Oolite Bulletins

Ok, I can't do this, but a system map would be really cool with all the different moons and planets and Wildships stations...
I don't know if this is even possible... but it would be cool. And makes sense that something like this would exist...
F7 F7 in system, maybe? With the sun in the middle, a little "you are here" and (main)planet, main station and WP-buoy relatively prominent.
Just a thought I had...

The only problem I can see with this is that everybody's Ooniverse is different, depending what OXPs if any are used, so the same system would have a completely different set of stations, planets and moons (or none at all bar the main planet/station!) for each player. A 'universal' map just isn't an option.

Smivs wrote:

A 'universal' map just isn't an option.

No - but this could be done dynamically couldn't it ? interrogating system for beacons

I suppose it could, assuming that all stations have beacons. I don't know how you'd handle secondary planets and moons though. Also there is a huge jump between gathering the information and then somehow plotting the entities on a 'map'.

The tricky bit would be projecting three-dimensional space to a 2-dimensional map. I suppose if the plane of the monitor were the plane defined by the sun, witchpoint and main planet, most features of interest would be close to the standard plane, and the rest could use a combination of sticks, rescaling, and alpha. Some questions to think about:

How much freedom of control over the viewpoint would then be needed? Where should the map be centred by default and should this be changeable? What should be the default scaling (and should things like "Sensible Suns" affect that decision)? Should it require an Advanced Space Compass to be fitted to appear at all? If not, how much should be shown without one?

But definitely an interesting idea.

Maybe the technique used for the 'holographic' hud map can be used for displaying a system map ?

without ASC : only objects that change the compass symbol, like planets and suns, should be visible.

with ASC : the objects that change compass symbol, as well as objects with a beacon.

Maybe beacon could get a property : visible_on_system_map so oxp writers can hide something until it's needed to be seen.

I don't even think it would have to be more than a 2d map- it could define a plane based on, maybe, the three points of sun, main planet, and wp, or some other method, and then just indicate, by colour or a little + or -, if a given point/planet/station is on (or almost on), above or below said plane. There shouldn't be too much things that hang above each other. Ok, EDIT before I even posted this: I think. Really don't know, but I had the impression, that most objects are relatively on the "same plane" anyway... But I couldn't tell just now if that's true. Maybe take a look next time I'm in my pilot seat. (What I probably should have done before asking for such a feature or commenting here how easy a 2d map should be... )

It could be just the normal ASC beacons and with "shift" it could give more (or if you click on them or whatever) just like the local map.
I totally love the names for moons and planets from Planetary Compass, btw.

All this reminds me of the problem to visualize the data collected by the Long Range Scanner. See point 06. for suggestions of how it might look (if someone was able to implement that)

GGShinobi wrote:

All this reminds me of the problem to visualize the data collected by the Long Range Scanner. See point 06. for suggestions of how it might look (if someone was able to implement that)

I checked it last night... And it's actually so, that most objects are in a relative flat plane with the sun/planet/wp as reference.
There could be some objects, that aren't, but with a quick visual and ASC scan I haven't found any.
Even better, I haven't found two "above" each other, aside from the main station, wich is by definition always very close to the main planet. Of course, this were just two random systems in Galaxy 1, so the data is... sketchy at best...

EDIT: And of course, it's just the same as the long range Scanner, only reduced to stations/"immobile" objects.

Rorschachhamster wrote:

And it's actually so, that most objects are in a relative flat plane with the sun/planet/wp as reference.

Most OXPs do only add things to the lines between sun, planet and wp, or near enough, because that's where the player is likely to be. Once you get something like System Redux which adds extra planets, though, that adds a significant third dimension to the map.