How do you organise your galactic map?

[laz (OP)]

I started a game creating loads of grav survey ships that quickly mapped out nearly 300 star systems in 25 years of exploration.

I've kinda grouped systems together into sectors which i've named after a system with a standout name like "vega Sector" or "altair sector" and any NPR's I come across I name the sector after them so I know where they tend to be hanging about.

Does anyone have any good examples of how to organise the galactic map? Heres mine at the moment

[randal7]

I'm curious to see what everyone says here, too.

My maps tend to look like a bullseye, with Sol in the center, systems connected to Sol in the first ring, systems connected to them in the second, and so on. I've never explored nearly as many systems as you have in your screenshot, so I don't know how well my way would work at that level (although I suspect not very well).

[Beersatron]

I have tried having the connections at right angles and then having them in a radial pattern but always run into a problem when I come across a couple of systems that have 6+ WPs and that are near each other. It can get messy, quick.

In saying that, your map looks very very good

[Abraxis]

Is there a way to drag the systems around?  My Galactic map is all the known systems right on top of each-other (in four groups) going down in a diagonal line.  No matter my zoom level.  I tried playing around with grid-size. That just spreads out the groups, and moves them all into the same point.

Edit: I figured it out just after posting, if anyone else is curious, there is a help button in the Galactic map that will explain it.

[iamlenb]

I've been grouping my systems in clusters by sector, 4 jumps away from Sector Headquarters.  For four Jump outer systems, I'll separate it from the cluster if it seems to connect to multiple jump points.  Once I've determined that a four Jump outer system connects to another full cluster through exploration, I'll move it to a point intermediate between the two clusters and try to start a colony there so I have a chain from Sector HQ world to Jump 4 system to Sector HQ world.

Once I've explored further, I expect my map will look like multiple clusters with the interconnecting systems bridging the gaps.

[Zed 6]

My map is starting to look like yours, just on a smaller scale- about 80 systems. It will never look like the picture -perfect shots in the gallery.  It might be nice to have some other way of connecting the systems besides just straight lines.

[Vesson]

 

Sorry to necro this thread, but can i ask for any tips from people as to how to quickly explore this many stars? The traditional task force style of clicking a jump point, then another jump point, and so on just seems like it wouldn't scale well enough for a map this size.

And lets say I wanted to traverse 10 systems to get to the one I want, that means I have to remember a chain of ten jump points. . . ?

Halp? 

[Erik L]

I tend to explore in rings. All the JP from the homeworld, then one jump out, two out, etc. And yes, if you have a route that is ten jumps long, you need to recall the sequence.

[Vesson]

A check box for survey ships (like tanker) and an automated, "proceed to nearest unex jump" would be awesome, as Im sure Steve realises!

[Steve Walmsley]

A check box for survey ships (like tanker) and an automated, "proceed to nearest unex jump" would be awesome, as Im sure Steve realises!

This function is already available for NPRs so it could be added to players. I am not sure if it would be as useful as you might think though. The easiest way to add it would be a conditional order so you could have a survey ship move to the nearest unexplored jump point once it had surveyed everything. This could include unexplored jump points in other systems. However, you could find your survey ships wandering off at an inconvenient time if you weren't careful.

Steve

[Brian Neumann]

Limit the functionality of explore new jump points to only those in system.  As an alternate set a system as the base system and when checking for which jump point to explore use the distance from that system to the system the jump point is in as a modifier for which jump point to explore.  This would allow for exploring a group rather than a long chain of systems.  ie Set Sol as the start system.  It will first explore all of the jump points from Sol, then move on to survey those systems, after surveying it would explore all of the jump points from the system they end up in and survey those, but before exploring the new jump points would move back through Sol to survey another adjacent system and explore those jump points, ect.  I don't know how hard this would be to code up though.

Brian