Eth System

[jbgibson]

I like that the 'territorial bubble colors' on your star chart can imply elevation -- always a tricky issue in a star chart. I bet you could use overlaps even within one star-nation to show local 'ups' and 'downs' too.

As far as minor stars - other than making it clear that the linked ones are not every single star in the neighborhood - think about what's your purpose in showing them. If the linked, populated ones are one in a thousand, the others will just confuse things. On a national earthly map, one leaves out the towns and villages altogether, unless they have some significance. If a trucker in the USA doesn't intend to get off the interstate highways, then it could be useful to map JUST the interstates.

If the other stars affect the jump links, then by all means try to show them -- but then you're back to needing to show 3-d data on a 2-d representation. If the effect is aggregate, say how many stars lie near jump paths changes your speed or danger, then you'd be better off indicating such conditions by something like color of the links. That way you could introduce complexity like 'route A-B-C-D is shorter and faster but the high stellar density increases wear on engines whereas A-J-K-D looks like a detour, but is smooth sailing'. Too, if jump links are not the only means of interstellar travel, maybe it's useful to show other important destinations - totally dependent on the universe you're devising & its travel physics.

All I have to say about the system map (bordering on 'diagram' instead of 'map' <shrug> ) is I like it - it's well done.

Hmmm... so is an over-strict interfaciste perhaps a GUI-nazi? :-) Which again paints an amusing picture...

[oli_chose123]

Thanks for your replies.

Well, you've both shown me I'm a glow abuser (no silly french name for this one, sorry), and I also made a new starfield.
I added some minor stars, planning to give them some use. To explain a bit, the FTL system only works between stars of the relatively same type. Hence why all G stars are linked and red and blue ones are left alone. The minor stars could have been used to plot jumps, but that is for the story and not this forum.

I removed the glow from the borders, and they look a lot better now. I think I understand jbgibson's thing about elevation. It's true that the blue empire seems to be higher than the red one. This was not an intended effect, as the "borders" were supposed to represent the system's affiliation, not area of influence, but I think I like your idea better. How should I go at representing height without lines reaching a Y plane?

I think I'll but all the starmap's labels under the stars, for uniformity. So, for now, height, borders, and maybe find some way of representing space habitats in the system chart.

Thanks for your helpful feedback guys!

Edit: Moved labels under their stars