
                      Traveller System Generator 1.0
                        
This little program combines the Extended System Generator from the New Era
Rulebook with the Planet Detailing rules of World Tamers. I have tried to 
remain as faithful to the published charts as possible and have listed the
modifications below. Any ZIP file containing the executable should also 
contain the source code. Feel free to change it as desired and send me a
copy (as long as its an improvement). I won't insult your intelligence by
asking for money so don't expect me to send you anything either. 

I hope to have my Starship/Vehicle design program finished in about six
months.


Changes from the Rules

    1. I place planets before rolling for number of orbits and chop off any
       which don't make the cut. I had to do this because I was ending up
       with too many systems with more stuff than orbits. This also makes
       gas giants and asteroids less common on the smaller M class stars
       which seems to make sense anyway.
       
    2. The Orbit Zone charts on page 193 are wrong. (At least for the bigger
       stars). I now determine the Habitable Zone by guesstimating the mean
       temperature of the planet (from the Orbital Factors p.84).
       
    3. Because the Orbital Range is so important in deciding habitability, I
       now calculate a bit of randomness to the ranges listed. This gives the
       data a more realistic feel. The Orbital Factor is equal to 375 divided
       by the square root of the Orbital Range (in AU's).
       
    4. Whenever possible, I extrapolate values. The most important of these
       are Stellar Mass and Luminosity.
       
    5. Because these rules (even before I modified them) rarely produce a
       planet that I would want to live on, I have created the Gaia Factor.
       Because life tends to adjust its environment according to its
       needs (or so the theory goes), I now average the mean temperature 
       calculated with the ideal temperature (Earth) for planets on which 
       life exists (i.e. Max Pop is > 5). 

    6. I've added a few to the number of orbits for larger stars (II, III)
        
    7. The temperature variation for orbital eccentricty is not used as
       I'm not sure how to use it best. Ex. while it will add to the temp
       on the summer for one hemisphere, It will subtract on the other etc.

    8. I add the Orbital Factor of the Primary Star (at the Companion Star's
       Orbit Range) to the Orbital Factors of the Companion Star. This makes 
       planets orbiting inner zone stars also inner zone. I did this mostly to
       increase the Habitability of Companion Star planets.
                 
Please note that I do not even attempt to calculate Population, Tech Level,
Law/Gov etc. Mostly because I don't believe in the arbitrary way that
population is randomly spread on crappy planets. If you want this 
information, use the tables in the rule book.


Obscure Command Line Arguments (They Way Real Programs Work!!)

    -f         Display temperatures in Farenhight. (sp)
    
    -g         Disable the Gaia Factor. Use if you want your players to always
               be too hot or too cold.

    -G35       Preset a star.  Star Type then Decimal Class then Luminosity
               Class EX. -G35 creates a G3 Star of Luminosity Class 
               five (The Sun). Use 'a' for Ia and 'b' for Ib.
               
    -G33M85    Create a binary system like above. 

     -D        Printout Debug code (big deal). Use if you want to check my
               math!
             
     -sXXXXX   Supply the seed value. I used this for debuging but you can use
               it to store a system as a number (Ex 1020) and only generate it
               if your players happen to go there.
    

Eventually I'm hoping to add the following features.

    1. A random system/planet name generator. 
    
    2. Trinary systems are not yet supported.
    
    3. A better way of calculation rotation periods.

    4. Support for Pop/Tech Levels etc. For both PreCollapse and PostCollapse.  
    
Email Address

          akkala@aol.com
