Networking the universe

General discussion (space-sim gaming, astronomy, and sci-fi entertainment in general, etc.).
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Nigel_Strange
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Networking the universe

Post by Nigel_Strange »

Mathematicians provide a model of the universe with various networking strategies in a 3d model that you can play with.

http://cosmicweb.barabasilab.com/viz/#1

Certainly worse ways you can spend an hour.
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DaveK
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Networking the universe

Post by DaveK »

Perhaps we can persuade Vice (or anyone) to add the format to our overall nav map! Anyway, it's great fun, especially if you back up to the home site for the background info! Thanks for finding and posting it, Nigel

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Nigel_Strange
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Networking the universe

Post by Nigel_Strange »

I was imagining a stargate system, and the thing that stood out on these reflections is that there would be some mathematical way to organize the gates for maximum efficiency. It would have to take into account distances, but also the population sizes.

A good arrangement would probably have some major traffic hubs, with spokes going to the less populated areas. The hubs might have 10 or 20 gates in close proximity (they would have to be marked well, so you don't go into the wrong one).

Terminus (an old space sim that most people here might not remember) had a gate system just for the Sol system. The gates had to be dialed in: a single gate could have multiple exits, so you had to use your onboard computer to select your exit. The downside of this arrangement is the potential for bottlenecks around a single gate.

Terminus was interesting in that the ships were not designed for long distance flight. They were little more than shuttles. They could move at low speeds and had some small weapons capability, but the only method of traveling long distances relied on the gates.

The Evochron ship have much better long range capability, but we still use the gates for convenience.

A hub might have the gates arranged around a kind of invisible sphere, with the gates "pointing" at the distant locations to which they connect.

A space station would probably be near this hub (but not in the center of it, as you would not put a hotel right in the middle of a traffic intersection). Or you might have a collection of stations that serve different purposes. With all the traffic near a major hub, you would need a lot of places to land, and the stations might therefore be specialized...or more likely, you might have a single station with many different areas within (to centralize resources). In wartime, though, multiple stations might be wiser because of resource redundancy: if foes blow up one station, you would have others where people could survive, with separate air, food, power systems.
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Networking the universe

Post by matchbox2022 »

That's very ED like, I'm sure he thought about the map, but think of the poor low end computers he uses as a point that can run the game still.
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