commodoreofchaos
03/02/11 03:14 AM
24.218.135.1
|
so after lurking and harvesting the forums here i figured id make a post that i think could be rather useful.
i have a few questions (as im sure some of you do as well) about small issues and i guess general nitpicking about things id like clarification on, also feel free to fire away and maybe we can answer each others questions!
1st off: Clan first names. Whats the deal? And by that i mean what are the naming conventions for naming trueborn warriors. I understand the Bloodname system, but where do the Ulric's and Kael's and Trent's get their names?
2nd: Are there any projections of the Inner Sphere that include a Z-axis. Ive gone through all my maps and i cant seem to find any info or maps and while im no astronomer im pretty sure Terra is not on the same Z-axis as any number of the stars out there.
sooo yea and and all thoughts are welcome on the matters and feel free to chime in with other random bits like that!
|
Cray
03/02/11 08:37 AM
147.160.136.10
|
Quote:
1st off: Clan first names. Whats the deal? And by that i mean what are the naming conventions for naming trueborn warriors. I understand the Bloodname system, but where do the Ulric's and Kael's and Trent's get their names?
There are no naming conventions for first names amongst Clan warriors. The scientists overseeing their vat growth make shit up, same as parents today.
Quote:
2nd: Are there any projections of the Inner Sphere that include a Z-axis. Ive gone through all my maps and i cant seem to find any info or maps and while im no astronomer im pretty sure Terra is not on the same Z-axis as any number of the stars out there.
No, absolutely not. BT's star maps have stayed firmly two-dimensional (even when that produces some bizarre effects.)
3D only appears in maps of individual star systems; the standard zenith/nadir jump points are above/below the star's poles, while planets mostly circle stars' equators.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
03/02/11 08:53 AM
173.141.20.102
|
Quote:
2nd: Are there any projections of the Inner Sphere that include a Z-axis. Ive gone through all my maps and i cant seem to find any info or maps and while im no astronomer im pretty sure Terra is not on the same Z-axis as any number of the stars out there.
I would assume that has a great deal to do with K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Also have you tried to show a three dimension map on a two dimensional piece of paper? Yes, it can be done. But its very difficult and unless you know how to read it all that it would do is confuse the person that is looking at it.
And lastly the more of the galaxy that you show the less the Z-axis is relevant the farther you get from the core of the galaxy.
I would say that KISS was really the only reason that the Z-axis was never shown by the game designers. But the other two reasons would support that the Z-axis not being used.
Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
|
KitK
03/02/11 12:20 PM
128.233.13.12
|
Quote:
Also have you tried to show a three dimension map on a two dimensional piece of paper?
Technically, every map of any place on Earth is a 2-dimensional representation of a 3-D object. The 3D to 2D difficulty is in the curvature not the elevation (z-axis). Elevation only gets hard when you try looking at something from an angle. Otherwise, elevation is mapped with contours lines, relief shading, hypsometric tinting, hashering, triangular irregular networks, and probably a couple of things I am forgetting.
I half buy the K.I.S.S. argument. But the mere combined physical weight of my TW, TM, S-Ops, and T-Ops books sort of stands in contradiction. Still, I think you are right about the perceived relevance of the z-axis at small scales (large areas) - based on what is mapped we could probably expect less variation in z than x & y. Of course, what is mapped is political boundaries/areas of influence, where z-axis isn't as important as seeing what belongs to who. Where it would be important is in calculating jump distances, especially for a feel of realism when playing in space. Somthing that looks 20 lyrs. away on the current maps may actually be 45 lyrs. But like you say, KISS it and get to the fun.
I think I saw something once about the overall length width depth. When I get a chance I'll have to look for it.
|
Cray
03/02/11 02:26 PM
147.160.136.10
|
I suspect - I've never had confirmed - the first maps (1980s) were flat because of convenience, and it was an industry standard practice for scifi games (e.g., Traveller and Star Frontiers used 2D star maps).
After that, I know it was inertia/unwillingness to make a huge change to the setting. Once you've written a half dozen 250-page books that describe centuries of war on 2D star maps (e.g., flat, 2D pincer movements) and merchant ship routes along 2D star maps, it's a huge rewrite for the setting to try to make the map 3D.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
Christopher_Perkins
03/02/11 07:51 PM
138.162.128.54
|
does anyone have the FASA Star Trek games...
is the Placement the same or similar on the stars that would be shared?
Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
|
commodoreofchaos
03/04/11 04:37 AM
24.218.135.1
|
Lol the naming thing i pretty much guessed the same thing, i just thought it was a random bit of honor / power to give to the freebirths after all, but they are pretty creative.
Secondly, i do understand the difficult nature of drawing 3D things on paper, but i was thinking there might be a cutaway of the universe on its side. But it would be a whole world of confusion trying to add that to everything else. I also feel like the tight clustering of certain inhabited worlds adds to the illusion because some of them seem impossibly close, which could (to me at least) indicate some sort of vertical aspect to it. But hey KISS works for me as well.
|
Cray
03/04/11 08:47 AM
147.160.136.10
|
Quote:
I also feel like the tight clustering of certain inhabited worlds adds to the illusion because some of them seem impossibly close, which could (to me at least) indicate some sort of vertical aspect to it.
It's more a factor of scale. The map of the Inner Sphere is usually on a pretty large scale.
For example, Terra and Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Centauri) generally appear to be almost overlapping on the typical Inner Sphere map, but they're 4.3 light-years apart. It's the disadvantage of using an 8.5x11-inch map for something with 2000 points of interest.
And Inner Sphere maps hide 99.9% of all stars - you only see the inhabited systems. There's about 1.2-2 million stars in the Inner Sphere with an average separation of several light-years. If you tried to cram all those into an 8.5x11-inch circle representing 1000 light-years, the map would be illegible.
The only place where there's a close packing problem is in the handful of stellar clusters like the Pleides, where you'll have tens or hundreds of thousands of stars in the space of a light-year and several inhabited planets.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
|
|
Extra information
|
2 registered and 150 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: Nic Jansma, Cray, Frabby, BobTheZombie
Print Topic
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is enabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Topic views: 6281
|
|
|
|
|
|
|