Welcome Guest
[Log In]
[Register]
| Welcome to the Devious Tyrant NationStates RP! You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means that you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, create and customize your profile, send personal messages, vote in polls, join alliances, and much much more. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community today! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| [Space] Traveler Ship and Star System Generator Tutorial; In case anybody wants to use this thing | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 28 2008, 07:23 AM (2,029 Views) | |
| Nuke | Dec 28 2008, 07:23 AM Post #1 |
![]()
|
BEFORE YOU READ: You are under no obligation what-so-ever to use this sheet for the Space RP. This is just for anyone who wants to have fun designing and building ships using an Excel program. If this isn't your particular cup of tea, that's cool. You aren't forced to do anything with this. Old DTers will remember this. But not all of us are old DTers, so, this thread will show you how to use the Traveler Ship Generator. As with any RP, you need some kind of standardized system for the military equipment people use. The honor system alone, though always necessary and a vital part, just can't go it alone. The possibility of, in a space RP, cruising around in the Enterprise and suddenly being blown to hell by someone claiming to have a super star destroyer is just far too greater. Thus, we use the Traveler system and its generator, courtesy of the Dragon. Traveler is an Excel-based program. It uses a series of numbers and equations to generate date on a ship. All you have to do to receive that data is to input numerical values in the little yellow boxes in the program. It's a simple setup, but without a walk through it can be a bit confusing. Thus, I have created this to show you how to properly use the program. This will be comprehensive! I know comprehensive means long, but it's better to have an in-depth resource for everyone to use, wouldn't you agree? So, let's start the tutorial. I will be showing you how to create a 35,000 battlecruiser. SHEET ONE - General Spoiler: click to toggle This is the most important sheet you'll be using. It contains information on most of the critical parts of the ship, such as engines, armor, and power. Running down the series of yellow boxes, you begin with your Ship's Name. I'm calling this ship the Century class. Next you have the Ship Type. All you do here is input a combination of letters to denote the type of ship you're building (i.e., a battlecruiser would be "BC," a battleship would be "BB," a cruiser would be "CC," a ship that you wanted to be "heavy" such as a heavy battlecruiser would have an "H" added on to the end, so a heavy frigate would be "FFH"). Tech Level should always be 15. If you're smart, when you open the ship generator for the first time, you'll input 15 into that box and then save the file so that every time you open it, you already have that value there. Tonnage is important. It denotes the size of your ship (duh). You'll want to work out a system for the sizes of ship you want. Here's my basic system:
In this case, we're building a 30,000 ton battlecruiser (note that it's not exactly 30,000 tons; I'll explain later). Configuration deals with the general shape of the ship. There is a chart to the bottom right that denotes the different types of configuration. Needle/Wedge and Cone ("1" and "2" would be the respective values you input into the box) are streamlined, meaning that they can enter the atmosphere of a planet with relative ease; Cylinder, Close Structure (the most common one you'll get; take a look at the Halo frigate in my Halo thread, that's the best example of a close structure ship), and Sphere ("3," "4," and "5," respectively, in the box) are partially streamlined, meaning that they can enter the atmosphere of a plant, but it isn't really recommended; Dispersed structure ("7"), although not streamlined (meaning it can't enter the atmosphere) is a special kind of ship - instead of a boxy or streamlined hull, it's broken apart with many different levels that jut out in different directions, making the ship good for launching fighters (it can do so all at once, whereas the other ships have to do so using launch tubes; more on that later); and Planetoid and Buffered Planetoid ("8" and "9") are also not streamlined, given that they are built literally out of rock (i.e. a hollowed-out asteroid). Maneuver Drive relates to how many sublight engines are powering your ship. It also shows how many G's of acceleration your ship has (obviously, the more G's, the faster your ship can accelerate and thus dodge incoming fire). You must have a minimum of one sublight drive, and you can a max of six. The more you have, generally the faster your ship can move. 4 engines are good for medium to large sized ships, 3 for smaller ones, and 2 for really small ships. 5 and 6 are used when you want a ship that's capable of some seriously high speeds, or if you feel that you need that many engines to haul your ship's fat, er, hull around. Jump Drive relates to how many warp drives are powering your ship. If you want your ship to be capable of FTL travel, you'll need at least one drive (more drives means greater redundancy, i.e. if one is damaged you've still go another; I am uncertain if having more drives makes your ship move faster when at warp - ask Dragon). Power Plants are important. They are also heavy. They provide energy for your capacitors to use (see below), but more importantly they provide energy in general. Your weapons drain your total energy (which translates directly to the speed of your ship; see the end of this section for more detail). Capacitors store excess energy that can be used by your weapons and your shields. More on that later. Jump Range determines how far your ship can travel in a single jump. I have a standard minimum range of two for my bigger ships, and a range of three for my smaller ones. Note that each range value translates to a certain percent value of your ship's weight being converted for fuel storage (meaning that a ship with a jump range of 2 devotes 20% of its space to store fuel, a range of 3 stores 30%, and so on). Drop Tank Fuel Range just dives you extra tanks of fuel. It doesn't add weight (but it does add to the overall cost of the ship). I like to add 1000 per every jump range (thus, 2000 for a jump range of 2, 3000 for a jump range of 3, and so on). You must have a Bridge. Two would be better (for backup), but you need at least one. I like to have my command ships field two bridges, with my other ships just using one. Armor can be applied in different levels (1 to 15). The closer to 15 you get, the greater the protection your ship has. I like to have at least a value of 10 on my ships. Bigger ships (like battleships) will want to get that value as close to 15 as possible. Class determines whether this ship is civilian (input "N" for non-military) or military (input "M" for military; I'd do the same thing you did with the tech level and just save this as M by default). Military ships get a weight bonus, meaning that they can put more stuff on their hulls. Troops is obvious: it is the total number of troops you have on board your ship. You can put whatever number you want, but remember that your ships can be boarded during combat, and possibly captured if you don't have a large enough Marine contingent aboard). I make it so that I have 100 troops per every 10,000 tons (thus, with a 30,000 ton ship, I have 300 troops). Frozen Watch are effectively reserve crewmen. If your regular crew are injured in battle, these guys step up. I always put this number at about half the total number of troops I have on board. Note that the Cargo box is very, very important. The number (when black) shows you the amount of space you have left on your hull. When you hit zero, you can't put anything else on the hull. If the number ever turns red, you've put too much on the hull and have to take something away. Beneath that is the Agility section. Your maximum agility (your ship's ability to maneuver during combat) will always be the number of engines you have (thus, a value of 4 in this example). The second value (directly to the right) shows your ship's actual agility. The farther away that number is from the basic value, the slower your ship moves during combat (meaning that the ship is harder to turn, slower to turn, and is likely to absorb shots - and other ships - rather than dodge them). The closer it is, the faster and thus more agile your ship is. This number should never be negative (ever) or zero (unless you want a super slow ship). Me, I like agility, so I always get that number as close to the basic agility as I can. Your agility is affected by the number of power plants you have. Each plant ups your actual agility by one point. Weapons drain your energy, so they will try and detract from your actual agility.[/spoiler] SHEET TWO - Computers Spoiler: click to toggle Computers are needed to run your ship. They encompass your command, control, navigation, and weapons systems. Without them, you can't have a ship. The higher-end computers are at the bottom of the page. You'll want these. Input a "1" for your primary computer and a "2" for your backup computer (if you want one; it's smart to have a backup). You have different levels of computer, nine being the best. I like to keep my computers in the nine range, because they're the best. You can mess with this combination as you please. There are two different types of computer: Fiber Optic (expressed as a "fib" next to the numbers for the computer) and Regular. Fiber Optic computers are faster and more reliable than regular computers and are resistant to radiation damage, but they consume more power and take up more space. Regular computers are slower but consume less power and take up less space. I like to have the Fiber Optic computer as my primary and a regular computer as my backup. SHEET THREE - Weapons Spoiler: click to toggle Now for the fun stuff. Weapons! At the top of this page is the total energy being consumed by your weapons (the green number). You'll want your capacitors (on the General page) to be at least 500 more than this number (to allow you to store energy for all of your weapons, and to have extra for your shields). Weapons are broken down into three basic types: Spinal Weapon (see next spoiler; in fact, put your spinal weapon in first before doing your regular weapons, if of course you want a spinal weapon), Weapons Bays (large weapon systems), and Turrets (series of small weapon systems grouped into batteries). The magenta box above next to "Weapons Bays" tells you have many bay weapons you can have. Do not exceed this number. The 100 Ton Weapons Bays are your standard weapons. You can have a Menson Gun (it fires a beam at a specific point in space, i.e. right at a ship's hull; if I remember correctly, it sort of "bends" space around that point, causing damage to the hull and emitting radiation that kills the crew; it's nasty, but it requires a good deal of energy), a Particle Accelerator (like the MAC guns in Halo or modern rail guns, these fire a projectile at mind boggling speeds using magnetic energy; that projectile is driven into the hull of a ship, causing large amounts of damage to the hull; they require a lot of energy to use, but not as much as ), a Repulsor (kind of like a tractor beam; it can be used to defend against missiles, or against ships trying to ram you; conversely, you can use it to ram ships into other ships, if you're devious like that), or leave it empty (to be filled for future use - don't bother with this). The 50 Ton Weapons Bays are the same as the 100 bays, only that they weigh less (duh) and have a reduced attack factor (a maximum of nine for the 100 ton bays - note that nine will be the max factor for just about everything). But, you can use missiles for the 50 ton bays, of which I have chosen to do so in this example. If you have a Spinal Weapon (either a Particle Accelerator or a Menson Gun), you cannot have a bay weapon of the same type. In this example, my battlecruiser has a spinal-mounted menson gun, so it can't have any bay-mounted mensons. Thus, I have particle accelerators for my weapons bays. Also note that if you have a particle accelerator in your weapons bays, you can't use them for a turreted weapon. Which brings me to the next topic: Turrets. These are small weapons systems grouped into batteries. Firing in salvos, they try to put as much firepower into as small an area as possible. They'll have several guns in each turret. The different types:
Something you'll want to save as standard for the ship generator: each type of turret has a maximum number of guns you can put in each turret (i.e. missiles, lasers, and sandcasters can have three guns per turret, fusion and plasma have a max of 2 guns per turret). In the second yellow column and in each weapon type's respective row, go ahead and input that max value and save the document. The magenta box next to "Turrets" tells you how many turrets you can have. You always want this number to be a power of ten always. Note that when you're putting in your bay weapons, you'll screw up this value somewhat (you'll get 261 for instance rather than 260). This is when you go back to the General sheet and adjust your tonnage. You get one turret for every 100 tons of hull space (minus the space devoted to the spinal weapon and your bay weapons). Thus, if the bay weapons give me a value of 261, I need to go back and add 900 tons to my ship's hull (it's easier to add 900 than subtract 100, given that you'll have to fiddle around with the bay weapons in order to get a ten-power value). When you get it set to a ten-power number, you can then put in your turrets. The first yellow column shows how many actual turrets will be on your ship. Column two shows the number of guns per turret. And column three shows how many batteries you have. For every ten guns, you'll want one battery (that gets you to the maximum attack value for your weapons; i.e., 10 turrets grouped into one battery gives you an attack value of 9, whereas 10 turrets grouped into two batteries knocks that value down to 8; you can put as many batteries as you like, but it saps at the strength of your weapons; me, I prefer strength over quantity). So, in the case of this battlecruiser, the 60 beam and fusion turrets are broken into batteries of 6 each. Sandcasters should always take up about half of your total number of turrets (given that they're your most versatile defensive weapon). They don't take away any energy from your ship, too. Remember to go back to the General page and look at your ship's agility. If it's too low, add additional reactors, or adjust your weapons (i.e. remove some of your energy consuming bay weapons, or drop the number of laser and energy turrets) to get that value to rise. Note: You don't necessarily have to use the maximum number of turrets. You can certainly put in fewer than the maximum number permitted for your hull. It conserves energy and weight, but it also takes a lot of the bite out of our ship. SHEET FOUR - Spinal Weapons Spoiler: click to toggle Spinal Weapons are mounted along a ship's central axis, literally built into the keel. They always fire out of the front of a ship. You can have either a particle accelerator or a menson gun. Input a "1" in the yellow box next to the level of weapon you want (the farther down the chart you go, the heavier and more powerful the weapon - and the more energy it consumes) for a particle accelerator, and a "2" for a menson gun. You don't always need to have a spinal mount, but remember that if you have a spinal mount for a particular type of weapon, you can't use that weapon in a bay or turreted weapon. To the right of the spinal weapons are your Shields. Nuclear dampers lessen the impact of nuclear warheads; Menson screens protect against the nasty effects of menson guns; and Fields Fields protect against everything else. The larger the value you have for each type of screen, the stronger it is. You'll want to have extra capacitors for these to store energy for their use. Me, I like to have all of my screens with a value of 9. My smaller ships will have this value reduced somewhat, but generally I stick with 9. Note that menson screens eat up a lot of energy, so if you're having problems trying to get your ship's total energy consumption down, try reducing the level of your screens by one (also note that the lower the value of the screen, the heavier it gets once you go past a certain point, so there's a bit of a trade-off). SHEET FIVE - Flight Spoiler: click to toggle The Flight page is important if you want to have any kind of craft stored aboard your ship. First thing's first. As with the tech level, you need to have at least one ship's boat. Input a "1" in the "Qtty" column, then save the file. There are different kinds of craft:
Your ship can Launch a Certain Number of Craft Per Turn (see "Launch Facilities: x craft/turn" at the top right of the page). If you want to carry a large number of craft (namely fighters), you'll want to put in a few launch tubes (the standard size is ten tons, for use by ten ton or smaller fighters; me, I use 20 ton Fury-class fighters - my own creation -, so I use a 20 ton launch tube; you can change this simply by changing the "10" in the box to the right of "Launch Tubes" to whatever value you choose). Launch Tubes are very heavy and thus take up lots of space. But, you can launch ten craft per turn for each tube (thus, two tubes would bump you up to 20 craft per turn, then 30, then 40). You'll want to have at least 10 fighters per tube (for two launch tubes, I try to put in 40 to 60 fighters; don't go with 50 or 70 or any odd-numbered power if you have an even number of tubes, given that you'll end up wasting one of the tubes during a particular turn). On to Modules. These can be of three different types: Fuel, Troop, and Courier. These are carried around by a cutter (think tractor-trailer). Fuel modules can be used to collect fuel from natural sources (i.e. a star or asteroid). While the module collects and stores the fuel, the cutter has facilities on board to refine it into a usable substance. Troop modules carry a number of troops (I don't know the exact value), either to the ground or in attacks on other ships. Courier modules (used in freighters) move men and materials from the ship to other ships, stations, or ground installations. Vehicles are any ground vehicle you want to have stowed aboard your ship. New craft can be created in Dragon's Traveler Small Ship Generator, but that's for another tutorial. [SHEET SIX - Ship Sheet] Spoiler: click to toggle This is just a basic sheet that gives you information on your ship. It's used for table-top gaming. So, basically it's worthless. [SHEET Seven - Traveler UPC] Spoiler: click to toggle This is just a basic sheet that gives you information on your ship. If you are posting threads containing information on your ship, you'll want to use this sheet to share that information. When doing so, use CODE tags (shown below) to organize the data. Example:
At last, you made it! I hope that helped. Edited by Nuke, Feb 10 2010, 05:07 AM.
|
![]() News Thread: la Confederazione Space Nation: Human Systems Alliance | |
![]() |
|
| Nuke | Dec 28 2008, 07:26 AM Post #2 |
![]()
|
This post was originally from The Dragon (mind you I pulled this entire thread from DT's main forums). It contains some more good info (namely anything I missed).
|
![]() News Thread: la Confederazione Space Nation: Human Systems Alliance | |
![]() |
|
| The Dragon | Dec 28 2008, 08:29 AM Post #3 |
![]()
|
Also to note is class differention. Military ships have closer bunking of military personel (aproximately 2.2 tons/person rather than the standard 4 tons/person. Military ships can not carry passengers nor be used to generate revinue, they just ain't built for that. I'll be uploading some of the De Dragon navy ships in the next few days. I need to upload the ship images (as well as the traveler chart images to my photobucket account.) We also had a great sight giving all the information from book 5 Traveler High Guard, but unfortunately that site is no longer up. I will eventually work on a smilar site for us to us in the future. Another thing to take into consideration is the prices, that number is in MILIONS of credits. Really big ships (10000 tons and up) are really expensive and yearly maintainance is roughly 10% of ships cost. Eventually (and don't hold your breath) this traveler ship building system will be an online aplication allong with a combat system (that does all the dice rolling, damage allocation, and even movement for you) |
|
DT RP: Draki (old nationstates page) - Wiki - News (old news thread) - Image Gallery Space: Nth'ch (old nationstates page) - Nth'ch images - Bug Ships - Note, Original space race was De Dragon but changed to the Nth'ch to create an insect race. | |
![]() |
|
| Nuke | Dec 29 2008, 05:35 AM Post #4 |
![]()
|
I've uploaded the Excel files for the Ship Generator and the Small Ship Generator. Feel free to toy around with them as you please. |
![]() News Thread: la Confederazione Space Nation: Human Systems Alliance | |
![]() |
|
| Dr. Awesome | Dec 29 2008, 05:56 AM Post #5 |
|
Save Me
|
For those poor people that don't have the money to buy any of mircosoft's useless shit. Then download open office to read and edit the excel files. http://www.openoffice.org/ |
|
Regional RP Nations Spoiler: click to toggle Space RP Nations Spoiler: click to toggle Fantasy Spoiler: click to toggle | |
![]() |
|
| The Dragon | Dec 29 2008, 09:19 PM Post #6 |
![]()
|
Edge, I think Milt will love ya for that link
|
|
DT RP: Draki (old nationstates page) - Wiki - News (old news thread) - Image Gallery Space: Nth'ch (old nationstates page) - Nth'ch images - Bug Ships - Note, Original space race was De Dragon but changed to the Nth'ch to create an insect race. | |
![]() |
|
| Trostia | Dec 31 2008, 11:33 PM Post #7 |
|
jesus is my friend
|
Even with the tutorial, this is a pretty lengthy and not terribly fun or rewarding process. Since we don't have like a war game system we'll use these in (in which their ratings and values would have a meaningful context) why not simply allow people to design their own ships in whatever flavor? We could set up limits so things don't get all Star Wars-imported and whatnot, but right now I think the Traveler ship design system is just offputting to potential Space RPers. Just my tuppence. |
![]() |
|
| Dr. Awesome | Dec 31 2008, 11:47 PM Post #8 |
|
Save Me
|
I think there is a rule that if you want to go to war, you will be required to have a travlersheet. But, you have to be asked if you want to go to war and accept. Because in the last RP, Flawless still RPed without a sheet. (although it didn't progress much) But, i'd just wait for Nuke's say. Yes, the tutorial is a pretty lengthy wall of text, and my brain almost exploded trying to figure. But yeah, you and the others from EE aren't alone. Edit: Nuke, you should also put the text in the spoilers Edited by Dr. Awesome, Dec 31 2008, 11:55 PM.
|
|
Regional RP Nations Spoiler: click to toggle Space RP Nations Spoiler: click to toggle Fantasy Spoiler: click to toggle | |
![]() |
|
| Nuke | Jan 1 2009, 06:08 AM Post #9 |
![]()
|
It's not that I mind you using whatever ships you want, it's just that we need some kind of system to keep everything in check. I mean, this RP will fail the moment we have a "quantum torpedoes > proton torpedoes, blasters > phasers" argument. Traveler works, but unfortunately it's a bit daunting. I'm not blind to this. I propose this: those of us who know how to use Traveler (namely Dragon, myself, and Edge more or less) can continue to use. So can anyone else who wants to. But, concurrent with Traveler I'll concoct a little system that can be used without any spreadsheets or the like (I'm think just a simple chart showing what you can have, what you can't; what weapons are more powerful than others; and so on). The only things we have to worry about are weapons, speed, the distance a ship can travel at warp, and how many fighters/marines a ship can carry. How's that sound? |
![]() News Thread: la Confederazione Space Nation: Human Systems Alliance | |
![]() |
|
| The Dragon | Jan 1 2009, 03:56 PM Post #10 |
![]()
|
Actually though complex in apearance it's not too bad a system. The numbers generated are used in a combat system (I've a combat simulator in xl as well) that I'll post and explain later on. It is my goal that when I have the time (and an internet site) to create an online gaming system using the traveler system with a ship generator and a combat sytem that will do the vector movement of the ships and missiles as well (yes it's done realistically) I'll also be posting some ships and going through their design setup as well. Pay attention to what I do and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them for you. Also I strongly recomend for first attempts designing 1 or 2 ships and post them for us to review. I'll give you honest feedback (as Nuke about his early ship designs) as to how to improve or correct them, such as organizing the batteries and such. |
|
DT RP: Draki (old nationstates page) - Wiki - News (old news thread) - Image Gallery Space: Nth'ch (old nationstates page) - Nth'ch images - Bug Ships - Note, Original space race was De Dragon but changed to the Nth'ch to create an insect race. | |
![]() |
|
| The Dragon | Feb 9 2010, 05:32 PM Post #11 |
![]()
|
In light of recient events and confusions heres some information and resources for star systems from the web and my traveler game book. First types and spectra of stars (and their relative frequencies) can be found here: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/startypes.shtml To play arround with habitable zones for your personal star system there's an excel sheet I've attached. also I've a star system generator in excel but you'll have to send me an email for the file as it's a wopping 2.1 megs of randomizers and if then statements (but it will generate a complete star system with planets, asteroids, moons, gas giants and give you planet/moon atmospheres, hydroponics and optional populations. [edit] found a hosting site for it: travelerStarSystemGeneratorv5.xls The pages from the book used for generating this information is here: Spoiler: click to toggle @ nuke can you edit the title of this thread to [Space] Traveler Ship & Star System Generator Tutorial Edited by The Dragon, Feb 9 2010, 06:20 PM.
|
|
DT RP: Draki (old nationstates page) - Wiki - News (old news thread) - Image Gallery Space: Nth'ch (old nationstates page) - Nth'ch images - Bug Ships - Note, Original space race was De Dragon but changed to the Nth'ch to create an insect race. | |
![]() |
|
| Nuke | Feb 10 2010, 05:11 AM Post #12 |
![]()
|
As you wish. I'm unpinning the topic, though. This has never been used, and until I see evidence to the contrary, it's just clogging up the pinned threads section. |
![]() News Thread: la Confederazione Space Nation: Human Systems Alliance | |
![]() |
|
| The Dragon | Feb 10 2010, 02:51 PM Post #13 |
![]()
|
As we've a different system I was suprised to see it still stuck. But the info is good for fellow geeks. And folks that wish to generate interesting or diverse star systems can use the generator and understand how it works now = |
|
DT RP: Draki (old nationstates page) - Wiki - News (old news thread) - Image Gallery Space: Nth'ch (old nationstates page) - Nth'ch images - Bug Ships - Note, Original space race was De Dragon but changed to the Nth'ch to create an insect race. | |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Space Map, Ship Builder, and Other Resources · Next Topic » |
| Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
12:18 AM Jul 11
|










TravelerShipGenerator3.xls (177.5 KB)




United States of Romania
Silvester-Ueli
Kheiversburg








12:18 AM Jul 11