In a setting with expensive dV or where orbital motion is very significant, I'd suggest that a map showing the "location" of a planet's orbit is actually not even the most useful way to plot your planets on a map. The primary map should be a polar plot representing each planet's entire orbit by its orbital inclination and the specific potential energy at rendezvous -- since distances between planets on _that_ chart have a much more direct correspondence to the amount of fuel you'd need to burn to go from one to the other. (After all, the goal of a map is to represent whichever type of distance is the most significant, and energy/inclination differences are a much more important type of distance than length in an expensive-dV world.)
Love this video. I’m very new to this but wanted to create my own world/galaxy to maybe write a story in or just to do it. I’ve been finding it a bit hard to start because it’s a little overwhelming on where to start but I love the idea of creating sectors and maybe just pinpointing a capital for that sector. Thanks for the video! Looking forward to watching more!
When you mention the time difference between space and planets that made me think if you had something like Stargates but you could call it a blank gate and it can also send you back in time if you pay extra
I'm glad you brought up how the form of FTL affects the map, I'm imagining a setup where you have a network of quasi stable wormholes which exist in the orbits of gravity wells that can be opened up to allow matter to move through when you aim a technobabble beam at them. Some of these might allow you to navigate rapidly within systems while others would let you travel between systems, which may or may not all be in one galaxy or even universe. However navigation would be based on known points of connection, some of which might be blockaded, or have tolls or forms of inspection or interdiction set up. In this scenario the fastest, or safest, way to get between two points in the same star system might require you to make 7 jumps through two other star systems to get to another planet in your same system. I can also imagine that not all jump points would be on all maps, or how criminals or spies might send light speed transmissions between points on the map that are only a few light years apart, but are shown to be hugely distant on the navigational maps. Of course all of this would be based on this civilization lacking any true FTL technology, but that might not have always been the case, and if these wormholes are artificial someone had to set them up which either meant they had FTL or did all of this with slower than light travel.
That sounds fascinating. Have you ever watched Babylon 5? Their jump gates and the way it's handled there with the space station of Babylon 5 parked right next to a jump gate might give you some great inspiration :)
@@JustInTimeWorlds Yes, I loved that show. The difference there is that while jump-space is hard to navigate without established beacons it is a one to one with real-space and most larger ships can enter and exit jump-space without a gate. But yes there would be similar political issues with the controlling of individual points of the navigational network. For instance what if one system invaded but just set up an space station that controlled that end of a jump point leading into space that they did control thus giving the control over both ends of that gate for the purposes of customs and military blockading? How would that effect the quasi occupied system, and how would that change if that was the only known jump point in and out of that system?
I like Andromeda slipstream to break faster than light travel but it's its own pocket dimension maybe you have bases there native people are born there
My scifi ftl pulls bits from B5, Warhammer, Andromeda and the BSG reboot. I use hyperspace but it's a higher dimensional space with more than 4 dimensions so navigation is next to impossible. My younger species use skip drives that force ships into hyperspace but the 'fabric' of hyperspace is 'allergic' to atomic matter and immediately tries to shove the ship back into 4 dimensional space again. This limits how far a newly spacefaring species can travel in a single engine firing to at most a dozen light years, so ships skip between neighbouring star systems. Slightly older species learn how to build skip sustainers that can extend the range to tens or hundreds of light years, but this comes with the added risk of mavigating a space with more dimensions than a ship's sensors can perceive so ships can become lost in hyperspace, moving away from our 4D space-time into higher dimensions until they have no way back. There is a solution to this navigational issue but i don't want to give too much away. Needless to say my truly old species can navigate hyperspace as easily as walking down the street, and some even live in it full time exploring the entire universe and even what lies beyond it. But to quote B5 "if they notice us at all it is as mere ants."
yes, but how interesting is this hyperspace they inhabit? sounds like living inside a black hole and effectively killing yourself off for the sake of violent, hungry children desiring to play Warhammer and fuck fuck game. when is cooperation learned?
Bueno, estaba pensando que para ir entre los planetas ya habitados, podría utilizarse algún método arcano (cómo los círculos de teletransportación visto en el escenario de campaña de Dungeons&Dragons "Tal'Dorei" visto en Critical Role) mientras que para viajar a un nuevo planeta, se enviaría una nave espacial con forma de cubo (y que se controle cómo la nave del videojuego "Asteroids") cargada con algún tipo de constructo (ya sean golem o robots) que se encarguen de dibujar el círculo de teletransportación, habrir el portal o lo que sea.
@@JustInTimeWorlds Pues me temo que no, porque mi rara vez salgo de mi zona de confort, y cuándo salgo de ella, siempre busco volver a ella rápidamente.
I thought I made a comment about this in the previous episode, but apparently I didn't post it or it got deleted or something. I was basically saying you should check out Isaac Arthur's channel for inspiration on talking about this subject. While he mainly talks futurism and hard sci-fi, I imagine a lot of that, if not all, can be adapted into a soft sci-fi/science fantasy setting, particularly the sort of scale he talks about and other concepts like space habitats and megastructures. You should also check out his video on said subject, "Space Habitats", as well as his playlist on megastructures and other videos as well to see what you might want to incorporate into this series as possible subjects. One reason I'm suggesting this as you don't often see this stuff talked about in sci-fi and science fantasy worldbuilding, at least not here on youtube outside of Isaac Arthur's channel, at least from what I've seen.
I've been working on a high sci-fi tabletop setting for over a decade now, so this is a godsend. It's all comin' together...
Excellent :) Enjoy the rest of the playlist!
Super high quality analysis
In a setting with expensive dV or where orbital motion is very significant, I'd suggest that a map showing the "location" of a planet's orbit is actually not even the most useful way to plot your planets on a map. The primary map should be a polar plot representing each planet's entire orbit by its orbital inclination and the specific potential energy at rendezvous -- since distances between planets on _that_ chart have a much more direct correspondence to the amount of fuel you'd need to burn to go from one to the other. (After all, the goal of a map is to represent whichever type of distance is the most significant, and energy/inclination differences are a much more important type of distance than length in an expensive-dV world.)
Love this video. I’m very new to this but wanted to create my own world/galaxy to maybe write a story in or just to do it. I’ve been finding it a bit hard to start because it’s a little overwhelming on where to start but I love the idea of creating sectors and maybe just pinpointing a capital for that sector. Thanks for the video! Looking forward to watching more!
When you mention the time difference between space and planets that made me think if you had something like Stargates but you could call it a blank gate and it can also send you back in time if you pay extra
Yeeeeeeeeees I’ve needed a video like this! Thank you so very much 🥰🫶
You're very welcome :D
I'm glad you brought up how the form of FTL affects the map, I'm imagining a setup where you have a network of quasi stable wormholes which exist in the orbits of gravity wells that can be opened up to allow matter to move through when you aim a technobabble beam at them. Some of these might allow you to navigate rapidly within systems while others would let you travel between systems, which may or may not all be in one galaxy or even universe. However navigation would be based on known points of connection, some of which might be blockaded, or have tolls or forms of inspection or interdiction set up. In this scenario the fastest, or safest, way to get between two points in the same star system might require you to make 7 jumps through two other star systems to get to another planet in your same system. I can also imagine that not all jump points would be on all maps, or how criminals or spies might send light speed transmissions between points on the map that are only a few light years apart, but are shown to be hugely distant on the navigational maps. Of course all of this would be based on this civilization lacking any true FTL technology, but that might not have always been the case, and if these wormholes are artificial someone had to set them up which either meant they had FTL or did all of this with slower than light travel.
That sounds fascinating. Have you ever watched Babylon 5? Their jump gates and the way it's handled there with the space station of Babylon 5 parked right next to a jump gate might give you some great inspiration :)
@@JustInTimeWorlds Yes, I loved that show. The difference there is that while jump-space is hard to navigate without established beacons it is a one to one with real-space and most larger ships can enter and exit jump-space without a gate. But yes there would be similar political issues with the controlling of individual points of the navigational network. For instance what if one system invaded but just set up an space station that controlled that end of a jump point leading into space that they did control thus giving the control over both ends of that gate for the purposes of customs and military blockading? How would that effect the quasi occupied system, and how would that change if that was the only known jump point in and out of that system?
One way you could tell galaxies apart in science fantasy is each galaxy has its own color which represents which magic is strongest there
How would you map your geopolitical units in space?
I like Andromeda slipstream to break faster than light travel but it's its own pocket dimension maybe you have bases there native people are born there
I've started watching that :) Will comment more as I learn more of the lore.
When you mentioned Matt's lying to you that could be so much fun for an RPG secret map secret planets Secret secret space bases
My scifi ftl pulls bits from B5, Warhammer, Andromeda and the BSG reboot.
I use hyperspace but it's a higher dimensional space with more than 4 dimensions so navigation is next to impossible. My younger species use skip drives that force ships into hyperspace but the 'fabric' of hyperspace is 'allergic' to atomic matter and immediately tries to shove the ship back into 4 dimensional space again. This limits how far a newly spacefaring species can travel in a single engine firing to at most a dozen light years, so ships skip between neighbouring star systems.
Slightly older species learn how to build skip sustainers that can extend the range to tens or hundreds of light years, but this comes with the added risk of mavigating a space with more dimensions than a ship's sensors can perceive so ships can become lost in hyperspace, moving away from our 4D space-time into higher dimensions until they have no way back.
There is a solution to this navigational issue but i don't want to give too much away. Needless to say my truly old species can navigate hyperspace as easily as walking down the street, and some even live in it full time exploring the entire universe and even what lies beyond it.
But to quote B5 "if they notice us at all it is as mere ants."
That sounds really cool :) There will be an episode covering FTL as well :D
yes, but how interesting is this hyperspace they inhabit? sounds like living inside a black hole and effectively killing yourself off for the sake of violent, hungry children desiring to play Warhammer and fuck fuck game. when is cooperation learned?
Bueno, estaba pensando que para ir entre los planetas ya habitados, podría utilizarse algún método arcano (cómo los círculos de teletransportación visto en el escenario de campaña de Dungeons&Dragons "Tal'Dorei" visto en Critical Role) mientras que para viajar a un nuevo planeta, se enviaría una nave espacial con forma de cubo (y que se controle cómo la nave del videojuego "Asteroids") cargada con algún tipo de constructo (ya sean golem o robots) que se encarguen de dibujar el círculo de teletransportación, habrir el portal o lo que sea.
That works well, kind of like stargates carried to the planet by a ship. Have you seen that TV series?
@@JustInTimeWorlds Pues me temo que no, porque mi rara vez salgo de mi zona de confort, y cuándo salgo de ella, siempre busco volver a ella rápidamente.
I thought I made a comment about this in the previous episode, but apparently I didn't post it or it got deleted or something. I was basically saying you should check out Isaac Arthur's channel for inspiration on talking about this subject. While he mainly talks futurism and hard sci-fi, I imagine a lot of that, if not all, can be adapted into a soft sci-fi/science fantasy setting, particularly the sort of scale he talks about and other concepts like space habitats and megastructures. You should also check out his video on said subject, "Space Habitats", as well as his playlist on megastructures and other videos as well to see what you might want to incorporate into this series as possible subjects. One reason I'm suggesting this as you don't often see this stuff talked about in sci-fi and science fantasy worldbuilding, at least not here on youtube outside of Isaac Arthur's channel, at least from what I've seen.
I know his channel well :). He has some great content on the hard sci-fi side.
I think I would make a difference between solar space versus outer space
let's just draw a random squiggle and play warhammer and fuck fuck game!!!!