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Solar System Atlas

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D351 D351's picture
Solar System Atlas
So, I did a search on the forums for "maps" and saw some interesting results but nothing exactly as I'm describing here. I would find it very interesting to have a pdf or book that compiles all of the maps from the setting so far. What would be even better is if it came with scale maps for the solar system, then page numbers labeled on each of the major regions that direct to those smaller maps, potentially continuing this pattern down to specific habs if they have maps. Added to this could be maps for important places through the gates. I tried looking for an atlas of the solar system from outside of EP, but the only one I found was an expensive book published by NASA and certainly no electronic version. I mostly just think that this would be a cool thing to have. It would also make a very useful website so that a user could simply click on an orbit to zoom in.
D351, POEE Chaplin of the Legion of Dynamic Discord
jKaiser jKaiser's picture
Other than the solar system
Other than the solar system maps in the books depicting the current alignment of the planets and the relations between the Pandora Gates and exoplanets, there aren't any maps in the books. Not in the DnD-esque sense, anyway. Though I'd recommend looking into Universe Sandbox on Steam. I use it a lot whenever I need to get a sense of how everything's laid out or for visuals from the surface of this or that planet. I've been kicking around the idea in my head to model and add in as many named locations from the books as possible, but haven't really had time to put into it yet.
D351 D351's picture
jKaiser wrote:Other than the
jKaiser wrote:
Other than the solar system maps in the books depicting the current alignment of the planets and the relations between the Pandora Gates and exoplanets...
Yeah, those are what I'm talking about, but I'd like to see more of them. Actual DnD style maps would be cool, but what I'm interested in is the orbital paths of the different objects in the solar system and then zoomed to show the stuff orbiting those objects. Even a cookie-cutter depiction of lagrange points for each planet with what stuff is in each point would be helpful. This would be even better if each map had a second map of the same space from a 90-degree difference to give a 3d spatial understanding of the area.
D351, POEE Chaplin of the Legion of Dynamic Discord
jKaiser jKaiser's picture
https://www.youtube.com/watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7j75lThw-M Universe Sandbox. Worth the money. As for what you're looking for, nothing like that exists to my knowledge, but it would be a damn cool project.
Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture
Not EP related, but the board
Not EP related, but the board from the board game High Frontier has a very detailed solar system map with radiation zones, orbital paths and a whole lot more. It works pretty well as an EP map.
Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture
A few books I can recommend
A few books I can recommend for getting a good feel for the Solar system: http://www.dk.com/us/9781465424648-the-planets/ - I don't own this one but I recall it was informative if a bit general for my tastes. http://www.amazon.com/The-Solar-System-Kelly-Beatty/dp/0521645875 - 15 years old but a much more informative read. The most scientific book here but not dry at all. http://www.amazon.com/Solar-System-Exploration-Planets-Heavenly/dp/15791... - another very good recent title, has a lot of pretty up to date information . It would be very nice to see a full atlas for EP . I've compiled a relatively complete list of habitats and their pertinent details for my own amusement. That eventually spun off into my size comparison thread , which I'm working on improving - gotta get away from the pencil art :)
Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!
ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture
jKaiser wrote:https://www
jKaiser wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7j75lThw-M Universe Sandbox. Worth the money. As for what you're looking for, nothing like that exists to my knowledge, but it would be a damn cool project.
:( you did not link my video where i show off how big and complicated the jovian system is but yes Universe sand box is a great tool for ep. Although i recall someone making an EP plug in for a program called celestia but do not recall much about it.
rootoftwo rootoftwo's picture
One I made earlier...
Hello all. I too have trawled the mesh for more visual information. I found the following very helpful: http://eclipsephase.com/map-ep-solar-system-info-heavy-maps http://imgur.com/gallery/m8ucIbS http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee210/xmadedx/Eclipse%20Phase/EP_map_... I then decided to homebrew my own based on the above. I was not going for scientific accuracy - for that you're better off with ORCACommander's approach I was going for more of a "London Underground" thing - clarity over accuracy. Nothing is to scale, there are likely too many noob errors and definitely omissions. I'm no expert. Anyway, I've put a couple of versions at different resolutions in a folder on DropBox in case anyone can use them. I've put the Adobe Illustrator CS6 file there too in case you want to remix (or fix it) or if you just want to add stuff from your game. Its 135 MB. I've put the font I used and its licensing info in there too. Cheers.
kindalas kindalas's picture
rootoftwo wrote:Hello all.
rootoftwo wrote:
Hello all. I too have trawled the mesh for more visual information. I found the following very helpful: http://eclipsephase.com/map-ep-solar-system-info-heavy-maps http://imgur.com/gallery/m8ucIbS http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee210/xmadedx/Eclipse%20Phase/EP_map_... I then decided to homebrew my own based on the above. I was not going for scientific accuracy - for that you're better off with ORCACommander's approach I was going for more of a "London Underground" thing - clarity over accuracy. Nothing is to scale, there are likely too many noob errors and definitely omissions. I'm no expert. Anyway, I've put a couple of versions at different resolutions in a folder on DropBox in case anyone can use them. I've put the Adobe Illustrator CS6 file there too in case you want to remix (or fix it) or if you just want to add stuff from your game. Its 135 MB. I've put the font I used and its licensing info in there too. Cheers.
The Vulcanoids orbit between mercury and the sun you have them in the same orbital zone as venus. Locus is in the Trojans of Jupiter rather then orbiting Jupiter. But other then those two minor nitpicks it looks really good. Kindalas
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rootoftwo rootoftwo's picture
Kindalas Patch Applied
V/2011-Caldwell/Vulcanoid Gate moved. Locus relocated. New files in box. Cheers.
Lazarus Lazarus's picture
Celestia
ORCACommander wrote:
. . . Although i recall someone making an EP plug in for a program called celestia but do not recall much about it.
I was just looking into setting up something for this. There had been some discussion a few years back but it seems to have sort of stalled out. At its core it would be fairly simple to use Celestia. It isn't a matter of plugins. Instead there are just simple text files at the heart of it that say things such as 'this is the name of the object', 'here's the orbital data', and 'here's the model to use'.
My artificially intelligent spaceship is psychic. Your argument it invalid.
jackgraham jackgraham's picture
jKaiser wrote:
jKaiser wrote:
Though I'd recommend looking into Universe Sandbox on Steam. I use it a lot whenever I need to get a sense of how everything's laid out or for visuals from the surface of this or that planet. I've been kicking around the idea in my head to model and add in as many named locations from the books as possible, but haven't really had time to put into it yet.
Seconded! Universe Sandbox is the only thing on Steam that I can actually classify as "productive." :) Once you get down to the planetary scale, Google Mars, &c., are also awesome.
J A C K   G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth!   http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham
jKaiser jKaiser's picture
I've also drastically changed
I've also drastically changed my perception of how things work in terms of space behavior through Kerbal Space Program. Obviously a bit goofier than EP, but it's inspired a few encounters and entire storylines just from the realities of space travel. Not to mention made me have persistent microgravity/vaclife culture clades in my games. Sure we evolved for it, but man, planetary gravity is such a bitch. Atmosphere too.
Lazarus Lazarus's picture
Orbiter
Actually, if you want to play around to get an idea about the difficulties of space flight I would really recommend Orbiter. Kerbal is a fun program but Orbiter is more accurate. Of course that can work against it as well because it can be such a pain to do things. On the other hand Orbiter is free. Similarly, Celestia will probably produce more accurate results than USB and is free, but likewise it is a little bit trickier to set up (although not terribly so). Celestia will also do a nice job supporting stuff on the planetary scale, although there are probably still some things you will want to do with Google Mars and the like. If anyone had a USB file to send me I could probably convert most of its data to Celestia for those people who lack USB.
My artificially intelligent spaceship is psychic. Your argument it invalid.