More actions
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Map Beta is three-dimensional. Stars are shown as colored dots - the shades of which can be changed to represent different sorts of data: security status, services, sovereignity, number of pilots in space, and many others. Lines show the jump gate connections between stars, with the path from your current location to the selected system shown as dotted. | Map Beta is three-dimensional. Stars are shown as colored dots - the shades of which can be changed to represent different sorts of data: security status, services, sovereignity, number of pilots in space, and many others. Lines show the jump gate connections between stars, with the path from your current location to the selected system shown as dotted. | ||
When you open the map, it will be centered on a {{color|yellow|Selected System | When you open the map, it will be centered on a {{color|yellow|Selected System}}. This is most often the system where you are currently located. You can use your mouse wheel to zoom in until you see the system in great detail ... planets, moons, stations, asteroid belts, etc. Or, you can zoom out until you see the entire universe. | ||
Three buttons at the top right of the map control window activities. | Three buttons at the top right of the map control window activities. | ||
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*Clicking on the magnifying glass icon will open the {{color|red|Search}} box. As you begin to type in the box, the search will give you a list of matching star systems. Click on a star name to focus the map on that system and draw a dotted line to there from your current position. If you click on a moon or other object, that object will be focused in the center of the map, and the map will zoom in to show the star system in detail.) | *Clicking on the magnifying glass icon will open the {{color|red|Search}} box. As you begin to type in the box, the search will give you a list of matching star systems. Click on a star name to focus the map on that system and draw a dotted line to there from your current position. If you click on a moon or other object, that object will be focused in the center of the map, and the map will zoom in to show the star system in detail.) | ||
*Clicking on the little square with the dot in the middle will open the {{color|red|Resize}} option box. Here you set the map window to full screen mode, dock it to either side of your screen, or tell it to float in the middle of your screen. The docked windows can be resized left or right ... the floating window can be resized in any direction. | *Clicking on the little square with the dot in the middle will open the {{color|red|Resize}} option box. Here you set the map window to full screen mode, dock it to either side of your screen, or tell it to float in the middle of your screen. The docked windows can be resized left or right ... the floating window can be resized in any direction. | ||
Four buttons at the top left of the map control formatting. | |||
*The rightmost "Focus" button will always center the map on {{color|green|your position}}. | |||
*The leftmost {{color|green|Layout}} button opens a menu that lets you change the display of star groups and jump lines. You can group systems by region or constellation, or you can have no grouping. Similarly, you can show all jump gate lines, all the ones in the region you are looking at, or just the ones connected to the star you have selected. At the bottom of this menu is a box labeled "Abstract Layout." Checking this box collapses the map into a flat, more 2-dimensional view. | |||
*The second, {{color|green|Color}} button opens an extensive menu of data items. Clicking on an item tells the map to color the stars according to that kind of data. "Security Status", for example, shows the typical green, yellow and red colors of the various levels. Some data types produce fuzzy balls around some systems - "Ships Destroyed in the Last 24 Hours" for example, puts a sphere around each star ... bigger for greater totals of killed ships. | |||
*{{color|green|Close}} | |||
== Using the Map Beta Controls == | == Using the Map Beta Controls == | ||