Why arent Sprial galaxies spiral shaped?

[Andrés]

255 are not enough systems for a good looking a spiral galaxy.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

sounds like a good idea for a custom map.

[PvK]

Originally posted by LGM:
A quadrant is a fourth of a galaxy, not a speck.

Well the word "quadrant" means a fourth of something, usually a plane. I thought in SE4 it was more like the Star Trek use, which just seems to mean a general region of space. (e.g. "We're the only ship in the quadrant..." (The Wrath of Khan)) At any rate, when I said a quadrant was a speck, I was saying in comparison to a real-universe galaxy. But even so, that was perhaps a gross over statement of its size, since even if you hack the system number up to 256, an actual galaxy is thought to contain about 100,000,000,000 stars, so the largest SE4 quadrant would be one four-billionth of a galaxy.

PvK

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by PvK:
But even so, that was perhaps a gross over statement of its size, since even if you hack the system number up to 256, an actual galaxy is thought to contain about 100,000,000,000 stars, so the largest SE4 quadrant would be one four-billionth of a galaxy.

PvK

one four-billionth... sounds like a speck to me.

[Kamog]

I thought that a Star Trek quadrant was a fourth of the galaxy. The Earth and the Federation are in the Alpha quadrant. The Borg are in Delta quadrant. The wormhole at DS9 goes to Gamma quadrant. I don't know what the fourth one is (Beta quadrant?)

[PvK]

Originally posted by Kamog:
I thought that a Star Trek quadrant was a fourth of the galaxy. The Earth and the Federation are in the Alpha quadrant. The Borg are in Delta quadrant. The wormhole at DS9 goes to Gamma quadrant. I don't know what the fourth one is (Beta quadrant?)

Since a quadrant just means a fourth of something, it could have different meanings in different contexts, and the context is often left out. The use you describe above sounds like a Next Generation and beyond thing, whereas in The Original Series, it apparently meant a very much smaller area, especially judging by the number of times Kirk's ship was the "only one in the quadrant".

PvK

[Captain Kwok]

Originally posted by PvK:

quote:

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Originally posted by Kamog:
I thought that a Star Trek quadrant was a fourth of the galaxy. The Earth and the Federation are in the Alpha quadrant. The Borg are in Delta quadrant. The wormhole at DS9 goes to Gamma quadrant. I don't know what the fourth one is (Beta quadrant?)

Since a quadrant just means a fourth of something, it could have different meanings in different contexts, and the context is often left out. The use you describe above sounds like a Next Generation and beyond thing, whereas in The Original Series, it apparently meant a very much smaller area, especially judging by the number of times Kirk's ship was the "only one in the quadrant".

PvK

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True. Around the time that Star Trek VI came out, the famaliar quadrant (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) system was set up and followed.