Sounds like you agree with me on every point...
Fireskull wrote:Chuck:
1) Official maps dont need to expand at a accelerated rate, as those are the maps that are sold to the general public. But I see no reason for the map the player owns to be slowly expanding. It should expand dynamically as the player explores new systems.
Now and then the map the player owns could/should be updated with systems other explorers found.
Exactly what I said. Those are the "official" maps sold to the general public. Everybody knows there are plenty of "unofficial" systems, but the jump-points in and out of those systems are not on most ships' computers, and most people don't have the equipment to detect them because the equipment is not legally available to the public.
But yes, as you explore systems, your computer's map expands.
2) Just because a system is know,it doesnt means it must be colonized.
Of course not. What I said is *some* planets in this gray zone would be squatted, some asteroids mined, ... meant "just a few".
3) Wanst there a explanation for that already? I thought jump points were naturally created, but had to be found with special tech.
Exactly. But what I meant is *politically* how can we explain that, given proper equipment these jump points off systems in the middle of civilization, like from Rikel, should have been known long before a retro informant gives you their coordinates, right? Or should we assume that the ES simply missed them the first time? The system later called Eden must have been known before, but for some reason never included in the official maps.
4)There are jumps at the front already.. at least with the Kilrathi border there are and you can go into Kilrathi territory.
Only some jump-points into kat territory are mapped. If you got to lile TriPaq, North-East Gemini, there's kats all over the place, with no apparent route from katland.
About jump points to fronts into unknown territory, we cant map the whole galaxy.
Agreed. The whole galaxy would be quite a mouthful. Now, let's see...
The Milky Way galaxy:
Off the top of my head I remember we're 8.5 kilo-parsecs from the core. Each parsec, IIRC is about 3 and a half light years, so... 8.5x3.5=about 30,000 light years. Now, we're about 2/3 of the way out, so one more third to the back, and 3 more thirds forward, that's 4, plus 2 = 6, so double, so the diameter of our galaxy is about 60,000 light years. And the thickness of the galactic disc is 2% of its diameter, I remember reading, so that's 1200 light years thick. Judging from the systems in the Sol sector I would say they span less than 100 light years, so the whole present map, katland included would probably span less than 1000 light years across. So we haven't even crossed the thickness of the disc, yet. What I'm suggesting is that we have a ratio of unexplored systems, relative to explored systems, of about 100 to 1; which I reckon would make the total number of systems to be a few thousand, so roughly the size of Vegastrike's universe. So the engine can handle it, no problem.
5) Retros have hidden bases, pirates have hidden bases. Kilrathi, when found in confed territory, should do so with light carrier and other fast moving ships. Fighters in special missions are also possible.
Thing is, retros show up in large numbers in Oxford. Kats are always in New Det. How do they get there? How come I never see those light carriers?
6) We can do that without having the faction being illegal. I am not sure if it needs explaining, but for short: as exploration happens, more of the map shows up.
Actually, I didn't explain myself correctly: I never thought of Explorer as a "faction", more like an occupation. And not an illegal ocupation exactly, either, since the very existence of private explorers isn't even acknowledged. The official story is that exploration happens because the ES are doing their job, which is the opposite of the truth. What is officially illegal is the sale of exploration equipment, which is supposed to only be available to the ES and other government agencies.
It's not that if you become an explorer, suddenly militias and confeds will be your enemies. Being an explorer shouldn't make any difference to your faction relations.
EDIT:
I'm daydreaming about the final confrontation with Kroiz...
I think you could play it out in different ways, but my way would be to find a good unexplored system and build it up, then build a fleet, continuously expand it and wait for him to attack first. In more detail:
Finding the "perfect system"
Mineral abundance and good protection are paramount. I would imagine the perfect system as one that is far enough that only capships with extra fuel can get there from anywhere in the official map systems. A system that would feature a number of planets and moons and one or two gas giants, and that is only accessible from systems that are chock-full of asteroids, except for one route which cargo ships can take.
First thing you'd do is "take" the systems surrounding your chosen home-base. You'd set up mining bases on their larger asteroids, and place permanently hired mercenaries to guard the entry jump-points. Then you'd begin settling the planets in your new homebase. First the life-bearing planets, to produce food locally; then the other moons and planets. You'd set up automatic defense satellites, and space elevators to reduce the cost of moving goods to and from planets. As soon as your system starts producing a sizable surplus of foods and minerals, you buy or build a large space-station in a system a bit closer to "civilization", which you can use as a point for trading. Reason being, you don't want outsiders navigating into your homebase system, since you want to keep it secret.
Meanwhile, you'll need a sleeper in the Kroiz empire, so as to find out...
a) How big are his fleets --types and numbers of ships, etc.
b) What or how much he knows about you.
c) Feed him wrong info about your strength, at the right time, to lure him into attacking you.
Then, after he attacks you and looses a large portion of his fleet, you repair your ships, gather them into a huge fleet and attack the center of his empire.
)
