Problem Solving - Adventure

Problem Solving is one of my inspirations for Games. The stakes are high and so is the stress, but when we succeed the payoff feels great. I like the Scifi that draws inspiration from the NASA projects as well as many other practical engineering real world projects. Eliyahu Goldratt taught his Theory of Constraints as a Narrative Fiction - of a company in Dire straits - and the living history of the Space Program is also a great source of inspiration. 

One of the reasons I went into harder scifi is because I love exercising the concepts in the safety of a game. I was free to fail in a game and try again. 

So I found Dustin’s talk about NASA very important and inspiring because this critical thinking is unlike a ROLL, its us coming into the problem which is the main conflict of the story. The friction that raises the stakes and engagement of the players. if the facts and the limitations doesnt get absorbed and concrete to the person - then they have no engagement and will not enjoy the payoff of figuring out the problem. 

I wont spoil the really bad problem he highlights. But yeah that is where the DO-ers start thinking and start working to figure out the solution with the finite amount of time. This is where the montage of hard work, or rolls the PCs make to get ready before the big show down. 

Dec 3 2023 Character Gen Progress

Initially, I thought there was a function referencing the target number for the survival check. However, I was mistaken; there are actually two sets of functions that determine whether the survival check is successful or not.

It seems that the third set of scripts related to survival is the one that works as intended. This particular set triggers the Mishap Table. To make this clearer, I should include the mishap table entry result.

In the mishap branch of the code, I plan to force a failed survival roll by setting the target numbers to 13. I realized that my previous assumption was incorrect since some characters can be exceptionally lucky, and a target number of 15 might be more appropriate, considering there is a maximum 2-dice modifier.

Here's the breakdown of the steps I intend to take:

Step 1: Force characters to fail the survival roll and gain a better understanding of how the survival checks work.

Step 2: Verify if the mishap table is functioning correctly. Enhance clarity by including the roll result in the verbose output.

Step 3: If the mishap table functions as expected, proceed to examine the results and effects of mishaps. Determine if they affect the benefits, as some benefits may be lost. Investigate how to remove benefits in case of a bad mishap.

Step 4: Create an Injury table. Test if the Mishap Table triggers the injury table by commenting out (disabling) the other mishaps. Essentially, disable the other random variables to better test the remaining ones.

Step 5: Once mishaps and injuries penalize character stats and benefits as intended, move on to medical care. Consider implementing a standardized cost of 5k credits per lost stat, with the option to raise stats to a minimum of 5 from 0 or less if the stat has ever decreased. Additionally, provide output notes regarding cyber-prosthetics.

In the Mneme Character generation, I'll customize medical care based on the character's status to ensure a more realistic and immersive experience. But as Rules-As-Written and expediency - just raises stats to 5 or 6.

the number of careers that had mishaps

 

Small Craft 10, 20, 30, 50, 70, and 95DT with switchblade Wings

The new file in your Mneme Space Combat would be 231201 Small Craft 02.blend - part of a continuing set of Models and Ships with stats you can use for your games as they are all Creative Commons Share Alike and Attribute. You wont get Ships this generous - to follow is nicco making the 2D maps from the same files using Power Point (which everyone has and can edit) and you can customize for your games. 

So nicco and I meet 2x a week on the progress of the ships. 

1. the Files Ballooned into 2.4GB in size.  causing both our PCs to crash. 
2. So i did an analysis and researched how to fix it. So we are now using Instancing. Instancing in blender is making a using Add > Instance. which takes a collection (group of objects) and  projects it into the space, without creating any new data. from 2.4GB its now just 0.5GB. What also helped was the new chair i modeled which was simpler in design.  
1. the November Chair (the chair I made in nov) is 1/3 in faces and vertices. 
2. Also if you've seen the animation I've made for it, 
3. 
   
   
   
4. 

   
   
   

damn, so from 2.4GB, to 0.55GB, and now 0.12GB. You really need someone who is doing the technical stuff, or else the creative gets bottlenecked. I hope I can train one of my OJTs for this. I dont know if they are inclined to learn Blender3d and 3d Printing. I put my odds at 1/10. 

Left is the chair I made, the right is a free asset we found. 

It helps I'm from the furniture biz, these kinds of chairs are something I would have an Industrial Design team create with FREECAD and open source it - I think our manufacturing plant can make it. The goal would be a reconfigurable chair for airplanes seating - the problem is to have something that strong would mean really thick and thus heavy guage of steel - like the Levitation Street Performer

You need something so strong that it would barely bend - and light, aluminum or very thin steel with graphene. 

if my various IT projects find clients and make money - with probably the cost of these components and the schools I partner with I could probably have a section of our manufacturing plant pull this off for applications in furniture. Dreams. 

Here is a View of the Interiors. 

Seating

6 seats per passenger seating. x3 x5 = 90. 90 x2 180 seats. + 6x4 = 114 seats. 

8 standard seating x 3 = 24 standard seats. 

95DT

70DT

50DT

30DT

20DT

10DT

The reason why I believe Creative Commons works for Game in the brain is that confidence in our abilities - and that we can always improve and that its worth investing in us because we are always improving and growing.  So the people who invested in our products will have something to look forward to. Anyway CE is Open Gaming - it gave us this opportunity. 

CE Character gen Update and Others.

 Here is the Link to the Latest Version of the CE Character Gen

Changes:

1. Service Skills. The main problem was the Service capitalization. I assumed it was Navy when it was really navy. Anyway it’s all fixed - and now the navy, marines, army, scouts, and merchants all have their starting skills. 
1. Learning how Skills are added and Worked in the JS. 
2. Learning to understand how the entire script work in chunks. How t is an object that collected all these strings of data - and how it loops as it processes a Career. 
2. Mishaps. The main problem with the mishap was knowing where to place the script. A lot of trial and error because there is the Theory and of course there is the actual details I dont know since I’m just a hobbyist. 
3. No Death. This took a while to figure out and is one of the earliest major progresses. To remove death but make the character END the service. 

Challenges. 

I was juggling studying Containers, Port Forwarding, and DDNS just today. I got cloudflare DDNS to work partially. Symbols are all green it’s just that it doesnt work. A lot of things depend on this - my Wiki, Migrating to my Own Host - hosting the Websites at home, NextCloud set up at home, 

Understanding how Cloudflare works and Containers and JS at the same day is fulfilling but at the same time disheartening that I dont know if I can squeeze in some more study time this week. 

Talked students for Freelance Work.

I’m getting a quote to make the models ready for 30mm 3d printing. 

Having a quote for my tutorials improved by someone who is not mired with my mental overhead.  Making my tutorials and tools more accessible hopefully will bring in sales - i doubt it. 

I’ve only sold 100 World Gen. 15 Space Combat. I think market penetration is at its limit, unless I improve accessibility. 

the Electronic Tools, while basic, should impact game prep and the ability to prepare material for a game. 

 

CE character gen notes

 https://github.com/justinaquinoGITB/cechargen is the github link

The link to the current version of the character gen

This is how I understand how the JS. 

Open the .JS to access the JS script. 

I’ve kept it mostly intact except for the changes. 

So Line 1 o 52 are the notes. 

Line 1127 //------------ "t" object holds Traveller character definitions ------------//

Is the core process that builds the character. It references the Variables you set above it. As the comment states you will see the t or t.attributes etc… which tells  what will be stored in t. 

You will see it begin with var t = {}; 

the red var is the variable with an = which means it is being defined. you can see it begin to start all these values. t.cheat 

when you see a ; this is leads to the next line. You know its the end with its the closing curly bracket }.

So if I want to change the Workflow of how this Script resolves, I will have to modify this Object Holding script. This is because in order to have contents or stats, this triggers some functions.  

if I want the stats to be rolled differently, I will edit this script

t.attributes = {

    strength: roll(2),

    dexterity: roll(2),

    endurance: roll(2),

    intelligence: roll(2),

    education: roll(2),

    social: roll(2),

};

if I want it to be roll 3d6 but keep highest 2d6 i will need to edit this. 

I have to define t.attributeDM (attribute dice modifiers). My problem is that I have to replicate the Attribute Increase script for AttributeDM increase. 

here are the skills. In CE there are starting skills from your Education = 3 plus EduDM (education dice modifier) and an array of skills to draw from. I have to make a script for that. Then there will a t.homeworld background I will need to create. 

A challengee is the Determine Service Function (t.determineService). I would be doing my Physical-Therapy or Run and wondering how I will organize this. The problems are: 

there is 0 Skill level. Which I need to analyze how to implement. 

then how do I make it, that on your first term you get Starting Service skills at 0. 

And then proceeding will be rolling randomly in the Service Skill table. 

its this logic I dont undestand yet. And even if I think I understand I have to test with experiments. So JS CODIUM its faster to test than doing it in Github which has a 2-3 minutes before the script will reflect in the Website. On my desktop as soon as I save and refresh index.html?history=verbose page on my browser the changes will reflect. 

Dont worry I will add my own Comments and in the Readme I will probably copy paste these notes. This way the AI can help dablers in scripts. 

I’m excited to fixing the CE Char gen and bundling it in my Mneme Variant Combat. Scarily thats 24 Careers that needs to be encoded. Even with AI thats still going to take a lot of time.  

The language is different in CE where we use Careers and a Massive Find Replace action to replace all Service and service in the entire document. 

Then Attributes and attributes will be replaced with Characteristic and characteristic. 

The deceased condition, I’m trying to understand the function that says failing a survival is decesased 

This is a fun distraction from work. The thing about a new skill is that it feels like i’m moving because in a few minutes something new is made. Of course No one aske “can you automate the CE character gen” - well World Generator no one asked - “Can you automate World Gen” lolz. 

Challenges of a Detailed Lifepod and Passenger Modules of 1DT.

 Giants need not apply. 

at 2.15 meters vertical clearance characters who have Giagantism are going to have a hard time fitting in some ships without always stooping over. 

This is a 2.15m height with the longest dimension being 2.9m and a width of around 2.15m as well. You will notice a 0.6m aisle for walking and there will be doors on these Aisles so these modules can be connected end to end. 

These modular passanger seats allows for quick conversions. Trade Laws and Standard allow the quick sale transfers of these Modules. Ports that are part of these trade standards will trade these modules for credit and will keep a mimum stock of these modules as well. 

A Morbid thought is that these modules compartmentalize life support. preveting the entire seating area to be lost in an accident or damage. In game mechanics I can pretty much give it a 1HP in Mneme Space Combat mechanics. so a 10DT passenger seating is 10 units and taking 4 damage means 4 units are compromised. I keep thinking if my family were with me on a trip we would be in this module. 

Selling Seats per module. Modules can be used to sell seats. Instead of paying per seat, just pay per 1D module. 

I will be redesigning the Life Pod now that I learned a bit of how to make Drivers and Armature so that Doors can be opened and Closed as well as Transforming Materials. I will have a DRIVER that will make the walls transparent for viewing. 

Imagine 4DT per stateroom with the actual space for sleeping and toilet is 1DT. Thats about 6sqm (~60sqft ) per 1DT assuming a 2.1m height or 7ft clearance. 

In the Mneme Version of Ship and Vehicle Creation (I will consolidate them and use Cubic Meters. Including Mechs ) -  you will focus on the Equipment and how much Moving around space would you give the People working there. 

Progress on CE Character Gen Javascript Website. 

1) learning a lot of about branching and forking and workflow. I had to reset back to MAIN and created 2 branches. 

2) I learned not to upload my changes from VSCODIUM until Ive had a night to sleep on it and check if it works. 

3) I’m trying to remove DEATH and replace it with: Mustering Out, Drifter or Draft outcome. 

I will make a player decision roll, deciding to Re-enlist, Drifter or Draft. Just like the Quick Fix in the character Creation of the SRD. 

Progress in the CE Character gen - More verbose for easy feedback.

 Progress in the CE Character gen (based on Pgorman's Classic Traveller character gen)

Link to the Character gen

• figured out how to have instant feedback with VSCODIUM
• slowly figuring out how his Character Gen Works and what the functions are for
• You will notice I made Verbose very Verbose. so that its easy to follow what the roll did and easy to check if I made a mistake. Slowly this will use the Attribute DM instead of the if statements of Classic Traveller. 
• I played around with NAVY since it was the most accessible. So right now it only does navy. When I understand how it all works I can proceed to BARBARIAN - 
• A problem is that Background is an event that happens before Careers are rolled. 
• 
  Random World Roll. 
  
  
• 6 careers will be: Barbarian, Drifter, Marine, Mercenary, Rogue, and Army + Background. Once I figure this all out, I can hire one of my OJTS to help in this project since I can now teach him how I want it improved. That means the 18 other careers can be given to my freelancer.  
• Once the 6 combat carers can be made I'll promote Variant Combat rules with Character Generator. 
• Next is the Scenario Generator which is more complex, while I slowly upload all the careers.  
• Will people want to spend money on Variant Combat rules thinking: "Lets have Characters duke it out in a randomly generated scenario".