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The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal universe

#1
As LT gets ever closer to the 50K goal, I was thinking about how the game will map systems visited, jump points planets etc

Once you have been building up your own personal empire for weeks (and, yes... lets face it potentially even months), how will the game keep track of the path the player has navigated, i.e. if you return to a planet after several weeks, does the game require the player to remember this location, or will a HUD icon notify the player that they had passed this way already? Do systems, planets gain an explored lable?

I appreciate that everything will change over time, so there will be new things worth revisiting even in long explored systems, but in an immense universe a way to keep track through a journal/map that is updated with the players path will be critical. It does not have to be overly complex, just a timestamp with Jumped to system X, bought Y, Jumped to system Z, overran system Z etc. A physical map would be ideal, but I have no idea how feasible this would be.

I think the ability to look back on your journey would be really cool!
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#3
roma wrote:The implementation of a map you can make is necessary.
It should be a sphere starting from your spawnpoint and growing as you explore the universe. Image Than you can zoom in or out and you shows the planet, star systems and galaxies you have explored. Image Some kind of the old map of the solar system. Image

Not from spawnpoint. It would be cool to have to go away from there, forced by the nearby pressure. I don't want to be reminded of some arbitrary point where I appeared. It would be cool to look at a map with it in the distance, a little marker on it saying "Born here", though.
-Keon-

(I don't have any funny quotes to put here yet. Somebody say something funny.)
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#4
I was just about to post about this topic myself and I noticed this.

In previous games of this genre, I would make my own hand-drawn maps or use other tools, like Excel, to map out my trading routes and the like. What I would really like to do is be able to have this kinda of personal control over making a map but WITHIN THE GAME. Add notes, add markers and trade route information etc but not just have it do this automatically.. that would take all that fun out of it. So maybe it could just be a simple map that shows the locations you have gone between but no further information and then you get to add the extra information yourself.. different people will want to record different information, which is why having control over that side of things will make it a lot more personal and allow for greater personal investment and immersion.

And not just mapping but all the stuff that I would use the other tools for.. but within the game.. so like Excel spreadsheets for trade routes.. instead of that.. maybe have a little in-game database that the player can populate themselves with that kind of information etc
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#6
Keon wrote:Not from spawnpoint. It would be cool to have to go away from there, forced by the nearby pressure. I don't want to be reminded of some arbitrary point where I appeared. It would be cool to look at a map with it in the distance, a little marker on it saying "Born here", though.
I agree, the map should expand adding the objects you see but YOU should map it adding routes notes ecc.
Image roma
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#7
My issue with any kind of mapping system is this. quite simply objects in space are constantly moving. that system you left the planets are still rotating the system is moving and the galaxy that system is part of is moving...its not like a map of earth where things sit (relatively speaking) still for hundreds of years. the typical x,y,z formula wont work. if we find a planet let us make a name tag and feed it into the nav computer on the ship and have done with he whole project.

...or if im completely missing something please let me know i hate to make an idiot of myself.
If I've rambled and gone off topic im sorry but i tend to be long winded as you might notice if you stumble across my other post XD. thanks for reading.
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#8
Dadalos wrote:My issue with any kind of mapping system is this. quite simply objects in space are constantly moving. that system you left the planets are still rotating the system is moving and the galaxy that system is part of is moving...its not like a map of earth where things sit (relatively speaking) still for hundreds of years. the typical x,y,z formula wont work. if we find a planet let us make a name tag and feed it into the nav computer on the ship and have done with he whole project.

...or if im completely missing something please let me know i hate to make an idiot of myself.
You are right in theory. But things in space generally stay the same. Planet always revolve the same way and rarely do any bodies like that get out of revolution (whatever the word is) Now there may be changes as to the locations of planets but this shouldn't be a concern, astroids would be another thing. I don't know that much about space so I could be completely wrong but I'm pretty sure.
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#9
starpilotnpc wrote:
Dadalos wrote:My issue with any kind of mapping system is this. quite simply objects in space are constantly moving. that system you left the planets are still rotating the system is moving and the galaxy that system is part of is moving...its not like a map of earth where things sit (relatively speaking) still for hundreds of years. the typical x,y,z formula wont work. if we find a planet let us make a name tag and feed it into the nav computer on the ship and have done with he whole project.

...or if im completely missing something please let me know i hate to make an idiot of myself.
You are right in theory. But things in space generally stay the same. Planet always revolve the same way and rarely do any bodies like that get out of revolution (whatever the word is) Now there may be changes as to the locations of planets but this shouldn't be a concern, astroids would be another thing. I don't know that much about space so I could be completely wrong but I'm pretty sure.
I think that even if the planets are moving you can still map them because of the dimensions of space, let me explain:
once you have seen a planet it is added to the map WITH his orbit, so entering the map you will see the planets rotating around a star (so slow you won't even notice) star systems rotating in galaxyes (almost not moving). Of course you won't have everything on your map, like asteroids (maybe just some fields). I think this will allow you to understand the map pretty easily and travel without spending hours on it.
Image roma
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#11
Ixos wrote:Please no sphere maps with connections going around everywhere in 3 dimentions.
They are aweful and should be banned.

The human brain can not understand a spherical 3d map as well as one in 2d.
you might be well surprised what the human mind can and cant do. but thats nether here nor there at this point. why have a need to have a map at all? for me a a simple NAV tree with tabs and menus and user editable bios about each place would do just fine by me. imagine if you will you start your game you set your self up right nicely and you decide to pack up and see whats beyond that 2nd star to the left. a few weeks later you look back and notice that youve visited over 100 difrent systems each with 5-15 planets...theres no one i know of that would be able to remember which planet you got that real nice spiced rum from or the planet your wanted for salvaging / 'stealing' that abandoned ship... now with the NAV comp idea ive just suggested would let you catalague by galaxy / system/ planet and give each an automatic log of your activity there (along with relevant news) and then let you edit and save your own notes so that 100 systems from now you can revisit the places you always meant to go back to.

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.
J.R.R. Tolkien
If I've rambled and gone off topic im sorry but i tend to be long winded as you might notice if you stumble across my other post XD. thanks for reading.
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Re: The Road Taken... Ideas for mapping your personal univer

#12
Ixos wrote:Please no sphere maps with connections going around everywhere in 3 dimentions.
They are aweful and should be banned.


The human brain can not understand a spherical 3d map as well as one in 2d.
After the player has explored enough solar systems, the only map that will be of any use is a spherical 3D one. Once hundreds of systems have been explored, they won't be able to all be seen on a flat plane, because some of the systems which are "above" other systems on the Z axis will obscure systems that are "below" them. A 3D map lets you see how far away systems are from each other, and where they are positioned relative to each other. It's much more robust, and makes sense for a 3D space like, well, space!

I for one hope the game will automatically map the galaxy as you explore it. I don't want to have to spend my time making maps - Damn it, Jim, I'm a captain, not a cartographer!

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