Newbie question about distance

[Shadowstar]

Im creating a custom map based on real star locations near the Sol system (including a detailed model of the solar system), however I'm a bit lost as to the scale of the universe, which isn't entirely apparent in the map editor. How many light years does one square on the grid equal?

[TerranC]

Well, I made a mock game, made a warp gate with distance marked on the map, and exported the game map and after hard work

One square seems to equal 10 Light years.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by TerranC:
Well, I made a mock game, made a warp gate with distance marked on the map, and exported the game map and after hard work

One square seems to equal 10 Light years.

Well instead of doing all that hard work, I found out either from the manual shipped with the game or the HTML manual off the CD that yes you are right. One square is 10 Light Years.

[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 ]

[TerranC]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
Well instead of doing all that hard work, I found out either from the manual shipped with the game or the HTML manual off the CD that yes you are right. One square is 10 Light Years.

OT: there is something more satisfying about doing the work, find it out for yourself, memorize it into your head rather than reading it from the manual, Thank you very much.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by TerranC:

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
OT: there is something more satisfying about doing the work, find it out for yourself, memorize it into your head rather than reading it from the manual, Thank you very much.

I'll have you know that I've had this game since it first shipped (gold that is.. I preordered) and I went through the manual the day I got it in the mail, and I've never picked it up since. So in effect I did memorize it. I have a good memorie so ha! lol