As we all know much of nation space sits empty and unused except for the occasional newbie doing trade missions. Deneb sits off in the middle of this dead zone and consequently gets very little love. The borders of the three nations seem fairly arbitrary because of the linear nature of the map and it seems like the war between Serco and Itani is stagnating. I propose a bit of a mixup in the map, take all those idle systems and make them grey, each nation gets only 5 systems and greyspace gets bigger and a bit crazier, and Deneb becomes grey and gets a new wormhole to the rest of grey. I have created a map using the existing systems,moving them around and changing their colors. I have added a bunch of wormholes connecting the rearranged systems in a manner that I hope makes more sense than the linear nature of the current map.

Feel free to suggest better placement of the various systems I have moved, and please keep this on topic and civil.

I think it would be a great idea. It would make traveling the 'verse a lot less tedious. Although it would make the locations of victims for piracy a little less predictable, it would also stop a lot of campers. It's nice to see that grey space still has the same lineup from Helios to Edras along with all the other new grey areas. Plus the capital systems being connected to three other nation space area's kind of make sense. Deneb might also get "more love" being only 1 jump away. No one wants to travel through 50 systems just to do a skirmish for their nation if they are aligned to one.

+1

Usually when people propose map changes, the changes are terrible. This one is actually pretty sane and interesting. It might make it slightly too easy for people like me to sneak into capital systems though. Maybe Sol II and Dantia should be swapped, along with Itan and Setalli Shinas. That way they're still close to Deneb, but gain one extra system of buffer against their backdoors. This would leave Itan with only two wormholes though, but that could be fixed by linking Itan to Setalli Shinas, then removing the link that Setalli Shinas would have to Metana.

+1, but (even though there aren't any new places) the map looks a tad crowded!

+1

+1

Ooooh. I like this idea. Same systems, much more dynamic layout.

+1

+1

VOID claims deneb

+1

+1 but what hapens to the stations in these systems? Will they get another faction "leader"?

And what would be the new grey hotspot where everybody "meets"? Like what Sedina, Odia and Latos is now for us.

+1

Just from a glance this map looks cooler and more interesting.

+1 again for emphasis.

The way I see it (which is obviously not anymore than an opinion of what might be needed) is that all the existing assets be retained with different faction ownership. The only thing the devs would have to do were this implemented (again, just what I think might be needed, and I have no clue how hard it might be) is to update the map image and change the routing of the various wormholes and add new ones. There might be debate as to what sectors the new wormholes go in but I don't really have an opinion on that. The reason I rearranged the map is so that the devs wouldn't have to generate new systems and sectors. We have all these systems we don't use and this might get them in circulation more and improve the game.

+2

+1

-1 The proposed map is not a planar graph.

Get rid of that offending edge and maybe I'll consider it.

"The only thing the devs would have to do"

Well, no, there would be a lot more they would have to do. For one thing, there are probably a bunch of missions whose routing or faction assumptions would become invalid and need adjustment. Item availability would also need modification, and pricing probably would need to be tweaked as well.

Damn Pizzasgood is right.

It won't happen guys.

I'm pretty sure Inc said in the live interview several months back where they were live streaming the game play that he had a new expanded map with more gray sectors that was coming.

That being said I really like this map.

Not just that Pizzasgood, there will be a lot of players who will find the vast majority of their inventory is now drastically out of position. Furthermore, if stations are changed in faction, then there are going to be people who can no longer access inventory due that not being able to dock.

Given this map, there would be need to change the backstory too, as it talks about going through several systems before getting to Itan.

I think a better solution to Deneb being mostly empty would be to add a new system. Somewhere between Arta Caelestis and Deneb, and between Ukari and Cantus.

Doing this could be done over time too, helping to spread the consumption of development time across a longer period of time. Here is how I would go about it;

1, NEWS POST. Strange anomaly detected in northern Ukari. Minor factions Hiring prospectors hoping to gain an edge on exploration.

2, NEW MISSION. Hive bots are interfering with scientific research. Pilots needed to defend and repair them as they survey the sectors, (maybe E1, to G3). After this mission has been successfully completed enough times (couple hundred, maybe more across entire player-base) then move on.

3, NEWS POST. New wormhole discovered. Make it at first only accessible from Ukari.

4, ANOTHER NEW MISSION. Have some faction (probably the one with the most completed survey missions) setup a small station VERY TINY. Then a pile of escort and trade missions to it, for building up the station to use as a base for further exploration. Supplies needed at first should be basics for station building, raw materials and life support systems and foodstuffs, then later some of everything. After enough materials have been transported (arbitrary but large quantity) the station can be replaced with something larger, with cap ship docking bays.

At this point steps 1 through 3 can be used to link the system to Deneb and or Geira Rutilus Both would be interesting, with the Itani being defensive, and the Serco not wanting to push in and start wars with multiple sub factions at once.

I would suggest keeping the system free of hive bots for some while, probably months before some rogue queen manages to sneak in from Ukari, setting up a new dynamic hive. Also the system should remain grey, with other sub factions, and maybe UIT setting up stations using the same method I proposed earlier.

The only major problem I see is convoy routing. I have no idea how that works. Are there simply a pile of premade routes stored server side that convoys call up? Or is it done on the fly, taking into account convoy faction standings?

You're right Pizza, I hadn't thought of that. But that doesn't sound too hard, not nearly so hard as making entire new systems. "look.. no hands" the point of this suggestion is to use the existing stuff we have and as little work as possible to make a lot of the systems we have mean more than just a longer trip to Deneb. This also makes Greyspace more interesting and a bit harder to get used to for new players, which encourages them get better in nation space first. If this is implemented it will change the entire dynamic of the game.