Edgepixel's 3D Mapping System. And Rare Trades Map.

edgepixel

edgepixel
Since I bought ED post-launch I most busied myself not as much with actually playing the game, as with thinking up a comprehensive 3D map/mapping system of the inhabited part of the galaxy. After a lot of work, I think I managed to put together a pretty good system.

So, since an image is worth a thousand words, I give you... Edgepixel's Rare Trades Map (detail):
View attachment 11490

You can download the BIG IMAGE >> HERE <<.

It should be pretty self-explanatory. A nifty feature is that due to the properties of the isometric projection, on this map the horizontal grids for each multiple of 100 vertical lightyears superpose perfectly. That is a huge advantage--only one horizontal grid for all vertical sets of data. It can look confusing at first glance ("What's up with all the lines labeled X=0, Z=0?"), but there are guiding lines that should help you mitigate this. Read the map legend.

The map works basically like walking on the surface of a frozen lake, with crystal-clear ice, and being able to see different things at different levels, like in this Youtube video: logs, boulders, fishes.

Making-of story on my blog.

UPDATE
Added travel paths with length marked.
D-Iso-2.png
Download the BIG IMAGE >> HERE <<, and a PDF version >> HERE <<

UPDATE 2 -- Recommended Version
A top-down view (X-Z plane projection), with travel paths marked. The thicker, the shorter.
Depth on the Y axis in conveyed by color. Highest to lowest: Pink, Magenta, Red, Dark Orange, Medium Orange, Light Orange, Light Green, Green, Dark Green, Light Cyan, Cyan, Dark Cyan, Blue, Blah-blah.
Probably the most comprehensible so far.
D-FLAT-001.png
Download the BIG IMAGE >> HERE <<
 
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wolverine2710

Tutorial & Guide Writer
wolverine2710
Thanks for this tool/info. Gonna put it on the TODO list for the 3rd party tools list.

I've to admit I only skimped the blog and had a look at the map. To me its no self-explanatory. How do I use it? The farther you travel with rares the more you get for it - m160 LY is optimal I think I read somewhere. I can't find that info there in the map. Also what kind of rares are at the stations? Are those easily recognized? Not played lately. Hopefully my questions make sense to you....
 

edgepixel

edgepixel
Yes, you do make sense. And I'll admit my map does not currently answer those questions all by it's own. The scope of a 3D mapping system is, firstly, to help you figure out which is where. In this case, it should help you eyeball, firstly, where systems cluster up--Lave is the most obvious. Then you can compare distances between the various clusters to see which routes are worth it. At the moment, the best is from Lave cluster to the Fujin/39 Tauri. The other clusters are either smaller (3-4 systems) or wider spaced apart. There's really not much worth it besides Lave-Fujin :).

I do have a sort of visual tutorial in mind, instructing how to use the visual clues the map offers. Also adding some routes.

Regarding your questions:
- The optimal selling distance for rares is more like a range, than a set value: ~130-160 Ly. Before this range you lose too much, after it you gain too little. It's somewhat flexible. A definitive set value I think is difficult to calculate, because there's a whole bunch of variables that matter: cargo space, money available, purchase price, cluster size, and so on. How about filling your cargo with regular commodities while you travel to the next system with rares. It's too confounding for a definitive answer.
- About the types of rares, they all behave in the same manner. But as some are more expensive than others, and offer a bigger profit/ton, it's worth knowing where can you get them, yes.

Tools always make more sense to their creators than to anyone else, I guess ;)
 
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edgepixel

edgepixel
The map works basically like walking on the surface of a frozen lake, with crystal-clear ice, and being able to see different things at different levels, like in this Youtube video: logs, boulders, fishes. My map provides color-coded slices of the vertical expanse, to help put everything in context: Magenta sticks are 100 Lys deeper than red sticks. Purple ones 100 Lys deeper still. So on and so forth. Is it really that hard to visualize?

Am I the only one to which it makes sense?
 

Steve72

S
Cool work I was looking to do a 3d map for very same reason. With cobra I was ok but trying to fill asp was getting a little harder to visualise a good route.
 

nikos

N
Makes sense to me. Routes changing elevation are hard to estimate though, but any map will suffer that I suppose.
 
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