# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Sci-fi/Modern Mapping >  Realistic 2300AD Near Star map

## EDG

Article link: http://evildrganymede.net/2012/02/13...near-star-map/ 

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this sort of thing, but I figure that people may be interested in this here!

Now that I've updated my Stellar Mapping page (which would also be of interest to folks on this forum who want realistic positional data for the stars in the solar neighbourhood), I've taken a look at the Near Star Map from the 2300AD RPG to find out how it's different to the distribution of real stars around Sol that we know today. And it turns out to be quite interesting, as I describe in this rather huge article (which also includes route maps and an animation, a sample of which is shown below)! The maps were made using NBOS' Astrosynthesis 3.0, using data that I collected from various sites (as explained on the Stellar Mapping page). 

Oblique view of the Arms (click to view article):


If you're a fan of the 2300AD RPG, you'll definitely be wanting to look at this! (and if you know anyone else who is, please point them to the article!)

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## Coyotemax

That's quite something.  I liked the animation of the 3d view - it's hard to take a 3d area and represent it in 2 dimensions and this really shows off the web of routes.

Of course with most of the galactic scale maps the z coordinate doesn't mean as much, but in smaller areas like this it's a huge factor.

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## EDG

Thanks! I think it came out very well  :Smile: . It's interesting to do this kind of research too - to me this is what SF is all about, taking an idea (in this case, "what if were limited to 7.7 ly routes to the nearest stars?") and seeing where that takes you. 

Astrosynthesis is a fiddly program to set up the way I want it, but once mastered it can be quite powerful. I guess I'm the ideal audience for it - a technically minded person who has some programming experience and who really wants to get it to do the stuff he wants done  :Smile: .

Anyone who is interested in more general mapping of the stars near Sol should _really_ take a look at my Stellar Mapping page - it has accurate databases for the Solar Neighbourhood (out to 300ly distant) taken from the RECONS, DENSE and Hipparcos star catalogues! The data is presented as generic CSV files that contain either Galactic XYZ coordinates (usable for any purpose), or Astrosynthesis XYZ coordinates (specifically for importing in to AS only).

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## EDG

I've now added 164 stars from the CTIOPI dataset (available on the RECONS website), and also updated the DENSE data. See http://evildrganymede.net/2012/02/27...-ctiopi-added/ for details. 



If you've downloaded the datasets previously, you'll need to download the updated versions rom the Stellar Mapping page!

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## MadCartographer

I love AstroSynthesis!  I have had it for about 6 years now, and Ver 3 is AWESOME!  I "was" helping a friend of mine create a SciFi RPG game that went the "way of the dodo bird" (to bad, nice concept he had too, oh well) and I was incharge of creating his planets and mapping out all of the known universe.  I also used the Hipparcos star catalogues on the NBOS site as my starting point.  Nice work.  REPPED!

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## EDG

I've now replaced the New Reduction Hipparcos data with the brand new Extended Hipparcos dataset, so if you downloaded that previously then please head back and download the new data! Also, my stellar mapping site now proudly bears the Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval!  :Smile:  

See http://evildrganymede.net/2012/03/12...dataset-added/ for details!

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## EDG

New update!

I’ve added a new Brown Dwarf dataset to the Stellar Mapping page! This should hopefully be the last major update to the stellar datasets for a while – the next project on the list is to figure out what the reworked Arms for 2300AD might look like based on the realistic data. 



I've also made some major updates to the other datasets on the Stellar Mapping page, so if you're using them then you'll want to download the new versions!

See http://evildrganymede.net/2012/03/25...g-brown-dwarf/ for more details!

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## su_liam

How do you resolve conflicts in position between the different catalogues? Some of the names differ. I tried doing automating an intersect between Gliese 2 and 3 many, many moons ago and finally gave it up for dead.

EDIT: Oh yeah! Cool map!

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## ravells

Hey Su Liam, glad to see you're still peeping in every now and again!

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## EDG

> How do you resolve conflicts in position between the different catalogues? Some of the names differ. I tried doing automating an intersect between Gliese 2 and 3 many, many moons ago and finally gave it up for dead.


Gliese is just all-around wrong  :Smile:  - it's long since been superseded by Hipparcos (which has had two different refinements since then!). But if I had to use Gliese, I would just drop Gliese 2 and use Gliese 3 instead (thereby avoiding conflict between them!). 

Trigonometric parallaxes win over anything else - those are way more accurate than other distance determination methods. RECONS, DENSE and CTOIPI are all trigonometric, and out of those I hold RECONS as being completely accurate (it's not really, but it's the most accurate of the lot), then DENSE, then CTIOPI. Beyond that HipX is king. LDWARF is "accurate enough" - I'd guess that many of the distances aren't too accurate since most are photometrically determined (not trigonometrically). 

There aren't too many conflicts between those catalogues because there's not a huge amount of overlap. But I would never use HipX along with Yale and/or Gliese - they're so different that they may as well describe different universes  :Wink: . Hipparcos would always reign supreme out of those three, and Yale and Gliese should never be mixed because you will get a lot of overlap and duplicates. 

(er, did that answer your question at all?)  :Smile: 




> EDIT: Oh yeah! Cool map!


Glad you like it  :Smile:

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## EDG

I haven't forgotten about this - in fact I've been hard at work on it! I now have reached a point where I can create updated versions of the Arms to fit the realistic star map and start talking about the new layout! 



You can check it out at: http://evildrganymede.net/2013/08/11...-introduction/ - I'll be posting more in the coming weeks!

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## Azélor

It does look good with all these colors. These are still all real star systems ?

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## EDG

> It does look good with all these colors. These are still all real star systems ?


Yep, they're all real star systems. Not a single fictional star among 'em  :Smile:

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## EDG

The next article in the series is up! This one presents a full (2D) map and a written overview of the new Arms!


[2300AD] Realistic Star Map Project: Part II – Overview

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## EDG

Part III of the series is up! This one covers the New French Arm, including some 3D maps and a subway map!


[2300AD] Realistic Star Map Project: Part III  The New French Arm

(The subway map was made using the generator at METRO MAP CREATOR )

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## EDG

*Part IV: The New American Arm* - the next part of my 2300AD Realistic Star Map Project is up! This article describes what the New American Arm looks like with realistic stars (including another 'subway map')!


[2300AD] Realistic Star Map Project: Part IV ? The New American Arm « The Lair of Evil Dr. Ganymede

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## EDG

*Part V: The New Chinese Arm* - the final part of my 2300AD Realistic Star Map Project is up! This article describes what the New Chinese Arm looks like with realistic stars (including another 'subway map')!


[2300AD] Realistic Star Map Project: Part V - The New Chinese Arm « The Lair of Evil Dr. Ganymede

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## EDG

I made an error in placing one of the brown dwarfs that affected the French and Chinese Arms. I've fixed that now, and also made some other tweaks to the French Arm too. 

Here are all of my 2300AD Realistic Near Star Map articles (now updated!) in one place:

Part 0: The original Near Star Map
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Overview
Part 3: New French Arm
Part 4: New American Arm
Part 5: New Chinese Arm

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## Triplicate

I've never played 2300AD, and my knowledge is limited to a scattering of RPG forum posts. Your work gives enough context I don't need any more. Ever since I saw an old map of nearby stars in Spaceships of the Mind, I've wanted to see an SF universe built around that. And when I first wanted it back in the 1990s, I never thought that the 70s-80s stellar position data I had access to might be obsolete enough to change things significantly.

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## barrataria

I haven't been here in a long time, but as you may have seen in old threads I encountered and was dissuaded by the complexities involved in any sort of realistic star map for gaming purposes. I ended up making my own map (with a smaller set of near stars) for a setting akin to 2300.  So, I can say with no hesitation/reservation that I'm amazed at the skill you displayed and the sheer work you must have put in planning and drawing these.

It's great of you to share them with other gamers. And the subway map is a great idea for the 2300AD arms!

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## EDG

Thanks guys  :Smile: . There is one more tweak I need to do on the American Arm and that should be it. 

Merry Christmas!

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## EDG

OK, I've posted the update to the Realistic Star Map that I promised - this time I've had to correct the American Arm since some of the brown dwarf distances have been recalculated. I've done a few other minor tweaks while I was doing that, and all the Subway Maps have been updated. All the details are in this new blog post: [2300AD] Realistic Star Map Project Update #2 (corrected American Arm!)

The updated American Arm is here: http://evildrganymede.net/2013/09/09...-american-arm/

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