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OOC West of the Starmap Planning

Zack

Zack

Inactive Member
I like to think that 188604 is getting close to the end of its second arc: Star Wasp and that we're about to get started on arc three: Adventure Capital

This will lead into arc 4 which is still largely TBD, but it will certainly involve our heros starting to explore the surrounding area. This means it is time for me to get serious about where 188604 actually is in the setting, and what is around it.

I also really want to have my own map area that I can update / play with how I want so I'm calling dibs on everything to the west of the Mississippi western frontier.

The idea is to keep the Kyoto sector special. It is a densely packed area of habitable worlds while the areas around it are certainly not. Planets are fewer and further apart out here, and if you go out a bit further there is less and less. Fewer nebulas, less things in space, and the encroaching super-darkness on the left side of the map to really stress that we're at the absolute limit of the Kyoto sector.

For now this is just me playing around with the map, but it'll make its way to the approval area eventually.

View attachment 6607
 
To avoid sounding or taking how this thread comes off, JUST trying to be logical... don't you think expanding that far out is a bit impractical? Won't it force us to make a larger map in more than just one direction? It just seems like USO expanding that far our would theoretically force a much larger sector map than necessary.

I don't think claiming land is a problem, but doing so early (a full arc early) seems unwise to allow/do.
 
Legix:

This is more like a sector on the Khassy map, it just happens to be the one directly adjacent to the main map area. It'll be treated like anyone else's little sector of space in that I'll draw and maintain the map for the area. Naturally, I want to make it look like it belongs as part of Wes's existing map. I think that is going to require changing up how I draw nebulas but ultimately I think I'll get there eventually. However, because I'm drawing it, I'll be able to make some tweaks like storing the whole thing as a xcf file with layers so that it can be easily adjusted later on. Putting this out there now lets anyone who may want to do something out to the west get a word in so I can adjust/budget space / whatever now before I get to attached to how anything is laid out.


Arc 3 is going to see USO building the light-year-array mega structure, and that is shown on the map, but none of the stars are being claimed by USO, I'm just marking the space as 'I want to be able to edit this region myself'. The rest of the area is unexplored, but I do want to add in 2-3 NPC factions in the area to give 188604 something to interact with.


The end goal is being able to get a hand on this area of space. I don't intend to block other people from using it, but I do intend to shape it into being a sparsely populated area away from the main action.
 
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As I let you know earlier, the Kudhacari will be doing some stuff around where they already are. There'll be a forthcoming Faction Planning thread, probably sooner than expected due to this. I'd always wanted the faction to remain somewhat isolated, but Nep activity during my absence already ruined that, so it's just kind of a "plz give us some lightyears of empty space" request at this point.

Good luck with 188 adventures!
 
Did you have some space in mind? There are a few options.

I can just have the original image file available for anyone to edit, you could make your own enclave/sector thing, or we could just add stars as we go along like for the main map.
 
An expanded map isn't necessary to add new factions for 188604 to interact with. I'll always be in favour of leaving things undefined until defining them becomes necessary, to make the game easier to run and play. I certainly don't think there's anything wrong with there being more things to interact with that aren't on the sector map, yet. A map for a personal reference should work just fine without being made canon, for now, and for a long time to come.

As long as the new worlds aren't being placed on the doorstep of other factions that should reasonably have made contact with them first, without reconciling that somehow, I don't see a problem with adding them. It's way premature to design a map for a whole new sector, though, especially when there aren't several player factions there already, so that it can be a collaborative project to clarify existing canon.
 
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Guys, the first thing we need do before proposing any map expansions is figure out if the galactic core is in the direction of the left side of Kikyo sector map or on the top side.
  • Topside makes sense because we've been referring to it as North and saying it's coreward from time to time. But it has the Iroma/Astral Cluster immediately on that edge, which is problematic because of the Kuvexians coming from the coreward direction -- why wouldn't they bother the Iroma if they'd run into them first?
  • Left side makes sense because the Kuvexians have been described as coming from some great western sector full of megastructures and exploited planets - a post-war junkyard sector. Also this orientation would make "up" the same direction for the galaxy map and the Kikyo map.
At this point I'm leaning towards the left side of the Kikyo map being the coreward one. What do you guys think?
 
Wes said:
Guys, the first thing we need do before proposing any map expansions is figure out if the galactic core is in the direction of the left side of Kikyo sector map or on the top side.
  • Topside makes sense because we've been referring to it as North and saying it's coreward from time to time. But it has the Iroma/Astral Cluster immediately on that edge, which is problematic because of the Kuvexians coming from the coreward direction -- why wouldn't they bother the Iroma if they'd run into them first?
  • Left side makes sense because the Kuvexians have been described as coming from some great western sector full of megastructures and exploited planets - a post-war junkyard sector. Also this orientation would make "up" the same direction for the galaxy map and the Kikyo map.
At this point I'm leaning towards the left side of the Kikyo map being the coreward one. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
RIP Brolt. The Brolt were going to be between that "V" of Yamatai space, which means they're going to be more in the war-path than ever.

Honestly, it does make more sense for the north/top to be coreward, however. Of all the sections, it's fairly empty. It'd help explain how the Kuvexians actually sneak into the sector and end up on territory doors. It'd also involve a whole lot more factions coming from that direction and run adjacent to some of the RPs (Dig-It, I know for sure, is in the northern/top half of the map). If they're coming from the left, it seems like they're just going to smash the hell out of 188604 and really just Yamatai. And unless they break through/slip around the territory's "hook", they won't be able to really show up on anyone else's door IF they're interested in getting involved.

I think it'd depend on who all wants to get involved. If Nepleslia were to want to get involved, for example, then north. It makes it the utmost possible for various factions to monopolize and could logically be explained as the Kuvexians ignoring things like the Iroma due to them not being the strongest presence in the sector. Focusing on Yamatai (diving through those territories to attack them) would ultimately make it so there's a sort of "spear" of territory to contest.

TLDR: I think west would only be a good option if they didn't smash into 188604 (which I think has been on the map for a while, even before this thread) and this is the option involving solely Yamatai. If it's deemed as something more factions want, I feel the northern approach is just going to allow it more precisely.
 
All the systems the Kuvexians have attacked/colonized with Rixxikor so far over the last 2-3 years have been Southwest (left and slightly below) of Yamatai and their forward base was in the West (left). It doesn't seem to make sense they'd be coming from the North (upper portion of the map), does it? Coming from the north would mean they'd probably have to cross the YSE and DION to get to the systems involved so far, which are:
  • Splorfin: Rixxikor colony ship
  • Higaflan: Rixxikor colony / K-Navy encounter
  • Sbuhfaba: Rixxikor colony ship encounter & rap battle
  • UX-1: Rixxikor-hired ship
  • 87D: Graxlat chop shop
  • Unknown location in Western deep space: Kuvexian Navy starbase
Also my impression so far is that Zack wanted 188604 to have some Kuvexian interaction.
 
Doshii Jun said:
possibly even the Freespacers might go that direction.
Click to expand...

All in all, while I haven't spoken with Primitive Polygon about it, the actual area of operation for most Freespacers would be expanding towards the north of the map as we know it, around the claw nebula, not the west. This is mainly because that's the area which is expressly protected by the Nepleslian/Free State protectorate treaty.

The same treaty also prevents Nepleslia from expanding north, so they're more likely to go west, and potentially encircle the Elysian Suzerainty. Could create an interesting situation there where Nepleslia is the wall around the Elysians.
 
Yeah, the only way it'd make sense for them to be north but have everything on the west side so far is if they're moving to flank the whole sector from the east! Hah, hah, hah... or if there's something they really want to avoid in the intervening space, so they had to take a detour around it.

The long distance means they can still show up just about anywhere, since it doesn't make the trip much longer, unless they go all the way around to the opposite side. It'd be exciting if they came from the north, but the west seems more expected, that's the direction Yamatai's frontier is extended in.
 
Wes said:
At this point I'm leaning towards the left side of the Kikyo map being the coreward one. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Of course. "Galactic North" is already arbitrary on our map. It makes sense that it'd be the same for the galactic map. Very Yamatai-centric :3
 
Kudhacari

I've got a good idea of what area you want to play in from the faction discussion thread. Is there anything you'd like to have included kinda near that area off to the left/west side?


Kuvexians

They are coming from so far away, that it doesn't really matter where I set down 188604. They should be able to bump up against the plot fairly easily so I'm not super worried about that. I do think based on what we've seen in the Eucharis plot that it does look like the Kuvexians are coming from the south-west or a southerly direction. Like Navian said if the Kuvexians are already traveling tens of thousands of light years, a few hundred more just to go around the Kyoto sector is really insignificant.


The Core

I always assumed the Kyoto sector was on the left side of the core of the galaxy but I don't really have any reason for thinking it, and I don't think it really matters where it is. I'd be ok with Wes just picking a place to put down the Kyoto sector and running with that.
 
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Zack said:
Kudhacari

I've got a good idea of what area you want to play in from the faction discussion thread. Is there anything you'd like to have included kinda near that area off to the left/west side?
Click to expand...

What I posted on the Faction Planning board is just an idea that'll need to be roleplayed to fruition. As @Doshii Jun said, we can't just claim things.

That said, I don't need anything added and would appreciate a buffer of empty space if possible. Thanks for asking.

You or anyone else can, of course, ignore me and encroach if your roleplay needs to before I get to it. But that's why we have FM discussions to help avoid it happening :^)
 
ADMIN NOTE: I have removed posts or parts of posts that were uncivil. Be respectful of other users.

- - -

I agree that a buffer of empty space might be better than having a new section right up against the edge of the existing map. I would rather see new "cluster" maps introduced than what is essentially enlarging the main map/cluster. You remember the clustered map concept right? We approved it, but made the main map one big cluster.
 
When this is finished it should all square with both the Galaxy map and the cluster map system.


Essentially this is just a western cluster:

View attachment 6614

But as we add additional clusters, someone is inevitably going to want to see a big map with all the clusters represented on it. In this case it is pretty easy to just stick this cluster next to the existing Kyoto cluster:

View attachment 6615

And then if we pull out a bit more, we can see where these two clusters are in relation to the rest of the Galaxy:


View attachment 6616
(Not to scale! ^)

That is assuming we're ok with clusters being next to each other, and with the Kyoto sector being placed where it is on the Galaxy map (It looks like a point directly right of the galactic core was already used on the map and I'm rolling with that for now.
 
I'm wondering where @Nashoba and @Wes think the Saiki Cluster should be. I'd always assumed it was kind of where you're making your new area, since the current map says SX-06 is "off map" and the rest of the SX systems are on the map.
 
OK, I have a bit better understanding of what you're asking this time.

SX-06 is correctly placed on the below map in relation to SX-05

The Saiki Cluster on the wiki page, however, is listed as being 900LY west of Yamatai which would put it far off the left side of the below map. This would also mean SX-06 and SX-05 should be far to the west of what is on the core sector map.


View attachment 6618
 
I don't really trust the distances given on the cluster maps, as they were mainly conceptual. I'm not sure they're canonical.
 
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