Right so while we're waiting for October and November to come around and get actual info on the games I thought we'd talk about something tangentially related.
Namely about maps and directions in space. On earth we use North/South East/West but what sort of dynamic would we use in Space? Well in Traveler and other sci-fi settings they use the following dynamic. The first sets of direction and coreward and rimward. Coreward is the direction towards the galactic core and rimward is the direction towards the galactic rim i.e away from the core. The second set of directions is spinward/(Trailing or anti-spinward). Spinward is the direction in which the galaxy is spinning and the other one is the opposite direction. These would be fairly universal and easy to establish direction in space.
To me this seems like a fairly elegant system of directions but it does have some problems. Problem number one is that it's two dimensional and there is no discernible way to establish an up and a down, unlike the other points. How ever to the nature of FTL travel in Stellaris, this wouldn't a big thing. The other problem is pinpointing the location of the galactic core and where exactly that is.
Now you may ask, why use all these words for direction, why not designate them as North/South, East/West, instead of using the new words? Well that's a legitimate point but in my mind it would be nice to have separate "directions" in space and on the planet.
Now this is very tangential to Stellaris itself as determining what the directions are precisely in game would likely not matter all that much. Still though I think it would a nice touch to think about the directions that way. So what do you guys think, is this the system of directions you think that interstellar empires should use or do you have a better idea?
Namely about maps and directions in space. On earth we use North/South East/West but what sort of dynamic would we use in Space? Well in Traveler and other sci-fi settings they use the following dynamic. The first sets of direction and coreward and rimward. Coreward is the direction towards the galactic core and rimward is the direction towards the galactic rim i.e away from the core. The second set of directions is spinward/(Trailing or anti-spinward). Spinward is the direction in which the galaxy is spinning and the other one is the opposite direction. These would be fairly universal and easy to establish direction in space.
To me this seems like a fairly elegant system of directions but it does have some problems. Problem number one is that it's two dimensional and there is no discernible way to establish an up and a down, unlike the other points. How ever to the nature of FTL travel in Stellaris, this wouldn't a big thing. The other problem is pinpointing the location of the galactic core and where exactly that is.
Now you may ask, why use all these words for direction, why not designate them as North/South, East/West, instead of using the new words? Well that's a legitimate point but in my mind it would be nice to have separate "directions" in space and on the planet.
Now this is very tangential to Stellaris itself as determining what the directions are precisely in game would likely not matter all that much. Still though I think it would a nice touch to think about the directions that way. So what do you guys think, is this the system of directions you think that interstellar empires should use or do you have a better idea?
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