Dotmaps/Placeholders

I recently introduced a trade code (Dotmap) - yes, parentheses included - for worlds where we only have position and allegiance information and no other system details, i.e. a dotmap, like those found in various DGP publications. If present, the world is rendered with an asterisk (*) for the world symbol, with no other details. This same symbology is used in Adventure 4: Leviathan for worlds in the Outrim Void that the players are expected to explore for fun and profit. This has been added to the map legend (in the new UI).

UPDATE: Support for (Dotmap) was dropped in June 2014. Use ? for unknown fields in UWP and PBG instead e.g. ???????-? ??? and see Foreven sector data for an example.

I implemented this for Luretiir!girr which I recently reconstructed from a dotmap. 

I also went back and imposed this on sectors I'd reconstructed from DGP's Megatraveller Alien: Solomani and Aslan: Ahkiweahi, Aktifao, Etakhasoa, Fahreahluis, Heakhafaw, Hfiywitir, Irlaftalea, Kefiykhta, Ohieraoi, Teahloarifu, Uistilrao, Yahehwe. Those sectors were totally randomly generated with no data checking, and I felt bad having them on the site. To make it clear that they were really uncharted and ready for someone else to detail, I removed the random data and marked the worlds as (Dotmap) in the data.

There are a few rough edges - I should filter these out in the data display and the booklet generator should add support for these.

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Cursors and Glyphs

More To-Do items To-Done:

• The mouse cursor over the map is once again a crosshair. When you start dragging it will change to a drag-hand.
• Per discussion in a previous post, base symbols have been overhauled and the legend has been updated. Following precedent in paper publications from the CT and MT eras, there is no attempt to make map symbols universally unique. For example, non-Imperial naval bases all use red stars ★ regardless of allegiance (Vargr, Aslan Tlaukhu, Solomani, Federation, K'kree, Droyne...). I've tried to follow established precedent wherever possible.
• In addition to Research Stations, symbols are now rendered for Imperial Prisons (code: Pr), Imperial Reserves (code: Re) and Exile Camps (code: Ex), following the Spinward Marches Map symbology.

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New Legend

A comment inquired about an updated legend to include more of the base types. After playing with updating the Legend Sector I realized that far too much space was being taken up that way. So I went back to the trusty old Spinward Marches poster and based a new legend on that. It's visible by a link in the control panel on the right.

You may notice a few consequential changes:

• The layout UI and rules for the panels have changed - you can now expand/collapse any of the sections - Styles, Search, Legend and Scroll - by clicking on the header.
• To implement efficiently required dropping support for IE6. Sorry, it's just not worth it.
• The JumpMap API now takes an optional border parameter which allows you to drop the border. This is used by the legend to render the images "live", matching your current style.

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Minor fixes, interface tweaks

In order to increase the screen area available for search results, I've increased the section of the right-hand control panel that expands/collapses to include all of the style/appearance options. Previously this included only the label options. Also, to make the "Scroll Map" buttons more useful they now scroll the map by a much greater distance, and the scrolling is animated.

Feedback appreciated. I'm still trying to retain the visual style of the GURPS Traveller mockup that was the inspiration for the site. Is that holding the map back too much? Should I move to a more modern appearance with controls overlaying the map? (I'm planning to do that anyway for the touch-based version)

A handful of tiny bug fixes:

• legend popup once again shows using current visual style
• blue zones (for TNE) now render as gray in Atlas style (thanks to Alvin Plumber for the bug report)
• Cleaned up metadata glitches in the XML (thanks to Mark McSweeny for the bug report)
• Prevent overlapping map animations

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Jump Maps, You Are Here, and More

I was out of town for several days with my computer but no Internet connection and evenings to myself, so I did a fair bit of work on the site. A lot of the work went into fielding requested features.

What's New:

• Added JumpMap API - generate a Jump-N map for any location

• Keyboard scrolling is now enabled in IFRAMEs
• You will want to specify SCROLLING="no" in the IFRAME tag on your site
• Asteroids are now rendered as semi-random clusters of ellipses at high scales
• Add MapOptions.ForceHexes (add 8192 to always draw hexagonal parsecs, not squares)

[UPDATE 2008-02-03] Fixed use of ForceHexes for the main page and IFRAME - it was being masked out. Should work now.

• Tweak min scales for features to support 24 & 48 pixels/parsec more nicely
• Lots of API documentation cleanup
  

Beta:

• iframe.htm now takes "You Are Here" parameters (yah_sx, sah_sy, yah_hx, yah_hy) that define a sector/hex pair to put a marker on - example. There can be only one such marker, and there is no UI (or finalized script API) to set, move, or clear it.

Fixes:

• Combat client-side memory bloat by:
• Clearing tile cache after following a non-animated link
  
• Request metadata with a time threshold, to avoid hundreds of aborted HTTP requests
• Fix candy background tiling for legend (caused by a floating point underflow issue in GDI+)

Plus lots of (hopefully) invisible internal changes. Ω

We're out of beta - we're releasing on time!

I'm calling the credits experiment done, and out of beta. Shipped!

You'll now see metadata in the page footer for the area on which the map is centered - including world data if you're over an occupied parsec. The data shown will include:

• Sector Name
• World Hex
• World Name
• World UWP
• Sector Era
• Author
• Source
• Publisher
• Hyperlink to source of data
  

Although not present in the beta, I've added in the Era ("circa 1117") if this is known for the particular dataset - corrections welcome!

Another feature that was in beta was a map legend, a new link in the lower left. This launches a popup window (your browser might block it) which uses the current map style to explain the details. (Question: with J-6 and unlimited fuel, how long would it take to get from Regina to Tertius?)

Also, I've added an experimental new API: /SEC.aspx?sector=SECTORNAME - this dumps a standard SEC file for the specified sector. The column widths are undefined - you'll want to use a regular expression to parse it.

Finally, per request on COTI, you will now see UWPs when zoomed in to 128 pixels/parsec. Ω

Metadata and Legend

Updates to "beta" version of the page that includes data and credits for location the map is centered on:

• Click on Control box just inside the border to hide it
• Tweak the formatting of metadata
• Added a link to a Map Legend - feedback appreciated!

Other fixes:

• Fix location of Lesser Rift label
• Tweak UWP parser regex to catch travel zones w/ no base or codes - Clan (1103 Spinward Marches) wasn't showing as an Amber Zone
• Added subsector names for: Provence, Windhorn, Meshan, Astron, Fulani, Theta Borealis, Theron, Iphigenaia, Touchstone, Delphi, Karleaya, Alpha Crucis, Spica, Uistilrao, Aldebaran, Neworld, Banners, Hanstone, Malorn, Hadji, Storr
• Labels now render on top of routes (doesn't obscure the text)
• Precise borders are now shown at scale 4 and higher (i.e. as soon as you zoom in)
• Borders are now thicker at maximum zoom

[Update, January 2008]

The "beta" version of the page mentioned here is out of beta. Ω

Recent Feedback Feedback

Candy looks great, but can you get more images so they don't repeat?

Sure, you render them and I'll include them. 120px x 120px, 24-bit PNGs with 8-bit alpha. Let me know what UWP ranges they should represent.

Can you add a secret parameter to make the candy-style images have higher image quality?

I'll try. I tried making them PNGs to get really crisp results but the compression blew out the memory available for the server process.

Can you make a version I can take with me?

Alas no. Actually crafting a local version isn't that hard, but the overhead of maintaining a desktop application is not something I'm willing to take on. I've shipped widely used desktop applications professionally for many years, and it's not trivial to get something that's decent quality. I took on the web site because it was easy!

Can you add a key? I like Traveller, but I don't know what all of these symbols mean!

Urk, I can't believe I didn't do that. It's on my To Do list. For now, though, here's the cheat sheet.

• The circles in the middle represent the "mainworld" of a system (most important). White = no easily available water present (all in ice caps, desert world, etc), blue = liquid water present (easy refuelling), 4 diamonds = asteroids (it's the easiest thing to draw)
• Small white circle in the upper right indicates a Gas Giant in the system, for fuel skimming
• Symbols in the upper left and lower left indicate bases. Triangles are scout bases; red are scout way stations. Stars are naval bases. (I don't think I render non-Imperial bases at all correctly at the moment.)
• Letters at the top indicate starport class - A = Best, E = Worst, X = nothing
• A circle around the system indicates the travel code; yellow = amber zone (Danger!), red = red zone (Interdicted by the Navy)
• Two letter code in the lower right indicates allegiance (Cs = client state of the Imperium, Zh = Zhodani, So = Solomani, etc)
• Capitalized world names indicate a population >= 1 billion
• Red world names indicate a local capital

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