tests designs and behind the scenes stuff

Author notes

star charts

Genejoke

on June 21, 2020

El Cid at 6:10PM, June 3, 2020 delete

If you're looking for an interactive 3d space simulator, Celestia and Space Engine are both free. I'm not sure if they're any help when it comes to determining distances between objects, though. I've never tried doing that. But they're still cool to play around with.


bravo1102 at 2:55AM, June 3, 2020 delete

Looking at your arrow Albion will pass through Aordian space. But in the canon ST universe there's very distant trade relations. Along with so many other groups they just never figured in the shows. But I kept my options open for fan fiction until I decided to put a version of the ST:TOS into my universe because of some faulty mind transfer experiments that gave a TV producer all these ideas.


Genejoke at 3:23AM, June 3, 2020 delete

yeah that map didn't cover anything from TOS. i used it here as an example. I still have more to do before anything gets locked down.


bravo1102 at 12:45AM, June 3, 2020 delete

I've been looking at the maps since the first crude ones in the original Star Fleet technical manual. From study since, using a flat map for political borders in 3D space is an exercise in futility. So I don't. Don't specify time or distance and when I do all the places are fictional so they can be anywhere. Originally it was the big unclaimed bit of the Alpha quadrant and Aordian and Diamorian space are partially on top of each other so can't be shown accurately on a flat map.


Genejoke at 1:09AM, June 3, 2020 delete

Oh you're definitely correct about the exercise in futility. "Mapping is futile you will desist!" I was generally thinking of using etas for time of journeys.


dpat57 at 11:32PM, June 2, 2020 delete

Imagine trying to find your way around the galaxy and all you have in the navigation computer is this. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to convert all that into a meaningful 3D model. (Fast forward to 157 years later, tiny bearded man floating in a nutrient tank, "I've done it, I've done it!") For my Starship Captain comics and stories I made a 3D model of the nearest stars (using data from http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/) and calculated the distances between them so I could approximate jump times, which was very useful. In original Trek it would take them 2 weeks to reach the Neutral Zone, in later Trek they'd just hop on over there, ding dong we've arrived, Captain.


Genejoke at 1:06AM, June 3, 2020 delete

In the 90s shows it was often vague how long things took, but they gave an impression time had passed, be it a day or a week. In Picard however. Plot a course for the arse end of nowhere, make it so. Ping! That's something I want to get across on my comic, space travel takes time even at warp speeds.