The "DarkConduit" Galaxy

[Sinnyo]

Thanks again! The hexagons are part of the game's own readout: they denote a sector of space at galaxy level, and much the same on the next level of magnification - however each contains only one useful star system, so free roaming is cut off. A player can, however, claim that hexagon for their chosen faction so that it appears colour-coded on larger maps.

Each hexagon does serve as a distance marker, and they can be visited individually. My thought process for the new star layouts was that hexagons would be equivalent to a county border, while the direct lines represent a high-speed, FTL portal. In the same way that Geneon and Ensar are linked by wormhole (actually making Ensar equidistant from each of the three empires, for gameplay balance), the primary stars and outposts of each empire's home sector are linked by smaller wormholes for practicality's sake. That's not to say ships cannot take the slow path, and there may be sights to see along those paths, but these are not deemed important enough for me to mark each upon the map.

I'll see about rendering all that information upon the map in my next edit, to clear things up.

[Sinnyo]

I've updated the map once again, and it's somewhat too big to paste within a forum message, even though it still only shows the left-hand side, so to spare you a frame-stretcher, I've uploaded a preview here to accompany the one at deviantART. Take your pick!

As noted on my dA entry, this'll probably be my last edit before the final piece. I've sought your critique and am very grateful for it! Unless there's anything still to change, it's really just a matter of finishing the map from here on in, so there's no need to bore you with every little one of those...