Update: Suit and ship mostly finished.

 

1. The ship is 50% Finished
1. Needs to be Rigged and Shader optimized 
2. The suit as well, 50% the remaining is the rigging for animation and posing. 
1. Still needs to be shader optimized. 
3. I finished a Planet Generator that allows for Cthonian and Gas Giants or Dwarfs etc... using the Planetary Types and Size in Wikipedia. My material is going to be designed to compliment Near Space. 
1. Planet generator is one component of the WORLD GENERATOR. which needs me to randomly determine also the Habitability (Atmosphere and Hydrographics), Population, Resources, Tech Level: and other derived stats like Final Population, Law etc... Dont worry you will get a Spreadsheet that outputs to a table you can easily cut and paste to a Document for your players. I don't consider it PLAYABLE if I cant play GOD! (by building worlds in less than 2 minutes with the spreadsheets. 
2. Near Space would be a Perfect Procedural game where Solese discover another civilization they cannot detect as they discover FTL and arrive. The gm can run scenarios like Interstellar Wars of early Traveller, Horror, Mystery, Intrigue, etc... Players can ask the GM to roll up a plot. 
4. Remaining is the rest of the World Builder 
5. I have to Invest in various Shaders to TRY THEM OUT. Shaders are the paid add ons that indies make. Genishin Impact shader is https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/9nrrR/genshin-impact-character-shader-for-eevee Until i make my own shader from scratch I cannot share the genshin impact shader. Its possible though that I can commission a shader to be made in Fiverr if I sell enough and that shader will be open-sourced. I have to try Lightning Boy Shader https://lightningboystudio.gumroad.com/#aYbiH but that's 30usd which is 3 days minimum wage here in the Philippines. the Genshin Impact one is a Fastfood meal to Try. And I got intimidated with the Lightning boy Shader - what more non 3d background people who will get these as part of the book. 
6. After the World Builder (spreadsheet and written rules) which may take 2-3 more weeks I can proceed to the fucking ship builder because I've pretty much figured it mostly out but no play to Play the Ship. 
1. Wow the end users have a TL6-TL8 Ship generator where can they take it? they can slap it on to their game and pirates or primitives. They need a place to use the ships. A way to adventure in INTRAstellar space. Thus world builder. 

left is newer version, right is first draft

playing with Evee and Freestyle

Funny thing - what did i expect?

bought a CE skill list. on the file it had 24 MB and I was like, wow  a different skill list for pay what you want. Ok I might as well give this person 1usd (a meal here in the Philippines) and it really is a Skill list... as in just like the one in the CESRD...

looking at the positive I charged almost 1/50th at copper level (50 sales) how much it took me to make my stuff. I'm just learning so I hope I'm 20% of even if I can make a product I believe will get Gold 500 sales and Profit at Adamantine. I think what we produce will save GM/Referees 20% of their prep time relative to their play time for the details they want to take on. 

its funny that I'm an IT head with an Arts background with a passion for Hard Scifi - who wants to run Case Studies - PCs trying to make money - and applying my 3rd World biz Experience in all the special insight practices someone whose family biz deals with the Gov't. I hope the tools make it that people will go "Hey why not - some guys all the way in the Philippines made it cheap". 

I believe the more Open Source tools - anyone can commission any artist or technical to make material for their games - maybe a Solar System Builder in GODOT or character generator or ship builder.  Taking the tools others made and building it up to greater and greater heights. The BASE of more assets will create a virtuous cycle. 

I can imagine people using Freelance Services to Animate and produce their Games into Shows! or just preserving an awesome Game Scene - and that one of these scenes will become its own show - but 99% of everyone else will have something they can share when they played their game. 

Problem and Opportunity: Why less Efficient and Cheaper Boosters First?

Question:  Should Referees require players to calculate how many and how big the Boosters do they need to Escape a 1G world? 
Answer: No. The Referee only needs to know the Price of the Services to get them out to orbit, if their Ship is not Full-Escape Velocity Capable. its basically the Mass Tons of the Ship and the factor of the Gravity. 

Questions: Ships Cannot just land and Escape 1G Worlds? 
Answer: Yes. Some TL9 and everything below cannot simply escape 1G. In fact the Types of Starports and Economics will change a bit. Mathematically its just adding a couple of Zeros in the Population and the Size of the Economy of Worlds with Down Ports that Expect Interstellar/Intrastellar Trade. 

TL9 is special, the way metal is special in DarkSun, or Gunpowder is special, or Magic is Special. 

Questions: What are the Implications. 

1. I have to use the UWP of the world to determine the Administration Cost to Orbit. Notes in the World Codes to help the GM price the Admin fees. 
2. Orbit Capable Downports in 0.6G+ worlds will have a huge Economy around it. Worldbuilding wise this is as important as a Space Elevator. (Space Elevators are TL8). Just adding 000 or 00,000 zeroes to the Populations and the economics of the worlds. 
3. Remaking all the "Common Ships" using the Spreadsheet in the new Shipbuilding Rules for TL6 to TL8 ships. The spreadsheet has gone through 4 Versions already, niccos MGT2, my MGT2, my CE, and my Current mass-based Shipbuilding which will be called Mneme Ship Design Variant for Cepheus Engine.  
4. Adding the Space Infra of Heka KTon and Mega Ton Habitats, Networks of Tethers, etc... 
1. How to use the Ship Building Rules for this. 
5. Changing Combat Doctrine with Auto-Cannons, Gyroc EM Cannons, TL7 and TL8 Lasers, ECM, Mass Launchers and Receivers, Point defense Missiles and Cannons, Grapeshot Missiles and Missile clusters (100mm missiles bundled in a 400mm case). I did something like this before basically I took Ultra Tech and Examine all the Optimal Strategies and their costs and Mapped out every increase of potency and effectiveness one can squeeze out of a TL. Probably 4 pages of equipment and 6 pages of Doctrine Notes - a table of all the options so the GM and the players are not Blind Sided by Best Industry Practices (this takes out of immersion if the Doctrine or the Best practices and where they breakdown is not known by the designer; its hard to prepare a Military campaign when the unknowns and knowns are not clearly laid out).   
6. The hardest parts the Change in Operations 
1. Launching into Orbit are the Nailbiter rolls.
2. Pushing the Limits of the Ship are the Nailbiter rolls. 
1. Gravity Slingshots and Skidding on the atmosphere
2. This would be maxing out the KM/s of the ship and using AIR BRAKES to slow down! 
3. Entering Rad belts to Cut corners. 
3.  Making the Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Ship a spreadsheet that takes less than a Minute to Fill up or a Written process that takes 5 minutes to do the quick math (back of the envelope math)
4. I'm making sure Trade and Operations Notes are in one place and all the Tables are there. 
7. All the 3d Assets are available for GM and instructions how to render it into scenes for your game. 
1. Includes a Crew Suit I made (TL8) free and Creative Commons for people to use for their games - it comes fully rigged for posing. 
2. The ship is Rigged for Posing also, from opening bay doors, and landing gear. (Nicco will do commissions for custom ships and animations for games). 

Kickstarter Milestone. Number of sales is for bonus material. I'll see if I can do this model where I use the number of sales to fund future improvements. All old and future versions will be sold to people who already bought it - i will just keep adding more files to download - (the price might increase though so those who got in early get the best deal  - like mount and blade when it came out in Beta and i was able to participate). I can do this because I have a day job as an IT head and Plant head so (Not much i earn less than working class in the US, but comfy enough to afford services to make this better, my project management skills are what makes this RPG project different). 

Current Challenges

1. Why is the Less Efficient Thruster used to Boost? I don't understand the logic? I don't know how to model it in a Cost Efficiency method - controlling for the factors of Fuel Costs why is it better to use a less Efficient Booster and save the more efficient boosters for 50-100km up? I know the players don't need to be bothered by that but its distracting not to know. 
2. recovering from a flu, I tested negative in an RNA-TPCR test. Still feeling unuaully sleepy earlier in the night. 
3. the Anxiety on my Art investment - It seems Im doing the art first because I need to see a "200dton" or a 1400m3 ship really does fit 10 cabins and enough fuel, engine, and cargo to reach orbit and transit. 
1.  a 1400m3 Ship Docks to its 200mT spinhab powerplant, radiator, and ion drives, and Nuclear Thermal Rockets it all has to make sense on paper and on the 3d. One of the mistakes made was not fully visualizing the process and the assets would be awesome to animate using Lightning Boy's Cell Shader if I can get it to work. I need the Books Ready to play not just Ready to build worlds. 
2. Fortunately, Nicco can help me write once he's done with the art. But I'm tempted to start counting my chickens before it hatches by funding his Lightnin Boy Cell Shader studies so we can do it for all the assets. 

Learned the rocket equation. Been sick.

Yesterday I learned the Rocket Equation, instead of simply calculating burn Time and adjusting the mass for every second in s spreadsheet because the Rocket gets lighter as it burns through fuel.  Scott Manely had an old Video about it. 

1. I hit a problem as I cannot reach 15,000m/s with just Raptors without making the Entire ship 90% Fuel. 
2. I tried simply adding boosters and I hit the Tyranny of the Rockets Equation: "there is a limit to the amount of payload that the rocket can carry, as higher amounts of propellant increment the overall weight, and thus also increase the fuel consumption.^[7] ". 
3. I started googling which lead me back to Delta-V budget, which references the Rocket Equation... which I didn't understand until I tried to design a rocket on paper that would reach 15,000m/s. This lead to discovering the Awesome Delta-V Map https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Solar_system_delta_v_map.svg  which lead me to review how much I really needed. I didn't need 15,000m/s - that's if I'm straight from the surface to leaving the planet - which we take for granted in Traveller - I just needed 9.6 or 10.6 km/s 
1. Just Enough to get a Ride from a Space Tether... one of my favorite Scifi Concepts. 
4. Travellers with a 1000 Mass Ton ship with Antiquated TL7 Boosters will need to pay the cost of  Booster Rental (which is about 500,000usd x 4 for 2M) to get about 5km/s and then blast the rest of the way with their high Impulse (Specific) aka Efficient Rockets to Low Orbit (Not saying earth because this is not only about earth). 
1. The boosters will fall away and begin their Automated descent 
   as the Travellers climb they see other such services being conducted, scattered in the horizon 2-3 other ships being launched to Low orbit the way Planes in the sky are common occurrence. 
5. As the Traveller reaches Low orbit exhausting much of the 1000 MT ship's fuel, they pay for the Services of a Tether to travel either to Geosyncronous Orbit or Lunar Transit for Refueling. the Ship will be paying for fuel twice because of the gravity well. They feel the skyhook catch the ships anchor and begin to hurl them forward accelerating. the Sound they hear is conducted through their suit into their vacc suits. the Ship master having booked some passengers and cargo on the moon a week earlier is hurled that direction. 
   
   
6.  The Tether hurls the ship another 2Km/s (used to change orbit) and the ship begins another 1Kms burn to reach Lunar orbit and be caught by another Inertia Tether to slow down when they arrive. The Travellers take 4 days to arrive on the moon along the way shedding KMs as they encounter tethers that will slow them down where they will refuel and link up with their Habitat Ring, Radiators, and Fission Power. 

So my tests came back and its not Covid. still the wife and I are quarantined to protect the kids. Hope to be able to focus more by next week, the 25th. 

Missiles and Scale. Checking the numbers.

 Imagine a 400mm diameter missile made up of a ring 8 60mm solid x 3000mm rockets. Inside its core is a barrel for a 60mm x 500mm APDS round, HE, or smaller shotgun/grapeshot rounds of tungsten and depleted uranium.

It is launched with a burn time of 10 minutes. Being able to reach 36Kms at 6Gs and firing the 60mm round at 3kms

Fired and with its tiny computer, it will fire based on the predictive algorithm the gunner encoded. It will fire where it will predict the target would be within 1 second (as everything is traveling kms per second) factoring all the factors and vectors affecting it.

A magnetically assisted launcher hurling 8, one of these every second as the ship burns and flips, the missiles sending a spiraling tail at a pursuing Raider. a hundred Kilos ejecting pushes the ship the opposite direction. 

The raiders turrets activating near the speed of light seeing the signatures - firing 35 of a similar ringed missile - a missile ringed with smaller missiles that explode with directional fragments as point defense. And the smaller missiles ringing it ignites as it exists the turret - separating in the spreading out to explode close to the missile it seeks to intercept.

Crew feel themselves against their seat belts as the ship spins to point more turrets at the incoming missiles. Their trajectory altering from the Reaction mass.

9000m3 (ton) ship being chased flips to burn several time to confuse the predict models of its future position.

The pursuing raider unleashes Emp head 7 600mm x 7000mm missiles as the preprogrammed engagement range kicks in. Missiles with 80Kms burns are launched throwing the ship back.

This all happens in 2-3 seconds as both systems are preprogrammed based on each of their crews estimates.

In 6-8 minutes everything will happen, and they will know if they're dead or alive only after making the system checks if they are able to be conscious. 

A second before they black out from the centrifugal force of a spin - they can feel the heavy vibrations of point defense cannons hurling 3 hundred kgs of 20mm rounds. Human brains blacking out, and distorting the sense of time.

Hard Scifi - Why would you want to Play with Rockets in a TRPG?

 Do you remember the number of rolls you make as you leave the Star-port and Roll for Jump. The Risk of a Misjump? A game designer who wants to make ROCKETS and hard Scifi fun needs to be able to tell an engaging story and challenges of a Crew and Ship - escaping from a Gravity Well. 

Escaping a Gravity Well. This is one of the scariest things in a Cepheus Engine TL6-8 Setting. Second to that is the Radiation Belts and the Flyby and Slingshot. The Players need to roll for supplies and maintenance, making sure the ship is ready - and then the Players roll if they have Problems when the Launch, or Boost towards their destination. 

I guess this is why I'm taking so long - my strengths is not in storytelling but in Logistics and Planning. I'm the guy who gives the Plan for Executive approval - the executive in this case being the Players and Referee. Do you like my work and research and think you can use it for your game - Do you think these challenges are exciting for the Players? 

As we move towards TL8 TL7 Commercial Space Flight will mean wearing more HATS. your logistics expert, your crew, may have to do more work with regards to the Preparation of a Ship to Launch not just to Operate the Ship as it travels 14kms escaping earth gravity. 

I have to give you, the referee and players, problems in a way you can solve and feel good solving or juggling. It has to feel like a real space project and program but not too complicated that you throw the book I wrote.  

Remember that the FAILED launch, the hardware problems IS the adventure. A rocket launch that doesn't involve a TPK means this is one of the monsters the players have to beat. 

The RULES we study and create for the GAME signify what matters. I will write the following: 

1. A way for you to roll a rocket launch or begin your month long trip.  
2. Listing the Problems and Challenges and giving CONTEXT to these - they can be thorny troubles or serious crises. 
3. CONTROLS - options for the Referee and Players in how to solve problems. 
4. World Building and Doctrine - impact of the technology and practice, and economy. World building helps build stakes - because it gives PCs their Place in the world and what can be reasonably expected. Expectations set up stakes - from the payoff, benchmarks, risks and opportunities the players will encounter. 

Sizing Ships - Part 1

 

My process is so cumbersome and slow. 

Here I am comparing visually the scale of a 8:1 cuboid and cylinder. 

They tend to the 8-7:1 ratio used for Maritime ships because of the Thrust potential. 

1. It cant be too long because it does "Flips" where it will burn to re-orient. 
2. It can't be too thick, because of the way engines are pushing on it. You can't have an Engine Push on a smaller point of the square or thick cylinder - you would need side structural strength to be higher. You want it always spread out because of the Thrust. Thrust makes them cuboid or cylinders. 

Below is a 1000 volume Ton or vT and a 3000 vT shape. It looks like 3000 dtons is the sweet spot and I may be making the ships around 7.2m cross section or 3.9m radius at a Long endurance Scale. 

Ships are designed to travel for Weeks up to a Year. Anything unable to hold enough supplies for such are "vehicles" or "small craft". 

I cannot Use the regular Encounter 2D roll because its tapers off at the ends. I need a Randomizer that gives me the Common FIRST then the rarer occurrences later. I typically use 1d6!/2 round down. Which gives a distribution making the higher numbers rarer and the lower numbers more common. Since its a Roll20 formula  is easy to automate this. Its going to be a simple table where there is a Base probability and the higher the Traffic the Rarer events become more possible. Took a while to research this probability curve for both its simplicity and doing whats its supposed to do. 

What you see is 1000m3 (60DT), 3000m3 (200DT) and 10,000m3 (600DT). 

What am I doing?
1) Doing the math is one thing, TOO OFTEN, I check in 3d and REALIZE that I got the math wrong because the proportions are out of whack! So I always Check the 3d to make sure these numbers make sense - One thing to know 2.8m radius and 50m length, another is seeing it and having a person there for scale. 

2) I am going to Throw out the 100dton per Turret Rule. Sensors, Comms, Drones, etc... so many things depend on Turrets. And Airframes require Pop-up turrets

3) SKETCH model is modeling something to be close enough like a 747-100 and a AIrbus a380, the Apolo and Dragon Command Capsul within a margin of Error. Like how much more Surface area does a X-33 or a Boeing have. Double checking in this way is Tedious but it helps prevent embarrassing mistakes and this is my Unique Value proposition given my skillset.  

When to Roll for Information and Senses.

 JUST a simple breakdown or decomposition technique in providing information. 

When to Roll for Information and Senses. 

Narratively. Does the story encounter problems if the PCs fail to sense or detect the object, threat, clue? 

If Yes - then provide the information, otherwise, let the dice fall where it does.   

How much Information to Give? Ask “What is the minimum amount of information does the PC’s need to move to the next part of the story?” 

If Too Little - repeat the question and add a little more

If Too much, what is the next challenge the PCs will encounter through their actions (acting on the information). 

----

Since I'm a process writer in our company -  sometimes i find myself Breaking Down Assumptions and in breaking them down get to how Intuition works and see how to Better intuition. 

Its this Intuition where I realize that one I mastered it i start doing multiple steps of it without thinking, but when I perform the steps too quickly I cannot Troubleshoot why it went wrong. Like opening the Computer Logs or Rewatching a CCTV video of an incident I have to play it back slower to understand the disconnect. 

Most GM's I encounter have a Problem when the PCs think to QUICKLY and move on to bounds and other clues. THE GM DOESN'T NEED TO THINK FASTER THAN THE PCS. He just needs to ask the PCs what Kind of problem will they encounter. 

Just ask the PCs "How can this go wrong?" You can say it the most Naive and Humble way, or you can shift your tone to a Knowing Question. Always ask the Players who can this go wrong and this buys the Referee/GM Time to both think and work on the story. 

If the PC cannot imagine where it will go wrong, the Referee can "Scrub the timeline" like in youtube as you fast forward or rewind in the slider and slow down the speed. You don't need to be a genius, you never needed to - Patient yes, Thoughtful yes, and keen listening or motivated to Listen - Yes. 

Like in the Problem Statement where the Solution seems to appear simultaneously or teasingly once uttered - the Next Challenge that will excite the PCs will come from their understanding of the uncertainty and risks of their actions. 

Key Assumptions

1. Knowing your players, even a clueless GM can use Session 0 as a way to navigate what the players will find interesting and challenging. 
2. Knowing some basic storytelling techniques - like presenting a problem or identifying uncertainty or assumptions. 
3. Learning from Experience - if a newb, then make the mistakes you've never made. if experienced then apply ones experience in working with the techniques you know and testing the techniques you believe you need to master for everyone's enjoyment. 
4. Lets go back to basics, if we didn't master it thoroughly as to be able to do it reliably and automatically then we are taking more risks and uncertainty with techniques that are more complex applications of basic techniques. 

New Spreadsheet - that would add another month. Probably Dec

This Ship Design System is going to be Complicated, holding more Detail than the current CE ship system BUT because you will have access to the Spreadsheet and ALL the sample Ships it would be easier. 

1. MINING. the first Ship in Common Vessels is mining BUT the Mining Rules lack the Following: 
1. How do I go about Mining? Checklist for Mining? 
2. How does actual Mining Work vs mining in this Game? 
3. How does the World and Opportunities look like if my Party are Miners? 
2. It breaks down in TL8 and below. I will address this since I've been using Simple Rockets, Kerbal, Children of the Dead Earth and Universe Sandbox to study - testing out theories and troubleshooting "Why didn't that do what I thought it would do?" 
1. Curious Droids Buran-Energia is quite interesting imagining TL6 to TL7 setting. 
3.  Simplifying a lot
1. Life Support Cost/day (I'm going to make it simply TL based but simple like)
2. Quality of LIFE Expenses - wealthier having more exercise, recovery time and access to recovery services (like more medical access, less inconveniences, and more time free to waste or invest). The more QOL expenses the more stability and time. The character who has to cook, clean, maintain, pay their taxes, take care of their stuff, etc... has less time and the higher the QOL the more TIME the character has. 
1. QOL are the services, technology, medicine, and access that lets players have more time. 
3. EXPENSES and INCOMES. Since Pre jump ships really are charge TIME or DURATION of the stay's expenses (including overhead) + margin. 
1. FTL ships really charge a PREMIUM for the TIME they SAVE. 

The Technical Debt of the current CE ship building are the following: 

1. Table Based instead of a Formula which GURPS, MGT2E, CEDelux, and others have migrated to. Instead of Calculating Grades of Engine with A being the worse (Counter-Intuitive after playing Twlight 2000) Tons of Engine. 
2. The way Components should work is pretty much the same as a way I can put SUB Components. One of my problems was the BAY occupying Space and the Thing in the Bay counting Double. 
1. A Escape Pod BAY (so that an Escape Pod can Eject and be accessed) cannot have the ROW item beneath it: the escape pod line up its DT because it doesnt really ADD DT, the DT is already there in the BAY. 
2. Engine and FUEL is important to be Linked because they affect each other. Delta V calculations need to know the Total Fuel available. 
3. One of the HARDEST problems is: How do I present it in a Spreadsheet while...
1. Easy to Cut and Paste to a DOC. easy to clean and make pretty. 
2. All the other Metrics like HP, Hit Location, and Revenue vs Expenses. 
3. How do I Build into the Document all the RULES so that a Ship Table is self contained  with all the relevant Rules for running it without Jumping back and forth between Ship Ops being there. The book sold is really the text to do this manually or a way to contribute to the cost of the spreadsheet. 
1. Players knowing their RISK and Taking ACTIONS to manage those risks and hoping their strategy pays off. Thats one of the weirdest things about the game for Entrepreneurs go its weird when they don't look before they leap as my family history which has both Elements of Luck, Entrepreneurship, Skill, and Careful calculation reflects how Financial Illiteracy is one of the main causes of Suffering and business failure. I want the PCs to be better than the rest in approaching a business - I guess its an Middle class Developing World thing where basic financial literacy makes us behave strangely (It should provoke the empathy to understand systemic poverty).
4. 
   

New Spreadsheet

So this spreadsheet took like 4 weeks and the previous version which Nicco made took about 4 weeks also. But I wasn't satisfied and I know what I want is beyond my current ability - because I don't know how I'm going to achieving it some of it. How do I bring it to  4 Columns and allow for Sub-Items listed in another Row? For example: having A Shuttle under the Shuttle bay. 

I learned query allowing me to recompile the Table,  and learned how to better use index and match for the more Complex Engine performance.  

Isn't that Sad and part of reality - we set out to do something and we realize it is beyond our current ability and we do the research to figure it all out and try again. We make drafts and drafts because we;re not geniuses and since its part time we have to juggle our passions with reality. 

The Great thing about a Spreadsheet that is well made is that I plan to look for a Javascript Tutor in Fiverr and ask to be tutored (at a budget of 5-10usd/hr for about 200usd all in) to be taught to make this into a Javascript app that References a Sheet. 
The purpose of Javascript is so that I'm not LIMITED to the layout of the table. Generate a PDF of the ship and other details that make anything to do with the ship on that pdf. too bad Roll20 cant host pdfs 

Other Challenges

1. My Blender skills got Rusty as I focused more on the Writing. There is SOOO much i want to do. 
1. Imphenzia, Daniel Grove Photo, Josh Gramble have to be rewatched because I forgot so many. 
2. the ship Nicco is making is great there are serious challenges - nicco knows rigging better than me, I on the other hand had the formal training as an apprentice to Hernan Javines and have a strong workflow development. 

Probability and Gaming - Additional Actions for Success

 So a lot of my work is the inspiration for my Gaming, one of the Risk Management concepts that affect my understanding of Game Probability is Actions that Address Risk. 

So growing up a lot of games was : Roll => Fail you just FAIL or => Succeed and succeed. And any simple observation of real life is that 

1. Failure is not always an INSTANT and DIRECT feedback.
2. We can Retry, Failure means taking Longer and Spending more than Expected or Others.
3. Success may simply be not making the same amount of Failures as the Other Party OR not the same Degree of Success. 
1. 
   
   
   
4. That Degrees of Success/Failure is the nitty-gritty of everyday life. That: if we are trained and conditioned to it - We see things not in the Success or Failure of the DICE, but the degrees of success and failure and how it looks in THE BIGGER picture. 
1. Someone who's managed to FAIL a little less than Everyone to succeed over all has been primed in our intuition and allows us to Feel Gratitude and Hope. 
2. That we count our SMALL WINS, we succeed in small things and we Count the margin of Success even if the scope is small and meager - again our Sense of Hope and Gratitude is primed for us to get that optimism where we can. 
5. Rework, Technical Debt, Workarounds, are Key Concepts in Understanding Margin of Success and Failure in the Context of Overall human experience. 
1. We may have to do a lot of Rework, like writing our book, doing our job, etc... some tasks are really uncertain and requires so many Tries. 
2. Troubleshooting is an exercise of REWORK as we go through a LIST of possibilities over and over again in a Problem to Eliminate all possibilities and discover its root cause. 
3. We Take ON Technical Debt if surviving or getting the small wins we need allows us to TRY AGAIN. AGILE or Adaptive Life Cycle project management is securing Funding or Wins that validate the Endeavor by delivering usable solutions to the End-user but GAINING more and more technical Debt - with the strategic goal that we deliver Enough Wins to survive and utility to the End User that the system is NET POSITIVE for the end-user even if a different perspective there is a much better way to do something NOW that we Know (Hindsight bias). 
4. Workarounds - the temporary fixes that give us technical debt and add more and more to our load is part of the RISKS and challenges. 

Sadly it was Trial and Error that taught me how to Use a Risk management system - that a RISK management system boils down to ACTIONS to affect Probability. No one explains it that way - no one explains the Cost-Benefit of Risk Management - they often explain it as an Absolute - that Accepting a RISK is never an option - its one of those Empathy Exercises that show why there is a system of POVERTY - when I realize I have actions and resources (like Credit, a Car, a Home) that reduce uncertainty to my outcome I look superior to a person who doesn't have these resources but if I remove them I feel immediately the suffering and uncertainty of others. 

Does the GM or Gamer need to know the Probabilities: NO. 

What is the Outcome or Benefit in Knowing the Context? 

You can measure the Outcome or Benefit in what Actions I can take knowing this Information. You can measure information by the ACtionability. 

I know I can narrate a Success, Failure, or the Huge Gap in between success and failure and how it relates to the Character, stakeholders, the Party, the NPCs because I know the Context of Risks, Uncertainty, and Systems affected. I can tell a story that shows the Actions of the PCs affect their party and the world around them. 

On the Extreme end (as a control), Run a game without any Consequence or Impact on the world and measure how satisfaction of the Players or the GM feels when nothing affects Anything. a NPC does not influence a PC and a PC doesn't influence the world. 

Now run a game where the Decisions of the PCs have an unforeseeable but TANGIBLE effect on the world. In the SPECTRUM of agency and affect on the STory and the world - which would you rather play? Which would you have fun with sitting with friends or fellow players in an afternoon or evening of storytelling?  

How does my Doing X affect the Party, NPCs, the world, etc...? What is the context of my action in its probabilities? Am I the first or one of the many who tried? How am I different? 

In the end of the day we want to enjoy the game - and some Actions (through knowledge of options) increase the Likelihood we will succeed with diminishing returns. that balancing act becomes easier when we know the factors better and can control some of them. We manage the risk of having an unsatisfying game with knowledge that has diminishing returns. 

Major Changes - Scope Creep

Scope Creep - why did I add more Scope? 
because my Assumptions were violated - that I thought I can play a TL8 game with CESRD and nope I cant. This added about 40+ hours to my predicted work even if I've about had 40+ hours in it already (writing after work and family time).  

Major Changes 

1. I wanted to just make a TL8 Ship Book with the layout and 3d (Blender files) and of course well-rendered Pictures (which can always follow even after the Book is out) I can always upload more and more FREE renders. BUT THEN too many problems with existing CE ship building - particularly - Running a TL8 game - (or TL9 in GURPS )is not playable in CE. There are ESSENTIAL TL9+ assumptions I cannot avoid or workaround. 
1. So I'm going to add a Ship Building system FOCUSED on TL6-TL8. Enough Rules to make the Saturn V, Soyuz, the Buran, the Shuttle, Sea Dragon, Falcon 9, SpaceX Starship, etc... Enough Tech for you to Run "For All Mankind" or Alternate History or Near Future (like Daniel Suareze's Delta-V, Andy Weir's The Martian, Artemis, i haven't listen to Proj hail mary yet, etc..., or Neal Stephensons Seveneves) 
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2. I'm still going to provide Blender Files of the Ship, 2d Floor plans in Illustrator and Inkscape sgv files. 
3. I'm still going to provide a Cost and Expense Analysis and their Ops because I realize that maybe someone may approach it and find it less intimidating when I explain it. I'm not an Engineer - I graduated an Arts degree but I work in IT , Construction, and Manufacturing. I'm not that guy in class who had A's I'm your consistent C-level student who enjoys something people think Grade-A people enjoy.  
4. A Change you will notice is that I've Consolidated CE, MGT2 and GURPS rules as note as to their Pros and Cons. I came from GURPS, I've studied the other systems and as an OLD GUY who wants to easily juggle this - I keep notes of how I can reconstruct a skills I've forgotten, to where I left off in my javascript studies, how to remember to do quadratic equations, etc... - I will create a map and guide for the reader to help them remember to perform "maths" concepts I learned to do in a way a High Schooler (in the Philippines and probably in the US) can follow this and build worlds. 
1. Building Worlds - to Know the Infra, Costs, Risks, and Opportunities of Rockets, and all the Infra that goes into this - this hopefully will help. Basically the Role of Rockets in everyday life - for those capable to leave a powerful gravity well and travel a system. 
5. This Took A while. a CE and MGT2 Sheet to compare the two systems. I WILL MAKE SHIPBUILDING EASIER in both a spreadsheet level and conceptual level. and Allow people to choose the level of complexity. 

Notes: 
This is the Sample Sheets. I noticed that ships need to be analyzed SIDE-BY-SIDE in order to understand the system mechanics the game Designer sets out. 

So you can see here that the Olders ship takes more work to keep Running, but the Newer ship only needs half the crew. But the older Ship, took a SMALLER loan and has a lower Mortgage. heck PCs can start out easily FULLY OWNING the ship quite easily. 

I've simplified the maintenance and penalties of a problematic ship. 

What to look Forward To.

1. TL8 is the time and technology before we have Gravitics, Impossible Drives, and Statis Pods. Everything before Faster the Light tech is huge. Thas 100 or 500 years depending on how much I learned from how consistently misplaced the optimistic is about the Tech and the challenges, but failing to appreciate the near term horizon tech. 
1. TL6-TL8 Rockets and Space Ships
2. Fleets of these much Older Ships that can be used to Populate the Setting, much scrappier Tech from 6-8 vs 9+  
3. The Commerce and the Operations that may make it easier and more interesting. Like reaching orbit and Benchmarks, Knowing basic contents of what Keeps something in Orbit and Benchmarks, and sample operations and benchmarks for comparisons. 
2. Complexity like this really just happens in the FIRST part of the game as the Players and GM immerse, after these are set the GM pretty much runs the game based on the Players preferences and boundaries. The Hardish Scifi is a parameter the GM can relax depending on the gaming group but the GM knows which way is harder or what would be more believable. 

Ship Compensation and Roles.

Determine Skills required and SHIFTS > Determine Personnel > then Determine Expenses and Compensation. 

PAY

• Cr 1000/mo per level of Skill (Cr 500/mo for Skill-0)
• Cr +1000/mo per Different Section (Bridge, Eng, Staff Sections)

CHANGES target outcomes

• Salary Grades = Competence. Also, its ideal to have an Official Assessment and Ceremony for such Increases in Grade and Competence. 
• More SHIFTS Overtime pay. the engineer who has to cover more shifts will get paid for their hours. 
• Everyone has Multiple Roles : the captain who is the Admin and other roles will work more and be burned out, but compensated for his extra effort. 

ROLES 

Shift, Role, Function, Duties etc... it boils down is Time to Do the Actions that are required. The Roles and the Actions is where the Referee can get a lot of ideas on how to make things Interesting. Like real life there is too many to do and never enough time to eliminate risks.

All Spaces need:

• Vacc-0
• 0G-0 

Main Roles

• Bridge: Command and Control - Monitoring and controlling the Ship. 
• Engineering: Ship Condition and Requirements to perform. Anything considered "Provisions" or need for the Ship to Operate. The engineer Facilitates Fuel and Maintenance. 
• Staff: Anything servicing the Administration, Clients, Passengers, Cargo and Biz Functions of the Ship. Dont think of them as the Lowest in the Chain of Command - Businesses dictate the powers of the Bridge and Engineering. Staff ensures the Ship is PROFITABLE and a Going Concern. 

Ship Master/Captian	Someone Licensed/Certified to Command a Ship.	Pilot: Spacecraft-2, Astrogation-1, Electronics: Sensors-1	1 per Ship
Bridge Officer	Other Bridge Officers. A ship needs someone "On deck" 24/7, and guarding the ship even in Berth. In very small operations Engineering and Staff serve also these dual roles.	Pilot-0, Astrogation-0, Electronics-0	4 per Bridge (minus Ship master)
Chief Engineer	Someone Certified/Licenses to handle the Drives, Power, or Lifesupport. Typically they need to have level 1 or 2 depending on the Organization issuing the License. You get what you pay for in their salary grade (which reflects their skills).	Eng: R-Drive-2, Eng: Power-2	1 per Ship
Engineering Crewman	Engineering and Maintenance are pretty much the same things as Damage and Wear&Tear is pretty much accelerated wear and tear. Preventive and Corrective Actions regarding the ships complex system needs someone checking and replacing - Note that these decisions are escalated to the Top - but someone discovering and communicating this is part of Engineering.	Engineering/Mechanic-0	1 per 200dtons (minimum 1 which can be the chief engineer) minus the Chief Engineer.
Chief of Staff	If the Ship has to have biz autonomy, needing to adapt Biz operations to meet goals then it will need a Chief of Staff. They handle also Financing, Legal, and other difficult Biz challenges that may cause Trauma to the other Ship Crew.	Admin-1, Steward-1	1 per Ship (if the Ship has Biz operations)
Ship Staff	They are part of the Staff Section.	Engineering/Mechanic-0, Steward-0, Admin-0	1 shift per 20 persons and per 100dtons of cargo.

Designers Notes

One of the Similarities of Ship operations and IT is the 24/7 Shift Calculation. I stopped looking at the WEEK and Just focus on the Shifts. 

this is 48+ Hours per "week" 

This can be disrupted by staff Getting Sick where someone who had a Shift of rest can be called in to cover. 

In the Philippines we just simplify it by having 12/12 for security guards or 10/10 because there is a Weekend and really don't have enough people to do 24/7 gapless (and ideally overlapping shifts for Responsibility Transfer) 

As long as one 1 person is always there 24/7 and everyone gets 2 shifts of sleep its all good. 

Multi-Tasking - especially in High Conext jobs that cannot be automated. This leads to a response time equal to No. of Tasks x time for those tasks.  

Disrupting the circadian rhythm with cybernetics and drugs - so that we can "shut down" is quite interesting because One of the things I realize about OUR hobby is this is how we recover. 

Recovery 

The fun we have is effective if we can REMOVE the stress by rewiring the brain temporarily - forgetting the impulses and ambient stress. And Everyone has Different FUN because the FUN has to Take them out of the Stressful Situation and PLACE THEM in a FUN/RELAXING Place. 

the mental model of viewing OUR FUN/RELAXATION has to take us out of our Stressful Place is important for troubleshooting if its is effective in resetting our brain. If our subconscious stress points, alertness levels, fight-flight response is turned off so as to heal/recover. 

At the same time, Hobbies/Relaxation where we DESTIGMATIZE work - or Hobbies that make Stressful situations less stressful help Quickly Shift from Stress to Relax. 

Too often I have the excuse "This is not fun anymore" the analysis is that the emotions I felt with this activity ingrained unpleasant memories. Balancing out these memories with Pleasant ones - where I/We win more often than fail - helps me remove the Background processes of Fight-flight readiness and dedicated more CPUs for flow.  

Sacred Rights of Compensation 

One of the best ways to determine Skill in Real-world vs Games is in writing a Realistic Job Placement/Requirement in the Real World. One of my Game pet peeves is the UNCOMPENSATED or unfairly compensated Skillset and Duties. If you've ever seen "Needs 10 years of experience Entry level position" job placement sometimes and other glaring inconsistencies in Jobs I'm one of those guys who don't like in my TRPGs. 

I guess its weird by Labor Rights are kinda sacred for me. I guess coming from a Developing World where our default is actually 6 days a week not the 5 days a week. That 5 day workweek is a privilege. That the Work Conflicts with Safety and Operations requirement and addressing both says so much about myself and my character - as well as the character for others. If Alignments and Ethics matter in game. 

Also I notice when a lot of people do the short-sighted thing and Abuse the Safety Limits to make some cash. I mean 99% of the time they get away with it, on the 1% they get caught and tragedy strikes - hmmm.. that's why there is a speed limit, there are seat belts, - statistically its unlikely but Business Plans are ideally BUILT on certainties and addressing uncertainties.