Exploring EM

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 11:36 pm

I was going to do some exploring to try and find new systems.
All of the older spreadsheet files and Evometrics show few systems above or below +- 10 SY and VERY few above/below +- 30 SY.
So I took off in the North-East quadrant (Alliance so maybe more Fair & Good systems to find) - and since I can't be in two places at once I decided to head in the -SY depths - Dive! Dive!.

I 1st tried setting a destination of SY:-30 that didn't yields much so changed it to -60, then -150, then on to -300 and over.
I only found a couple of systems (based on findind stars).

I was getting very frustrated has heck. Oh I would encounter (in Nav Map) an System Change and frequently they would be Good and Fair though some were Hostile - BUT, (aside from the couple mentioned) every star Light I change course to investigate led me "to the surface" so to speak - aka upwards towards +- 4 SY. I'm talking over half a dozen systems (aka Nav Map) and convering an SX & SZ range of 0 - 800 & 0 - 1300 respectively.
Whenever my ship are heading down to -SY the star Light would be from behind me. I was really getting discouraged.

So I had to take a pause for thought and contact Vice.
I'd come to the conclusion that EM was not a Globular universe as I had anticipated but an Elliptical Universe with the concentration of systems toward the Vertical Center - which Vice pretty much confirmed.

So if any of you guys are thinking of exploring the Depths or Heavens of EM, don't expect to find much and expect to spend a LOT of time traveling and searching and following wild goose chases (star Light) which in the majority of cases are going to lead you back to the Vertical Center, give or take an average of +- 8 sectors or so.

That's not to say there are still not a LOT of undiscovered systems - I fould several new ones not in Evometrics. But I don't think there's going to be the HUGE number there would otherwise be if EM was a Globular Universe rather than an Elliptical one.

I'm still rather disappointed, though I don't know why. I mean, what good does it do to discover new systems when there is no practical way to build them up, establish trade, and share them with others. That's the real dissapointing aspect.
I truly wish there was a Wormhole Generator as part of the game.
I and I'm sure others, would like much better to have a Startrek type future environment instead of a very limited Stargate type future environment.
And it would be so much more exciting to be able to establish more trade route options rather than just limited to the Gated Systems.

And while everyone might not immediately have a Wormhole Generator, anyone who did could have the ability to have friends Form on him and travel with him.

Also a Wormhole Generator is not the be all, end all of traveling. It's stll a HUGE unverse and you still have to find the uncharted systems.

IMO a Wormhole Generator is exactly one of the things EM needs to bring in and keep new players.
Discovering new systems in a Practical and Useful way so that you can make use of them.

AcePalarum · Post by **AcePalarum** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:08 am

I have found systems ranging from SY = -46 to SY = 38, so it's a bit more spread-out vertically than it could be. But yeah, I had noticed that everything so far is +/- 50 sectors of the ecliptic. I still jump out to 100 sectors up/down when I know I am near a planet, just in case.

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:17 am

Ace is pretty much on the money. Most of the star systems I've found, using SeeJay's Trilateration Tool, are in the +/- 40 sector range. You can find the Tool here:

http://evochron2.junholt.se/main/planetsearch3.htm

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:00 am

Nothing wrong with a "flat" universe. Take a look at the real universe charts. It's pretty much the same.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:39 pm

From post: 180445, Topic: tid=12077, author=SeeJay wrote:Nothing wrong with a "flat" universe. Take a look at the real universe charts. It's pretty much the same.

I'm not sayng anything is wrong with it - just that it would have been nice to give a bit more information in the manual as to the actual shape so folks wouldn't waste time (of which we all know it takes a lot of) looking in places for stuff that isn't there.

That's my one pet peave with EM, everyone only wants to give out the most basic of information and leave people too much in the dark for no reason.
The info in the manual leads one to expect EM is a huge globular sandbox, which it is, but it would also be nice to know not to waste time looking beyond +- 40 to 60 SY and expect to find the same kind of stuff.
If one was leaving the Milky Way to explore, one knows the shape of said galaxy and this not to take off in the far vertical reaches to look of things - just common sense.

That's why I wish there was a real 3D map of EM - rotatable and able to position within it and rotate arond that point of origin. That would be a great map.

[Edited on 9-10-2015 by PaulB]

Post by **DaveK** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:17 pm

From post: 180468, Topic: tid=12077, author=PaulB wrote:
From post: 180445, Topic: tid=12077, author=SeeJay wrote:Nothing wrong with a "flat" universe. Take a look at the real universe charts. It's pretty much the same.
I'm not sayng anything is wrong with it - just that it would have been nice to give a bit more information in the manual as to the actual shape so folks wouldn't waste time (of which we all know it takes a lot of) looking in places for stuff that isn't there.

That's my one pet peave with EM, everyone only wants to give out the most basic of information and leave people too much in the dark for no reason.
The info in the manual leads one to expect EM is a huge globular sandbox, which it is, but it would also be nice to know not to waste time looking beyond +- 40 to 60 SY and expect to find the same kind of stuff.
If one was leaving the Milky Way to explore, one knows the shape of said galaxy and this not to take off in the far vertical reaches to look of things - just common sense.

That's why I wish there was a real 3D map of EM - rotatable and able to position within it and rotate arond that point of origin. That would be a great map.

[Edited on 9-10-2015 by PaulB]

Astronomers don't actually know the shape of our galaxy - they look at the others and make a best guess from what they can deduce from being inside ours. We think it's spiral but there's a growing push towards it being a barred spiral. It wasn't that long ago that we thought the fuzzy blobs in the sky (Andromeda for example) were clouds within our galaxy and that what we saw was the universe. We now know it's another - distant - whole new galaxy! An there are more galaxies out there are stars in our own galaxy

The map given is just the gated systems. There are other systems outside that that have appeared in previous games (Lost Rucker, Wolf to mention just a couple). There are a few hundred uncharted systems within the core. There's even another alien species, flying saucers and all, that you can meet within the Evoverse core. Take care though - they're not that friendly

Explore outward and just like in RL, it's much of the same. As stated in the Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Universe - 'space is big . . . no, really big!' and in RL there are a limited number of new things to find. Cosmology is about the how's? and why's? more than the what's. There are lots (but not an infinite number) of things to find in the Evoverse. If they were all 'known' and reported then there wouldn't be the satisfaction of finding them! Or the reason to play the game.

Have you landed on Earth? Seen the floating trees? Seen the atmospheric asteroids? Jumped through the gate in an asteroid cave? Docked in the station inside an asteroid cave? Seen the station on the planet surface? Seen the station embedded in an asteroid? Seen the alien technology? Explored the wrecks in orbit or in an asteroid cave or on a planet's surface? Have you developed the technology and economics in your own system and created a good trade route within it?

When Vice created EM II he added many more systems above and below the galactic plane - just ask AI pilots and you'll get info.

But basically there are a limited set of things that exist and can exist, both in RL and in EM. The fun (in both) is what you choose to do with that info!

As for your map - why not gather the data to create it - there's bound to be software out there (and probably people within this community to help) that will let you create your dream in 3D and hopefully share your dream with the rest of us.