I bought v1.0 sometime back and never really used it and then I purchased 2.0 always with the intention of creating my campaign maps with this program. Well, I finally delved into the program and I am quite pleased with what this can do and even the potential this program has. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The new features are a big plus and I personally enjoy adding and/or deleting data as I see fit. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I have been using this for some time since version 1 (pre-one actually)... and really recommend the upgrade (you're going to love the new features if you are already using v1).

If you are new to star mapping, this one is very good and not that hard to learn.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Astro tours!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the nagivation isn't as smooth going as it could be.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Excellent program. It runs a bit slow on a 2.0 GHz P4 with 512 MB, but the results are worth the wait. Depending on the OS and its configuration (Win 2k in my case), it will generate occasional errors at inconvenient times, so I suggest saving frequently (I use sequential numbers). I also recommend saving before initiating ANY significant changes as there is no 'undo' capability. Since the search function will only list the first 5,000 entries, one should make the search parameter as narrow or specific as possible. Full sector reports can take a considerable amount of time. A 100 x 100 x 100 sector may take upwards of 20 minutes to generate. When one considers the complexity and capabilities of this program, and its relatively flat and short 'learning curve', it would be a bargain at twice the price.

NBOS has taken a good product and made it even better. The capacities of the software have grown over time and in response to comments made by gamers like myself.

The improvements to Fractal World Explorer as also of great worth. The adding of the atmosphere function is artistically cool and useful for gaming ambiance.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: You can input more astronomical data for your stars now. Before, with the prior version, I was left with no place to input data I had computed for my star systems and worlds which would make them more like real stars and planets.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There is a major NEED for a manual for this and also Fractal Mapper. Something like ProFantasy's Tome of Ultimate Mapping is desperately needed. It needs to be a book that one can choose to buy either/both an eBook version of or/and a hard copy. Explanations of capacities of this and other NBOS software either in the NBOS forums or via e-Mail are well-intentioned, but not always intelliable and/or of use.

A feeling that there is just more that can be done with this software is my second and last complaint. I just cannot get the words out coherantly to explain this feeling other than I am looking forward to where NBOS takes v.3 in a few years.

Here is a suggestion more than a complaint: contact WizKids and get the rights to make a BattleTech Universe data file. That would radically improve the usefulness of this software for me and probably many other BattleTech Universe enthusiasts. Other companies, that are doing things like unto this, are letting the tail wag the dog and are getting no where fast. This software would be the best platform out there to work such a BattleTech Universe data file on.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

OK, I'm happy to clear my previous comments. NBOS fixed the problem and e-mailed the link to the new .exe so now my former files load well.

It's good to see them take their customers seriously and fix it like this. I'm finding the new features to work quite well

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like the new options for visuals and extra data for realism<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: One minor quibble... the surface maps don't transfer over from 1.1... you need to manually "browse" and find them. But for me this is nothing serious<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

I purchased Astrosynthesis 1.0 for my son's Battlefleet Gothic/War Hammer 40K campaign we are creating. I wanted an accurate, realistic, SIMPLE interface that wouldn't have my Astrophysics professor shaking his head in disgust. I had numerous problems that I wanted to have fixed such as off-axis planets and moons with retrograde orbits. I was in the process of writing a program that would add all of this info I wanted into the notes section of each object (think thousands of objects and add different things based on the object type). Fleets and ships weren't even thought of. So for a "Realtime" battlemap it wasn't very flexible. In spite of all those problems, it was and is still THE BEST software package on the market period. NBOS listened to some of my requests though. They fixed these problems and added flags (Picture the US flag over a system) to identify what systems belonged to what politcal group. They made the system diagrams realistic with eccentric orbits AND an animation feature so you can watch the planets zoom around the star. Open up some of their sample maps to see what I mean. They even improved the samples by adding all of the planets to the Sol system INCLUDING the ISS and the moon as well as the newly discovered planetiods Xena and two others! They also made things customizable and extensible so I can add fields for multiple weapon systems (which I will need to do) and they allow you to decide what fields are available and their acceptable data types to associate with each one. In short, I don't think I will need to write that program any more. As stated by the previous post, you need to download a new executable. I couldn't open anything and crashed with an out of memory error. After the switch, everything worked and I imported my old V1 sector file.
If this is what they can do in a year, I can't wait for version 3!

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: They made a lot of changes I asked for and they made a lot of changes I didn't ask for, but REALLY like (the flag idea is awesome!) As a fellow programmer, I am very impressed by what they have been able to accomplish in such a short time.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This software doesn't work straight out of the box (download). Go to here to get the correct executable: http://www.nbos.com/support/support.htm I haven't had any other problems and I haven't found anything I don't like so far.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>