motion chart of contributed databases

[pokerjunky]

i was looking through the awesome pdfs people have made of the compiled data. i thought it would be easier to explore if i threw it in a google doc spreadsheet so i can sort by name, cache size, whatever. then i thought, why not throw a motion chart widget onto the spreadsheet just to make it look cool? i'm an interface designer, i love this stuff. and here is the result:

bit.ly/star_trader_rpg_planets
this is a basic layout of all the planets colored by zone: urban, hybrid, wild

bit.ly/star_trader_rpg_urban
these are the urban and hybrid planets colored by faction. the size of the planet is set by the palace rating + the spice house rating. i like quality rumors :-)

bit.ly/star_trader_rpg_wild
these are the wild and hybrid planets colored by a little secret sauce i cooked up called 'prospecting success'. it is a rough measure of the odds of finding something valuable by either exploring or harvesting. i have no idea if its mathematically valid, i just took the larger of the two fractions derived from dividing each activity by hazard ie "is explore/hazard > harvest/hazard?". if a math major can give me a better formula i'll pop it in and everything will update instantly. the size of the planets is set by their cache size.

now for the ships...

i set the x-axis for each of these as the total count of missiles + guns, which is a rough measure of its offensive capabilities. the y-axis is hull + armor, which is a rough estimate of its defensive capabilities. so the ships on the bottom left are the wimpiest and as we move to the top right they become more and more badass. you can see them deviate into more offensive and defensive ships.

bit.ly/star_trader_rpg_ships
this is a basic graph of the ships. the color is set by it mobility (engines + solar sails) and the size is set by its general usefulness (cargo hold + crew size).

bit.ly/star_trader_rpg_soldier_ships
this is my personal optimization for a fighting ship. i changed the color to show only the engine count because that's what you rely on for fast agile up-close conflict. the point size is set by crew size, because that is more important than cargo size in a fight

bit.ly/star_trader_rpg_trader_ships
this is my take on optimal trading vessels. the color is set by only the solar sail count because traders do a lot of flying long distances with heavy loads trying to arrive before a good deal ends. they also generally are not looking for a fight, so engines don't get used as much. the size is set by the cargo hold size, for obvious reasons. the more you can carry the faster you get rich!

if you click around you'll notice you can customize the x-axis, y-axis, color graph and size graph for multi-dimensional views of whatever you want. you can also change it to a bar chart in the top right corner. google makes incredible things so easy!

i am toying with the idea of making the spreadsheets editable for a few key members or something, to crowd source the data quality. i'm sure some numbers will continue to be refined as we get more data and updates, and adding even more parameters to measure by would be useful. i also have horrible follow-through once my initial burst of inspiration dies out :-)

shout out to everyone who collected and refined all this data! i would never have had the patience to do that, dropping it into google magic was waaay easier than collecting it.

peace

[sebastian]

You rock my socks

[Cory Trese]

Seriously -- Wow. Nice work. The ones I make in excel to try to see this are way less cool.

Impressed!

[fallen]

Blown away. Bravo my man. May Cadar's favor rest upon your shoulders.

[aielman]

psssh

I would have exalted you but I didn't like the colors




(ok they rock +1 good sir)

[aielman]

oooo now we need price!!

[damillio]

Best post ever??

One thing I noticed was the absence of the Royal

[Cory Trese]

I will see if perhaps I can provide the data directly for more charting.

I like these charts because I feel that they somewhat reflect the amount of work that has gone into the ship designs, keeping them within a band that works while still providing some crazy options.

Some of the outliers may be too much tho, especially after they're called out in such spectacular fashion.

well played sir, more karma than posts. ST RPG players like data! and they really like data maps =)

[pokerjunky]

haha don't sweat the outliers, i am sure you are the only one judging yourself. having a few surprises in there is part of the fun. you should have seen it before i took the alien ships out! i had to scale the axis logarithmically just to see any meaningful data. which is what makes them awesome!

more than anything, these charts bring out the quality of the data. that was what struck me when i first started flipping through the dimensions. you put some serious work into balancing multiple dimensions of data in overlapping and cohesive ways. that's what makes the game so fun. simple to play but mysteriously difficult to wrap our heads around in its entirety.

glad you are all enjoying the charts as much as i am! i will more than recoup the time it took to make them by being able to play more optimally. now to make a motion chart of Life...

[sebastian]

Make one for understanding the female species and you shall live like a god.

[aielman]

Jun 24, 2011 17:46:11 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

I will see if perhaps I can provide the data directly for more charting.

I like these charts because I feel that they somewhat reflect the amount of work that has gone into the ship designs, keeping them within a band that works while still providing some crazy options.

Some of the outliers may be too much tho, especially after they're called out in such spectacular fashion.

well played sir, more karma than posts. ST RPG players like data! and they really like data maps =)

I would LOVE to see one that has price on there, thats one of my biggest questions is what is the best things to buy for the price. And personally, I like the outliers, I am just that much more excited when I find one, and with the outliers it becomes "do I just buy this ship or wait for the perfect one..." :-)

Now... I seriously need to find me one of those atmo cutters...

[fallen]

@ailmen -- seems like price changes a lot based on what you have sold at the market, faction rep, and rank. Might be hard to get numbers without getting a hold of Cory's secret book of math.

[fallen]

pokerjunky - my big, floppy hat is off to you for creating this amazing resource!

[aielman]

Jun 25, 2011 13:59:39 GMT -5 fallen said:

@ailmen -- seems like price changes a lot based on what you have sold at the market, faction rep, and rank. Might be hard to get numbers without getting a hold of Cory's secret book of math.

Well its more about comparison. IE they all have a base price that changes based on the location you are at but they all change a percentage off of base. That base price you can use for all sorts of fun calculations.

[aielman]

missing planets:

steelcrank (1,20) urban/wild
-urban -> 4,4,18,1,1
-wild -> 23,1,17,4
Hellarc (0,14) wild
-wild -> 14,9,7,1