Mapping MTU

[Merxiless]

My latest project is mapping my small MTU Galaxy for a campaign I am going to run this summer.

The plan is to map it large scale, 6000 psec across the middle, Using Universe 1.62 from Diard Software.

Make a tiny square of that into a group of 18 X 9 sectors, sufficient to fill a Galactic 2.4 "S" Map.

The data for Galactic will be by taking a reduction to 2 color Floyd-Steinberg.

The dots that pop up from that will be locations for stars, mapped by hand from a zoomed in graphic, using Paintshop Pro 5.0

http://grandsurvey.net/gpage2.html

Ultimately, it will be a 1 pixel = 1 psec sector map, then I'll convert that into Galactic 2.4 .Sec Files, making that into a sec2cc2 Spinward Marches Style Map.

What I'm looking for is feedback from people in the know to kind of give me an idea.. is the galaxy mapped [below link] within the realm of believability, etc.

http://grandsurvey.net/index.html


I'm not looking for Physics Professor-style adherence to physics at the ivory tower of nitpick, I don't want too much of the lab rat with a slide rule stuff in my game...just, "hey if this is way off, clue me in", thanks.

This will be for MTU Traveller, and a long term attempt at fiction writing, down the road.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[BeRKA]

This sounds like an fun project. The top down approach of mapping was a nice idea. It would be interesting to read some more (background data, history etc.) about YTU.

 

[Icosahedron]

So far, there is little to believe or disbelieve. At 6000 pc dia your galaxy is, as you say, very small, but I don't know of a reason why it shouldn't exist. (maybe someone else does?)

OTOH, your republic is huge. I doubt whether you will ever game in more than a tiny fraction of it, and most of the detail you generate will be superfluous, even for a series of novels.

You are, of course, mapping a 3D galaxy in 2D, so you'll need to justify that to your own satisfaction.

Good luck with it.

 

[Icosahedron]

Just found this:

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu9F.o...462/**http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/dS/dS.html

 

[Merxiless]

Icosahedron, thanks for that link. Seems like I'm not all that far off.

I wanted the map to be pretty large, more or less the size of the old imperium, map, or thereabouts.

My wife asked me last night, "Hey, are you gonna name all those dots? That's a lot of systems..."

I said, "No, that would take me like 6 weeks or so, then I'd just have a list of 10,000 names, and nothing else. it took Marc and crew 30 years to detail Traveller to the point that it is. I'm just doing the Sector, and maybe a few surrounding sectors."

I'll be putting more stuff up on my site, as it develops, with history, etc. I've met one player here in Dayton, who has expressed an interest in Old School Traveller...along with two players from my regular Spycraft 2.0 group.

Oh, and the mapping went well, after I got some things about the zoom, and such figured out. Turns out the stellar density near the rift areas is around 4-8 systems per subsector, and the ones near the centers of the arms is just slightly over 45%, which matches "Standard Density."

So there is a range of stellar distribution, it feels Classic Traveller-ish.

Thanks for your input and comments, all.

Work proceeds.

 

[Merxiless]

Okay the update on this project is that I've done the locations for the first sector I'm going to use.

What a chore. In the end, after doing that hand marking, hand rolling process for the whole sector, (using a mish-mash of T4, First In, and GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars), I decided to go off my original goal, and just toss stars in there where it looked okay, for some more sectors, marking the perimeter of the first one I started.

I genned up some tables for Tablemaster to generate planetary name lists for use with Galactic 2.4, and letting it run.

Placing jump routes by hand, and adjusting UWPs by hand, at this point.

Work proceeds.