editing, and loads this ship as your current ship.
- Classes - allows you to edit the ship classes
- Log - current log of the active ship
That's a guess for the moment. The class is what defines the ship tonnage, jump, maneuver and power systems, cargo and maybe fuel.
But progress is slowly being made.
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