Maps don't affect the "Land Grabs."
I beg to differ. They most definitely do.
Back with the old map, we had people counting planets, making sure they were on equal footing with everybody else. When the little dots of one faction got threatened, or some faction we didn't think deserved dots decided to try to claim said dots, we took sides over it. Called it overexpanding, or protecting the nation/race/culture/whatever you named it.
Fact is, there was loads of drama over it, and the fact that the star map kept expanding and those dots kept adding up proves there was some notion of greed, of oneupsmanship involved in the whole process.
At least with the new map, we have rather vague borders AND we make it a lot harder to expand because in order to make your circle bigger, you have to add loads of planets to fill it out. Also, with the bigger maps, there isn't so much of an emphasis on the number of planets one faction owns. It's just a vague concept of 'controlled space' which really has no bearing on what's in that space to begin with.
In my opinion, this forces people to do a lot more work into the process of expansion, which is a wonderful thing.
No matter what the layout is (or even if there was just systems lists and no map), there will be expansion...so I don't agree with your post Tom.
I partially disagree. Expansion will exist, yes, but without the 'visual candy' of a map, the idea of territory becomes a lot more abstract, which I think it should be.
Will territorial expansion happen? Of course.
Is territorial expansion a good thing? In most cases, no. Maybe for plotship-based expansion, I can support it, but not others.
In fact, I challenge people to prove me wrong when, in a majority of the cases, territorial expansion of one nation or another didn't lead to some OOC bickering or drama. Mainly because someone just decided to plant some flags somewhere.
We gotta take everything into perspective and try to utilize a new approach. I hope this map is a step in the right direction.
To Nashoba: no worries.