I'm curious what (if any) data the starfield (background stars) is based on. Are the locations of the solar systems based on actual stars in our galaxy? Are the stars you see in the background based on real data?

I'm thinking it would be amazingly cool to see the starfield shift slightly based on which solar system you're in. Also the starfield background doesn't feel too real to me (stars too evenly distributed, little variation, shouldn't we be seeing the Milky Way from the opposite side?). I'm working at the European Space Agency (ESA) and a coworker here is working on a star movement visualization which looks really impressive. I'm pretty sure that star location data is or can be made available or better starfield textures could be made available based on this data for free.

What do you think?

I think the devs painted them, but I might be wrong on this.

Since the individual systems are not at measurable distances from each other (remember, we are using wormholes), it would not change much from the current situation.

The idea is good in intent, but it would mean a lot of work for near-imperceptible gain.

well before doing anything fancy the devs should fix them blurry stars

toshiro:

Well, from what I read in the backstory all I know is that SOLII is "at the other side of the galaxy", which means we don't actually have star locations for it since the galactic core prevents us from seeing what's there. However all we know of the other systems is that they're connected by wormholes and seeing as the first wormhole went right across the galaxy chances are that the systems connected in Vendetta could be quite far from each other.

Also, the view at the galactic core is significantly different from the view at the rim. The view at the rim (our solar system is quite near to the rim) would be of the main part of the galaxy as a slash of dots (the milky way), while the view at the core would be the heavens burning with millions of stars everywhere.

I honestly think it's not wasted work as the background quite often sets the mood for a location.

Lord~spidey:
Yeah, it's not pretty at the moment...
I'm also quite curious what the planets look like up close. I'd love it if they are actually layered so that you can start flying into the atmosphere, hopefully they're not just textured blobs that you crash into all of a sudden...

Example of how beautiful a background could be:
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/News/MegaPrime/M35-NGC2158-MegaPrime-CFHT_8th.jpg

Probably Miharu has better data, since she has researched this aspect more seriously than I did.

Said this, we have only two star names in the galactic map, and some constellation hints that could help us "find" the stars in the game, give them an orientation, and pinpoint them in our actual galaxy.

The two names are of course Deneb (Alpha Cygni), and Kraz, which is not a star in our game, but the name of the largest planet of the Odia system. We could assume that Kraz is also the name of the star in Odia, and Odia be a "nickname" of the system. Kraz is Beta Corvi - and unsurprisingly, the planet is the second one in the Coruvs faction home system, and capitol of Corvus itself.

These are the only two "recognizable" names. As of constellations (as seen by the Earth, of course!), we could recognize:

1) One of the two ursae may be the Serco loop from Betheshee to Initros/Pyronis. The position of the tail suggests it's the Ursa Major, even if it's one star too short (it lacks Alkaid, eta UMa), but almost correctly depicting the "Big Dipper" asterism. If this is correct, then Betheshee should be Mizar, Sol II should be Alioth, and Pyronis should be Dubhe.

2) The "W" in Setalli Shinas - Divinia itani space stretch reminds clearly of Cassiopeia and its distinctive zig-zag shape.

3) The entire greyspace upward-concave arc may resemble the lower arc of the Ophiucus, but it's a rather blurry representation, probably enhanced by the color codes we give to stars in function of their territorial dependence.

Of course, all of this may be totally wrong, and just a lunatic speculation, while the devs just put random systems in random places with random names! :D

I'll have to go find the old thread, but Syylk pretty much summed up what I found.

Also, VO's universe map is currently rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise from how it originally was. In the alpha, it used to be shaped like Africa--now it's shaped like Australia. ;)

Also, other differences between the alpha map and ours:
- Geira Rutilus used to be called "Geil" -- this was changed because apparently "Geil" is the Dutch word for "horny".
- Initros used to be called "Initra".
- What is now Ukari used to be called "Senega".
- Metana used to be the border system between Itani and Serco space. It's now located in the middle of Itani space.
- Azek used to be a system in Itani space.

My following suggestion would make this game completely awesome and immersive.

I envision a situation where you can see the other systems around you, as they actually are. You would see star clusters, storms and nebulae, and within your own system, perhaps an adjacent sector's station and asteroids. You could even witness adjacent sectors' battles by telescoping in their direction. Watch nation wars from afar, and set your captains outside of the fray during BS/BP missions!

This would work in conjunction with the ability to (apparently) sector-jump in real-time, rather than seeing a flat loading screen.

I would also like these visual star charts to become interactive on the HUD. For example, if I click on a sector in the NavMap, I want to see that system (including star clusters) directly on my HUD in space, with the current jump point overlay and a system/sector name overlay.

This would make it feel like we are really in a certain location in space, rather than feeling like we're in a square-shaped sector on a map.