New Galaxy Map filter : Universal Cartographics

[Deleted member 38366]

Been thinking about what I miss the most in the Galaxy Map Filter.

And it's a rather simple one : Universal Cartographics

Filter Options :

• UC has not received any Data for this System / Color = Grey (indicating it's pristine/entirely unexplored)
• UC already has some Data for a System / Color = Cyan (indicating there's untagged and/or unmapped bodies in a semi-explored System)
• UC already has full Data for a System / Color = Blue (indicating a fully explored System, nothing new left to tag and/or map)

That's be a very neat filter to have.

 

[T.J.Kirk]

excellent idea, I would also add the possibility to trace routes in manual.

 

[Lestat]

Maybe look at this thread. How much of the Galaxy has been explored?

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Maybe look at this thread. How much of the Galaxy has been explored?

Yes, only a miniscule fraction was discovered so far. But it's 100% unorganized, greatly helping that figure.
You might have a look at a certain area of space - and you have no idea if it's pristine, semi-explored or an over-explored Tourist spot.
Forum knowledge for common areas will answer a few of those questions, other 3rd party tools might give a clue as well if other Explorers used them as well - but that's about it.

Allowing Players to make a qualified decision where to head - or not - is the key.
Currently you might take interest in a 45000LY distant cluster of stars, head there... only to find out the entire thing is 100% Explored. You just wasted 45000LY worth of your time.
That's my whole point.

Have an ability to "fill in the blanks" or locate pristine areas or patches of space instead of "nope, that was a dud" and waste your time.

 

[Lestat]

Yes, only a miniscule fraction was discovered so far. But it's 100% unorganized, greatly helping that figure.
You might have a look at a certain area of space - and you have no idea if it's pristine, semi-explored or an over-explored Tourist spot.
Forum knowledge for common areas will answer a few of those questions, other 3rd party tools might give a clue as well if other Explorers used them as well - but that's about it.

Allowing Players to make a qualified decision where to head - or not - is the key.
Currently you might take interest in a 45000LY distant cluster of stars, head there... only to find out the entire thing is 100% Explored. You just wasted 45000LY worth of your time.
That's my whole point.

Have an ability to "fill in the blanks" or locate pristine areas or patches of space instead of "nope, that was a dud" and waste your time.

You know a little common Sense help a lot. Let look at the Tourist Spots. A lot of players want to jump jump jump if anything they might use the discovery scanner but nothing more. They are on a timer and they pick the most Direct route. It should not worry you.

Let took at the most Travel areas Like we can look at Sol, Colonia or Sag A* Beable Point and nebulas and Neutron highway and we know the most direct route has been explored. How do you use common sense to explore those major areas? The Answer Never follows the most direct route.

Let take Sol and Sag A* which is 25,900 LY away from each other. When I was heading to Sag A*. There two ways of doing this.

1 I offset my course by 1000 LY or more away from the traffic areas then fly 25,900 LY (Not directly to your objective) found a point 1000 LY close to the destination I am heading to then fly to your destination. So From Sol to Sag A* 99% of the stars I explored has never been touched by anyone But I am flying in 3 locations. So my Trip might add 2,000 LY or more LY to the most direct route and I avoid high traffic areas.

2 Now the two Point travel. You randomly pick and know it would not be a travelled much. So that Sol and Saga A* You might add 5,000 or more LY in travel more the better. Avoid Nebulas and neutron stars and such. You might only have first Explored 95% to 98% of first explored. It is still not bad.

Remember we have 400,000,000,000 systems. Only 0.0075 has been explored. It has been for 5 years.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

You know a little common Sense help a lot. Let look at the Tourist Spots. A lot of players want to jump jump jump if anything they might use the discovery scanner but nothing more. They are on a timer and they pick the most Direct route. It should not worry you.

Let took at the most Travel areas Like we can look at Sol, Colonia or Sag A* Beable Point and nebulas and Neutron highway and we know the most direct route has been explored. How do you use common sense to explore those major areas? The Answer Never follows the most direct route.

Let take Sol and Sag A* which is 25,900 LY away from each other. When I was heading to Sag A*. There two ways of doing this.

1 I offset my course by 1000 LY or more away from the traffic areas then fly 25,900 LY (Not directly to your objective) found a point 1000 LY close to the destination I am heading to then fly to your destination. So From Sol to Sag A* 99% of the stars I explored has never been touched by anyone But I am flying in 3 locations. So my Trip might add 2,000 LY or more LY to the most direct route and I avoid high traffic areas.

2 Now the two Point travel. You randomly pick and know it would not be a travelled much. So that Sol and Saga A* You might add 5,000 or more LY in travel more the better. Avoid Nebulas and neutron stars and such. You might only have first Explored 95% to 98% of first explored. It is still not bad.

Remember we have 400,000,000,000 systems. Only 0.0075 has been explored. It has been for 5 years.

Yes, that's obvious. But those aren't the places I talk about.
What I'm talking about is :

• what about that area 3500LY from SOL and at -550LY below the Galactic plane?
• what about the area 150LY around my CMDRs position (pick any)
• what about this hard-to-reach System that's only reachable via Neutron jumps on the fringe of the outer arm?
• has Allitnil already tagged this ultra-remote outreach System I see on the Galaxy Map?
• has this Nebula (pick any) already been 100% explored?
• has this 2MASS Sector i just stumbled across already been 100% explored?

You see there's tons of questions where common sense doesn't help. It - at best - gives a probability especially to experienced Explorers but it's still a hit & miss, pure reliance on luck even after querying all 3rd party tools.

And that - travel xxxxx LY only to find out it's already fully Explored - is what I'm talking about. For every single place in the Galaxy.
No more of that, no more wasted time due to simple lack of very basic Information.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

That's be a very neat filter to have.

Agreed. If it's at all practical, this would be great to have.

I suspect it's not actually practical - all the existing filters are either:
- based on a very early part of the procedural generation (the primary star class)
- only relevant in inhabited space (relatively small data transfer and caching needed to store the exceptions)
- dealing with a relatively small data set (the visited systems filter)

With probably about 250 million systems visited and rising (EDSM * 6 seems a reasonable guess based on other data), a basic list of just the 64-bit IDs of all visited systems would be about 2GB in size. That's far too big to store the whole thing locally, but would require some very fancy work to do selective network downloads of it when someone tries to apply it to a 20kLY route plot, or even is just scrolling through the core looking for places to go.


Still, you could partially try it now - there's a mechanism to import a list of systems from 3rd-party tools into your own visited systems filter, in case you reinstall - and you can download the list of known systems from EDSM. Just have a backup ready...

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Valid points, I remember purchasing UC Data in Colonia was a very time-consuming task as it de-seeded every Object in every System within 20LY to populate and price the available Systems.

I guess the System would work best when UC bit flags were set (almost no de-seeding required).
At worst, that'd stiil leave two Filters (UC has any Data/UC has no Data).

It could be limited to smaller Bubbles as well, generated by a numerical limiter as the bubble of viewed Systems is populated from reference/center to the outside.

 

[nanite2000]

I agree with this suggestion. Having the option to not waste time unnecessarily ending up in systems that have already been explored would be great for explorers seeking unexplored systems.

The data is already there with UC, and a Discovery Scan reveals this. Let's bring that data forward and have it visible as a filter on the galaxy map.

+1 OP!