S.J.,
I am not sure I totally understand your idea. I looked at the bitmap. Do you have an example .map file posted somewhere that I could look at? That would help me understand it I think.
What about this as an idea to simulate FTL travel? Pick a sector in every system, and put all the warp points there. Sector 1,1, or 12,12.
Doesn't have to be a corner, as long as it's the same sector in every system. I like the center sector myself, except that doesn't match with the sci-fi canon about the star's gravity interfereing with FTL travel. Of course you could just say it's actually the opposite. That the star's gravity is neccessary for FTL travel. Of couse if you use the center, you have to do something about black hole systems.
This would be relativly quick and easy to creat maps. You could generate a map randomly and just edit the position and destination for every warp point. Takes a couple seconds for each one. You could make a large map in less than 20 minutes.
Does a pretty good job of sumiulating FTL travel because there is no in system travel, all the warp points are stacked up on top of each other. And each system you go through takes on MP, so farther systems take longer to get to.
Whatcha think?
Geoschmo