WIP Space Territory Map

[middernacht]

First, I'll say that I really dig how you handled the stars on this map. Very cool! The stars on the final (no thumbnail version) are nice but, honestly, I kinda liked the less realistic, more dense starfield you had going in the first version. It was very stylistic. I get, however, that you seem to be moving the map in a more realistic direction so that's cool. One thing you might consider, though, is adding some color variation to them.

Thank you. I am going for more realistic as far as the stars go. I like your suggestion on color variation, and may go and redo the starfield in the future. For now, I've placed a multicolored gradient over it at a low opacity.

Next is trade routes. I don't so much have a problem with the dots but look around and see some straight routes and some windy or curvy routes and it makes me wonder about interstellar travel in your setting. Why aren't they all straight? Or curvy? If you have to weave around "warp obstacles", for instance" on some routes, why not all? Any answer is fine, of course, I just wanted to bring it up for your consideration in case you hadn't thought of it. On style, I'd say you should go with something thinner and more "techie" than the big white dots, which more stylistically match your first map.

The curvy lines were a result of me trying to avoid running into the planet names. XD

I'm going with straight lines at about half opacity for now. Interstellar travel in this case is the basic wormhole/tunnel through non-real space method. The only obstacles in the way would be gravity wells, mainly only stars but there are a few stellar phenomena that can disrupt routes as well. The plotted lines are the routes that have been thoroughly mapped and approved as safe for all travel. An idea just occurred to me, which I may try, to have the routes color coded for hazards.

As for the borders, not to certain what to do about those yet. I kinda like them the way they are, though I can't think of any reason why.

Still looking for better fonts, though I do like Zero Hour. I've found a few that look promising though.