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  1. #1
    Guild Expert Greason Wolfe's Avatar
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    Wip Banathu (June Challenge Redux)

    So I was encouraged to finish this map, and have had every intention of doing so. The last few
    months, however, have been extremely hectic, leaving me little time for anything other than work
    and dealing with personal tasks (nothing bad, fortunately). I’ve finally had a bit of time over the
    last few days to put some effort into this. And I’ve made some changes based on a desire to try
    something other than the traditional approach to “mapping the stars.”

    Traditionally we use a square grid that represents two of a star’s cartesian coordinates and define
    the third cartesian coordinate as part of a label. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this
    approach other than having to do a little math to determine the distance between two stars, and it
    has the benefit of being a “one size fits all” method of mapping stars. The only downside to this
    approach is if a number of stars share (or have very similar) cartesian coordinates on the grid.
    When this happens, they may end up “stacked” on top of each other and be difficult to identify at
    a glance.

    After playing around with a few different ideas, I finally settled on a hybrid polar chart similar to
    those used to map constellations. Rather than showing Right Ascension and Declination,
    however, I am showing Right Ascension and distance with Declination defined as part of a label.
    The advantage of this approach is that not only do you have the star’s position, you also don’t
    have to do any math to determine how far away it is. The downside is that this approach doesn’t
    afford the “one size fits all” results. The positions and distances of the stars only hold true in
    reference to the star located at the center of the chart. Theoretically, in a setting that used this
    approach to mapping the stars, the Navigational Computers would be able to shift the reference
    point from star to star as travelers moved through interstellar space. There would likely be hard
    copies with each star system as the reference point that could be used as a backup in case the
    Navigational Computer goes down/off-line.

    Anyways, it’s something different and, despite a few early math headaches, has been kind of fun
    to work on. I’ve put about 10 hours into this so far, and probably have another 10 to 20 hours
    worth of work to do on it before I can call it finished. As a side note, the little chart in the lower
    left corner shows the star systems in a traditional format. Note how significantly the “clustering”
    changes between the two versions.

    Banathu Redux 001.jpg

    Edit: And by lower left, I actually mean lower right. Maybe I should have spent a few of those hours sleeping, yes?
    Last edited by Greason Wolfe; 10-09-2023 at 01:05 AM.
    GW

    One's worth is not measured by stature, alone. By heart and honor is One's true value weighed.

    Current Non-challenge WIP : Beyond Sosnasib
    Current Lite Challenge WIP : None
    Current Main Challenge WIP : None
    Completed Maps : Various Challenges

  2. #2
    Administrator ChickPea's Avatar
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    I like this a lot, though I suspect all the maths is beyond me...
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"

  3. #3
    Guild Expert Greason Wolfe's Avatar
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    Thanks, CP. And it's great to see you coming around again.
    GW

    One's worth is not measured by stature, alone. By heart and honor is One's true value weighed.

    Current Non-challenge WIP : Beyond Sosnasib
    Current Lite Challenge WIP : None
    Current Main Challenge WIP : None
    Completed Maps : Various Challenges

  4. #4
    Guild Expert Greason Wolfe's Avatar
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    So I am starting to build up the contents of each system (a time consuming task). I have hit a bit of a wall, though, the question being whether is should show those contents on the main portion of the "map" or show them in one of the lower data boxes. The first option adds a bit of clutter to the main "map" portion but let's me use the data boxes for more specific information while the second option would free up space in the main "map" portion for something along the lines of showing system tech/resource levels.

    Thoughts? Suggestions?

    Banathu Redux 002a.jpg
    GW

    One's worth is not measured by stature, alone. By heart and honor is One's true value weighed.

    Current Non-challenge WIP : Beyond Sosnasib
    Current Lite Challenge WIP : None
    Current Main Challenge WIP : None
    Completed Maps : Various Challenges

  5. #5

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    Glad to see you working on this one! As for your last question... well, I'm not helping if I'm telling you that it depends what you want to focus on, right ?
    Personally, I tend to place additional data or close-up/added details on the info boxes, so I naturally lean toward your first option.

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