Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Agemegos" data-source="post: 4486884" data-attributes="member: 18377">At the cost of being grotesquely unrealistic. It's like the difference between chess and a wargame: the chequerboard and the funny pieces and moving only one piece on each turn makes things a lot simpler, but the result is just not a representation of a battlefield.Indeed. But at that scope (ie. about forty stars) the problem is easily solved by a distance table.I have a copy of <a href="http://www.projectrho.com/smap12.html#map01" target="_blank">this starmap</a>, which I have laminated and use in gaming. It has about 224 stars on it, and while the distances between the stars are not apparent at a glance it is possible to discern which stars are near to a given location in a few moments. You glance at the dot that represents your current location and note the last&nbsp; of its co-ordinates. Then you glance at the nearby dots and check the last of their co-ordinates. If it is very different from the number you mentally noted you dismiss the star as not all that near. The same approach works using the Astrogator's Handbook, which divides space within 75 light-years into 63 sectors and represents each with a map like <a href="http://www.scifi-az.com/astronomy/quadrant_maps.htm" target="_blank">this</a>.Sure, it's not as easy as judging distance on a map of something flat. But that's because it is representing something that is intrinsically more complex. You can't suppress that complexity without losing the essence of Space.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Agemegos, post: 4486884, member: 18377"] At the cost of being grotesquely unrealistic. It's like the difference between chess and a wargame: the chequerboard and the funny pieces and moving only one piece on each turn makes things a lot simpler, but the result is just not a representation of a battlefield. Indeed. But at that scope (ie. about forty stars) the problem is easily solved by a distance table. I have a copy of [url=http://www.projectrho.com/smap12.html#map01]this starmap[/url], which I have laminated and use in gaming. It has about 224 stars on it, and while the distances between the stars are not apparent at a glance it is possible to discern which stars are near to a given location in a few moments. You glance at the dot that represents your current location and note the last of its co-ordinates. Then you glance at the nearby dots and check the last of their co-ordinates. If it is very different from the number you mentally noted you dismiss the star as not all that near. The same approach works using the [i]Astrogator's Handbook[/i], which divides space within 75 light-years into 63 sectors and represents each with a map like [url=http://www.scifi-az.com/astronomy/quadrant_maps.htm]this[/url]. Sure, it's not as easy as judging distance on a map of something flat. But that's because it is representing something that is intrinsically more complex. You can't suppress that complexity without losing the essence of Space. [/QUOTE]

Verification