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New Interactive Map

Dec 24, 2014 cellsafemode link
So I decided to throw a little map together in SVG. It's roughly a third done. Other than some prettying up and eye candy, I'll be adding all the roid sectors, notable minerals in them, notable items in stations to purchase for traders.

Also to come will be the ability to filter based on ore / items on the system level and on the sector level. All without requiring anything external to the svg file.

ONE is currently hosting this on a temporary site.

http://bigredone.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=505461&TabID=4364823

Information display is handled via mouseover events, so touch screen users will have to long click to see it for now. You can navigate by clicking on systems and/or clicking on the wormhole sectors if in system view.
Dec 24, 2014 Kierky link
It's probably best to have the information display somewhere else, not as an information bubble popup over important things, like in the System zoom in mode. Cool though.
Dec 24, 2014 cellsafemode link
The bubble moves out of your way as your mouse travels into the covered area or disappears if you move off the grid. Depending on how much info I'll eventually be displaying i may be able to create a vertical column to display everything that is off to the side but i was leaving that area for the filter options, which would highlight sectors a given item was found in.. Etc

Edit: managed to decrease individual svg filesize that makes up the systems to half what they were to <70KB without changing the look of the files at all.

Also managed to create a couple roid drawings ice/rock that are very lightweight that i'll be using to illustrate roid sectors.

I think that because mapping out accurately all the sectors with roids is such a _huge_ time suck, to keep the map useful I'm going to do it in layers. First just go by the available in game map and lay out visible roid sectors and give them names if available. Once all systems are done I'll have to grid search "empty" sectors to see if any hidden roid sectors were missed. Finally, after that's done to all systems, add info regarding availability of ores.

I'm still on the fence if I want to add info about planets. They're completely inconsequential to the game and offer absolute no effect on gameplay. Stars at least make parts of the system unavailable so that will get put in. Planets though, probably wont.
Dec 26, 2014 cellsafemode link
Updated the map. First pass is probably 30% complete. Serco space and most of grey is done.

I should have the majority of the systems matching the in-game map in regards to information availability by this weekend. Then the fun begins with phase 2.
Dec 27, 2014 Darth Nihilus link
Planets and other matter in the universe do give some kind of indication as to what kind of asteroids will be near by.

nice map though
Dec 27, 2014 cellsafemode link
If it comes to actually matter in pass 2 I can add them in.

I just found them to be arbitrarily thrown about to give variety to the background. Since you can't interact with them at all, the only thing that does matter is the roids (which ironically wouldn't really exist in the orbit of a planet). The planet's map description doesn't exist ...just their name. so info gleamed from the planet should be nil in terms of guessing what kind of roids will be in the system.

Regardless though, guessing wont be necessary since the roid field makeup will be in the map description after pass 2.

I plan on prettying it up more once the map is functionally complete. Add things like star animation and randomized rotation of the roid graphics so it doesn't look like mine craft so much. maybe vectorized backdrops to the systems instead of flat black.
Dec 28, 2014 cellsafemode link
Updated the map. Pass 1 is complete now for Serco, Grey, and UIT space. I'll work on Itani space over the coming week and the map should be ready for pass 2 by next weekend.