Gemini Ascendant Star System Map [WIP]

[Trixer]

With no offense intended I have to disagree with some of what your saying. Baring any crazy moving to a new demision for FTL then there would still need to be "routes" unlike in the ocean, you have to worry about large rocks, planets, and other drifting matter that would rip your ship to pieces if you were going at any rate of speed to get anywhere in the galaxy fast enough.

I feel that advanced computer systems and scanning systems would need to be in place to adjust accordingly based on what could be infront of you, also a central map system your ship would link up to, to help calculate a good trejectory would be also needed.

Just my FYI here, im a scifi techy nut dude... so yeah...

I think you'll need to start by defining the FTL travel you use in this campaign. You say that the lines are trade routes, so that means that they do not necessarily indicate unidirectional FTL travel routes. So if you use omnidirectional FTL then these probably aren't very good trade routes because trade routes in space where there is no impedance to travel other than sheer time and distance trade routes will end up being much more like the "triangle route" established in the Atlantic in the 17th to 19th centuries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangular_trade) where goods that are cheap in one place are traded to a place where they are more costly but that location in turn has a trade good that is valuable somewhere else which in turn has a trade good that is valuable in the original location. Though it does not necessarily need to be only three ports, it could be two or far more than three. So in that case you'd want to indicate what goods are flowing in what directions. Also for example if FTL is omnidirectional ports like Tassah and Regea might be directly connected for some routes.

However if FTL is unidirectional (or more accurately N-directional) where each star system is connected via FTL only to a specific set of other stars (like Wing Commander or Starfire) then these trade routes might be better, but you probably need more connections and should still indicate the circular/triangular routes and what goods flow in what direction.

Or at least that's how I'd do it.

As for what you might need in the legend:
Scale if Omnidirectional or "Jump Distance" if N-Directional.
Trade route goods.
Political affiliations.

[Greason Wolfe]

With no offense intended I have to disagree with some of what your saying. Baring any crazy moving to a new demision for FTL then there would still need to be "routes" unlike in the ocean, you have to worry about large rocks, planets, and other drifting matter that would rip your ship to pieces if you were going at any rate of speed to get anywhere in the galaxy fast enough.

I feel that advanced computer systems and scanning systems would need to be in place to adjust accordingly based on what could be infront of you, also a central map system your ship would link up to, to help calculate a good trejectory would be also needed.

Just my FYI here, im a scifi techy nut dude... so yeah...

Ah, but in the ocean you do have to worry about "drifting matter," though perhaps not to the same extent that you would in space. Just look at the Titanic. More to the point, however, and possibly still applicable in relation to FTL would be tides and channels. Bringing something similar into an FTL environment might be just the thing to give it a unique flavor. In terms of FTL, however, I would think that tides and channels might be replaced with solar winds/flares and gravity wells. Along with all that drifting matter, of course.

GW

[icosahedron]

Space is BIG.
You're much more likely to hit something in the ocean than you are in space. You can safely bet your life on not hitting anything in space - especially interstellar space.

However, if you don't use some 'crazy new dimension', relativity is gonna halt your FTL system in its tracks. Hyperspace is a necessity.

[Jeff_Wilson63]

In terms of FTL, however, I would think that tides and channels might be replaced with solar winds/flares and gravity wells.

For my Logres Cluster world I invented the idea of "causal channels." The basic idea is that the universe simply will not allow temporal loops. Thus, while FTL travel is possible, you can get some really strange effects to be sure that cause & effect always comes out properly.

The effect of this is to create routes where travel is most effective. Venturing off mapped routes can be highly effective, but can also slow you down.

[someguy]

The Map looks great, save that its missing one thing. The Reference Star.

In my old Alternity: Star*Drive setting, the Blue Fall System was that star. It was located at 00.00.00 * 00.00.00 * 00.00.00 IE the very center of the map.

[nolgroth]

The Map looks great, save that its missing one thing. The Reference Star.

In my old Alternity: Star*Drive setting, the Blue Fall System was that star. It was located at 00.00.00 * 00.00.00 * 00.00.00 IE the very center of the map.

Just curious as to why you would need a star in that position. I actually designed the map from the basis of NOT having one there. Is there some rule of star mapping I'm violating?

Thanks for the feedback.

[someguy]

Just curious as to why you would need a star in that position. I actually designed the map from the basis of NOT having one there. Is there some rule of star mapping I'm violating?

Thanks for the feedback.

With out a reference point all navigation is impossible. The more local that reference point is the faster one can find where one is.

On earth its the magnetic poles. In space it would be three specific pulsars.

Once you have the First pulsar's signal located (your reference star) you can then search for the secondary pulsar's signal. Once you have the second, finding the third is a mater of following a ring until you hit it. And once you have all three of them you can triangulate your position based off those three points by figuring out how far each is from you.

I'm X billion AU from Point A, X billion AU from point B, and X billion AU from point C, so i must be at XYZ.

For a map, specifically a 3-D space map you need a center point. The easiest point to center on is reference point A. Even if this is a flat map with the third axis noted by each star (-/+Z), or even on the back of the map in a table. Its easiest for the Navigator to plot a course if he has an easy point of correlation between the map and the universe he sees through his instruments.

[someguy]

Space is BIG.
You're much more likely to hit something in the ocean than you are in space. You can safely bet your life on not hitting anything in space - especially interstellar space.

However, if you don't use some 'crazy new dimension', relativity is gonna halt your FTL system in its tracks. Hyperspace is a necessity.

If you have a temporal Dilation, IE a way to cause time to pass faster close to the ship, say an antigrave field, you can cheat relativity and actually use it to your advantage to balance out time.

[someguy]

The FTL principle i use in my setting is that in the Void distance is relative to you proximity to a mass shadow. The gravity of mass in normal space greatly effects the void, compressing it and decreasing the disparity of distance between normal space and void space.

Away from a star you can travel very fast comparatively to normal space, but when you get in close to a star your relative speed decreases. For instance it takes an hour to get from earth to mars, it takes 2 hours to make it to the Outer colonies (Europa, Ganymede and Titan). And 3 hours to get to The Pluto Observatory Outpost. And only 11 hours to get to Wolf 359.

[nolgroth]

Interesting.

I like your concept of FTL too.

Thanks again for the feedback. I need to get back to work on the map soon. I took a break when I started playing Battlefield 2142 again. And then the October challenge came around. And now I got hooked on Fallout 3 again.

Yes I'm that fickle.