It depends if you are basing your story off a game. I've based my story off the space empires universe but there's no game behind it, whilst sachmo's and erax's are based on a game.
I keep a word file with all sorts of trivial notes in, going from month by month including when charcters are introduced/killed off, battles, facilities constructed, captains for ships etc. Thats the easiest way to keep track of things
I'm guessing that a large quadrent would be overkill. The best thing in my opinion is do a small or medium galaxy. For my story i drew out a map of systems and at max there are 20. Big maps things start getting confusing for the reader
Anything else just ask, all us writers will be willing to help!
I have to admit Sachmo, it's not only erax you inspired to write a story. You and Atrocitie's great stories inspired me to write my own, i can remember the very night i read most of your completed chapters on Spaceempires.org and it fits together beautifully
[ June 18, 2003, 18:36: Message edited by: Senator Raging Deadstar ]