[nbos] [AS2] possible new features?

[Bryan Lovely]

Features I'd like to see (as a recent adopter):


1. More export formats. HTML is nice for viewing, but that's all it's 
nice for. I'd like to see at least the following:

(a) CSV, so I can port all the info into a database in less than 15 
hours (that's how long it takes me to edit a 20 x 20 x 20 parsec html 
report down into sql insert statements).

(b) XML, because XML is just really useful for lots of stuff.

(c) GML for direct import into the yED Graph Editor would be nice, too.

2. Recalculation of values. If, for instance, I change a planet's 
orbit, the temperature, period, etc. should all update. Likewise for 
all other planetary features.

3. Better search. I should be able to search on stellar type, stellar 
configuration, number of planets, planetary temperature, etc., etc.

4. More generation options:

(a) Terraforming. AS1 already tweaks habitability; I'd like to be able 
to set the level of tweaking to generate lots of Earthlike worlds for a 
space opera setting, or fewer for a totally realistic setting.

(b) Population. I'd like to be able to adjust the overall population 
frequency to create more or less populated sectors.

(c) System creation. I don't really like deep space stations or rogue 
planets and I should be able to turn them off. Likewise, I should be 
able to choose what kind of stellar region I'm generating: for 
instance, a globular cluster would be a lot different from a stellar 
nursery at the leading edge of a spiral arm, or from a normal, 
Earth-vicinity-type region.

(d) Stellar clustering. The internal rules tend to make the overall 
sector structures look pretty much the same all the time -- usually a 
"snowdrift" shape covering one corner or side with next to nothing in 
the opposite corner/side, or a "cloud" that evenly occupies the whole 
sector -- regardless of sector size. I'd like to be able to set the 
clumpiness within realistic limits.



I know this list partially reiterates what other people have asked for 
and what's in progress right now, but I wrote this list *before* I read 
the archives, and I'm sticking by it. :-)


Thanks,


-- Bryan