The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

[modified Feb. 9, 2005]

Okay, the revised maps are as follows:

http://members.shaw.ca/tom.t/starmap1.gif   (AD 2134)
http://members.shaw.ca/tom.t/starmap2.gif   (AD 2155)
http://members.shaw.ca/tom.t/starmap2b.gif  (AD 2155 variant, with question mark substitutions)

Lyncis is fixed, galactic spin arrow is fixed, and just for the heck of it I made the word "Sol" green.  'Cause it's home and all!

[original message follows]

These are the before and after maps.  The Ur-Quan Masters team can have the distribution rights and all.

Someone commented in an earlier post that the Lyncis constellation was drawn incorrectly.  I changed a lot of the lines so that the similarities with the original game map would be minimal.  The lines are all subjective anyway, and, um, are the worst-drawn parts of the map.

The only real link that might be made with the original map are the position and size of some of the circles.  If this is a concern for copyright, I could re-do the circles using game information to infer what might be reasonable placement.

What else... I corrected the colours; the green stars especially had some odd colour artifacts in the earlier draft; that's fixed now.  I didn't keep all the classic colours for the different circles, that was another partially subjective vs. aesthetic decision.  I brightened the grid and star line colours to make them more visible. Thanks for the feedback earlier, it came in very useful!

The position of the Rainbow worlds were corrected.  Most of the stars are off by a couple of pixels due to the way I put the map together; but it's important to have the Rainbow worlds in the right places so that's fixed!

The caption text at the bottom was changed, because when I re-checked the game I found out that data on some alien races was only learned during the war itself.

Looks at first map.

Good job!

......


Looks at second map.

Really good job!

Wow - I believe this one is going on my wall.

great job, tomt. *hits save*

~DEFIANT

one thing to note, from my point of view, the pkunk had a "unknown" instead of there name on their circle of influence. i would like to suggest this "unknown" be added to the following races circle of influence.

pkunk
supox
utwig
druuge
ur quan
kohr ah

and change the orz to androysynth or ? or androysyth?

the reason being, with this map, it takes a little away from the exploration. id rather have the just the circles without the giveaway of whos in thoes circles. but all in all its a very well made map.

EDIT: it was "unknown", not a "?" for the circle of infulence.

Very nice.  Although I did notice a few things:

• The previous critique re: the Lyncis constellation is apt; a somewhat-important plot point in the game revolves around how that constellation appears on a starmap, so making how it looks on the starmap fit the in-game description would be a Good Thing™.
  
• The "direction of the galaxy's spin" is wrong. In the game, the Kzer-Za travel with the galaxy's spin, and the Kohr-Ah travel against it; according to your map the opposite would be happening.  But for posterity, the "original" map got this wrong, too. ;)

As for copyright, I wouldn't worry, as your map is not a copy; it's a reimplementation; and there are a very limited number of ways that the available data can be displayed.  Morally, ethically, and (I'd presume) legally, you're on solid ground here.

ooooOOOooooh.

Okay, *now* I understand the concern over the Lyncis constellation.  Sorry about that!

See, when I played the game, I never had the map, so when I encountered the snake/elephant dialogue, it was meaningless to me - I thought it was unhelpful obfuscation, not an actual hint.  In fact I wasn't able to find the VUX beast at all, and was stuck in the game for several months until I found a hints file posted to a Usenet newsgroup.

Hotay, that can be corrected easily, as can the galaxy's spin - let me research that a bit first 'cause I want to make sure I've got the arrow pointing in the right direction!  (Hrm, the Now and Forever conversations page don't seem to have the full text of all the Melnorme conversations on history...)

As to the question of removing the names from circles, I can do that as a variant; although in my mind the 2134 map performs a similar function already. :)

not necessarily a removal of the circles, just named ? or "unknown" would add an atmosphere of mystery. your not really suppose to know where any of the new races are out side of the original ones from star control 1. but again, its a great map and its your creation. just thought id add my constructive criticism.

~DEFIANT

Right-o.  I've updated the links in the original message with the fixes!

now were talking, awesome job. ill be adding this one to my collection.  mucho thanks tomt. you are to be hailed and revered for years to come... ;D

~DEFIANT

Which is why new players should only be given the AD 2134 map, which corresponds to the original SC2 starmap as supplied with the game. Even with question marks, the AD 2155 map is spoilerish. The full AD 2155 map is pretty much hint book material.

I suggest we include the AD 2134 map as part of the UQM documentation.

your all gonna laugh, (or at least i will) i missed that map. thats exactly like the original that shipped with the 3do version. huh, and all this time i throwing such a fit about not having it. sorry, my bad...oops :-[ man i honestly didnt see it up there. i saw the hint version. thats why i made all the fuss...

...to make this long story short, i agree, the ad 2134 map is good.

~DEFIANT

Looks great tomt :)


I agree

Or at least have it as a separate bitmap download, off of the site.