Oolite Bulletins

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Nemoricus wrote:

Everything looks good to me.

If no one else has anything else to add, I'd say that this map is done.

Give us a chance - this was posted late in the evening!

OK, minor quibbles - with the expansion of the map to include the cardinal directions (good) - I don't like the way some of the regions flood over this outer text especially when you consider how neatly you follow the virtual contours of some systems/regions - the top centre zone looks a bit 'vaguely here' .

Other than the wild colonies (one confederate (Sheriff?) trying to law-enforce three anarchies - oxp rich pickings and a short story begging to be written) which I agree should be red - the other two non-agri or non-industrial zones shouldn't be two different colours unless you specifically have a reason and/or include them in the legend/key.

Those non-agri/non-industrial zones were the first ones I did and hence those are ellipses to match the way regions were done maps 1 to 3 and 5. Also there is no meaning behind the colours for those either. I will change the shapes and colours to give a more consistent feel. (Please note that Gal 3 map is a mix of ellipses and free form shapes too.)

Also I haven't catered for putting regions in the key in my script so I would prefer not to do that.

BTW the wild colonies consists of 3 Anarchies and one Feudal.

Re: Wild colonies - so it does - my bad!!

Just for the record: I very much like north/south/east/west for navigating in a chart, and I am not likely to use anything else in my OXPs.

Ok, here is another version of the map:

GALAXY 6 (v8)

@Commander McLane: I have to admit that I was perfectly happy with cardinal directional names myself but more people seemed to disagree so I changed it. With you saying you preferred them I think you tip it back to equal for and against. Rather than change it again I will leave it as for now (unless I get more people requesting it back to North/East/... again). Please also note, that when we have got Galaxy 8 done, l will make my scripts available to the public and the Map Data files for each Galaxy done using it. I will also provide instructions so you and others can alter the maps to you hearts content if needed.

"Spinward", "antispinward" etc. could be the official terms, with "North", "South" etc. being unofficial ones. There's no harm if people use them: it's obvious what they mean.

I concur with the brain a jar...

One thought, and too late since I presume it's the same with all earlier maps - none of these maps are charting an actual galaxy but a sub-area of our own Milky Way and therefore these are Galactic Charts not Galaxies...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

One thought, and too late since I presume it's the same with all earlier maps - none of these maps are charting an actual galaxy but a sub-area of our own Milky Way and therefore these are Galactic Charts not Galaxies...

This is what is generally agreed on. The usual in-game explanation is that it was originally believed that the Gal-drive took you to a different real galaxies but it was discovered that they were just different sectors in the same galaxy (milky way) but by then the name had stuck.

If you really want I can change the title to be "OOLITE Octagalactic Vector Gazetteer : Galaxy Sector Six".

Once we have completed the remaining Galaxies Sectors I want to re-do the first 5 using my scripts so we have a Map Data file for all 8 sectors. I can add the directions and rename the sectors then if we want.

I'm ready to put this up on the wiki so I think it's time for any final touches or corrections.

Can we come up with some better names for the trade routes that Nemoricus so kindly provided?

Are there any mistakes in the keys, title or credits? I know there is one mistake.

Inspired by these charts and routes I expand the Famous Planets2.0.OXP to Galaxy 2. This was not possible without Thargoid who wrote a new script.js file.

Here are 2 of the Teonan Web worlds

Teonan itself is famous for it's Oceanweb. A large city network over an inland ocean. I need a good planet description



Next up is Isonza. The planet bathes in the red sunlight of the giant star Bellotron and is a Navy point.

Also need a good planet description for this



I plan to follow the routes of G2 and hopefully come up with a FP3 by the end of this year. Textures for other planets are also welcome.

Teonan is a beautiful planetary texture - should Oolite worlds ever get normal and glow mapping... then. would be order of the day.

However, have I missed something, what's the story behind Teonan?

ClymAngus wrote:

also looking for the perfect place for......

The Plush Septicity: Trumble ground zero.

I would place it in the hole in the middle of Galaxy 5 (130,120).

I can see that when the situation came to a head, the profits were siphoned to the nearby Corporate worlds, and an attempt to halt the Trumble spread by wiping out their galaxy failed, as they spread to the nearby Anarchic systems around it.

Hi all, expecially ClymAngus,

I'm working on a wiki based galaxy guide (Kind of an announcement) and would like to be consistent (data- and graphicallywise) with these fantastic vector maps.

Is the regions and routes information available so I could include this in the wiki galaxy guide, too?

Are the systems' icons available as images? Maybe even without the POP and PROD information? I guess they are automatically generated from database information on the planets somehow...

Sorry that I am at the leeching end of things at the moment - I just started with my project, but I would like to have the whole Oolite experience as consistent as possible, well, and you have that data already...

Yours, Christian Treczoks

PS: Space is black, OK, but could you do the maps in black-on-white, too? Finding a large printer able to do a consistent black background (or be able to print a good, covering white and other light colors on a black paper) without spendig a fortune is quite a problem...

treczoks wrote:

Is the regions and routes information available so I could include this in the wiki galaxy guide, too?

Are the systems' icons available as images? Maybe even without the POP and PROD information? I guess they are automatically generated from database information on the planets somehow...

The first five maps were done mostly by hand by ClymAngus, G6 map was done more automatically by scripts I created. At some point we will probably convert the first 5 to automatically created.

The starting data used by both of us was taken from the wiki pages for each galaxy. Most of the data you want will be there though there is some question over the accuracy of data regarding linked worlds listed. Also you could go and grab my spreadsheet from the wiki (second on the planets list page) that calculates all the details, bar planet descriptions, for each galaxy.

For normal routes (excluding trade routes) the SVG output file has all of them listed with comments which are something like "<!--Route from 123 to 45-->". If you want all the normal routes between systems I could provide the two XSLT scripts to you. (I am going to make it public when we have completed G8 anyway- by then the scripts will be thoroughly tested). If you run the two scripts starting with the source of the wiki page for a galaxy, feeding the output from one script into the other, then you can open the final svg file to scroll down to the bit with all the normal routes. (You would do it this way rather than use current output files as the current output (G6) has trade routes and my script removes some of the normal (purple) routes from the file if they are to be drawn in another colour for the trade routes)

As for trade routes info: Clym's were done by hand. For my scripts the trade routes are stored as list of system numbers with additional info such as start and stop worlds for branching and colour. For G6 I could provide the excerpt from the Map Data file that lists that.

For both mine and Clym's methods the regions are just drawn but for my scripts the SVG code of the regions is added into the input Map Data file so it can be included everytime in the output without having to re draw them. In either case I doubt this could be converted to a list for you. I suggest you go through the maps one by one and take a note of the details you need for each region.

Let us know what you actually want.

PS: Space is black, OK, but could you do the maps in black-on-white, too? Finding a large printer able to do a consistent black background (or be able to print a good, covering white and other light colors on a black paper) without spendig a fortune is quite a problem...

I suggest you open the PDFs in a program such as Inkscape and remove the black rectangle that is in the background.

Also opening the maps in inkscape will give you access to the system icons.

PhantorGorth wrote:

Also you could go and grab my spreadsheet from the wiki (second on the planets list page) that calculates all the details, bar planet descriptions, for each galaxy.

So thats yours? Thank you, it is one of my references, and helped me a lot getting started with the w0/w1/w2 stuff...

PhantorGorth wrote:

For normal routes (excluding trade routes) the SVG output file has all of them listed with comments which are something like "<!--Route from 123 to 45-->".

Thanks, but the standard "link to whatever is in 7.0LY" is already part of my project.

PhantorGorth wrote:

As for trade routes info: Clym's were done by hand. For my scripts the trade routes are stored as list of system numbers with additional info such as start and stop worlds for branching and colour. For G6 I could provide the excerpt from the Map Data file that lists that.

Dang for the manual work... But: What I could do is take the old galaxy maps and extract those trade routes manually into a computer-edible format, and give them to you for the re-building of the maps 1-5. So I could at least provide a bit of help, and not just leech.

PhantorGorth wrote:

For both mine and Clym's methods the regions are just drawn but for my scripts the SVG code of the regions is added into the input Map Data file so it can be included everytime in the output without having to re draw them. In either case I doubt this could be converted to a list for you. I suggest you go through the maps one by one and take a note of the details you need for each region.

Well, if I interpret the maps correctly, the definition of a "region" is based on a ellipse with its two centers and a radius, which is manageble and can be turned into a list.

PhantorGorth wrote:

Let us know what you actually want.

That map data file for G6 would be nice, so I can see what kind of data is available and in what kind of representation. Maybe I can do the trade routes for G1-G5 in a compatible way to save you some work.
What I'd also could use are the source pictures / templates for the government types used in the center of the system icons (e.g. the anarcy-A or the communist hammer and crescent-that-should-be-a-sicle symbol).

PhantorGorth wrote:

I suggest you open the PDFs in a program such as Inkscape and remove the black rectangle that is in the background.

OK, I'll have a look. I don't know this inkscape software, but I am capable of learning...

PhantorGorth wrote:

Also opening the maps in inkscape will give you access to the system icons.

I thought you had some kind of generator tool or script for those icons and could generate them seperately. Looks like I have to write such a generator on my own.

Thank you very much for your help, insights and suggestions!

Yours, Christian Treczoks

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

Also you could go and grab my spreadsheet from the wiki (second on the planets list page) that calculates all the details, bar planet descriptions, for each galaxy.

So thats yours? Thank you, it is one of my references, and helped me a lot getting started with the w0/w1/w2 stuff...

Having read you annoucement, it sounds like you are trying to create each wiki page using a script. If you are I suggest you use XSLT, that's how I did the Galaxy 6 and it is designed for the job.

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

For normal routes (excluding trade routes) the SVG output file has all of them listed with comments which are something like "<!--Route from 123 to 45-->".

Thanks, but the standard "link to whatever is in 7.0LY" is already part of my project.

Well I have the code already in XSLT. It wouldn't be that hard to modify for your purposes. If you decided to do it yourself read this thread first regarding the distance calculation as it isn't what you expect mathematically.

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

As for trade routes info: Clym's were done by hand. For my scripts the trade routes are stored as list of system numbers with additional info such as start and stop worlds for branching and colour. For G6 I could provide the excerpt from the Map Data file that lists that.

Dang for the manual work... But: What I could do is take the old galaxy maps and extract those trade routes manually into a computer-edible format, and give them to you for the re-building of the maps 1-5. So I could at least provide a bit of help, and not just leech.

If you are putting new stuff back into the community it's not really leeching. If you want to do that if you really are worrying about taking too much then feel free to do so as it that would speed things up a little for me but I would want it as a list of system numbers, not names, as well as the trade route title. If you could do it as used in my Map Data file all the better.

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

For both mine and Clym's methods the regions are just drawn but for my scripts the SVG code of the regions is added into the input Map Data file so it can be included everytime in the output without having to re draw them. In either case I doubt this could be converted to a list for you. I suggest you go through the maps one by one and take a note of the details you need for each region.

Well, if I interpret the maps correctly, the definition of a "region" is based on a ellipse with its two centers and a radius, which is manageble and can be turned into a list.

By turn into a list I assume you want to find what systems are in what regions. That is not going to be that simple, I'm afraid. For a start they are not all ellipses. When you look at the PDF, or the file you convert it to, as text you can't guarantee that the name of the region is going to be easily associable to the region outline graphics and also each format will have different way to describe the outline. Having a good ideas of what it would involve I would say that it would take quite a bit of work to find a way to get the information you are after programatically by which time you might as well have done it manually as it would be quicker.

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

Let us know what you actually want.

That map data file for G6 would be nice, so I can see what kind of data is available and in what kind of representation. Maybe I can do the trade routes for G1-G5 in a compatible way to save you some work.
What I'd also could use are the source pictures / templates for the government types used in the center of the system icons (e.g. the anarcy-A or the communist hammer and crescent-that-should-be-a-sicle symbol).

You can get these easily by just opening one of the PDFs in Inkscape, ungroup everything and pull the graphics apart to get at them. It's all drawings not images so you can scale them as much as you want. If I was doing what you are trying to do I would instead modify my second XSLT script to create an SVG document that consisting of a single system icon and then write another script to call that modified script 256 times changing which system is rendered each time and outputing each to a separate file. Then you could create all 2048 system icons as SVG files for embedding in the wikipage. For your information my script creates each system icon by building it up from component parts based on the system details. I will send you the stuff I have if you PM me your email address.

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

I suggest you open the PDFs in a program such as Inkscape and remove the black rectangle that is in the background.

OK, I'll have a look. I don't know this inkscape software, but I am capable of learning...

It is a free open source SVG based vector drawing package for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX which you can get from www.inkscape.org

treczoks wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

Also opening the maps in inkscape will give you access to the system icons.

I thought you had some kind of generator tool or script for those icons and could generate them seperately. Looks like I have to write such a generator on my own.

Yes, I do have that but its designed to create the whole map. If you want it in its current state PM me your email address. It will involve installing some unix tools or their ports for your OS.

treczoks wrote:

Thank you very much for your help, insights and suggestions!

Yours, Christian Treczoks

No problem