October Entry - Sector Trade Lanes

[nolgroth]

Greetings all. I think I may have a go at this month's challenge. This is a preliminary workup of the, as yet unnamed, solar sector that I am going to be working on. I'll probably post frequent updates.

[Ascension]

I like this so far. I know, not much of a comment but I don't have any crits

[nolgroth]

Thanks. I just noticed how few entries (two at this posting) there were and I figured they were lonely.

I appreciate any feedback so thank you.

[Gidde]

I love the planets, they're all very cool. I do have one tiny suggestion though -- the orbit lines are popping out to me as much as the planets are, which seems off. You might think about decreasing the opacity on the orbit rings so that the planets catch your eye before the rings do.

[nolgroth]

I love the planets, they're all very cool. I do have one tiny suggestion though -- the orbit lines are popping out to me as much as the planets are, which seems off. You might think about decreasing the opacity on the orbit rings so that the planets catch your eye before the rings do.

I was debating that myself. Thanks.

[nolgroth]

Update:
- Added labels for several of the inner worlds.
- Muted the orbital rings.

[languard]

As far as visual goes, it looks good. However, I don't think I could ever bring myself to use it in a game. Even with Sci-Fi level technology, colonizing a planet that close to the sun is not going to be feasible, at least not to my mind. Radiation levels would be insane, and the extreme hot/cold cycle wouldn't help much either.

[nolgroth]

The setting is pure Space Opera so the radiation deal is pretty much solved with rubber science force fields. For that matter, the temperature could also be handled by the same explanation.

I am toying with this idea of somehow demonstrating space stations and such. That would help indicate that the "colony" close to the sun is a mobile research station that keeps itself parked on the dark side of the planet. Working with straight visuals and no accompanying text can be a challenge in and of itself.

Edit: And this map is still in very early stages. It is built upon many, many layers that allow me to manipulate where exactly a planet and it's label goes.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Jeff_Wilson63]

I have no idea if it suits your concept, but if you're going to add space stations, you might want to consider adding clusters in the trojan positions of your gas giant. Jupiter's trojans have about the same amount of matter as the asteroid belt, and packed in to a smaller area. Being just outside the stellar snow line they also tend to be good places to get oxygen/water and nitrogen/ammonia.

[nolgroth]

I have no idea if it suits your concept, but if you're going to add space stations, you might want to consider adding clusters in the trojan positions of your gas giant. Jupiter's trojans have about the same amount of matter as the asteroid belt, and packed in to a smaller area. Being just outside the stellar snow line they also tend to be good places to get oxygen/water and nitrogen/ammonia.

Probably a good idea. First time I've done a sector map like this so I am experimenting with everything. For the moment I have solidified a couple of things.

UPDATE:
- Tightened up the label boxes and changed the border colors to correspond to the solar "zone" that the planet dwells in. Purple represents the Black zone.
- Added in, then subsequently removed some actual trade route designators. They resembled the borders of the Green and Blue zone planets' labels.


NEXT STEPS:
- Legend
- Revised Trade Lanes
- Rename to indicate this map shows only the inner planets.
- Possible additional remote stations that are not orbiting a planet(oid).
- Possible additional reference for planets beyond the inner systems.