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[Discussion] Galactic Geography

Khasidel

Khasidel

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Currently -- to my knowledge -- the details for the SARP galaxy beyond the 'Kikyo Sector' are undefined or unavailable for easy reference on the wiki.

as31.postimg.org_jevkl7sff_Galaxy_Map_Concept.jpg

https://postimg.org/image/s1b0pp3tt/

I got bored and spent a couple hours following a deviantart tutorial, trying my hand at drawing a full galaxy map inside photoshop. Unless @Wes wants to pull rank, I'd like to open the floor to other roleplayers to suggest names for galactic features, possible points of interest, other details, etc.

I believe having a larger galaxy map -- in addition to the current, more detailed Kikyo Sector map -- would be a good idea if the RP ever necessitates going beyond the Kikyo sector and into exploring other sectors or distant locations. Given the speeds which ships can travel in SARP, there is no technical reason why ships can't travel much farther than they currently have, and its only a matter of time before RP takes us beyond our currently explored little corner of the galaxy.

I've arbitrarily given the galaxy three main spiral arms and one spur arm in the map (and changing this would be an incredible pain in the butt because I'd have to spend several hours redrawing the base of the map from scratch), but beyond that -- the scale, current position of the Kikyo sector, names for everything, etc can all be edited with ease. Currently the scale is set with the galaxy having an overall diameter of about 225k-250k lightyears; just a little bit bigger than the Andromeda galaxy. I've also stuck the Kikyo sector over in the middle of the right side of the map, but this can be changed easily enough. There is a semi-transparent grid currently over the map; the grids squares are supposed to represent an area 500x500 lightyears across; about the size of the Kikyo 'sector'.

Anywhosit... thoughts, suggestions, ideas anyone?
 
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Makes total sense that the galaxy is big and needs exploring and charting. Gives more viable methods of non-military expansion when people can pull up a map and see unmarked sectors and so on.
 
:p For a galaxy -- even though this one is about 2.5 times the Milky Way -- it isn't all that big in absolute terms. I think the largest galaxy out there is supposedly near to 60x the diameter of the Milky Way, or around 25x the size of Andromeda. I cringe when I consider the possibility of having to map out something with such a massive scale. The current Kikyo 'sector' wouldn't even be a pixel in size.
 
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I'm down with this. I think we could use the galaxy as a setting submission. Having a huge playground would solve the "small world" issue that generates starmap speed concerns regularly.
 
Anywhosit; spent a bit of time adding some stuff to the map (mainly regions) and giving everything at least placeholder names. Probably could also add some places of interest stuff, like where the 'Black Claw Empire' supposedly set up shop before their fall 1000 years prior to the current time period and stuff.

If anyone has an opinion on my region names, has alternative names for stuff to suggest, or has some ideas for additional stuff of their own that might be worthwhile adding to the map, speak up! :)

as32.postimg.org_8zbjelurp_Galaxy_Map_Concept2.jpg

https://postimg.org/image/9oubqyvb5/

... and now for sleeps and stuffs. :confused:

EDIT: Stuff x6 for the WIN!
 
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If we're going to go to this scale there are a few things that could come into play.

For example, if realtime communication is limited to a few thousand light years it would make playing in the rest of the galaxy a lot different than hanging out in the Kyoto sector. Courier ships and pirates may start to make more sense.


Also, we should consider the Galactic Habitable Zone when placing new species and the Kyoto sector. The below image from wikipedia may not be 100% accurate but I think in general we should avoid new species popping up to close to the interior/exterior unless they migrated there for whatever reason.

View attachment 5961
 
What about artificial wormholes kept open for just long enough for laser transmissions to go through.

Note; if anyone uses this idea, it is fine as long as I am credited in some way for the original concept. Can't be too careful.
 
This is great! We're already allowed to explore the galaxy, but maybe people will have more drive to do so if this is introduced! I'd err on the side of leaving certain places unnamed, or simply named as huge regional swathes (like just entire galactic arms), until they're actually explored.

The scale feels a little big to me and I'd rather see the Kikyo Sector make up a larger imprint, but tbh it doesn't matter. The more space out there, the better, right?

Question: If a galactic map gets approved, can factions (NPC or otherwise) that have current map presence but have not been played move somewhere else in the galaxy?
 
I'd prefer that anything that's canonically on the map already stay where it already is, but I'd consider requests on a case-by-case basis.

I like the map but I'm not sure about the names. It might be better to leave sections nameless until something defining happens in them.
 
SARP's technology is way high enough that even if no one has explored these areas, they've probably been mapped by astronomers.

Names for them aren't unwarranted, but maybe the map should have Nepleslian and Yamataian names mixed in, reflecting the age of the map.
 
Well, I like the galaxy's name. Kagami (japanese for "Mirror", if I recall correctly). I've no clue why it's called that, but it has a nice ring to it.

However, if we call it that, that means that we're definitely not the Milky Way. Meaning that Earth is not somewhere out there, unless our corner of the galaxy decided to call the Milky Way "Kagami".

The Nerimians live on Earth. And they've been here. So... maybe it's a relevant notion to bring up? What do you think @Wes ?
 
I can easily erase the random names and region borders I added to the map -- those were mostly meant as examples for the naming various areas anyways. It's probably more logical for only the largest galactic features (like the spiral arms) to be named at this point, until other areas are actually explored. The name 'Kagami' was also chosen semi-randomly (actually, it was originally going to be the name for an abandoned terraformed planet concept, but I've reused it here as a placeholder unless someone has something more appropriate or another suggestion for the galaxy's name).

Whether or not we use this map at all would mostly depend on whether the SARP galaxy is really some future version of the Milky Way. If the SARP galaxy is a future version of the Milky Way, then the details of my drawn map area completely wrong for it as the Milky Way has a different number of spiral arms and is less than half the size scale-wise than I intend for this galaxy I've drawn to be.

However; according to the 'Pre-History - Before YE 01' wiki article, humans in the Kikyo sector are descendants of refugees that fled the aftermath of the fall of the 'Black Claw Empire', a vast intergalactic empire which was overthrown approximately 1000 years before the current time period. The human refugee's could have easily been a slave or thrall species taken from anywhere within the Black Claw's domain -- and given that their empire supposedly spread across multiple galaxies, it could be due to the Black Claw that the humans in the SARPverse have been taken so far from the original human homeworld, Earth, and its galaxy the Milky Way. Additionally, the location or outline of the former Black Claw Empire's domain might be a good feature to put on the map to show where one might find ruins and other signs of their fallen civilization when folks go exploring.

I also think it might be a good idea to set speed/range limits to the different FTL comms types if we're going to have ships travelling far out -- though I also presume that Yamatai would probably equip its deep space exploration ships with quantum entanglement comms (somewhat in the Mass Effect universe style) paired with a comms device at the Yamataian home world or the ships home port so that the explorers could remain in touch with their civilization over long distances.
 
Another reason to dislike Quantum Entanglement comms.

It isn't going to take that long to get across the galaxy here, and a great way of making it feel larger is limiting the range of FTL comms.

Of course, that just means that people will have to put up infrastructure in the form of FTL comm relay ships, but I'm ok with seeing more utility ships on the wiki.

Finally, the current star map is only 240 lightyears across, so if we say that comms start losing effectiveness after ~ 1000 light years then we don't have to explain how comm-strength has never been a problem before.
 
There's also the fact that the size of the transceiver might play a part in the range -- ie, a shipboard transceiver might only be able to effectively send messages a distance of say 250 light-years before it becomes too garbled to understand. A large ansible station (essentially a giant FTL comms transceiver) might be able to transmit messages many times farther than the little comms equipment typically packed on a ship. An ansible back in the Kikyo sector might be able to send messages one-way to any distant explorers (Kinda like Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, Star Trek-style, receiving periodic messages from Earth via the Pathfinder project), but the explorer ships would be too far away to reply with their own equipment.
 
I think being in our own galaxy would be fine for us. Remember, the Nerimians are from another universe anyway, they're not natives here (and perhaps neither are we).
 
as31.postimg.org_4pl4vqpln_Kagami_Galaxy_WIP_Sample.jpg

https://postimg.org/image/9bh943b4n/

I spent a few hours today redrawing the base of the map to make it more realistic and possess more spiral arms; the original was my first attempt at drawing a galaxy like this and so there were a fair few things about it I'd wished I'd done better and were irritating me -- this time I put a bit more care into making the image and getting it right.

Anywhosit; I've removed the general region names. We just need to name the nine spiral arms/spur arms etc -- if anyone wants to suggest some good names (probably Yamataian or Nepleslian seeing as they're the major/oldest factions), I'm all ears... otherwise I'll just make some up myself before trying to submit the map for proper acceptance in the setting submission forum.
 
I hate to rain on your parade, but I personally prefered the previous one more. It seemed... less busy, more clear. Zooming in, it kind of feels much denser too, rather than pleasantly "sparkly" like the previous one.
 
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You hate me don't you. :(

:mad: *grumble* Six hours of work down the drain, grrrrr... *grumble*

:p Ah well, to each their own. The original feels bulgy and lopsided to me, but if folks prefer that one I'll use it instead. :D I can re-use the second galaxy image for sometime else if it comes down to it.
 
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