Newcomer / Intro 3D Galaxy Map Guide?

[aioun]

Hey all,

Does anyone know of a good guide that helps you understand the 3d aspects of the galaxy map? The "up" and "down" are really throwing me when I try to plot courses. Something that looks very close can by 500+ LY away, and something that appears far away can be as close as 70ly because of the distortion/perspective of the map. I'm familiar with navigating around it somewhere (2+ months use), but is there a good guide or advice that talks about how to grasp the concept of 3d and or how to make better sense of it please?

 

[Chris Simon]

Have you tried the official guides?
[video=youtube;H89hHj5LFvI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H89hHj5LFvI&list=PL7glm5rbPHKxnltQU1SLxdqQrENIXJGUr&index=5[/video]

Other than that, I can give you only a brief advice.
use the mouse to move around. (unless you're on Xbox :x ) It's less confusing.
Hold the left MB to pin the location and move your mouse to rotate and tilt the camera.
Hold the right MB to rotate the camera and translate up and down.
Hold both buttons to "drag" the map around and move in a level plain.

Switch the grid on, if you don't have it (last tab in the map legend)
Check the coordinates. The numbers are in lightyears in x/y/z format. The 0/0/0 point is Sol. First number is the distance from Sol towards the centre (or away from it for negative numbers), second number is height and third number is perpendicular to both (if you look from Sol towards the centre, it's left and right)
There are squares on the plain that change in orders of magnitude as you zoom out (again, check the the coordinates in corners) If you're zoomed in, the squares are 10LY, and as you move out they are 100LY, then 1000LY (That one is useful - if you want to plot the max distance route, zoom far enough that the quadrants are 1000LY, then look at your current location (which part of the quadrant it is in) and if you choose similar location in neighbouring quadrant, it'll be 1000LY away (+-) and you can plot the route. If you want to move diagonally, you'll have to eyeball it)

Don't forget to move vertically as you go. If you run into an empty part of the galaxy , or very long stretch of unscoopable stars, there is a good possibility that 100LY above or below it might be much thicker and populated by scoopables.

Feel free to ask further for details, we would be here for a very long time, if I were to describe everything.