[Shadowstar]

Thanks for the help.

Unfortunately, since space is 3d, I'm starting to discover as I create this map that the distances are going to be kinda weird no matter what I do.

I'm going to be taking a cube-shaped area and flattening it into SEIV's 2d map format. I think I'll end up fibbing some of the distances so that two systems that SHOULD be far apart aren't smooshed together due to flattening.

It should actually work out fairly well due to space's natural tendency to clump stars together. Most of the stars that appear close based on the vantage point I'm using (which should be top-down in regards to the galactic plane) really are close together. I'll just have to watch out for the ones that aren't and try to do some creative positioning to get things to work out.

It's quite interesting, doing this. There are a LOT of red stars in the galaxy. Guess that means the milky way is pretty old. According to the scale I'm using, the most distant system is HIP 26857 (another uninteresting red star) when I flatten the cube.

I step back to look at all this and discover just how tiny of an area I'm representing here. The Milky way is #&%*-ing huge! Creating a game that can handle such a massive concept would be a true wonder, let alone actually coding it. Then again, IIRC, David Braben did it about 6-7 years ago...

Thank god for fractals.

[ May 25, 2002, 00:51: Message edited by: Shadowstar ]