I’ve been playing around with a 3D galactic map for known stars games. It doesn’t have the same amount of information as the 2d map, but it is good for visualizing the layout of different alien empires in 3D space and how connections might be made.
You can zoom, rotate, drag and change the centre star for rotations. You can choose colours for alien races and show their controlled systems. Stabilised links are on/off.
It’s experimental at the moment and not intended to replace the 2D map. It just allows a different perspective
Yes, assuming it holds up to testing, it will likely be in v2.8. You can access it via a button on the normal 2D Galactic Map. This is intended as an extra view, not a replacement.
Looks great!
I know it’s harder to represent much of useful information on a 3D map, yet maybe it would be possible to just switch color shemes of the systems with different “layes”. Like, switch from the colors of the system owners to:
Navy presence (blue - your dominance, green - allied, yellow - neutral, red - enemies, white - unknown)
Maint presence (white - maint base present in the system, blue - 1 JP from, green - 2 JPs, yellow - 3 JPs, orange - 4, red - path unknown or blocked)
Maybe even with a second parameter indicator in a form of the size of the circle or halo (like - more Navy tons results in larger circle).
I’ve decided to use a multi-coloured ring around systems to show locations. So the solid dots show colours for different selected alien races, plus a large yellow dot for the currently selected system (around which the map rotates).
The circles around the dots show characteristics of the system. In this view, green means a population and blue means a maintenance location. Half green and half blue means both.
I really appreciate you implementing and spending time on this feature, I enjoy building my universe in long games but I end up in an organization nightmare trying to make a 2D map with crossing jump-point link lines look right in a way I’m comfortable with. I think this 3D view adds a lot of versatility and would make it easier to visualize game universes for planning and story building.
Quick suggestion: if currently selected system (around which the map rotates) is a large yellow dot, I think it would be best to avoid assigning yellow color to any of the alien races.
Yes, the 3D map is good for visualizing potential jump point connections in 3D space, which I needed to find out where the three separate known sections of an alien Empire were likely to connect. It’s also interesting to see the 3D perspective of the galaxy.
I also found out I had duplicated a star in the Known Stars database because two systems shared the same location
However, it is definitely not a substitute for the 2D galactic map - which is much easier to work with from a map comprehension perspective. Humans (in general) find working with 2D much easier, apart from a few specific 3D-only cases.
I get nervous when game designers decide to “go 3D,” because in my experience it means the gameplay is going to get watered down. I want games that offer deep, compelling gameplay. I just don’t need 3D graphics to slow down my computer. I can use my imagination to help create the story.
I realize that many other people feel differently and want 3D graphics and music.
I see myself using the 3D map as a curiousity but I will continue to primarily use the 2D map because of the note function. I make extensive use of the labeling function to define areas of operation, system notes, administrative boundaries, and other info. Heck, I wish there was the ability to draw lines and shapes on the map - I would probably do that do. Can’t do that with the 3D map.
Might motivate me to try my first known stars game in a long time.
I wonder if for the random stars games Steve could just have a number generator roll 3 numbers (x,y x) and use them and the coordinates of the or originating system to generate the map.
I am not sure but suspect the unknown stars/star system may be generated on the fly. If so whether a star was local or could be taking in to consideration and then the coordinate numbers could be scaled by that and added to the current position and for non local stars it could be scaled based on the total number of stars in the game settings the game could optionally us Sol or another designated point as center instead of the current star system.
