Files offline

So a quick story.  I bought a house in May of this year.  Since then we have had over 15 power outtages, totalling over 20 hours, and 2 of which were over 8 hours.  I'm about to go buy a freaking generator.

Anyway, so when the long outtages happen, I take my computer UPS, and go plug it into the fridge to give it 30 minutes of run time in the middle of the outtage, hoping to save some food.

Thing is, last time I did that, I plug the cables in the wrong plugs, and so the latest outage my computer went off, and my monitors stayed on.  Ugh.  The bad news is that for whatever reason, windows 2008 didn't like that, and my networking is all corrupted.  I haven't rebuilt in 2 or so years, so I am about due anyway.  

And since I'm rebuilding my primary workstation, I'm also going to plug in the 2k8 domain controller in my house, and get rid of my older compaq branded 2k3 server.  Thus, all the files I had on it won't be there for a while, probably a day or two, until I can get them back up.

Soooo, if you simply must have one of those files, and can't wait for it, shoot me an email and I'll try to get you a copy, but until then the files will be offline.  Sorry for any inconvience.

I have made zero progress anyway, just been busy with other things, and still kinda demoralized by the BT franchise.  Still on my plate though.

Stars...

Well based on demand, and the fact I invested a LOT of time into the planet list, I will keep the system coordinate list updated on this blog, and for now use it for the non-BT cartographer.  I'm still not interested in using the BTU for anything, TPTB's attitude have ensured that I will no longer support that IP, which is probably a good thing based on their paranoia and MSFT being stupid with the IP.


The cartographer work is progressing, but will NOT be in any way a "Battletech Cartographer".  In fact, there will be nothing "battletech" about it, though it'll support all the features I had, it'll become a stand alone product and I'll probably make it support Traveller, Traveller 2300, Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc, etc.


Things like the Comstar overlay will be an additional definable graphic, where you put in a bunch of X/Y coordinates for lines and it'll draw them, or just provide a bitmap and specify a transparent color.  The word "Jump" is globally replaced by "Move".  Systems will have various methods of generation, most of which are FAR more detailed than the BT rules (often based on GURPS Space 4e and some older Traveller products)..


I'll try to have functionality to make this kind of a cyberboard, but specifically for space maps, though that'll come later.  


The systems.txt file linked to previously is updated, the complete one is not, and BT cartographer, the last version I posted earlier, will be the last BT specific product I'll ever make.  The excel file I released earlier is now deprecated, as it is no longer up to date.


Some "Interstellar Cartographer" updates:
- Removed all BT specific stuff
- Added multithreading for loading systems, should help initial load times
- Added multithreading for calculating transit routes, should speed that up a lot as well, though since it only happens on the first load its no big deal.
- Updated all the menus to make them more logical, added a LOT of new options
- Played with WPF for rendering, and though it worked GREAT for 2500 systems, when it got much larger speed decreased a LOT, and WPF just can't handle the amount of objects I'm dealing with as well as GDI+.  DirectX is in the same boat, so I'm stuck with using GDI+.


Sorry I am updating this after I said I never would, guess ya'll can call me a liar now :(


Perhaps the flip-flop was just practice for my congressional run next year, though I cross my fingers and toes that I don't get elected, its a horrible job and its no surprise only idiots want to run for office.