Fractal Terrains: Classic Traveller icosahedron export?
I've generated a planet in FT, no problems there; I've been able to export icosahedral forms of the map, and import them (finally, after much scratching of head and swaering of mouth, I realised that I'd forgotten to uncheck the embed box in cc2! Wibble!).
I've been able to form a map based on these images in CC2. Fine and dandy, you might think.
HOWEVER. There's a liiiiiiitle problem...
The hex grid is wrong for Classic traveller and MegaTraveller. Fine for Gurps Traveller, and so on, I suppose, but not CT or MT. The left and right ends, and the hex sizes are wrong. Cool, thinks I. I'll use the other template called "World Template (Traveller).FCT".
Wrong.
The output from FT is incorrect. It uses the first template format, not the CT or MT format of icosahedron.
OK, you might think, so what's the big deal?
It's the world details. To produce an extended format of world in Traveller, one has to either use loads of dice, most of an HB pencil, and a ream of paper, or use a computer (best s/w out there for this? Heaven & Earth, a freeware package now sadly no longer maintained or supported, but it works fairly well.). This churns out mucho data, including such things as temperature charts.
Using 11-row north and south hemispheres. Not 14-row ones.
Hopefully now you're starting to see the problem.
So, here's the question...
Given this truly astronomical problem (sic), are there plans to distribute a new patch that will solve this problem in FT, by allowing a Classic Traveller icosahedron export?
Anyhow, I also thought one or two of you'd like to see the fruits of my recent labours over FT and CC2/CosPro,so here y'go
Enjoy
and
I've been able to form a map based on these images in CC2. Fine and dandy, you might think.
HOWEVER. There's a liiiiiiitle problem...
The hex grid is wrong for Classic traveller and MegaTraveller. Fine for Gurps Traveller, and so on, I suppose, but not CT or MT. The left and right ends, and the hex sizes are wrong. Cool, thinks I. I'll use the other template called "World Template (Traveller).FCT".
Wrong.
The output from FT is incorrect. It uses the first template format, not the CT or MT format of icosahedron.
OK, you might think, so what's the big deal?
It's the world details. To produce an extended format of world in Traveller, one has to either use loads of dice, most of an HB pencil, and a ream of paper, or use a computer (best s/w out there for this? Heaven & Earth, a freeware package now sadly no longer maintained or supported, but it works fairly well.). This churns out mucho data, including such things as temperature charts.
Using 11-row north and south hemispheres. Not 14-row ones.
Hopefully now you're starting to see the problem.
So, here's the question...
Given this truly astronomical problem (sic), are there plans to distribute a new patch that will solve this problem in FT, by allowing a Classic Traveller icosahedron export?
Anyhow, I also thought one or two of you'd like to see the fruits of my recent labours over FT and CC2/CosPro,so here y'go
Enjoy and
Comments
Great Maps.
Being a huge Classic / Mega Traveller fan myself I do find it frustrating not being able to use FT to produce an I export in the CT or MT format of icosahedron, especially as to then use the auto-generated Heaven & Eath Data and place it on the map becomes so much easier. Could the new Cosmographer 3 application provide a means of taking the 14 row format provided by FT and pushing it into an 11 row format?
and
I also took the opportunity, on advice from the lads and lasses over at The Cartographers' Guild, to darken the hex grid. Seems the issued version has too light a grid (grey), that takes attention away from the Gaia map itself. I tend to agree, to be brutally honest. Looks a LOT better with a darker blue grid, I think.
The hex map I presume presents the majority terrain type for the hex, or at least the terrain type for any land within the hex. Clearly the Gaia map does not quite match the hex map as some of the land masses are less than a hex in size, but by presenting both together it really gives a player a nice feel for what the planet might look like from space, whilst also presenting topographical / geographical information alongside.
One small set of comments:
(1) I'm not sure about the differences between the thex map terrain types "Winter Ice Limits", "Permanent Ice Cap" and "Land (Ice)". I presume the "Permanent Ice Cap" is just that, and thus the "Winter Ice Limits" hexes represent the sudden and fairly dramatic expansion of the Ice Cap in Winter. The "Land (Ice)" hexes are somewhat problematic however, as most sit in the "Winter Ice limits" zone. Does this mean that they become permanently covered in glacial Ice or are just heavily snowbound in winter. I note there a number of cities in these hexes, so there must be something to attract folks. Is this a Tundra type terrain or perhaps some native terrain type that is heavily affected by seasonal vegitation changes.
(2) What causes winter on this planet? Is it the axial tilt combined with the annual rotation round the star or is the orbit slightly ovoid or maybe something else? If its the former then I suggest that there is a significant axial tilt as the "Winter Ice Limits" come fairly low down. If its the latter, then Winter comes to the whole planet at the same time, but the orbital excentricity is quite severe for the same reason. Was this intended?
(3) Are there any significant major currents, like the Gulf Stream, that might mix things up and thus break up the "Winter Ice limits" hexes, and make some of the Land (Ice) terrain vary in row location a bit more. At present the climate zones appear a little rigid, but that could be a deliberate feature of this planet for which you have an explaination.
Anyway great maps!
One of the reasons I like sticking hexmap and Gaia maps together is exactly the point you mentioned - it gives a much better sense of how the world looks from orbit. heh. How did I know these were on the way?
Hnaar (Tehaina I Gamma)/2533 Yahehwe - A969641-B M In Ri M9 vi - H & E Raw Data
Look over the temperature worksheet by rows, and you'll see. It's what you suspected: Radical expansions in the icecaps on a seasonal basis.
Regards the land in those reguions, yeah, I was leaning towards glacial ice sheets, akin to Greenland, Athabaska, and so on. Your observation cenmented the deal, so to speak, on the land masses there. Thanks
Roger
Why doesn't FT have an icosahedral projection option? Why doesn't it have that as an option to export directly to CC2 (or CC3)?. In my opinion this would save a lot of problems, as other projections have inherent (and substantial) distortion which is then conveyed to the CC2 map.
I
I have never played "Traveller" - but I do suspect that there must be a way to recalculate hexes algebraicly, or via just regular short hand math, to find a value for the 14 hex versus 11 hex dilemma? If you want hex formulas to work with - then check one of my older posts:
http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=2186
Ithril -
Yes, the original maps were done before Terraformer became available; I've since acquired it, and wow, it's made a difference
FT does have an an icosahedral projection option
You CAN get an FT image into CC2/CosPro (and 3/Cos3), but it can a bit of a mission if you don't do it right.
the process is as follows:
In cc2...
1. Create a new layer, and give it a name, eg FT-MAP
2. go EDIT -> INSERT FILE and de-check "EMBED IN DRAWING" and "OUTLINE BITMAP"
3. Highlight the file you want to insert, and click "OPEN"
4. Use the mouse to go to the top left corner of where you want the image pasted, and left click once. Go to the bottom right corner of where you want the image pasted, and left click once.
BINGO!
Now, I purchased the upgrades from CC2 to CC3 when I had a windows box (I'm running a Linux box now, having suffered one too many crashed and BSODs under WinDoze, which killed a 1-and-a-half-year-old HDD. I mean it completely shagged it to bits in a logical, not physical, sense: It was completely unrecoverable. Thank god for backups!), so while I've got FTPro, CC2/CosPro/SS3 installed, and I can still can download the upgrades if I choose to do so, comments here and there suggest it's be a tad unstable running CC3 etc, so I'm remaining with 2 under WINE on the Ubuntu 14.04LTS installation for the time being. Therefore, you're going to have to figure out the best method for getting FT imagery into CC3 all on your lonesome
Hope the above, as late and delayed as it is, helps
Cheers,
Roger
Note that this is the quick'n'dirty version, with a couple of bits of white space here and there; the FT image was sent to the back of the template, and the font changed to a more Traveller-esque Optima font. I've still some fine-tuning to do, and then I'll overprint it with the proper hex symbology for in-game mapping purposes.