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VO geography question:
It seems to me that there is evidence that the systems in VO aren't actually right next to each other in real space. For instance:
(Sol II) Being millions of light years apart in real space (from Earth), any communication or travel is impossible. The scientists of Terra II determine that the wormhole area will not become usable again for another two million years.
If that wormhole could do that, why don't the rest of them? Another piece of evidence is Deneb. This is wikipedia on its distance:
One 2008 study puts the most likely distance at approximately 1,550 light-years, and the reduced parallax uncertainties do not rule out a distance as close as 1,340 light-years or as far as 1,840 light-years
Sol II is "millions of light years apart in real space" from Earth. Deneb is about 1750 light years. In VO, humanity appears to have crisscrossed all over the galaxy, not gone into geographical borders.
Thoughts, or am I being dumb?
(Sol II) Being millions of light years apart in real space (from Earth), any communication or travel is impossible. The scientists of Terra II determine that the wormhole area will not become usable again for another two million years.
If that wormhole could do that, why don't the rest of them? Another piece of evidence is Deneb. This is wikipedia on its distance:
One 2008 study puts the most likely distance at approximately 1,550 light-years, and the reduced parallax uncertainties do not rule out a distance as close as 1,340 light-years or as far as 1,840 light-years
Sol II is "millions of light years apart in real space" from Earth. Deneb is about 1750 light years. In VO, humanity appears to have crisscrossed all over the galaxy, not gone into geographical borders.
Thoughts, or am I being dumb?
Maybe it's not the same Deneb. Like how there are a couple of Berlins in the US.
"...humanity appears to have crisscrossed all over the galaxy, not gone into geographical borders."
That's how wormholes work. Those lines on the universe map are only to make your brain hurt less when showing the connections. For all we know, Itan and Sol II could be next door neighbors in a galactic sense (probably not as close as Alpha Centauri and Sol, but you get the idea).
Kraz (the planet that the Corvus capitol station is orbiting in Odia) is also the name of a real star, so one could stretch the naming of the system a bit and say that Odia is actually the closest system to ours (wikipedia says it's about 140 light-years away).
That's how wormholes work. Those lines on the universe map are only to make your brain hurt less when showing the connections. For all we know, Itan and Sol II could be next door neighbors in a galactic sense (probably not as close as Alpha Centauri and Sol, but you get the idea).
Kraz (the planet that the Corvus capitol station is orbiting in Odia) is also the name of a real star, so one could stretch the naming of the system a bit and say that Odia is actually the closest system to ours (wikipedia says it's about 140 light-years away).
Like Miharu says, the "geography" of the universe crisscrosses all over the actual galaxy. Wormhole travel is (so far, anyway) limited to within the milky way galaxy, but any wormhole can traverse any distance within that area.
Corvus is named after a constellation, but doesn't actually represent a location, nor does Kraz. The closest realspace point between the Earth and the post-2310 colonists (Sol II and our other systems) is Deneb. Still too far away for light-speed (radio) communications with earth, at least on anything less than a 3000 year cycle.
I specifically chose Deneb to give the game universe some grounding in the "real galaxy", while still keeping it separate enough to eliminate communication with Earth. Most of the other stars that form our systems would be far enough away that, located on the other side of the galactic disc (and dust clouds, and massive numbers of stars) would be obscured from astronomical study on Earth. So, basically, "unknown stars" within our own galaxy.
So, yes, you can look at it like our wormholes crisscross all over the real-space milky way galaxy, with the closest point to "home" being Deneb.
NOTE: the "millions of light years" thing is an error. I'm kind of surprised I wrote that.. everything else I intentionally researched. I think I made a note to correct that, and never did (launch time being so insane). The milky way galactic diameter is only 100k ly or thereabouts. We're about 3/4 of the way towards one rim, and Sol II could arguably be considered on the opposite side, so maybe 50k-70k ly distant. One more thing to correct in the backstory.
Corvus is named after a constellation, but doesn't actually represent a location, nor does Kraz. The closest realspace point between the Earth and the post-2310 colonists (Sol II and our other systems) is Deneb. Still too far away for light-speed (radio) communications with earth, at least on anything less than a 3000 year cycle.
I specifically chose Deneb to give the game universe some grounding in the "real galaxy", while still keeping it separate enough to eliminate communication with Earth. Most of the other stars that form our systems would be far enough away that, located on the other side of the galactic disc (and dust clouds, and massive numbers of stars) would be obscured from astronomical study on Earth. So, basically, "unknown stars" within our own galaxy.
So, yes, you can look at it like our wormholes crisscross all over the real-space milky way galaxy, with the closest point to "home" being Deneb.
NOTE: the "millions of light years" thing is an error. I'm kind of surprised I wrote that.. everything else I intentionally researched. I think I made a note to correct that, and never did (launch time being so insane). The milky way galactic diameter is only 100k ly or thereabouts. We're about 3/4 of the way towards one rim, and Sol II could arguably be considered on the opposite side, so maybe 50k-70k ly distant. One more thing to correct in the backstory.
And when the game becomes famous ill sell my original manual on ebay with the errors for bucks!
That's what I thought. Thanks! (I was right all along! I KNEW it!)
There is a reason Sercos and Itanis are fighting for Deneb. Officially, we've heard it's because "our galaxy" is a circle and they just haapen to meet there, but is it?....
*time to get the tinfoil hat out* :D
*time to get the tinfoil hat out* :D
I was a little curious about how intra-system jumps fit into the distance from earth problem.
(Other than the obvious and acceptable explanation which is "this is a game, we can't be super realistic")
We can jump through the star systems using what I assume to be mini-wormholes. Are these only traversable because they're pre-mapped? or are our ships actually using some kind of alcubierre drive to travel hundreds-thousands of times c?
Assuming the sectors didn't need to be pre-mapped, a small ship could make it to earth from Deneb in less than 30 years. (deneb being about 3000ly. away from Earth)
Personally I like the idea of pre-mapped mini-wormholes.
(Other than the obvious and acceptable explanation which is "this is a game, we can't be super realistic")
We can jump through the star systems using what I assume to be mini-wormholes. Are these only traversable because they're pre-mapped? or are our ships actually using some kind of alcubierre drive to travel hundreds-thousands of times c?
Assuming the sectors didn't need to be pre-mapped, a small ship could make it to earth from Deneb in less than 30 years. (deneb being about 3000ly. away from Earth)
Personally I like the idea of pre-mapped mini-wormholes.
One explanation i heard is: our jump engines only work within some (relatively short) distance from a star, for whatever reason.
Boson density.