From: "Brent L. Woods" [email removed] on Tue, 10 Jul 90 3:38:34 EST
>
> I recently decided to play around with random numbers in C (on my
> Amiga), so I decided to write a planet generator for Traveller (just
> like everyone else--come on, admit it). I got a simple program working
> without too much trouble (right now, I'm having some trouble with
> generating planet names randomly, but that's no big deal), and a
> question occurred to me in the course of writing it. Namely, just
> what's the population multiplier good for? There are rules in the
> Referee's Manual on how to generate it, but I couldn't find anything
> in the text on what made it useful.
>
The population multiplier is not used directly for any of the rules. It just
narrows down the range of values for the population digit. (e.g. a planet
with a UPP of Xxxx7xx-x has between 10,000,000 and 99,999,999 people. If the
population digit is given, and is say 4, you now know that there are between
40,000,000 and 49,999,999 people).
It is used in the World builders handbook when determining the size and
number of cities on the planet (they also have you generate the next two
digits). Similarily with the Gas Giant, and Asteroid Belt numbers, mainly
people only care if they are zero or non-zero
As for the generation of random planet names, use the language tables for the
various races. (I have used them in a program which names planets without a
name in a sector or subsector file, and they seem to work fine, though
a person's selection is much preferred).
-Dan
Dan Corrin, System Manager, Mechanical Engineering, UWO, London, Ontario
TML FTP site coordinator: [email removed] ...!watmath!julian!engrg!dan