FQM Quadrant Shapes

[Raapys]

Hmm, that first one is very neat indeed. Number 2 obviously isn't pretty, but it might do the trick. Don't suppose you'd manage to seperate the arms in that one too?

[Captain Kwok]

Those are some really cool quadrants!

[Raapys]

I was thinking; how about manually setting in the coordinates for all hundred systems so that they'll fit with all quadrant sizes?

The smallest quadrant type is 15 systems. That means we'll need a working spiral quadrant with that few stars. So say you set the coordinates for the 3-5 first stars, in a circle of some such, in the middle of the map. Then you start making arms with the remaining 10-12 stars, adding one arm-part for each round, so we end up with a neat little quadrant.

As you get more and more stars, you slowly add to the existing pattern, changing between adding to the core and the arms, making it grow evenly in overall size. Thus it would not be a problem whether the user picks small, medium or large quadrants, because you'll have placed it so that it looks fine regardless of the number of stars.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Spiderweb!

[Kamog]

I like the ones with a few more interconnecting warp points on the spiral arms. If you happen to start at the end of arm with unfavorable systems nearby, you'd have more options to expand in other directions.

[Fyron]

Manual input is a no go. I can get a similar effect by parsing the locations in different ways, such as doing every 3n system, then 3n+1, then 3n+2. I'm not sure how much it would improve SE5's WP placement though; will have to experiment.

[AgentZero]

Imperator Fyron said:
Manual input is a no go.

So no spelling out our names in the stars then? But my megamegalomania needs a fix!

[Fyron]

Ok, for the "flower/web" type setup, it can be made decent-looking at smaller sizes. However, for the "spindly" type (the last image, where each arm is totally separate), there is not much to be done to make it appear good at lower system numbers. They tend to work out ok at medium map sizes though.

Keep in mind that the "arms" are essentially an artifact of the parameters fed to the logarithmic spiral function and how SE5 tends to place WP lines. If you look back at the very first image, you can see how there are in fact 4 separate spiral lines coming out of the center of the map. The latter quadrant images do not have WP line connections that are in any way related to the actual spirals; the WP line "arms" are actually cross-cutting through the spiral lines.

---

This is essentially how the locations are calculated (in python), with the uniqueness and outside-the-map checking coming after the calculations:

Code:

---

# first attempt, where spirals get connected as WP lines

param_first   = {'a': 2, 

                 'b': 0.1, 

                 'c': math.pi / 8, 

                 'phase_list': [0, math.pi / 2, math.pi, 3 * math.pi / 2]

                }



# Flower/web type 

param_flower  = {'a': 1, 

                 'b': 0.1, 

                 'c': 1, 

                 'phase_list': [0, math.pi / 2, math.pi, 3 * math.pi / 2]

                }



# discrete spindly arms

param_spindly = {'a': 1.85, 

                 'b': 0.1, 

                 'c': 1, 

                 'phase_list': [0, math.pi / 2, math.pi, 3 * math.pi / 2]

                }



param = param_flower



# Make the difference between t0 and t1 decrease as t gets larger

t_vals = [3]

for j in range(1, 50):

  t_vals.append(t_vals[j-1] + (100 - t_vals[j-1]) * 0.01)



for phase in param['phase_list']:

  for t in t_vals:

    t0 = t

    t1 = t * param['c']



    x = round(param['a'] * math.exp(param['b'] * t0) * math.cos(t1 + phase) + 

      map_center['x'])

    y = round(param['a'] * math.exp(param['b'] * t0) * math.sin(t1 + phase) + 

      map_center['y'])

---

[Fyron]

Hmm... if I stick to 2 engineered arms, I can make them actually have some thickness.

Large:


Medium:


Due to the bulge in the center, the small often doesn't get much in the way of an arm. C'est la vie.

[Raapys]

I think they're good, especially the large one. Would it be possible to thin out the center without messing up the WP lines? Would be neat if the arms went even further 'around' the center.

Even if that doesn't work, they're still cool as they are. Looks like a broken web.