Once a year we look at the current state of the Traveller Map and the changes that happened over the last 12 months. (
Past Overviews)
This year starts on a somber note, having lost some luminaries in the Traveller community, most notably Don McKinney who was heading up the Traveller 5 Second Survey project to produce an official dataset for the OTU. Don was responsible for sending me updates for the official data used on the map, and shepherding data through a review process. The process included dusting off fan-favorite sectors previously considered apocryphal, reviewing submissions by other Traveller writers and referees, and getting feedback after making the preliminary data available via the map. Don will be missed, and the T5SS process will definitely take a bit to get back on track.
Thanks primarily to Don's efforts, 2015 was a year of tremendous growth and refinement in the official dataset. And momentum was started that has continued since his death. I've delayed posting this because there is a lot of work coming down the pipeline, and it's tempting to wait for it to land. But let's get to the picture - or
pictures this time, of what's in there now:
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| Data Overview |
The usual round-up of changes in 2015:
- Cultural Regions/Member States/Reservations called out in the Imperium, Solomani Confederation (work in progress), and Zhodani Consulate (WIP)
- Luretiir!girr, Gur and Un'k!!k'ng placeholders by Jim Kundert added (WIP)
- Tienspevnekr reworked by Jim Kundert
- Armory Cluster added
- Aldebaran, Neworld and Langere sectors by Randy Dorman added
- Caesillian sector (well, one world) by Marc Miller added
- Land Grant sectors now under T5SS review: Far Frontiers, Vanguard Reaches, The Beyond, and Theta Borealis
- Trailing sectors now under T5SS review: Spica, Gateway and Crucis Margin
- Coreward sectors now under T5SS review: Tuglikki and Provence (David Drazul), Windhorn (John G. Wood), Meshan, Mendan and Amdukan (Mike Mikesh)
It's useful to toggle the "Dim Unofficial Data" setting to see what's in the T5SS review pipeline:
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| Unofficial Data Dimmed |
I've also added a few overlay options to visualize stuff for the T5SS reviewers. Droyne/Chirper world locations:
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| Droyne Worlds ★ / Chirper Worlds ☆ |
Populations - the area of the circle is proportional to the population of the world, so you can only really see worlds with 10 billion or more sophonts. The large circle to Trailing is the (possibly apocryphal) Nooq Sphere, with a larger population than many entire sectors. This also shows where unofficial data may need some work:
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| Population Overlay |
And here's an overlay highlighting world Importance (a T5 stat derived from the UWP):
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| Importance Overlay |
One last picture, that compares coverage versus the area from the original Imperium poster:
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| Charted Space |
I'm sure there's more data to come soon, but I need to publish this before January runs out.
Happy 2016!
Ω
