College Traveller - the mid 80s

I dug up my old Traveller stuff. I had a complete 2x2 sector written up via typewriter, hand drawn maps and ships, and oddly a complete sector-wide shipping company.  Now I do so much on the computer, but those early days I could spend weeks with paper, pen and pencils and my father's old typewriter generating material.

Apparently I also created Zhodani ships!

Parrot Isle

I am just following a tutorial, but I better understand the sheets, layers and effects now.  Still need to mess with Traveller-style maps and things, but as The Fantasy Trip is going to be re-released I may see if I can get the gaming group to try that RPG as well as Traveller (now that I have more time! Plus my son is finally almost done w/Scouts as he has completed all Eagle merit badges, the project, and is just getting all the letters of recommendation and the final paperwork done. Meaning Monday nights, which were Scout night, can now go back to being gaming night with the RPG club in town!)

Anyway, below is a map from that 2nd tutorial where I learned about sheets, text on curves, and some more transparency things. Plus a sepia version as a player handout.

Traveller Tracker Ship Classes

Getting back into the tracker software, and making things work a little better on smaller screens. Mostly adding a scroll viewer around the grids. Not really pretty but at least functional. I am also cleaning up some of the more obvious UI issues, such as the edit boxes getting squashed or missing sides.

I started a user document but then thought it was premature.

I also spent a couple of hours going through more CC3+ tutorials. Getting a better idea of sheets and layers and how to make more interesting and eventually better looking maps.

I really need to spend the time getting the Tracker software working and looking better.

Slightly revised ship class editor:

And a map - hey, I've got some text on curves, and learning about glows...it could be a TL4 island...

No more classes

I've decided to withdraw from my class and school. Too much stress, not enough potential return to be worth it. So now I have free time to spend with family, work on the Traveller Tracker software, learn how to use Campaign Cartographer, and actually play.

While a painful decision as I really hate to quit, it was driving everyone, including the dog, crazy (I apparently do not sleep well and he would not stay in the bed but leave. According to my wife I would be yelling and thrashing as well...hmm, PTSD from a class, who knew?)

So hopefully I will be able to start up another Traveller game (I've got some ideas), work on the software, make fun maps...

Traveller Tracker - at least buying cargo now loads & displays the manifest

Finally got back for a few minutes, and updated the purchasing process to switch to your manifest window after purchasing, and it does properly refresh and show the current manifest.

As a reminder, it is available on GitHub, and in theory you can sideload this via the HockeyApp process (although we've not really had a lot of luck with that so far).  So at some point, if this just does not pan out, I may try again with a more generic approach other than UWP. Just wanted to see if I could write a universal Windows program so that the store would handle distribution.

If I ever do rewrite this for the nth time, this time it will be .Net Core so that it will run on Windows, Mac, Linux in theory. Not sure about the UI for that although there are rumors they will be porting XAML. Or I could try my hand at Java as that runs on everything as well.

Now back to project management...yay?

T5 Freight tonnage

After a lively discussion on the COTI forum, the conclusion is that the tonnage is:

(Flux + Pop) x (TCs + 1)  

The trade codes (TCs) that are applicable are a limited sub-set of all the trade codes, so I've added that flag to the trade code table and it seemed to work. I'll probably update the seed to automatically set that as well when you load the software the first time.

I am also assuming we're using the absolute value of flux - no negative tonnage (I guess we really could do that and say that there is a demand for that particular cargo in the system). And it is possible for flux to be 0, meaning that no cargo was found.  And unlike CT, it appears we roll once per day - good thing I set up the version table to have a slot for how many days per search!

And I still need to make that UI better: buying cargo should show the updated manifest. I do have the new ship process a bit better: it does go to the ship details layout. I may want to color-code the items you need to have entered to indicate that things are still needed. However, selecting the era did load the appropriate sectors and all that.

And playing with Campaign Cartographer more. I really need to go through a LOT more tutorials...but here is a test for the Cosmographer satellite view. I really need to figure out a bit more..

Testing Trader

I've got 1 brave soul attempting to load the Traveller Tracker software. So far it has not worked: basically a certificate error. I thought the HockeyApp process was supposed to do all that, and it did create a certificate when I prepped the program for distribution.

I did manage to install it on my tablet.  The download is a zip file, and you unzip that. There is a .ps file (powershell) that you need to right-click and say run. It should prompt you I think, then it goes & installs the program. At least that was my experience. As we all know, it always works on the developers machine! You may have to run the powershell as an admin, but I do not recall doing that when I installed it on my test machine.

One thing I just found: you may have to delete the old app and try again:

• Check if you have already installed this app before, if so, browse to the old package and delete it

And this site may help: https://pumpingco.de/blog/9841/

I may entirely forgo the UWP version, and start yet again with just a plain Win32. I would keep 90% of what I did (and clean things up hopefully) but my goal was to actually get an app into the App store.  But if no one else can test it (and it has a lot of issues still, and more that I won't find simply because of my built-in bias on how to run it) it may end up not going there.

And sadly despite having a 3 day weekend I did nothing fun: it was worrying and trying to do homework all weekend. I have some sincere thoughts about dropping out. To quote Roger Murtaugh, I'm getting too old for this...

An unrelated note

I went ahead with the Campaign Cartographer Bundle of Holding. And got the Cosmographer add-on which in theory lets me do Traveller-like maps.  Most of the maps it turns out I could do with GIMP and stuff, but I'm just learning. The Traveller star maps are also probably easier in GIMP, and the documentation says that you can only import official Traveller sectors for the subsector mapping, which I've not dug into.

But...it does have a lot of nice templates which will save a lot of time, and there are a LOT of features I need to get under my belt.  So I think it may be worth the cost, just with a pretty big learning curve.

But I did make a play map in a fantasy style. I'll have to play with the SF styles.

I'll also see if a PDF attaches to these posts...

PDF here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FSvjlf_75_0jE9xXBKIsYZixnJa4M78W/view?usp=sharing

T5 Cargo

There is a somewhat active discussion over on COTI about the T5 rules.  And I may be misinterpreting something. I thought that spec trade was handled outside of bulk cargo: bulk cargo is what is sitting on the docks, so to speak, and someone is willing to pay the Cr1000/ton to ship.  You have the major, minor & incidental lots, basically sealed containers. Really there to fill up the remaining few dTons of storage if you want a full cargo hold, or can't wait for the weekly roll on the spec trade.

Spec trade was rolled weekly for what it was and the tonnage, at least in the earlier editions. Still doing that - the software in theory adds a week every time you do a search for cargo and passengers (this is configurable by version but defaults to a week). So each time you click that button, I go through all the systems within jump of your ship, generate the passengers and three levels of bulk freight for each system, then generate a random speculative cargo. It is that last cargo I cannot find the tonnage for, UNLESS we use the freight guide which is:

(Flux x Pop) x (total TCs + 1) for a specific list of trade codes. I think I'll just go with that.

Buying T5 Speculative cargo

Almost there. The rules only cover the purchase price, not dTons or anything like that.  Currently I am defaulting to 1/25 of the cost for the tonnage, and yo can now purchase speculative trade items. The other major difference is that the is no haggling over the purchase price, just the selling price (i.e., the actual value table is only for selling items).  So that was also an interesting twist. So when you purchase a spec trade in T5, it just subtracts from your credits and cargo hold.

I still need to pass in the cargo code, and need to come up with a better way of generating what it is you are buying from the list of cargos. And I want to make the tonnage adjustable by the user which should be easy enough. I now see a better way possibly of integrating the Classic with T5, but that's okay. The code has gotten a lot messier than I like, but apparently that's how I code.

I did add a flag to the version table: CanAlterPurchasePrice. This way we can turn that on/off it you want to be able to haggle.

But some progress was made at least.

I am really itching to play or referee again. I was talking with a guy at the gym who may be interested, and I know John would play again, either as his previous Scout character or we can roll up a new one.  I may do the each player rolls up 2 characters so we have enough for a ship crew, depending on how many players play.  And I've gotten in touch with the guys I used to play Traveller back in college, almost 35 years ago.  Maybe a Roll20 version would work out.

Misc updates

Nothing software related sadly.  But I've finished my first class, so there is now a 2 week window where hopefully I'll get another version out there with corrections to several of the issues I noted when testing on my tablet vs running on my quad-HD big screen.  Still a lot of changes to make this vaguely useful.

And I am continuing with the program - not sure where it will lead but I do enjoy learning, although I'd prefer playing Traveller or any game more...

So my goal is to push another release out to the HockeyApp this weekend. I've made several changes but want to make some more, so I am hoping to have a few hours over the weekend to get things done and push it out Sunday night.

So fingers crossed, and if anyone wants to be an alpha/beta tester, just let me know.  Of course, the source code is open source and available as well - some people have been cloning the repo so perhaps this is getting used someplace.

T5 - Buying spec cargo

I've got this part working, assuming the user sets up the trade code adjustments. I've also decided that I'll update the 'create the actual value table' process to use the values form book 2 / BBB. I can't stick them in the seed process exactly - the versions are not there to link them to, and I've about the order of events to map the correct IDs. Also - I cannot find in the T5 book anything to indicate tonnage for spec trade. Just all the pricing.  I've not looked at the T5.09 document - that may include more info. Its just that I like having that giant tome open when playing with code.

I also installed this on my tablet via the HockeyApp process. It actually worked.  I also noticed several glaring issues when trying to use the software.  I've already made a few updates to address those. First, when you create a new ship it takes you to the ship layout. However - none of the details are in place yet, so previously the ship info tab was off to the right. Now it is the 1st tab and more obvious you need to fill it out. The 2nd issue was selecting the sector: as you had not selected an era, there were no sectors to load. Selecting an era now loads the sectors. I also default to 1105 era to have something in there when it is empty.  The TravellerMap supports 4 eras: 0, 1105, 1248 and 1900. In theory the tracker software should as well but I've really only tested with the 1105 data. A third issue are some layouts do not fit well with the tablet. I need to either resize them or make it more responsive.

Tracker - beta (really alpha) testers

I've had very slow progress (still second guessing about pursuing another masters degree. In project management. Just because I thought I should know more about projects)

Turns out there is a way to beta test this without the hassle of certificates. HockeyApp allows me to upload the software and create a test group. You get an email, sign up for free, and it will let you install the software.

In testing it, I used another email account and invited myself. I got the link, signed up (so now I've my dev account and a test account...) and it let me download a zip file. Unzip that, right-click the 'Add-AppDevPackage.ps1' and run with Powershell.  I had to say yes to change at the prompt, but then it bombed for me as I've already got that installed as I run it locally with Visual Studio.  I'll have to see if I can uninstall that & try again.

The HockeyApp platform looks like a good way to do this. If anyone wants to start alpha testing, PM me with your email and I'll sign you up.  I've no real idea if this will work but I really do intend to get this into the App at some point and having real people tell me everything that does not work (i.e., most of it...) may help me make progress again.

Please review HockeyApp and all that. I've never used it, but it is built into Visual Studio so it is supported (or owned) by Microsoft. If you want to try it out, just let me know.

Thanks!

T5 Trade - still WIP

I did add a trade effect field to the trade codes so you can have changes to the base price. I've added the trade selling trade code table but have not put in the matrix yet (that will come). So we're a few steps closer - I could generate the initial trade good code, and randomly pick one of the trade goods and all that. I just need to connect the dots, but sadly class time is taking up the majority of my free time.  I was sick the last few days (stomach virus? food poisoning? I've no idea other than I've not eaten much more than toast the last 4 days and I was pretty dehydrated for a while). So I managed a few things yesterday beyond feeling blech, checking work email, reading a chapter for class and taking notes, and having a class team meeting.

All I want to do is code sometimes! And play Traveller...

Tracker - non-UWP trade codes

Now you can add non-UWP trade codes (Hot, Puzzle, etc) to the worlds. Next I need to actually do the T5 trade stuff - there was just a lot of work to get the infrastructure in place (wanting to make this user-customizable as possible so you can run it with whatever rules you want).

Finally fixed the UWP-based trade code check.  Turns out the check for isManual was not working, but you can restrict the entire list at the end:

 List results = App.DB.TradeClassifications.
     Where(x => x.Sizes.Length == 0 || x.Sizes.Contains(Size)).
     Where(x => x.Atmospheres.Length == 0 || x.Atmospheres.Contains(Atmosphere)).
     Where(x => x.Hydro.Length == 0 || x.Hydro.Contains(Hydro)).
     Where(x => x.Pop.Length == 0 || x.Pop.Contains(Population)).
     Where(x => x.Gov.Length == 0 || x.Gov.Contains(Gov)).
     Where(x =>x.Law.Length == 0 || x.Law.Contains(Law)).
     Where(x => x.IsManuallyAssigned == false).ToList();

Tracker - T5 Trading. No, not there yet

But I am entering all the trade classifications, even the user-decided ones. I've added a flag to the table indicating if this is a manual trade code. All the UWP-based ones are auto.  I've added another table to attach trade codes to the worlds in question.  There you will be able to manually add the trade codes you want to that world, and when I check for trade code generation I'll simply add that list in.

Still need to actually do all that: in making the columns non-nullable, I broke my seed when I added all the trade codes with some non-filled values. I was hoping if I did not include something it would be empty, but the DB barfed at that, so I have to set the fields to "".  Which means I really did not have to reset the DB...oh well, now the seed has all the T5 codes.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have time for the actual cargo part. Probably not - need to finish a paper and I actually have to work a bit (need to update the work DB when no one is there so we don't interrupt users).

I am also wanting to referee or play again - I went through all my ship posters and really want a face to face game so I can use them...and I've got the Great Rift coming in at some point so I may move the play there.  Plus the Cruiser Kickstarter - I am getting all these things I should really use them!

Tracker - trade classifications

I have been depending on the TravellerMap API to have the trade code classifications in the Remarks field. While this does work, I'd rather have a more nuanced approach to have more details.

I already have the trade code table which gives you trade codes based on the UWP characteristics.  I've added a function to get that list of trade codes based on UWP. Had an issue with nulls but I'll update the DB to not allow nulls for the list of statistics, and that should correct it.

Since I am having to wipe my DB clean again (SQLite migrations do not support changing column attributes, the adding 'not nullable') I'll also expand out the seed that imports the trade codes to include all of them (I manually entered them for testing, found the null issue, and do not want to manually enter them all over again! Although a fix would be to initialize the new classification with blanks, I'd rather have the DB enforce that). This will still allow users to add their own trade codes if they want, and the T5 trade code generator will pick random goods based on trade codes, so that will allow for that to work. It won't affect Classic as that has a very restricted list.

The code to grab the list of trade classifications is pretty simple after the fact. What I've yet to figure out is how to add additional, non-UWP derived trade codes to a world (i.e., Capitol).  I'll probably add a new table for non-UWP trade classifications to allow for the manual entry, and combine those two lists in the new function.

 List results = App.DB.TradeClassifications.Where(x => x.Sizes.Length == 0 || x.Sizes.Contains(Size)).
                Where(x => x.Atmospheres.Length == 0 || x.Atmospheres.Contains(Atmosphere)).
                Where(x => x.Hydro.Length == 0 || x.Hydro.Contains(Hydro)).
                Where(x => x.Pop.Length == 0 || x.Pop.Contains(Population)).
                Where(x => x.Gov.Length == 0 || x.Gov.Contains(Gov)).
                Where(x =>x.Law.Length == 0 || x.Law.Contains(Law)).ToList();

Tracker - T5 Trade, a start

I've started looking into the T5 trade rules. First step was to also have the list of possible trade goods, so there is yet another trade goods table. In hindsight, there should just be 1 but the Classic rules use s D66 method for rolling up the goods, and I did not want to have to figure out how to enforce that.

So I've grabbed a few cargoes from the BBB and stuck them in there. I may extend it out a bit more (i.e. include the full description of what it really is).  This will allow the users to add whatever cargoes they want to add that are trade class based. When I generate the T5 cargo, I'll randomly pick one of the trade codes, then randomly pick one of the trade goods for that trade code.

Down the road I would like a more personalized trade goods option - some of my world workups had some fairly detailed smaller cargoes. Sometimes it is that personal touch of having 50kg of specialized organic coffee versus a container of freeze dried caffeine.

It is going slower not due to being hard, but my severe lack of time :(

And while I thought about starting a PBP game, that severe lack of time keeps raising its head...

Tracker - Printing...and maybe a PBP game on COTI?

Got the basic printing to work. I am not exactly happy with this - I create a rich text block and fill it up. To make things align I set the font to a fixed-width font.  I actually think I could do a hidden grid on the display page and use that - it would be automatic for the databinding and I could do some formatting...

I am also possibly going to start a PBP game over on COTI.  I've got some interest there from one of my fellow members, and I've got the inkling of a game idea based on some of his suggestions.  We'll see...if so, then hopefully this blog will be split between software and actual game stuff!

Tracker - T5 rules

The T5 trade rules are just stubbed out. If your ship is Mongoose or T5, it just returns a message about not currently supported. There is a user over on COTI that wanted a T5 trade program.  I really did not like the T5 version as it seems so dry. It is not hard to do though, so I have a short road map:

1. Finish the cargo printing manifest (4-8 hours)
2. Do the T5 cargo (unknown duration as it has been a couple of years since I read over those rules)

Unfortunately school takes priority, and this is mid-term week. I need to write a paper about a project. Fortunately, I've actually just started a project for work, and that will become my mid-term paper (and won't work be surprised to get a project charter, stakeholder communication breakdown, and a process breakdown!)  As that needs to be completed by Sunday, and I really don't think it will be too difficult, I am hopefully that I'll complete the printing by this weekend (although I really want some sort of template system so that the user can format it a bit, but that will be version 2.0, and as I am on v0.0.0.1 at the moment...)

And I may move this tracker as a project once someone other than me is using it.  When that happens I may open up a Trello board for project management the Kanban style!

And how did March sneak up so fast?