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  1. #1

    JBE's MGT 2e Plans

    Hey everyone,

    If you don't know, I'm Dale McCoy of Jon Brazer Enterprises. I'm the principle writer of new Traveller content and converter to FG. Recently we sent off Foreven Worlds: Creatures of Distant Worlds to available for sale at the FG Store. Currently I'm working on the D66 Compendium 2 and Solomani Worlds: Vehicles from the Rim.

    If there is anything we create that you want to see brought to FG sooner, please let me know. While I'm at it, if there is something new you want to see from us, let me know.

    Dale
    Dale McCoy, Jr (Ultimate License holder)

    President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. See all of our products available for Fantasy Grounds.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by dmccoy1693 View Post
    Hey everyone,

    If you don't know, I'm Dale McCoy of Jon Brazer Enterprises. I'm the principle writer of new Traveller content and converter to FG. Recently we sent off Foreven Worlds: Creatures of Distant Worlds to available for sale at the FG Store. Currently I'm working on the D66 Compendium 2 and Solomani Worlds: Vehicles from the Rim
    Wow am I ever pleased with those choices - I'll be buying all of those.

  3. #3
    Hi Dale,
    I have always been happy with your products and look forward to purchasing them as they are released.
    The difficulty I have with MGT2 on VTT is the lack of VTT useful maps and accessories.

    Some examples
    (1) Currently your star backgrounds are pretty, BUT, they are very large for download, yet are small for tactical/strategic gaming. A large map that has the same generic 1000pixel/1000pixel star field as a background tile on it, would mean the end user would download one 1000x1000 pixel png image, while it covers a huge area (I have such a map that covers over 1,000,000x1,000,000 pixels using FGU. This also reduces memory footprint on the client. With a 100pixel hex grid, the players could play an extremely large game of mayday or brilliant lances (showing my age here) using the VTT.
    You could have as layers (kept in separate folders in the image) various planets, gravitational grids etc. (I am in the process of building all this and you are welcome to join me in a video chat so I can show you what I mean). I am using a 500km/hex resolution so planets and their gravitational fields feel more like MGT2/CT than what later Traveller space combat games went with. You could even have semi-transparent nebulas etc that are kept invisible in sub-folders to be turned on by the referee for their particular needs.

    (2) Ship images. Top, Bottom, both Sides, Front and Back, along with a iso view. These could be placed onto VTT battle maps showing landed ships, or, they can be used as the "ground" itself as combat takes place outside the ship. They would need to be in 100pixel/square or 150 pixel/square resolution, so they are not small images. Sweet talk Ian Steed to get him to just render his entire library in the various views and package it up so I can throw money at you. We can even get them as good looking 150 pixel top down icons for use in the above space combat maps.

    (3) Deck Plans. A single consistent style. No furniture, just consoles. The furniture/beds/chairs/tables etc could be separate images in a separate folder (separate layer for those not using the FG image terms) that are visible or invisible. Tables should be able to be moved, chairs thrown. Food should be able to be put on the table etc. One ship drawing, with the various "pretty" elements as sub-images instead of a single bitmap, would allow the DM to layout the same drawing in multiple ways for the adventure instead of telling the players to ignore the nice pretty layouts on the map of the crashed spacecraft.... The isomorphic deckplans that MBM is limited to providing us from the source books, are far from what we need as a VTT map.

    (4) Geomorphs - Grab the creative commons starship geomorphs and turn it into vtt friendly packs in the same manner as the deck plans. This would allow the design of space ports/space stations/high ports etc. Expand it with support books that have names of various stores/establishments/characters so that a referee can pull up a geomorph, load a module from you and be ready to play a patron encounter on the fly.

    (5) Ship Crews - Detailed ship crews and ships, The universe is big and the players are not the only travellers - most referee's are limited on time to build up a full universe to interact with. Having a series of modules of ships and their crews, along with standard characters for Port personnel, local merchants, local brokers etc., with pictures, gives depth to the setting and makes a referees life so much easier.

    (6) Top down icons of Traveller characters - sure we can hobble together a bunch of modern and shadowpunk icons to be placeholders, but, it is better if we have top down battlemap images of Aslan, Bwaps, Hivers etc. Along with top down images of all those beautiful animals you are coming out with in the Creatures of Distant Worlds.

    (7) Ship designs and variants. We have seen alot of different versions of the scout ship, from a single deck design to a three deck design. But, very little has changed stat wise over the various versions of traveller. How about a TL 9 Type A trader - TL10? TL 11? TL 15? Anyone of the various standard designs will change as new technology is released. Either as a standalone series of modules or, as a part of the various Starship Deckplan modules.

    (8) Foreeven in MGT2 format - I loved MGT1 but, as I game with and use MGT2, I find that the later is a far better system overall. It is more than presentation and gloss - the underlying mechanics are beautiful in operation but very subtle, which MBM is finding when trying to see how to get them automated in FG. There are slight different ways to approach, both in concept and design, the material for MGT2 that result in significant differences in the work/style of play for the referee and players. You can not just say "compatible with", without expecting the referee to need to do a whole series of extra work.

    I am so pleased to see you doing this and I will support your endeavours as they make my own gaming so much more enjoyable.

    best regards
    Dalton

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by kronovan View Post
    Wow am I ever pleased with those choices - I'll be buying all of those.
    I'm glad you're excited about these. Seeing other's excitement always encourages me to work harder on projects.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dalton Calford View Post
    (2) Ship images. Top, Bottom, both Sides, Front and Back, along with a iso view. These could be placed onto VTT battle maps showing landed ships, or, they can be used as the "ground" itself as combat takes place outside the ship. They would need to be in 100pixel/square or 150 pixel/square resolution, so they are not small images. Sweet talk Ian Steed to get him to just render his entire library in the various views and package it up so I can throw money at you. We can even get them as good looking 150 pixel top down icons for use in the above space combat maps.

    (5) Ship Crews - Detailed ship crews and ships, The universe is big and the players are not the only travellers - most referee's are limited on time to build up a full universe to interact with. Having a series of modules of ships and their crews, along with standard characters for Port personnel, local merchants, local brokers etc., with pictures, gives depth to the setting and makes a referees life so much easier.
    A number of good suggestions here. I'm only going to comment on the two above.

    2) Ship icons is something we are working on. It is just not getting done as fast as anyone would like. Have no fear. It is in the pipeline.

    5) We have considered doing exactly this in the past. We just weren't sure if anyone else would be interested in it. Hearing someone ask for it will push it up in our plans.
    Dale McCoy, Jr (Ultimate License holder)

    President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. See all of our products available for Fantasy Grounds.

  5. #5
    I don't know if this is the right place. I found an error in D661 "Story 1.11 Random things Found in a Ship's Hold" has the link for "Reasons for the Communications/Sensors systems not Working" instead of "Random Things....."

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Dalton Calford View Post
    Hi Dale,
    I have always been happy with your products and look forward to purchasing them as they are released.
    The difficulty I have with MGT2 on VTT is the lack of VTT useful maps and accessories.

    Some examples
    (1) Currently your star backgrounds are pretty, BUT, they are very large for download, yet are small for tactical/strategic gaming. A large map that has the same generic 1000pixel/1000pixel star field as a background tile on it, would mean the end user would download one 1000x1000 pixel png image, while it covers a huge area (I have such a map that covers over 1,000,000x1,000,000 pixels using FGU. This also reduces memory footprint on the client. With a 100pixel hex grid, the players could play an extremely large game of mayday or brilliant lances (showing my age here) using the VTT.
    You could have as layers (kept in separate folders in the image) various planets, gravitational grids etc. (I am in the process of building all this and you are welcome to join me in a video chat so I can show you what I mean). I am using a 500km/hex resolution so planets and their gravitational fields feel more like MGT2/CT than what later Traveller space combat games went with. You could even have semi-transparent nebulas etc that are kept invisible in sub-folders to be turned on by the referee for their particular needs.

    (2) Ship images. Top, Bottom, both Sides, Front and Back, along with a iso view. These could be placed onto VTT battle maps showing landed ships, or, they can be used as the "ground" itself as combat takes place outside the ship. They would need to be in 100pixel/square or 150 pixel/square resolution, so they are not small images. Sweet talk Ian Steed to get him to just render his entire library in the various views and package it up so I can throw money at you. We can even get them as good looking 150 pixel top down icons for use in the above space combat maps.

    (3) Deck Plans. A single consistent style. No furniture, just consoles. The furniture/beds/chairs/tables etc could be separate images in a separate folder (separate layer for those not using the FG image terms) that are visible or invisible. Tables should be able to be moved, chairs thrown. Food should be able to be put on the table etc. One ship drawing, with the various "pretty" elements as sub-images instead of a single bitmap, would allow the DM to layout the same drawing in multiple ways for the adventure instead of telling the players to ignore the nice pretty layouts on the map of the crashed spacecraft.... The isomorphic deckplans that MBM is limited to providing us from the source books, are far from what we need as a VTT map.

    (4) Geomorphs - Grab the creative commons starship geomorphs and turn it into vtt friendly packs in the same manner as the deck plans. This would allow the design of space ports/space stations/high ports etc. Expand it with support books that have names of various stores/establishments/characters so that a referee can pull up a geomorph, load a module from you and be ready to play a patron encounter on the fly.

    (5) Ship Crews - Detailed ship crews and ships, The universe is big and the players are not the only travellers - most referee's are limited on time to build up a full universe to interact with. Having a series of modules of ships and their crews, along with standard characters for Port personnel, local merchants, local brokers etc., with pictures, gives depth to the setting and makes a referees life so much easier.

    (6) Top down icons of Traveller characters - sure we can hobble together a bunch of modern and shadowpunk icons to be placeholders, but, it is better if we have top down battlemap images of Aslan, Bwaps, Hivers etc. Along with top down images of all those beautiful animals you are coming out with in the Creatures of Distant Worlds.

    (7) Ship designs and variants. We have seen alot of different versions of the scout ship, from a single deck design to a three deck design. But, very little has changed stat wise over the various versions of traveller. How about a TL 9 Type A trader - TL10? TL 11? TL 15? Anyone of the various standard designs will change as new technology is released. Either as a standalone series of modules or, as a part of the various Starship Deckplan modules.

    (8) Foreeven in MGT2 format - I loved MGT1 but, as I game with and use MGT2, I find that the later is a far better system overall. It is more than presentation and gloss - the underlying mechanics are beautiful in operation but very subtle, which MBM is finding when trying to see how to get them automated in FG. There are slight different ways to approach, both in concept and design, the material for MGT2 that result in significant differences in the work/style of play for the referee and players. You can not just say "compatible with", without expecting the referee to need to do a whole series of extra work.

    I am so pleased to see you doing this and I will support your endeavours as they make my own gaming so much more enjoyable.

    best regards
    Dalton
    This This THIS! 100% Agree with all this. A great breakdown of our needs on VTT. I'm currently doing data entry for my own sandbox and the dearth of material to slot in to my campaign is slowing my progress to a crawl, as I have little to no artistic/design talent.

  7. #7
    Can I add another vote for Dalton's list ?

    All of that would be really useful and I'd almost certainly buy most of it - esp Tokens and VTT friendly maps.
    Last edited by fruitbat; October 10th, 2021 at 13:52.

  8. #8
    GregRex's Avatar
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    Here's a link to JBE products when I filter using Traveller:

    https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store...search=&sort=1

    I use his space maps religiously.

  9. #9
    Is there any chance of the d66 compendium being updated to use d6+d60 like compendium 2 rather than subtables? It’s a much cleaner way of doing it

    Have a great day

  10. #10
    Thanks Dale

    In terms of "Star Battles: Basic Ship Tokens" is there somewhere ship plans for these ships? Sorry if they already exist and I have missed them.

    Thanks

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