M.O.U.S. - Universe Mapping Aid

Earl · Post by **Earl** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:19 am

Ok, so I decided to make a map of the universe, much like a few other are doing, but to do it in a more lo-fi way. And I had the idea, how about a spreadsheet?
So that's what I have here, I'm calling it a Map Of Unreasonable Size.
It covers SZ 10,000 through -10,000 and SX 10,000 through -10,000 (Forty million cells). Note that's not even half of what the universe really offers, and it will still attempt to give your computer a hernia.
For the SZ, I could add as many rows as I want, but it looks like Open Office has a limit of just over 1000 columns- So, I have the map broken into 20 vertical sheets of 1000 sectors each.
Why open office, though? It has a Freeze feature which can lock the first row and column on your screen, making for easy navigating!
There's a legend on the far right to help you get started, but this version is blank. I would love to have help filling it in with goodies.

https://www.yousendit.com/download/ZGJm ... NEt4dnc9PQ

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 6:19 am

Hello Earl.

Nice start!;) It's an enormous job to fill in the "blanks":P
You could take coords from my site if you like. They are presented in a table-format as well as a map.
(http://evochron.junholt.se) if you haven't found it yet.

If I understand your sheet right, you have one cell for 1 sector. There are often more than one object
in a sector. How do you present that in the sheet?

Keep up the good work:P

Earl · Post by **Earl** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:34 am

Yep, it's one cell per sector.
I made this to help me find planets and stars so I'm working with a bit of a hierarchy.
Planet first, then star, and then whatever else. I just fill in a color for that sector. I don't see any reason why you couldn't place colors in the cells next to a star though to represent objects nearby, it wouldn't get too confusing

xingbing1 · Post by **xingbing1** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 6:50 pm

There's probably a better way of doing it than that - create separate spreadsheets for different systems (most of yours is going to be just empty space, and the bits that aren't will be too crowded with data!). Then link these spreadsheets up. Would save a lot of space. I take it this will only be a very 'zoomed-out' map - i.e. it will only be displaying where a system is really, and not listing every hidden container?

Earl · Post by **Earl** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:59 pm

Like I said it's Lo Fi, and designed to find systems and planets- splitting it will only make it harder to identify where those borders are.
You can zoom in all the way to see just a few cells at a time no problem...
There probably are better ways to do exactly what you want to do- You'll just have to come up with that yourself

.
What do you mean by linking spreadsheets, though- can I click a cell and be transported, something like that?

xingbing1 · Post by **xingbing1** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:05 pm

I didn't mean that, I just meant that you could have them 'linked' insofar as it tells you where that gate goes, and then you then have to go and find the right spreadsheet. Having said that, there's almost certainly something that could do the whole link-thing, perhaps using a different program. Heck, you could try doing it in powerpoint, and having buttons that link to the right slide!