Wing Commander RPG
- Thread starter Wolfman
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capi3101
Admiral
Good Morning, Wingnuts and Citizens! Time for a belated WCRPG Update. For those of you living in the States like myself, I hope you're having a pleasant Labor Day, and unlike myself are able to enjoy it without being sent off to the laundromat...
Not really much to report this week. As I announced on the CIC forums on Tuesday, proofreading of Enyo has been completed and the revised version is now up at Lulu in both PDF and paperback. As for the rest of the week, well...
...let's just say I was working on something else.
Actually, there's another game up at WCRPG's website that's been there for a while - Armada PNP - and I figured since I was on a revision kick, I should update it as well. When I first built it, I said that there were plans in the works to make it to where combat in the game could be conducted using rules from either WCRPG or TacOps (rather than with the built in "Quick Combat"-style engine), and I figured this was a good time to go ahead and implement those rules as promised. WCRPG's combat version is relatively easy; the big challenge there will be creating generic pilots. To use TacOps rules, however, is going to require a bit more in terms of work (if for no other reason than to account for the Shoklar's cloak). I do have further plans to update the Armada PNP rules, but that may depend on how much feedback I ultimate get on the present set of rules.
My galley proof of Vespus arrived on Thursday, turned out pretty nice. I had been worried a bit about the cover for a while and though the text is a bit closer to the edges than I'd prefer, it's still acceptable.
No work on Elegy or Saga characters to report this week, and I haven't started work on stats for Star Citizen craft designs either. Basically, I've been enjoying a post-proofreading break. I do plan on getting back to these projects some time this coming week. I was extraordinarily dismayed to see the minimum system requirements for SC's new Hangar Module this week - 8 GB? Seriously? I know I've joked about beginning a Kickstarter for me to raise the funds necessary to upgrade my box to play SC...that makes me wonder if I should be taking that plan more seriously...
That's going to be it for this week; next update will be at the regularly scheduled time, between 11-14Z, on September 9.
Not really much to report this week. As I announced on the CIC forums on Tuesday, proofreading of Enyo has been completed and the revised version is now up at Lulu in both PDF and paperback. As for the rest of the week, well...
...let's just say I was working on something else.
Actually, there's another game up at WCRPG's website that's been there for a while - Armada PNP - and I figured since I was on a revision kick, I should update it as well. When I first built it, I said that there were plans in the works to make it to where combat in the game could be conducted using rules from either WCRPG or TacOps (rather than with the built in "Quick Combat"-style engine), and I figured this was a good time to go ahead and implement those rules as promised. WCRPG's combat version is relatively easy; the big challenge there will be creating generic pilots. To use TacOps rules, however, is going to require a bit more in terms of work (if for no other reason than to account for the Shoklar's cloak). I do have further plans to update the Armada PNP rules, but that may depend on how much feedback I ultimate get on the present set of rules.
My galley proof of Vespus arrived on Thursday, turned out pretty nice. I had been worried a bit about the cover for a while and though the text is a bit closer to the edges than I'd prefer, it's still acceptable.
No work on Elegy or Saga characters to report this week, and I haven't started work on stats for Star Citizen craft designs either. Basically, I've been enjoying a post-proofreading break. I do plan on getting back to these projects some time this coming week. I was extraordinarily dismayed to see the minimum system requirements for SC's new Hangar Module this week - 8 GB? Seriously? I know I've joked about beginning a Kickstarter for me to raise the funds necessary to upgrade my box to play SC...that makes me wonder if I should be taking that plan more seriously...
That's going to be it for this week; next update will be at the regularly scheduled time, between 11-14Z, on September 9.
Whistler
Vice Admiral
There are some on RSI right now who are using 4 and 6 gb successfully during testing...it's more your cpu/gpu setup but it's the x64 architecture that is important.
Edit:
8 gb only appears to be more important if you have two or more ships in your hanger from what I've gleaned in their forums. Also, the buggy and other hanger decorations start adding up the polys.
Edit:
8 gb only appears to be more important if you have two or more ships in your hanger from what I've gleaned in their forums. Also, the buggy and other hanger decorations start adding up the polys.
capi3101
Admiral
My box is four years old and it was considered a bare-bones system then. It's a Gigabyte S-Series M68M-S2P motherboard running an AMD Athlon II X2 245 Processor at 2.9 GHz with 2.00 GB memory. I did make an attempt to add an nVidia 600 series card earlier this year but my system ultimately barfed it up (DDR2 capabilities on the motherboard; it was a DDR3 card as it turned out), so right now it's using the onboard graphics chip - an nVidia 7000 series equivalent. So when I say that how well my computer runs depends on how well I've fed the hamster that runs it over the course of the day, I'm only half kidding. Being the sole breadwinner for a family of four, I don't see myself with the necessary scratch to make the kinds of upgrades I need to make any time soon (and my wife is encouraging us to find a new family car, so that has priority at the moment). All that lends to my pessimism. I think it's understandable; I'm hoping it doesn't come off as defeatist.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
Not much to report this week, unfortunately. I spent most of the past few days working on various VASSAL mods, including the one for Armada PNP. I still haven't worked out the existing issues with the mod's automated combat strength calculator (pretty sure it could be solved with a little recasting but I have no clue how to do that in Java, in which VASSAL is written). I did get the idea to use VASSAL to help me build the Epsilon Sector maps for Elegy; still getting that set up but I do have one modest example:
That's probably not going to be the final version of the Goddard system map, just a proof of the viability of the method.
Right now I've got the Elegy nav maps in the pipe, along with the outstanding work on Saga characters and conversions of RSI ships to WCRPG format. I've got plenty that needs doing; I just need to take time to do it.
That's all I've got for this week; next update between 11-14Z on September 16th. Hopefully I'll have more to report then.
Not much to report this week, unfortunately. I spent most of the past few days working on various VASSAL mods, including the one for Armada PNP. I still haven't worked out the existing issues with the mod's automated combat strength calculator (pretty sure it could be solved with a little recasting but I have no clue how to do that in Java, in which VASSAL is written). I did get the idea to use VASSAL to help me build the Epsilon Sector maps for Elegy; still getting that set up but I do have one modest example:
That's probably not going to be the final version of the Goddard system map, just a proof of the viability of the method.
Right now I've got the Elegy nav maps in the pipe, along with the outstanding work on Saga characters and conversions of RSI ships to WCRPG format. I've got plenty that needs doing; I just need to take time to do it.
That's all I've got for this week; next update between 11-14Z on September 16th. Hopefully I'll have more to report then.
capi3101
Admiral
Nothing to report this week either - I've still been working with VASSAL mods, though at this point I've just got one left in the pipe and I'm hopeful I'll get to finish that one up later this week so I can start devoting myself full time to Elegy. I am starting to make some headway on the nav maps, though at this point Kabla Meth's map remains the only one that's been finalized.
Next update between 11-14Z on September 23rd; hopefully I'll have something to tell y'all then.
Next update between 11-14Z on September 23rd; hopefully I'll have something to tell y'all then.
capi3101
Admiral
More of the same - I finally finished up the VASSAL mod I was working on - Star Smuggler by Dennis Sustare, published 1982 by Dwarfstar games - and posted it on Saturday. If you take a look at it, you'd probably understand why I didn't have a lot of time to work on Elegy (I mean, it takes time to craft over 300 HTML files by hand). Since it's done now, I plan to ramp things back up again. There are seven finished nav maps at this point; I've got 53 to go and I've started work on some of the additional features of each system (history mainly, but base population is also in the pipe for this week and I've also done some work with Kilrathi names for the systems). I did manage to get my notes consolidated and at this point I've only got one or two systems for which I need to generate additional bases. I still may need to adjust the raw map data for certain systems; so far I haven't come up with any significant problems on that front, though.
Next update between 11-14Z on September 30th; should have something to tell y'all then.
Next update between 11-14Z on September 30th; should have something to tell y'all then.
capi3101
Admiral
Almost forgot...thanks to the CIC staff for yesterday's spread on the Armada
NP VASSAL mod. Still haven't received any feedback from anybody on the game in general, though my wife pointed out to me last night that it was probably because the original game would've required people to build all the tokens themselves (and admittedly, that's a hell of a lot of work). Hopefully the mod will help alleviate that particular problem.
I hadn't told her about Elegy yet...probably should've so she could've been pissed and gotten over it already......
NP VASSAL mod. Still haven't received any feedback from anybody on the game in general, though my wife pointed out to me last night that it was probably because the original game would've required people to build all the tokens themselves (and admittedly, that's a hell of a lot of work). Hopefully the mod will help alleviate that particular problem.I hadn't told her about Elegy yet...probably should've so she could've been pissed and gotten over it already......
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens!! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update. Yes, I actually am taking the time to do it right this week...
This week I continued with my efforts to get the Epsilon Sector campaign setting ready for Elegy (the campaign setting material will be acting as the "front half" of the campaign this time around, with the Elegy story and missions making up the "back half"). At the moment, that means manufacturing system maps. I didn't have an outstanding VASSAL mod competing for my time this week, so I was able to pick up work there in earnest, completing maps at a rate of four per day. I've got 26 maps finalized at this point, putting that effort just short of the halfway mark. At the same time I've been working on calculating distances between various nav points and I can report that effort as current for all systems. I'm still a little up in the air over what information will be included with each system, but I have settled on system affiliation, history, bases/cities and facilities data, population and demographics data, commodities data and random encounter probabilities at the various nav points. For planets, I intend to put in their planetary characteristics. If I add any other data, it might be prominent citizenry and/or potential missions within a system. The whole idea behind adding all this information is, of course, for players to not necessarily have to play the Elegy campaign if they don't want to, but still be able to use the information to play a different campaign set in Epsilon during the same time period (Epsilon during the 2690 Nephilim onslaught might be an interesting BSG-esque tale...).
Not much else happened this week, though I did make a few decisions about the Bloodeye character. The big one was finally deciding to base the Demon's Eye Pack in Valgard - I got to looking back at the literature (read: game manuals). It wasn't the news of the group's execution that finally convinced me they needed to be there, it was Patricia Drake's little editorial at the beginning of Waypoint! that sold me. Which means that once again I'll have to redesign the Valgard map - this will be the fourth time that's happened. A pirate base in the same system as a military prison makes little sense to me, but it is what it is...
Probably am going to be making maps for the foreseeable future; at this point I'm getting in to the systems that are better defined and I'm hoping that doesn't slow me up too much. I've still got a few things to figure out as far as Sector design is concerned - I'll estimate another three weeks until all the maps are done and then I'll start sorting out specific details. I won't get into writing the story until the stage has been set.
That's it for this week; next update between 11-14Z on October 7th.
This week I continued with my efforts to get the Epsilon Sector campaign setting ready for Elegy (the campaign setting material will be acting as the "front half" of the campaign this time around, with the Elegy story and missions making up the "back half"). At the moment, that means manufacturing system maps. I didn't have an outstanding VASSAL mod competing for my time this week, so I was able to pick up work there in earnest, completing maps at a rate of four per day. I've got 26 maps finalized at this point, putting that effort just short of the halfway mark. At the same time I've been working on calculating distances between various nav points and I can report that effort as current for all systems. I'm still a little up in the air over what information will be included with each system, but I have settled on system affiliation, history, bases/cities and facilities data, population and demographics data, commodities data and random encounter probabilities at the various nav points. For planets, I intend to put in their planetary characteristics. If I add any other data, it might be prominent citizenry and/or potential missions within a system. The whole idea behind adding all this information is, of course, for players to not necessarily have to play the Elegy campaign if they don't want to, but still be able to use the information to play a different campaign set in Epsilon during the same time period (Epsilon during the 2690 Nephilim onslaught might be an interesting BSG-esque tale...).
Not much else happened this week, though I did make a few decisions about the Bloodeye character. The big one was finally deciding to base the Demon's Eye Pack in Valgard - I got to looking back at the literature (read: game manuals). It wasn't the news of the group's execution that finally convinced me they needed to be there, it was Patricia Drake's little editorial at the beginning of Waypoint! that sold me. Which means that once again I'll have to redesign the Valgard map - this will be the fourth time that's happened. A pirate base in the same system as a military prison makes little sense to me, but it is what it is...
Probably am going to be making maps for the foreseeable future; at this point I'm getting in to the systems that are better defined and I'm hoping that doesn't slow me up too much. I've still got a few things to figure out as far as Sector design is concerned - I'll estimate another three weeks until all the maps are done and then I'll start sorting out specific details. I won't get into writing the story until the stage has been set.
That's it for this week; next update between 11-14Z on October 7th.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
More cartographic efforts this week (as I said there would be in the last update). I completed eighteen maps in total this week, bringing the total number of completed maps to 45 as of this morning (out of sixty; I'm right at the three-quarters mark). Tv'x Aq was the last of the "free license" systems I could map; at this point, I'm having to reference whatever material there is available before proceeding with mapping (so that no canonical landmark gets left out and so there's some opportunity for a map to "match up" with some of the missions from the original games). I've been taking copious notes; I only have five systems for which I have yet to do any preliminary work whatsoever, though they're pretty big names - Ayer's, Canewdon, Goddard, Torgo and Firekka (I see Canewdon in particular being a bite to map). I am still completing maps at a rate of about four per day, so if I can get the issues with these systems buttoned down I should be able to wrap up mapping this coming week. Tr'L Rass Quadrant is complete at this point and the others are about even on the amount of work remaining, with Sa'Khan next closest to completion and Deneb needing the most work.
On Wednesday, I went ahead and got some data ready for a refinery base in the Chanel system, the first "completed" base in the game. It took a fair amount of time to finish but I needed the practice and I needed to know how complex the whole process would be as I intend to do it. I may still go ahead and tweak the process further - right now the determination of base facilities and shops is determined via conversion of a random number from decimal to binary, which is good in general but only if everything meshes as far as the information generated is concerned. For example, Clonshaugh (the refinery) has shops for medical supplies and its commodity exchange is offering medical equipment. It also has offices for Bartok Industries as well as a weapons accessories shop, though not a weapons outfitter (i.e. you can buy ammo there but not guns). That's information that jives; I'm sure I won't get that lucky all the time (it also hosts offices for Bronte Corporation, which as I recall is a food supplier - not a lot of sense for them to have offices on a refinery). At least my demographics algorithm seems to be working relatively well so far.
That's it for this week; I'm hoping I to have maps finished this week and move on to other aspects of the campaign setting. The next update will be some time between 11-14Z on October 14th.
More cartographic efforts this week (as I said there would be in the last update). I completed eighteen maps in total this week, bringing the total number of completed maps to 45 as of this morning (out of sixty; I'm right at the three-quarters mark). Tv'x Aq was the last of the "free license" systems I could map; at this point, I'm having to reference whatever material there is available before proceeding with mapping (so that no canonical landmark gets left out and so there's some opportunity for a map to "match up" with some of the missions from the original games). I've been taking copious notes; I only have five systems for which I have yet to do any preliminary work whatsoever, though they're pretty big names - Ayer's, Canewdon, Goddard, Torgo and Firekka (I see Canewdon in particular being a bite to map). I am still completing maps at a rate of about four per day, so if I can get the issues with these systems buttoned down I should be able to wrap up mapping this coming week. Tr'L Rass Quadrant is complete at this point and the others are about even on the amount of work remaining, with Sa'Khan next closest to completion and Deneb needing the most work.
On Wednesday, I went ahead and got some data ready for a refinery base in the Chanel system, the first "completed" base in the game. It took a fair amount of time to finish but I needed the practice and I needed to know how complex the whole process would be as I intend to do it. I may still go ahead and tweak the process further - right now the determination of base facilities and shops is determined via conversion of a random number from decimal to binary, which is good in general but only if everything meshes as far as the information generated is concerned. For example, Clonshaugh (the refinery) has shops for medical supplies and its commodity exchange is offering medical equipment. It also has offices for Bartok Industries as well as a weapons accessories shop, though not a weapons outfitter (i.e. you can buy ammo there but not guns). That's information that jives; I'm sure I won't get that lucky all the time (it also hosts offices for Bronte Corporation, which as I recall is a food supplier - not a lot of sense for them to have offices on a refinery). At least my demographics algorithm seems to be working relatively well so far.
That's it for this week; I'm hoping I to have maps finished this week and move on to other aspects of the campaign setting. The next update will be some time between 11-14Z on October 14th.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens!! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
Well, this morning I can report that mapping the Epsilon Sector is complete. I worked out all of the remaining issues I had with the pre-built maps (comparing them to what had been established in canon) on Tuesday and from there it was simply a matter of finding enough time to build the maps, make any last minute adjustments, make the calculations for distances between nav points and getting all of that uploaded to the wiki. Sa'Khan Quadrant was finished up on Tuesday, Antares Quadrant was finished on Thursday and if I'd had just a little bit more time I daresay I could've gotten Deneb Quadrant also finished up on Thursday; alas, that was not to be - it had to wait until Friday morning. I followed up this effort by taking a catalog of the bases that were generated in preparation for the next step of building the campaign setting, which is to set base characteristics and commodities. There are 69 bases in the Sector as it has been generated and I've left the door open for number 70 in one of the systems (if I were to say "Eden", you all would know what I'm talking about - it's kinda like that). After bases have been set, I have histories and encounter tables to do.
I'm still having some problems figuring out what kind of base I want to put in the Goddard system, and have a continuing discussion going at present on the campaign's discussion thread. It's largely a debate between putting the planet there or putting an orbital space station there. I'm leaning towards a station as of this writing, but I still have time to change my mind. The world of Quarto in the Trafalgar system is on the map (the one that the Cats plagued like Locanda right at the end of the war in WC3 according to the Infobursts), so there's no real reason for me not to include the planet (I'm having some issues with Quarto's function in the campaign setting as well, but that's on the backburner for the moment). I have had a thought about a raiding mission to the Goddard system as part of the campaign, which is why I'm thinking about this as hard as I am.
Akko Station...kinduva weird place for them to be holding Jazz Colson if you ask me...and for testing the Morningstar too......
That's it for this week. Next update sometime between 11-14Z on October 21st.
Well, this morning I can report that mapping the Epsilon Sector is complete. I worked out all of the remaining issues I had with the pre-built maps (comparing them to what had been established in canon) on Tuesday and from there it was simply a matter of finding enough time to build the maps, make any last minute adjustments, make the calculations for distances between nav points and getting all of that uploaded to the wiki. Sa'Khan Quadrant was finished up on Tuesday, Antares Quadrant was finished on Thursday and if I'd had just a little bit more time I daresay I could've gotten Deneb Quadrant also finished up on Thursday; alas, that was not to be - it had to wait until Friday morning. I followed up this effort by taking a catalog of the bases that were generated in preparation for the next step of building the campaign setting, which is to set base characteristics and commodities. There are 69 bases in the Sector as it has been generated and I've left the door open for number 70 in one of the systems (if I were to say "Eden", you all would know what I'm talking about - it's kinda like that). After bases have been set, I have histories and encounter tables to do.
I'm still having some problems figuring out what kind of base I want to put in the Goddard system, and have a continuing discussion going at present on the campaign's discussion thread. It's largely a debate between putting the planet there or putting an orbital space station there. I'm leaning towards a station as of this writing, but I still have time to change my mind. The world of Quarto in the Trafalgar system is on the map (the one that the Cats plagued like Locanda right at the end of the war in WC3 according to the Infobursts), so there's no real reason for me not to include the planet (I'm having some issues with Quarto's function in the campaign setting as well, but that's on the backburner for the moment). I have had a thought about a raiding mission to the Goddard system as part of the campaign, which is why I'm thinking about this as hard as I am.
Akko Station...kinduva weird place for them to be holding Jazz Colson if you ask me...and for testing the Morningstar too......
That's it for this week. Next update sometime between 11-14Z on October 21st.
capi3101
Admiral
Morning, all. I've had a busy week (among other things, I learned this past week that my younger son is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, particularly almonds). I haven't got a update ready to go but I'll go ahead and give you the highlights of what happened. Basically this last week I began work in earnest on details of bases, so at the moment it's mainly "behind the scenes" work. Determination of base populations has been the first step of that process; all the space-borne platforms have their populations set at this point (with the Valgard Military Prison having the highest starbase population in the Sector at over a quarter million), while planets are proving to have their own set of unique challenges. I also finished assigning Kilrathi names to all of the systems in the Sector (the idea being that while Terrans are content to use Kilrathi names for Kilrathi systems, the Kilrathi have their own names for Terran systems as well). That information has been uploaded to the wiki. I've been able to verify that no single Kilrathi system name is a repeat of any other. The naming is mainly for flavor and deeper universe immersion. Naturally, I can't pronounce some of them.
I do hope to have at least one base completed and uploaded to the wiki this week. Going to depend on how quickly I can work out my planet problems.
Next update sometime between 11-14Z on October 28th.
I do hope to have at least one base completed and uploaded to the wiki this week. Going to depend on how quickly I can work out my planet problems.
Next update sometime between 11-14Z on October 28th.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
Well, work is still continuing on the Epsilon Sector campaign setting for Elegy. In case you missed the spread on the CIC front page over the weekend (thanks, y'all!), this week my focus has been on getting bases and communities ready to go. Monday I prepared a routine to establish what factions and facilities had representation at each base, as well as to determine which of the major Kilrathi clans would have representation there (if any; some of the bases will be Cat free, of course). That routine (like a lot of how I'm building the map) was based on random number selection and technically at this point this data has been set for all bases that will be in the game; there's some decoding work that will need to take place there but it's not complicated. On Tuesday, I began determining data for the planetary bases in the game, by which I mean factors such as the local gravity, planetary weather, tectonics, and so forth. By the end of the day, I had finished everything up to determining the length of day and year; that had to wait until Wednesday. Meanwhile, I began adjusting the stats for Akko Station in Canwedon and Clonshaugh Refinery in Chanel - the two bases that had been completed up to that point - for the sake of consistency. Once planets were complete on Wednesday, I began adding specific base data to the wiki, a task that took up the rest of the week and is still ongoing as of this morning. Of the systems in the Deneb Quadrant, the only base I still need to set data for is Torgo Sector HQ; none of the rest of the Quadrants have seen work on bases just yet. I plan to start in on Sa'Khan Quadrant next week. I rounded out the week by adding some additional system histories; Ayer's and Epsilon Prime are done at this point, with some work complete on Goddard and Ross 34F (I would've finished Ross 34F, but what I had originally didn't jive with the characteristics of the bases).
As I posted on CIC (and as mentioned in the spread), I am currently accepting submissions for the names of communities in Epsilon - these can be Terran, Kilrathi, Firekkan or from any of the other notable in-universe races such as the Varni or Wu. I had one submission over the weekend (Ametistgrad, submitted by Silent Hunter), which I will be using for a community on Granita, and TCS Upsilon gave me a large list of names that I still need to go through. I'm in particular need of Kilrathi names, but I'll take (and credit) any suggestions.
One other thing I've started giving thought to is whether or not there are any Halsey-type starbases in Epsilon other than Farragut at the point in history in which Elegy takes place (2680 - the year before Prophecy). I hadn't planned on adding any originally, but after giving it some thought I don't see why there shouldn't be more. I would have to think about what they would do for (read: to) the story I'm trying to tell, and I'd also have to give consideration as to where to place them (settling on Veronica for Farragut Station was difficult enough).
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 4.
Well, work is still continuing on the Epsilon Sector campaign setting for Elegy. In case you missed the spread on the CIC front page over the weekend (thanks, y'all!), this week my focus has been on getting bases and communities ready to go. Monday I prepared a routine to establish what factions and facilities had representation at each base, as well as to determine which of the major Kilrathi clans would have representation there (if any; some of the bases will be Cat free, of course). That routine (like a lot of how I'm building the map) was based on random number selection and technically at this point this data has been set for all bases that will be in the game; there's some decoding work that will need to take place there but it's not complicated. On Tuesday, I began determining data for the planetary bases in the game, by which I mean factors such as the local gravity, planetary weather, tectonics, and so forth. By the end of the day, I had finished everything up to determining the length of day and year; that had to wait until Wednesday. Meanwhile, I began adjusting the stats for Akko Station in Canwedon and Clonshaugh Refinery in Chanel - the two bases that had been completed up to that point - for the sake of consistency. Once planets were complete on Wednesday, I began adding specific base data to the wiki, a task that took up the rest of the week and is still ongoing as of this morning. Of the systems in the Deneb Quadrant, the only base I still need to set data for is Torgo Sector HQ; none of the rest of the Quadrants have seen work on bases just yet. I plan to start in on Sa'Khan Quadrant next week. I rounded out the week by adding some additional system histories; Ayer's and Epsilon Prime are done at this point, with some work complete on Goddard and Ross 34F (I would've finished Ross 34F, but what I had originally didn't jive with the characteristics of the bases).
As I posted on CIC (and as mentioned in the spread), I am currently accepting submissions for the names of communities in Epsilon - these can be Terran, Kilrathi, Firekkan or from any of the other notable in-universe races such as the Varni or Wu. I had one submission over the weekend (Ametistgrad, submitted by Silent Hunter), which I will be using for a community on Granita, and TCS Upsilon gave me a large list of names that I still need to go through. I'm in particular need of Kilrathi names, but I'll take (and credit) any suggestions.
One other thing I've started giving thought to is whether or not there are any Halsey-type starbases in Epsilon other than Farragut at the point in history in which Elegy takes place (2680 - the year before Prophecy). I hadn't planned on adding any originally, but after giving it some thought I don't see why there shouldn't be more. I would have to think about what they would do for (read: to) the story I'm trying to tell, and I'd also have to give consideration as to where to place them (settling on Veronica for Farragut Station was difficult enough).
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 4.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
This week I was still knee deep in setting up base data for Elegy. Monday I completed work on the Torgo system and named the communities on Deneb XII, which officially rounded out base work in the Deneb Quadrant. I switched over to Sa'Khan Quadrant next, beginning with the Lennox system. I decided to go ahead and add another Halsey-type base to the Sector in Lennox, naming it Marcinko Station (#8) after Richard Marcinko; not a WW2 naval figure, but neither are Farragut or Perry. I figure'd adding a Halsey there would add some weight to Dekker's statement about his guys operating in Lennox before they came aboard BWS Intrepid in WC4. Incidentally, I put yet another Halsey in Torgo as Torgo Sector HQ - to my knowledge, we don't actually see the base in WC3 (if someone can prove otherwise, I'd like to know sooner rather than later). This base I gave the "official" name of Decatur Naval Base (#13), after Stephen Decatur, of course; I have some lame story about the Cats fiddling with the base's self-destruct when they briefly held it during the Deneb Campaign, which is why you never hear it called Decatur, just "Torgo Sector HQ". I had considered naming the base after a Russian naval officer (Vasili Arkhipov, perhaps) due to the system's name, but figured since the existing Halseys were named for Americans that I shouldn't.
I completed eleven systems in Sa'Khan Quadrant over the course of the rest of the week and for good measure I went ahead and finished up Bistangio in Antares Quadrant. Further progress was limited by a lack of community names. TCS Upsilon's list only helped me out so far and in the end I was still left with a sizable number of gaps, so I resolved to try and fill them in myself. I wanted Kilrathi community names in particular to actually mean something, so I decided to look for a Kilrathi lexicon from any available source. Luckily this topic had been brought up before on the CIC forums - specifically by forum member WCX back in 2009. His analysis of the language guided me through the process of coming up with suitable community names, and this morning I can report that all bases and planets in Epsilon have been successfully named. Most of the Kilrathi names even mean something - and trust me, it was hard to come up with a dozen different ways to say "we strike the dirt" in Kilrathi for the mining bases in their territory, but I managed. I did have to improvise somewhat on some of the names and come up with a few meanings of my own, but once again the analysis process pointed me in the right direction (gotta love metathesis). I also still had access to the Green Lantern vocabulary list from the Aces Club as well and that was equally useful; this was the same resource I used when I was coming up with Kilrathi community names for the Who's Who.
I did have to make one correction the Kabla Meth map as a result of all this naming effort - as I was looking through the Who's Who, I saw that I had set Dawx Jhorrad's place of birth on the planet of Kabla Meth. Problem was that I hadn't added a planet in the Kabla Meth system, so I made the executive decision to add one. That meant a remapping of the system, recalculation of the nav data and generation of community stats - took maybe a couple of man-hours. Wasn't that difficult to do as it turned out. It did increase the final number of bases in Epsilon to 92, not that big of a deal at all.
This coming week is more of the same. I need to redo the Antares system to account for the fact that it is a real star and I need to do some adjustments in Pasqual (if it's the tenth planet of the system that's habitable, I guarantee you the system's primary star is not M-type). Pasqual, Qual'lat and T'Rel Meh are the only systems left to do in Sa'Khan, so I think next week I'll be able to move on to Antares. Another week or two and bases will be set. Histories will come after that, and finally encounter tables. Once that's done, I can actually get to work on building the Elegy campaign.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 11.
This week I was still knee deep in setting up base data for Elegy. Monday I completed work on the Torgo system and named the communities on Deneb XII, which officially rounded out base work in the Deneb Quadrant. I switched over to Sa'Khan Quadrant next, beginning with the Lennox system. I decided to go ahead and add another Halsey-type base to the Sector in Lennox, naming it Marcinko Station (#8) after Richard Marcinko; not a WW2 naval figure, but neither are Farragut or Perry. I figure'd adding a Halsey there would add some weight to Dekker's statement about his guys operating in Lennox before they came aboard BWS Intrepid in WC4. Incidentally, I put yet another Halsey in Torgo as Torgo Sector HQ - to my knowledge, we don't actually see the base in WC3 (if someone can prove otherwise, I'd like to know sooner rather than later). This base I gave the "official" name of Decatur Naval Base (#13), after Stephen Decatur, of course; I have some lame story about the Cats fiddling with the base's self-destruct when they briefly held it during the Deneb Campaign, which is why you never hear it called Decatur, just "Torgo Sector HQ". I had considered naming the base after a Russian naval officer (Vasili Arkhipov, perhaps) due to the system's name, but figured since the existing Halseys were named for Americans that I shouldn't.
I completed eleven systems in Sa'Khan Quadrant over the course of the rest of the week and for good measure I went ahead and finished up Bistangio in Antares Quadrant. Further progress was limited by a lack of community names. TCS Upsilon's list only helped me out so far and in the end I was still left with a sizable number of gaps, so I resolved to try and fill them in myself. I wanted Kilrathi community names in particular to actually mean something, so I decided to look for a Kilrathi lexicon from any available source. Luckily this topic had been brought up before on the CIC forums - specifically by forum member WCX back in 2009. His analysis of the language guided me through the process of coming up with suitable community names, and this morning I can report that all bases and planets in Epsilon have been successfully named. Most of the Kilrathi names even mean something - and trust me, it was hard to come up with a dozen different ways to say "we strike the dirt" in Kilrathi for the mining bases in their territory, but I managed. I did have to improvise somewhat on some of the names and come up with a few meanings of my own, but once again the analysis process pointed me in the right direction (gotta love metathesis). I also still had access to the Green Lantern vocabulary list from the Aces Club as well and that was equally useful; this was the same resource I used when I was coming up with Kilrathi community names for the Who's Who.
I did have to make one correction the Kabla Meth map as a result of all this naming effort - as I was looking through the Who's Who, I saw that I had set Dawx Jhorrad's place of birth on the planet of Kabla Meth. Problem was that I hadn't added a planet in the Kabla Meth system, so I made the executive decision to add one. That meant a remapping of the system, recalculation of the nav data and generation of community stats - took maybe a couple of man-hours. Wasn't that difficult to do as it turned out. It did increase the final number of bases in Epsilon to 92, not that big of a deal at all.
This coming week is more of the same. I need to redo the Antares system to account for the fact that it is a real star and I need to do some adjustments in Pasqual (if it's the tenth planet of the system that's habitable, I guarantee you the system's primary star is not M-type). Pasqual, Qual'lat and T'Rel Meh are the only systems left to do in Sa'Khan, so I think next week I'll be able to move on to Antares. Another week or two and bases will be set. Histories will come after that, and finally encounter tables. Once that's done, I can actually get to work on building the Elegy campaign.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 11.
capi3101
Admiral
Greeting, Wingnuts and Citizens!! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
Still working on setting base data for the Epsilon Sector campaign setting for Elegy. This week was not as productive as the last two, though that can largely be attributed to the fact that as I'm moving into the Antares and Tr'L Rass Quadrants, I'm encountering systems that have A) more bases in them and B) more bases set on planets - in general, planets require more work. I also had a bout of insanity this week wherein I considered going ahead and creating a full "Kilrathi Dictionary", a guide that would (as my deranged mind envisioned it) be on par with the Klingon Dictionary in terms of usefulness. That largely happened on Wednesday, when I had a need for a Kilrathi word that meant either "school" or "history" and couldn't make one up readily. I've pretty well decided against the notion of creating a dictionary - for now at least; I'm still considering it for a future project.
So, I completed adding data for nine systems this week: Qual'lat, T'Rel Meh, and Tr'L Rass (1), K'nag Rahl, Pasqual, K'ta Mek, Khar Takh and Khar-Sa. I'm not counting Pasqual as complete just yet (it was the system for which I needed the word "school") though the rest of its data is in place at this point. Work is also continuing on the Antares, K'k-Tahn, S'thran-Pak and Kabla Meth systems - I need to generate data for S'thran-Pak IVA, I still haven't finished working out the ramifications of adding a planet to Kabla Meth, I need to swap out the positions of planet Antares and Odell in the Antares System and vastly increase the population of Antares, and in the case of K'k-Tahn I simply have the encoded data present (tried to start it the other day without really having the time to start up work on another system). All in all I've got 23 systems for which I still need to add base data, 14 in Antares and 9 in Tr'L Rass. I do have an idea for improving the speed at which I'm filling in planetary data, which I hope to implement this coming week. After that will be system histories and then finally the encounter tables.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 18th.
Still working on setting base data for the Epsilon Sector campaign setting for Elegy. This week was not as productive as the last two, though that can largely be attributed to the fact that as I'm moving into the Antares and Tr'L Rass Quadrants, I'm encountering systems that have A) more bases in them and B) more bases set on planets - in general, planets require more work. I also had a bout of insanity this week wherein I considered going ahead and creating a full "Kilrathi Dictionary", a guide that would (as my deranged mind envisioned it) be on par with the Klingon Dictionary in terms of usefulness. That largely happened on Wednesday, when I had a need for a Kilrathi word that meant either "school" or "history" and couldn't make one up readily. I've pretty well decided against the notion of creating a dictionary - for now at least; I'm still considering it for a future project.
So, I completed adding data for nine systems this week: Qual'lat, T'Rel Meh, and Tr'L Rass (1), K'nag Rahl, Pasqual, K'ta Mek, Khar Takh and Khar-Sa. I'm not counting Pasqual as complete just yet (it was the system for which I needed the word "school") though the rest of its data is in place at this point. Work is also continuing on the Antares, K'k-Tahn, S'thran-Pak and Kabla Meth systems - I need to generate data for S'thran-Pak IVA, I still haven't finished working out the ramifications of adding a planet to Kabla Meth, I need to swap out the positions of planet Antares and Odell in the Antares System and vastly increase the population of Antares, and in the case of K'k-Tahn I simply have the encoded data present (tried to start it the other day without really having the time to start up work on another system). All in all I've got 23 systems for which I still need to add base data, 14 in Antares and 9 in Tr'L Rass. I do have an idea for improving the speed at which I'm filling in planetary data, which I hope to implement this coming week. After that will be system histories and then finally the encounter tables.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 18th.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens!! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
Well, I'm into week five of setting up base data for the Elegy campaign and while the end is in sight it probably will still be at least another two or three weeks at a minimum before I can move on to histories and encounter tables. This week began with work on simplifying input of planetary data, which up until this week had involved a mad dash up and down a spreadsheet. Basically, I just copied the data to another spreadsheet in the order in which I needed it (why I didn't just do that in the first place, who knows?). I subsequently copied that information into the wiki, one planet at a time, added the planetary information template simultaneously, and from there I copied everything into the right place. I went ahead and copied in all the encoded base data at the same time. Long and the short of it: all of the planetary data is in place at this point, and technically all the base data is in there too (it's just still encoded - decoding it isn't complicated, it just takes time to do it).
The rest of the work this week involved specific bases in specific systems, and though I started in Antares Quadrant I switched over to Tr'L Rass Quadrant on Wednesday because I felt like I could wrap that one up faster; I very nearly did complete Tr'L Rass Quadrant this week. Specific systems completed were K'k-Tahn, S'thran-Pak, Antares (a huge one), Anchorage, Asgard, B'Shriss (an important one), Jakal, Jakarta, Ingraya and K'nag Rha. Three systems remain to be completed in Tr'L Rass: Bifrost, Jotunheim and Kabla Meth. I'm still trying to come up with a name for some kind of digital library on Bifrost Station; its the only thing keeping me from calling that system done. Kabla Meth, as y'all might recall, was complete until I realized I needed to add a planet there to keep WCRPG consistent with itself. It's still under repair. I spent part of the day on Thursday and all day on Friday working on Jotunheim - the planet generated there turned out to be heavily populated. I have three of five communities completed in that system as of this morning, with another Large City and a Small City to go. Determining demographic data for the specific communities in Jotunheim was quite time consuming; I may be looking into ways to optimize that process before I get to the heavily populated worlds of Antares Quadrant (such as Firekka).
I mentioned last week that I had considered working on a Kilrathi dictionary and that as a project I had decided to table it. It's proven difficult to ignore such a project entirely considering that Kilrathi words really are giving some serious flavor to the campaign (particularly to Tr'L Rass Quadrant, which is entirely Kilrathi territory). I have asked if anyone else is still interested in the translation work that forum member WCX started on the CIC forums back in 2010; so far I've had no response. The translation effort has been fruitful; just the generation of a Kilrathi word for "school" enabled me to wrap up work on the Pasqual system and Sa'Khan Quadrant as a whole. Now I just need a suitable Kilrathi word for "book" and I'll be golden. I'll share the translations I've extrapolated if anyone's interested. A few of them are a stretch but they all use the same metathesis process WCX was using back in '10. It'd be pretty sweet if we could get to the point where we could write the Prophecy of Sivar in, you know, actual Kilrathi...
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 18th.
Well, I'm into week five of setting up base data for the Elegy campaign and while the end is in sight it probably will still be at least another two or three weeks at a minimum before I can move on to histories and encounter tables. This week began with work on simplifying input of planetary data, which up until this week had involved a mad dash up and down a spreadsheet. Basically, I just copied the data to another spreadsheet in the order in which I needed it (why I didn't just do that in the first place, who knows?). I subsequently copied that information into the wiki, one planet at a time, added the planetary information template simultaneously, and from there I copied everything into the right place. I went ahead and copied in all the encoded base data at the same time. Long and the short of it: all of the planetary data is in place at this point, and technically all the base data is in there too (it's just still encoded - decoding it isn't complicated, it just takes time to do it).
The rest of the work this week involved specific bases in specific systems, and though I started in Antares Quadrant I switched over to Tr'L Rass Quadrant on Wednesday because I felt like I could wrap that one up faster; I very nearly did complete Tr'L Rass Quadrant this week. Specific systems completed were K'k-Tahn, S'thran-Pak, Antares (a huge one), Anchorage, Asgard, B'Shriss (an important one), Jakal, Jakarta, Ingraya and K'nag Rha. Three systems remain to be completed in Tr'L Rass: Bifrost, Jotunheim and Kabla Meth. I'm still trying to come up with a name for some kind of digital library on Bifrost Station; its the only thing keeping me from calling that system done. Kabla Meth, as y'all might recall, was complete until I realized I needed to add a planet there to keep WCRPG consistent with itself. It's still under repair. I spent part of the day on Thursday and all day on Friday working on Jotunheim - the planet generated there turned out to be heavily populated. I have three of five communities completed in that system as of this morning, with another Large City and a Small City to go. Determining demographic data for the specific communities in Jotunheim was quite time consuming; I may be looking into ways to optimize that process before I get to the heavily populated worlds of Antares Quadrant (such as Firekka).
I mentioned last week that I had considered working on a Kilrathi dictionary and that as a project I had decided to table it. It's proven difficult to ignore such a project entirely considering that Kilrathi words really are giving some serious flavor to the campaign (particularly to Tr'L Rass Quadrant, which is entirely Kilrathi territory). I have asked if anyone else is still interested in the translation work that forum member WCX started on the CIC forums back in 2010; so far I've had no response. The translation effort has been fruitful; just the generation of a Kilrathi word for "school" enabled me to wrap up work on the Pasqual system and Sa'Khan Quadrant as a whole. Now I just need a suitable Kilrathi word for "book" and I'll be golden. I'll share the translations I've extrapolated if anyone's interested. A few of them are a stretch but they all use the same metathesis process WCX was using back in '10. It'd be pretty sweet if we could get to the point where we could write the Prophecy of Sivar in, you know, actual Kilrathi...
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 18th.
Whistler
Vice Admiral
Two suggestions for Bifrost (sticking with Norse mythology):
Yggdrasil - for the Norse world tree of knowledge and life or...
Mimir - the decapitated god of wisdom whom advises Odin.
Also on the Kilrathi prophecy...it's already written in Kilrathi script canonically. All you need do is watch Wing Commander: Prophecy's intro.
Yggdrasil - for the Norse world tree of knowledge and life or...
Mimir - the decapitated god of wisdom whom advises Odin.
Also on the Kilrathi prophecy...it's already written in Kilrathi script canonically. All you need do is watch Wing Commander: Prophecy's intro.
capi3101
Admiral
Names are already in and done unfortunately. Besides, Bifrost it's a Kilrathi system, so anything there should have a Kilrathi name. Might use those names for Terran nicknames, though; Kilrathi is apparently difficult to speak.
I also chose my words poorly when I said "It'd be pretty sweet if we could get to the point where we could write the Prophecy of Sivar in, you know, actual Kilrathi". I know it's written in one of the Kilrathi alphabetical scripts, but that one has been proven to be a rehashed Latin alphabet (and I think someone figured out that the words on that tablet are in English). I mean that I'd like to get to where the text could be written in the Kilrathi language.
I also chose my words poorly when I said "It'd be pretty sweet if we could get to the point where we could write the Prophecy of Sivar in, you know, actual Kilrathi". I know it's written in one of the Kilrathi alphabetical scripts, but that one has been proven to be a rehashed Latin alphabet (and I think someone figured out that the words on that tablet are in English). I mean that I'd like to get to where the text could be written in the Kilrathi language.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens!! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update.
Week six of generating base data for the Elegy campaign was quite productive. I spent Monday and Tuesday completing the corrections I needed to make to the Kabla Meth system, finishing up the addition of data to the Jotunheim system and coming up with a name for the school on the Bifrost Supply Depot, which rounded out base work on the Tr'L Rass Quadrant. Antares was the only Quadrant left at that point, so I spent the rest of the week working on those systems I knew I could wrap up quickly. I finished up Midgard, Trafalgar, Veronica, Shariha, T'Kirsa, Granita and Charon over the course of the next three days. At this point, I have only four systems left to "complete" in the entire Sector: Circe, Corsair, Natanya and Firekka - these four planets combined contain 31 districts spread amongst 15 different communities and bases. Firekka is of course the most heavily populated of the four remaining systems, and the one in which I anticipate needing to spend the greatest amount of time. The good news there is that I've completed almost all of the remaining die rolls for all these communities and at this point it's just a matter of getting everything decoded. I would think I could have had the work completed this week, were it not for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Given that the following week is undead week leading into finals at work (and therefore overnight shifts), however, I'm positive I'll have base data completed two weeks for now. I'm thinking I'll work on encounter tables after that.
Still haven't figured out the best way to work out how I'll do the encounter tables just yet. It may be that I need to go ahead and finalize what factions will be in the game, and to figure out what each faction will be fielding as far as craft go. The main governments will be easy to figure out; it's the corporate factions, militias and criminal groups that will be tricky.
I've continued work on the lexicon this week, which has been pretty slow work but fruitful nevertheless. I have been using what I know about the Klingon language as a bit of a guide, though (as the Klingons would say) tlhIngan QIlranganbe'; mainly I've just been trying to figure out what features a full Kilrathi language should have. I have a fairly sizable list of root words at this point and I'm debating as to whether or not I should include them in the Elegy campaign or make it into its own separate publication; it may depend on how large the final word list gets. There are some concepts (such as "fire" and "heart") for which still have nothing.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 25th (liable to be a short one). For those of you in the States, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving; travel safe.
Week six of generating base data for the Elegy campaign was quite productive. I spent Monday and Tuesday completing the corrections I needed to make to the Kabla Meth system, finishing up the addition of data to the Jotunheim system and coming up with a name for the school on the Bifrost Supply Depot, which rounded out base work on the Tr'L Rass Quadrant. Antares was the only Quadrant left at that point, so I spent the rest of the week working on those systems I knew I could wrap up quickly. I finished up Midgard, Trafalgar, Veronica, Shariha, T'Kirsa, Granita and Charon over the course of the next three days. At this point, I have only four systems left to "complete" in the entire Sector: Circe, Corsair, Natanya and Firekka - these four planets combined contain 31 districts spread amongst 15 different communities and bases. Firekka is of course the most heavily populated of the four remaining systems, and the one in which I anticipate needing to spend the greatest amount of time. The good news there is that I've completed almost all of the remaining die rolls for all these communities and at this point it's just a matter of getting everything decoded. I would think I could have had the work completed this week, were it not for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Given that the following week is undead week leading into finals at work (and therefore overnight shifts), however, I'm positive I'll have base data completed two weeks for now. I'm thinking I'll work on encounter tables after that.
Still haven't figured out the best way to work out how I'll do the encounter tables just yet. It may be that I need to go ahead and finalize what factions will be in the game, and to figure out what each faction will be fielding as far as craft go. The main governments will be easy to figure out; it's the corporate factions, militias and criminal groups that will be tricky.
I've continued work on the lexicon this week, which has been pretty slow work but fruitful nevertheless. I have been using what I know about the Klingon language as a bit of a guide, though (as the Klingons would say) tlhIngan QIlranganbe'; mainly I've just been trying to figure out what features a full Kilrathi language should have. I have a fairly sizable list of root words at this point and I'm debating as to whether or not I should include them in the Elegy campaign or make it into its own separate publication; it may depend on how large the final word list gets. There are some concepts (such as "fire" and "heart") for which still have nothing.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on November 25th (liable to be a short one). For those of you in the States, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving; travel safe.
capi3101
Admiral
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens!! Time for the weekly WCRPG Update. Well, not really - it's early yet, but tonight's the first of my overnight shifts for this semester and I'm bored so I figured I'd knock this one out.
This past week was spent mostly out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, and as a result my log is nearly empty. I have one entry for Monday that reads "added Natanya base data, worked on Circe base data. Continued work on lexicon." And that pretty much sums up the week - I was able to complete the entry for the one base I plan to have on Circe V, but no work has been done on the four bases on Circe VII. Circe VII, Chloe and Firekka are the three worlds left to go on the base data. Fortunately, I have overnight shifts, so I plan to make substantial progress on them this week; with luck I'll have them done.
Work is also continuing on the lexicon as well, though at this point I think I've got about as much done as I can on my own. I'd like to get a fresh perspective on some aspects of the language, and to that end I'll plan to revive the original discussion thread at CIC. I'll likely resume the discussion with an overview or two of what I've done so far with the language.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on December 9th.
This past week was spent mostly out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, and as a result my log is nearly empty. I have one entry for Monday that reads "added Natanya base data, worked on Circe base data. Continued work on lexicon." And that pretty much sums up the week - I was able to complete the entry for the one base I plan to have on Circe V, but no work has been done on the four bases on Circe VII. Circe VII, Chloe and Firekka are the three worlds left to go on the base data. Fortunately, I have overnight shifts, so I plan to make substantial progress on them this week; with luck I'll have them done.
Work is also continuing on the lexicon as well, though at this point I think I've got about as much done as I can on my own. I'd like to get a fresh perspective on some aspects of the language, and to that end I'll plan to revive the original discussion thread at CIC. I'll likely resume the discussion with an overview or two of what I've done so far with the language.
That's it for this week; next update sometime between 11-14Z on December 9th.
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