Galactic map

Aabh · Post by **Aabh** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:45 am

So... I just got my copy of Prime Directive D20 (We actually play GURPS, but a friend was balking at an all GURPS setup and wanted a D20 backup, so I went and bought the D20 book and was leafing through it... er... you know, that wasn't important).

Anyway, I was reading through the D20 book, looking at the art when I came across the Galactic map... I pondered it for a bit and thought, now that we have better data on our galaxy (It's a double barred galaxy, not just a spiral for example), how would the SFB universe look on the actual grid? I also thought that things needed to be more organic, less rigid... I... um... took a little artistic license as well.

A lot of the little teeny Omega sector races didn't quite make it in... And I have no idea where the Seltorians go... o.O

But anyway... here's my operating theory:

So... I probably did all kinds of things wrong... I haven't flattened the picture just yet, though, so if people think things need a-changin', I'm all ears!

Bolo_MK_XL · Post by **Bolo_MK_XL** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:36 pm

Seltorians are in a different Galaxy, the one where the Tholians originated.

phdillman · Post by **phdillman** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:47 pm

Well the Seltorians never really had any empire territory here. They basically "rented" space from the Klingons to wage war on the Holdfast. So I think you're okay there.

The map should be larger however. (Extended out to the rim) It's pretty common knowledge that the scale given from SFU does not correspond with reality.

Aabh · Post by **Aabh** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:30 pm

Wait... The map goes to the rim... ?

Or are you saying the races should be on the rim?

I know that the SFU map doesn't correspond with reality... this was an exercise in seeing if it could.

And the little part off of the Sagittarius arm is the Orion spur (Turns out we aren't really in the Orion arm, but rather the Sagittarius arm... but they concede the "Orion Spur" for us)... That's where Earth is...If you blow up the map to cover the whole of the Milky way, Earth ends up on the faaar "northern" part of the Federation (Maybe even in Gorn space)... I wonder if I can't finagle it to fit better? I'll give that a try!

Aabh · Post by **Aabh** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:44 pm

Hmmm... now the map thickens

I like the Tholians being out on the Outer arm... that seems to fit better. It's also interesting that the LDR ends up hanging out in the gap between arms... kinda a resource-poor location of the galaxy, that fits

Naturally, though the book says the Federation is 9.5Kpcs across, I can't make that work... that's two and a half sectors at this point in the map... As it is, the Federation is a little beefy.

So now I work on getting the Federation around Earth... o.O

bluebirds38 · Post by **bluebirds38** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:14 pm

i know earth, vulcan, andor and several others in the sfb universe founded the federation.

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:57 pm

Yeah, you're going to have some problems with all of that.

The Federation should include Earth (obviously). The intent is that Earth is at the very center core of the Federation territory, but do what you have to do.

The Tholians should be on the very edge of the galaxy. Literally on the edge (however that is done). There can be zero territory behind them.

The Klingons, Federation, and Romulans should all meet on Tholian territory. The Federation and Tholian territory block the Klingons and Romulans from directly touching.

The Seltorian presence in our Galaxy is just a single star system. No reason to note it.

The WYN need to touch all three of the Kzinti, Lyran, and Klingons.

The LDR should hold a bigger chunk of the Lyran/Hydran border, but do still need to border the Klingons, too.

The Vudar (if you care) end up on the Hydran/Klingon border closest to the edge of the galaxy.

The Hydrans, Klingons, Tholians, and Romulans all have their "outer" borders on the edge of the galaxy.

So, basically, I think the whole setup in the second highlight you gave us are probably way bigger than you think.

EDIT: BTW, that thing is gorgeous. I hope you get it to where you like the results. It is very, very nice.

Nerroth · Post by **Nerroth** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:15 pm

What year are you assuming for the map? Depending on which year you have in mind, the details for both Alpha and Omega will be different. (By the time of the Y183 Omega map, the Vudar Enlave was already "on the map", plus the Gorns had presumably been on their way towards formally annexing the three "north-east" provinces they are noted as possessing by Y186 according to ISC War.)

On the Omega map, the likes of the Loriyill and Chlorophons are supposed to be along the edge of the Galactic Rim, while the Iridani Cluster is meant to be outside of the Milky Way altogether. (The distance between Iridani home space and the nearest edge of the Milky way is said to be approximately as the same as that between the Drex home world and the Probr capital; since we don't have exact hex locations for either planet as of yet, one would have to try and guess based on the amount of territory that stays in each empire's space on all five published Omega maps.)

Also, this is something that I've mentioned before, but I don't particularly agree that the boxed-in area shown on the galaxy map should equate the to actual size of the Omega hex maps. For one thing, it would make things awkward from a Federation and Empire or Prime Directive perspective, since each hex would no longer equate to the same amount of space as it does on the Alpha (or LMC) hex maps. If you increased the amount of space covered by that "box" to account for the number of hexes in the Omega maps, the top edge would run up to the outer rim of the Storm Zone, while the spinward edge of the map would stop about halfway into the Phi sector (giving the Zosmans a smaller "home" operating territory).

Beyond Alpha and Omega, I see that you have the Sargasso Storm region marked, but the Sigma Octant area is left un-marked.

Also, it may be worth adding in some sort of reference to the Xorkaelian home sector (Mu), just to give that quadrant of the galaxy a little more flavour. (Xork space is the only habitable region of the Milky Way that can properly be referred to as a "quadrant", since it covers 6 sectors out of the total of 24.)

Sgt_G · Post by **Sgt_G** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:24 pm

Nice art work!

However, the scale is wrong, as others have pointed out.

We already figured out that the F&E map is twice as big as it should be, to which SVC stated that once we get out to explore it, we'll find that the Milky Way is bigger than we thought. Okay, I'll suspend belief long enough to buy that. Your map makes it bigger still, which pushes me beyond my ability to accept it. Sorry.