[FT3/COS3] Creating planets in FT for use with Cosmographer

Thoughts? I don't own FT yet, but I need a wider variety of planet symbols than what's in Cosmographer, annuals, and DJ/CSUAC. How easy would it be to create, say, an ice world, randomize things, toss it in CC3, and see how it looks? Single biome planets are pretty common in sci-fi and I can deal with that, though I'd love to be able to work with ice caps and desert areas and such. At the zoom level Cosmographer works in the level of detail won't need to be high.

Thanks

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    This is certainly possible, but be aware of these things when you make planets in FT.
    - FT planet generation generates earth-like planets, so you won't get single-biome planets out of the box, you need to do some manual climate painting to accomplish this. You can't just tell FT to generate an ice or desert world, but you can tell it to generate a random planet, and then paint it with ice.
    - Likewise, it doesn't generate truly alien planets, although you can get that effect by manipulating the color schemes. Editing the color scheme can also save you some work. For example, take an earth-like planet and apply a reddish color scheme to it, and it will look martian. Part of the map may technically be ocean as far as FT is concerned, but with the red coloring, it looks more like a red sand desert.

    I recommend you download the demo version and play with it. The demo is crippled in export size, so you won't get any usable images exported from it, but you can still try out how things look and work in FT.
  • edited February 2018
    Did not realize there was a demo. Good tips, too. Thanks Monsen!
  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Cartographer
    edited February 2018
    Its easy to change the settings in FT3 to make either an ice world or a water world.

    I have 1,200 FT3 Cosmo worlds on my Traveller site.
Sign In or Register to comment.