One thing that I've come to notice recently, is that the universe map isn't particularly attractive to me, simply because the lines going between systems have no antialiasing. I'm hoping that this is not due to the little green dashes that move between systems, but I've put some pictures of how I think it ought to look. I don't mean to be presumptious, but I do want to point out that the map could use a little work.

Here's a picture of the original map:
http://www.sintle.net/img/MapOld.jpg
My Improved version:
http://www.sintle.net/img/MapNew.jpg
All I did was add a glow around the lines with antialiasing.
Here's my last version, in which I changed quite a bit, and shows colors between the various territories and nations:
http://www.sintle.net/img/MapColors.jpg

Edit: new version: http://www.sintle.net/img/VOMap.jpg

What's the general consensus on this?

I like the color coding idea, but the bluring makes my eyes feel like ow-ey

mmm....interesting....

I played around myself with re-organizing the map so systems lie at right angles, but all I have are messy scribbles. Fudging it around a bit, you can sorta lay systems out in three lines from Dantia in the west to Edras in the east. The northern path is Serco territory from Sol through all of Itani space; the central path is Pyronis to Verasi, predominantly UIT; and the southern path is Rhamus to Pelatus, mostly grey space. If I ever bother laying out something on the computer, I might consider posting it..

...nice job, Harry

IMO, the universe map from before the font changes was really good. It's what is used on the Vendetta Cartography site: http://mandalor.homelinux.net/vendetta/vc/

http://www.hartionline.ro/lume/australia.gif

*cough*

Sorry, I just had to.

Oh, btw, I do love the colored jump path thing.
Looks awesome!

Seldon, I like your last one a lot, perhaps make the line colors weaker (like, lighter colors) as to not pull attention away from the actual systems.

i liked that scond one, mabie on the last one ease into the color changes a little more insted of the sudden jump like sl says it takes a bit of attention from the systems.

but nice job they look good.

I've updated the colored version, and uploaded my changes here:
http://www.sintle.net/img/VOMap.jpg

smittens, this version should be much easier on your eyes. :P
Beolach, if you can get me that font, I'd be happy to stick it in there, but since I'd have to photoshop the old text out, I think I'll leave it be for now.

That font was the old font used before a1k0n changed the freetype font rendering. It had some problems scaling to different sized displays, which is why they changed it, but IMO that font looked much better. Making more improvements to the font engine (letting us choose fonts, etc) is something a1k0n said is likely to happen eventually, so when that happens hopefully we'll be able to get the old font back.

a1k0n's post about it: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7680#90521

The font was the biggest thing I liked better about the old universe map, but I also prefered the thinner lines between systems. That's just my opinion, though, and it's not a big deal. Your color-coding them is pretty cool, though. If the lines where thinner, you could probably add the glow back to the lines (it looks like you took that out of the last version), without it distracting from the systems themselves.

Yeah, I took the glows out , because I realised that the devs probably wouldn't want to have to deal with the extra coding involved in getting rid of the glows when we plotted our courses.

Personally, I think the width of the lines is fine, but I don't like extra-thin lines all that much, at least not with big system markers. As far as the font goes, I don't think it's all that big a deal, at least in my opinion.

I like your latest map the most, and think it'd be great in-game. Aesthetic details can sometimes make great differences in games with good content.

what about this? (just a quick remake)

http://www.artwrkz.net/vendetta.jpg

Chikira, I'll echo smittens and say "I like the color coding idea, but the bluring makes my eyes feel like ow-ey"

:P

No, that new one is a bunch of steps back. Monochrome, no-nebula background, and the font becomes unreadable at a quick glance. Simpler, the better.

I like Professor Seldon's latest one. Good job!

One word: pointless.

Aestheticism is always worth it, jexkerome. My main point in this thread was that the lines between systems aren't the greatest looking things right now, and it irritates me because it's so easily (from my perspective) fixible.

Judging by your other posts, you're in a fine mood today. >_>

*bump in the night*

Other additions to the Map interface could include a listing of stations & their alignments in a sector, as well as a short description of the system's history, vigilante groups, etc. Aesthetic additions and improving the interface has always made a huge difference in immersion and gameplay value, at least to me.

i like the last one the best, each one imo was an improvement over the prevoius.