It's Just Not There

I was pondering the X-Boat route from Tenalphi to Strouden in the Spinward Marches - which, as everyone knows, is 5-parsecs long despite X-Boats being J4 - and settled on an explanation IMTU.

Spinward Marches 2127 doesn't exist.

Jump Space goes non-Cartesian for that parsec. You can't jump to that hex. Jump distances measured across that hex are one parsec shorter than they would appear to be. It's like... oh, I don't know... someone cut out that hex and stretched the map around it in to fill in the gap.

Now... who could do a think like that? And why would they want to erase an entire hex in the Spinward Marches? Ω

Bigger Smaller Maps

By request, I've replaced the Large/Small checkbox on the Mobile Map page with a drop-down containing four size choices, for mobile devices with bigger screens. Ω

Minor Poster tweaks

Per request, I've added the ability to specify style options (and other parameters) from the post.htm demo page. As a convenience for web authors, the Poster API now handles options passed in as POST parameters, not just GET parameters. Ω

Minor Updates - Uisilrao, Theron, Delphi, Kaa G!'kul

Some minor updates, hopefully nothing breaks:

Data

• Replaced Tealou Arlaoh worlds in my Dotmap Reconstruction of Uistilrao sector with data from BeRKA
  
• Added Uistilao as an alias for Uistilrao
  
• Replaced custom-generated Theron data with BeRKA's
• Incorporate xboat routes for Delphi from the JTAS Delphi Discussion (subscription required)
  
• Updated Kaa G!'kul sector data based on Mike McKeown's redux of Leroy Guatney's HIWG data
  

Rendering

• Ley Sector has IL (Imperial - Luriana Cultural) and IU (Imperial - Ursa Cultural) allegiances - map to "Im" for the purposes of rendering for map consistency (cultural regions are not generally called out on my map)
  

API

• Coordinates API now takes sector[/hex] OR sx/sy[/hx/hy] and returns (World-space) x/y in addition to sx/sy/hx/hy
  
• API docs now validate as HTML 4.0 Transitional
• Added Universe API for fetching high level data about the universe - list of known sectors
  

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Here There Be Dragons

"Right now, our map of the Milky Way still has large areas marked 'Here there be dragons.' Ten years from now, those areas will be filled in," said Mark Reid, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. - Universe Today

A realistic rendering of a two-armed Milky Way is to be had at Astronomy Picture of the Day in lovely mouse-over format, or the originals at the Spitzer Space Telescope site.

Somewhere on the TODO list is to make the map look something like this in Candy style when you zoom out all the way.



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