A Comparison: Crowded Cluster, Sparse Association

I had been looking for this comparison for a few days, even if you prefer the flat map of the main book, this says a lot about the scope of that map, and how much is 'missing'. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~riedel/25pc2011.html">The Solar Neighborhood in 3D</a> Frequently I hear a preference to an evenly squared 100ly, 80ly, or 60ly sector, this is 25 Parsecs/81.5409065 light years. The Frontier Sector is supposed to be more cluttered than this. Yet this still doesn't represent all the class M, T, L, Y, and 'rouge' dark-bodies, that are expected to be in this volume, just those that have been catalogued. Compare the above link to this view, <a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/09/02/our-neighbo… Sphere</a> That shows only some of the Theoretically Most Important stars, in a slightly smaller volume. This is much more like The Frontier Map... yet it is only showing the catalogued exo-planets at the time of it's design... double... triple... the number grows quickly... and The Frontier is still supposed to be more densely packed than this. I find this to be something to consider. The information given in one (or more) of the books suggested that you were free to add as many stars as you like to the map given, that there would be enough room, and further comforted with statements that it is unlikely that that any additions made by future products, would be in exactly the same location as anything you add. I have frequently made references to what I call the "Out-Black"... this is my play on the terms Outback and Deep-Black, from Australian and Firefly references. I consider the Out-Black to be the part of the frontier that isn't on the main maps in AD and Zeb's, but still technically inside the sector and sphere of major influence. The backyard of The Frontier, that isn't fully catalogued and explored, or open to regular traffic, but still technically within the influence of the Core-worlds and the main UPF trade partners, and within the theoretical bounds of the original charters of cooperation... Among these would be the Alpha to Epsilon Quarantine Systems of the Plague, and one 'off-limits' system of the Yazirian's origin conundrum. In my own take on things, I populate this Out-Black very, very, sparsely, with life, but very thickly with 'dark-bodies', 'rouge planets', and 'dwarf systems' that are easy to get to within one or two jumps of any of the established Systems, and furthermore are frequently in motion when compared to them, requiring new astrogation updates to be conducted somewhat frequently. I also include unexplored, quarantined, and unsurveyed main sequences in this nomenclature, worlds that are also populated very sparsely, or those with any viable or significantly old ecosystems. Most of my new species are in the Vast Expanse, a few are in the Capellan Rim, and I have worked a little on The Rift (or something like that, a sparse region) beyond the White Light/Xagyg Gap, but tentatively because it is the area least supported by the information given in the books, only suggesting that the sparse region must be crossed before reaching anything significant, and that it would take at least two jumps to cross at it's narrowest. This also relates to my use of a large Sathar presence that can't be tracked down, Pirates that can't be easily tracked down, the existence of Pilgrim colonies and Separatist compounds of every race, Lost Colonies that have been out of contact for centuries, Rouge Mechanon Factions disappearing in Frontier space to unknown destinations, the occasional Xenoarchaeology find on some previously unknown rock, the occasional tribble or other 'space pet' species of unknown origin, and the limited population of non core-four races occurring on the main map. As far as being a flat map, or a volume sphere, I haven't been stuck to either, nor do I always map by grid or hexes, these are often treated equally in my games. I like having things mapped to both, and I have borrowed heavily from Alternity and Imperial Star-Fire in this area. The main maps from AD and Zeb's are effectively common knowledge by 111fy, and parts of the Rim and Vast have become accessible to anyone seeking the information. Likewise most of the Core metropolitan public records could easily have a data-base catalog in 3d, of every observable body within 3000 parsecs, but astrogation data for even 1% of those is not exactly avaliable publicly, if even at all. No known ship is on public record having traveled further than 50 parsecs(150ly) from Prenglar. Any ship said to have travled over 30 parsecs(90ly) from Prenglar, is frequently suspect to inaccuracy and conspiracy conjecture, like the fabled jump by the old Professor himself, the disappearance of some battleship called the 'Yanmatton' and it's consecutive brief reemergence's in three systems 30Ly separate in under a day, and the supposed sudden disappearance of Captain Jameston of the Ark Ship 'Filia Delphi', and all the Human and Yazirian Colonists that were supposed to be onboard, out near the new Yazirian outpost Weigao of the Tejzes system, but being indentured servants from Liberty, and clanless from Athor, they have no officially traceable public record, besides noone believes half the stuff posted in the Trans Data-Core anyway. It is far more important for the average citizen to keep up with the release-date of that new Holo-Flipz movie coming out '3 Aliens and a Cowboy', than it is to be concerned with the Vauldiiz Corporation's ship that missed it's deceleration window, and flew through the Brixxon Plutonics refuel station at one third Jump Acceleration Speeds, spreading pellets from the station all over the upper orbits of one of Timeon's inhabited Pilgrim Moons, before finally slamming into an outpost planet with terraforming research stations. Originally on it's way to Whorl, with a load of Hassium in stasis pods. For the most part, I find no problems uniting the A to Z (AD to Zeb's)timeline and setting material, in all the books combined, and this expanded extrapolation of that material. If any of this is helpful, kewl, if it brings up more questions, ask. Use, abuse, or ignore, as you find appropriate. But do let me know of anything that works, or of any special circumstances where you think something breaks, and we'll see if anything needs to be addressed. Much of this is related to other topics to some degree, and likely colors my opinions in others: <div class="forumtitle"><a target="_blank" href="/node/5267">Asteroids, Associations, Clusters, Trojans, & SSBs</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/5268">Beyond Artificial Satellite Stations </a><a target="_blank" href="/node/2401">The Frontier Sector</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/4592">Oort Clouds a Problem?</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/5200">The Crouded Galaxy</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/5198">Void jumping, Physics and Gravity</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/5297">Cargo</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/2315">Calculating jumps</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/4203">Jump Calculations, Travel Time, Etc</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/3828">Pirates on the solar winds and among the asteroid archipellagos</a> <a target="_blank" href="/node/5146">TSR had plans to reveal the homeworlds of the Core four</a> </div>

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