How to survey a grid sector...

mossfoot

mossfoot
Some people liked my idea for Sector MF-1 of choosing a 100LY square and try to fully document it.

Doing so in practice proved to be difficult.

Choosing each and every star individually along a back and forth sweep (then up and back and forth sweep) is tedious to say the least.

Choosing a path from one end to the other is problematic because even if you choose economy route it may skip stars along the way.

So, until a more effective way of setting waypoints comes along, I'd like to open the floor to explorers:

What is the most efficient way in game to survey a 100LY grid of space? What will allow you to set the fewest routes, hitting the most planets, with the least overlap.

Ideas? Anyone care to test some theories out?
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
thehairymob said:
One star at a time and keep a written record.
Click to expand...

Aside from being time consuming and tedious, it's also not necessary. Any system you actually survey will show the System Map icon when in Galaxy View. Therefore you will always be able to see which systems you scanned.

I think a better way would be to come up with a set pattern of "routes" to travel, that will effectively hit the most stars along the way, then search for and sweep up those that get missed afterwards.

Question is, what pattern would work best?
 

who?

who?
Interesting.. it's probably not the most efficient, but I'd be inclined to do "outside-in". Pick 4 systems nearest the 4 quarters of the sector, and do an economical-run around the outside. Then, using the "availability of system view" as a guide of which ones you've visited, do a second, spiraled lap slightly inset from the first, and then a third lap..

One thing that might make it more awkward is you'll have systems which are slightly above and below the plane, once you start scanning those you risk really doing down the rabbit-hole..
 

Kancro Vantas

Kancro Vantas
mossfoot said:
Aside from being time consuming and tedious, it's also not necessary. Any system you actually survey will show the System Map icon when in Galaxy View. Therefore you will always be able to see which systems you scanned.

I think a better way would be to come up with a set pattern of "routes" to travel, that will effectively hit the most stars along the way, then search for and sweep up those that get missed afterwards.

Question is, what pattern would work best?
Click to expand...

Hmm you mean how can we do it so the plotter does it for us to avoid manually inputting the systems??

Corner to corner economically. But seems to me that it will be a painful process, at some point, no matter what..
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Kancro Vantas said:
Hmm you mean how can we do it so the plotter does it for us to avoid manually inputting the systems??

Corner to corner economically. But seems to me that it will be a painful process, at some point, no matter what..
Click to expand...

Yeah, what I was thinking was corner to corner, but also middle to middle, 3/4 to 1/4, etc...
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
The problem with scanning a sector is you have to know where you are in that sector, ideally you want to start in a bottom corner, then follow the letter and number order. Its a very tough ask.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Whiterose said:
The problem with scanning a sector is you have to know where you are in that sector, ideally you want to start in a bottom corner, then follow the letter and number order. Its a very tough ask.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I have the XYZ coordinates mapped out on paper to make sure I stay inside the "grid".

Currently I'm just zigzagging in a variety of ways (like described above) and overall I'm not running across too much overlap except places like the middle of the square, of course.

Ziggy - yeah, I hope they come up with something better like waypoints, but until then, we might as well think of something that works ;)
 

dognosh

dognosh
I worked out that the number of stars in a 100LY cube varies from 5000(average density) to 40000(high density) , and even more in super high density regions !
Doing just 5000 systems (and some of the bodies in it) will take ages, I hope you chose a low density area with less than 2500 stars ?
 

ThoroughlyLostExplorer

ThoroughlyLostExplorer
I'd be generally interested in mapping a contiguous "bunch" of stars. One problem I'm facing is figuring out just how stars are numbered within a procedural sector. It somehow doesn't seem to be forming little cubes when I look at the letter codes. Do you happen to know that?

My own interest in these things would be statistics, e.g. telling which sector has which ratio of stars, planets etc. by extrapolating from a random sample. Getting a random sample is somewhat difficult for me (I am probably just clumsy with our wonderful galaxy map), but grabbing all stars from a certain block, sphere or sector subindex range and then normalizing star count would seem a way to do it. Like counting a seabird colony by putting a circular hoop over any bunch of nests and then counting those inside.

I'd hope I could figure something out if I understood how they are numbered within the sector.

Best,

TLE
 

RMORTI

RMORTI
Ziggy Stardust said:
FD listening to the explorer community and introducing way points?

Nah, that would be silly.
Click to expand...

Or being able to plot say 4 favorites which are always visible on the map. Then you could mark the corners of your search box. Or you could always have your distance references e.g. SOL, favorite planet, etc.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
dognosh said:
I worked out that the number of stars in a 100LY cube varies from 5000(average density) to 40000(high density) , and even more in super high density regions !
Doing just 5000 systems (and some of the bodies in it) will take ages, I hope you chose a low density area with less than 2500 stars ?
Click to expand...


The area I'm in definitely doesn't have 500 systems! :D I hadn't even realized I was in a low density area until recently (like yesterday!)

Maybe next time I'll do a higher density, but only map out 10 light years ;)
 
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domaq

domaq
If you've ever played Dragon Age: Inquisition, there are mini-games where you have to connect dots to make a picture without doubling back on a line you've already created. It seems like someone very good at creating algorithms for filling matrixes would be able to create a simulation to find the optimum scan pattern given your jump range, estimated route plotting histograms and other fancy statistical terms.
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I am not that person :)
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If I were to go about doing this, I would map out the coordinates, do an economical route for each side of the cube. Since your MF-1 Sector is less than 1000Ly across, I would keep track of the stars used in the outline and then start connecting them with economical routes. Upper left front corner to lower right bottom corner, until I had worked through the permutations of corner-to-corner. You could then start single hopping to un mapped stars, OR, pick one side of the cube and start going across to the other side with more economical routes.
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While this may not be much easier, it MAY reduce your record keeping and at least give you a pattern to follow.
 

Allitnil

Allitnil
I would have thought that the biggest problem with mapping any cube would be knowing for certain that you had got the lot. There would always be that nagging doubt that maybe you had missed one...

An alternative approach might be to map a virtual area based on the system names. eg, all of the systems starting with "<sector name> A" for modest density, or "<sector name> AB" for higher density. I think these should all be within a fairly compact area and you can list them all and therefore know for certain that you have mapped every one.
 

domaq

domaq
That would work for some sectors but then you have the pesky HIP systems and others identified by 20th century humans to contend with...
 
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