User talk:Rindis

Thank you for your offer of the map graphics for use in the Spinward Marches. If you'd like to see approximately how they would be use take a look at the Cronor Subsector. This is an imagemap, meaning you can click on the worlds in the hexes and they act as links.

That map was generated by Galactic, though I had some issues converting the BMP files generated by Galactic to jpg. I also was working on using maps generated by Universe, another Traveller mapping program.

The problem with the image map graphic images is it's time consuming to input the world links because the template process and the <imagemap> tag don't interact well. We've asked to have the HTMLTidy extension installed for Wikia for about a year now, but still no action. The HTMLTidy extension would fix this problem.

So, to use your images as a imagemap, I need one to layout the imagemap hexagons, like the Blank Galactic Subsector or the Blank Universe Subsector (this is incomplete).

The final issue is Wikia doesn't allow uploading gif images, only PNGs or JPEGs, so you'd need to convert them.

Welcome to the Traveller Wiki. Thank you for your contributions. Please stay a while and enjoy. Tjoneslo 13:56, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

The sample I gave is jpg already. Besides, the real secret is that the original is a Corel Draw (vector) file, so I can do just about whatever I wish with it. ^_^ I'll go take a look at the Chonor and the "Blank" pages and see what I can do. --Rindis 18:35, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

I find the border hard to follow in the Cronor example... Perhaps it could be coloured by empire? Dcorrin 17:48, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually it is. If you look at Image:Chronor_1120G.jpg you can see bit of the red Imperial border sticking in. But in 1115, all there is is the Zhodani border.

...or do you mean an interior fill? That could be good idea. I'll have to think about that. (Let's see, reorder the layers a bit....) --Rindis 18:21, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Fill colors

Can I make a recommendation: Currently we are using the following colors to make background fills on our sector maps, based upon the empire that named the sector: Cyan = Zhodani, Yellow = Vargr, Red - Imperial, green - K'kree, orange = Aslan, purple - Hiver, Blue - solomani.

I'd like to make sure that the fill color we're using matches the fill color you are using. It's a consistency issue. If you don't like the colors we've chosen, please pick others and supply me with a RGB value to use. Though you don't have to worry about it, the colors I've chosen reflect the need to also show the blue (link), purple (visited) and red (missing) link text. Tjoneslo 20:34, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Heh. I came up with a similar scheme. ^_^ Well, at least I used blue for the Solomani. I'll start converting over. For this part it's no big deal, but it's a problem for some other maps I did. ^_^;

I do some other colors to worry about though. (Have to go find them....) The mapping scheme is one primary color for each of the big nations, and then four 'generic' repeating colors for all the other interstellar states. I'll look up my values and advise you once the main map format is down. --Rindis 20:58, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that this new map looks good, I would increase the transparency on the colours a bit more if possible. The "Official" colours (which I just picked out of a hat and to not conflict with the links too much) are: Zhodani #b0ffff, Vargr #ffffb0, Imperial #ffb0b0, Aslan #ffa020, Solomani #b0b0ff, Hiver #ffe0FF, and K'kree #00ff40. I would expect that one would really want to have the different Vargr empires as separate colours on a subsector map, (perhaps a yellow themed range), Minor empires could be anything I guess. (In case you are not familiar the values are 3 hex numbers mashed together with each pair of digits representing a RGB value of 0-255, thus Aslan are R:255, G:160, B:32) Dcorrin 21:12, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Go look at the off-site alt map to see an update. Corel didn't like exporting your cyan, so I'm on 122,207,247. It's a darker cyan, but should be pretty close visually. --Rindis 21:47, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

I updated the Stinj Tianz sector in the sector maps to show the difference between your cyan and our cyan. One thing that will also make a difference is we're using a white background and the maps have a black background. But these are close enough to make it visually apparent the differences between the empires. Tjoneslo 01:22, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, nice. Yeah, I think as long as it is recognizably the same color family no one will have a problem. Here is a sample of what Jewell is looking like, with the Imperium (darker red than yours, no surprise), and Arden (which was cyan on my system, so now I get to come up with a new color). (Ugh. Need to make the adjoining subsectors a bigger font.) --Rindis 02:51, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and current RGB: Imperium = 255,96,96, Arden = 243,158,119. However, Arden is currently closer to orange than I'd like, so it will probably be shifting some. --Rindis 03:08, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I made a color reference chart, so I don't have to worry about colors not playing nice together when I'm halfway through:

• Zhodani = 122,207,247 = #7ACFF7
• Imperium = 255,96,96 = #FF6060 =>#FFB0B0
• K'Kree = 0,255,64 = #00FF40
• Aslan = 255,160,32 = #FFA020
• Solomani = 112,144,255 = #7090FF
• Hiver = 208,144,255 = #D090FF
• Vargr = 255,255,128 = #FFFF80
• Minor1 = 200,158,119 = #C89E77
• Minor2 = 160,96,48 = #A06030
• Minor3 = 196,196,196 = #C4C4C4
• Minor4 = 213,0,159 = #D5009F

Not set in stone or anything, so let me know what you think! --Rindis 16:19, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that this is something we can be proud of; and for my part I would like to thank you for making this possible.--Sstefan 17:18, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

I just added the Hex version of your colors to your list above. The only color that won't work well is the Imperium, It's too dark. If you check the Sandbox/Charted Section sectors page, look at the first grouping, and the bottom right corner for the Trojan Reaches sector, then click on the link for Hlaoirloahaurl (which will go to the Spinward Marches. You can then replace the colors for each of these and see who the colors affect the links.

Anyway: The Imperium color is too dark, the red (missing) links disappear in the red color. The same is true of the Minor 2 and Minor 4 colors. I'm not really worried about this, we can always use the lighter Red of the Imperium if needed, And only rarely need to minor colors for things.

But I do have one more request: Can you add the empire names as above to the color ref image you created and upload it to the wiki, we could then use it as a map key (or part of one). Tjoneslo 00:00, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Considering as we won't see any 'dead links' in an image map (they might be dead, but we won't see it), I didn't worry too much about interfering with that. I figure a color for "text, white background" and a color for "graphics, black background" should work as long as people look at it and think 'red: Imperium' for both.

Probably be best to do a real map key instead, that's just a throw-together. Then again, possibly worth having until a fancy one can be put together....

Oh, and we really need a page that defines all these numbers for reference. Well, one more official than my talk page. ^_^; --Rindis 01:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I've just done a map key at Image:Map_Key.jpg Go take a look and see what you think. Now we just need to link to it from the subsector map template.... --Rindis 16:36, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Map key graphic

The Map key looks great. I have two changes you should make: The K'kree green should be titled "The Two Thousand Worlds", the Hiver Purple should be titled "Hive Federation".

Question, are you also following the GDW name standard for world population: PRIMUS (>1 billion) and Secundus (<1 billion)? They also include the Subsector capitals in red text. Tjoneslo 02:14, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I remembered after posting that I still needed to look up what the names of the Hiver and K'Kree governments were. >.< And, yes, I am following that convention. Once I can work that in, I'll update the graphic. --Rindis 02:28, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Empty Hex ownership.

For the image maps, how are you determining the ownership of the empty hexes? While no-one really owns them, as they have no presence, we don't want the maps to be blobs of connected hexes. Obviously LLanth 1115.jpg should be 100% red. By why the hex Trailing/rimward of Darrian LDarrian 1115.jpg, or in LVilis 1115.jpg the world Digitis would not feel relaxed with the spinward/corward and trailing/coreworld hexes "claimed" by its neighbours. Or do you think differently? Dcorrin 15:45, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Since this is all 1115, I'm basing my borders directly off the Spinward Marches map that came with the MegaTraveller boxed set. ...So ask Marc. Some of the border decisions always seemed non-sensical to me, but I assume there must be treaties that define this sort of thing. Beyond that, there does seem to be a "wrap borders around the owned worlds, and normalize to straight lines" thing going on. (Where a pattern of 'down 1 over 2, down 1 over 2' is seen as a "straight line".) So for Darrian 0708, it gets claimed by extending the Trifuge-Spume line down, and the Ektron-Darrian line over. (Though if it had been me, I'd have probably considered Roget-Mire-Darrian-Spume a 'straight line'.)

I have been considering doing alternate maps (on their own sub-pages) for some of the bigger border changes. This would be Sword Worlds 1100 (no Border Worlds) and Darrian and Sworld Worlds 1120 [GT timeline] (new state in Darrian, Darrians have claimed three more worlds, lots of Sword World/Border World changes) and the latter would require... making assumptions on the borders as Behind the Claw gave no borders. --Rindis 17:04, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

The only algorithm I've seen was based upon the (now missing) maps.travellercental.com maps. Here, every world had a two hex border drawn around it. If there were other worlds with the same allegiance, the borders were simply connected. Each Non-Aligned world is considered it's own allegiance. The program checked from top to bottom and left to right, and once it found a hex with another allegiance, it would stop from expanding in that direction. If you looked at the maps, you could find some weird borders in places but in general it seemed to work OK. It also distinguished between client states and imperial worlds. Tjoneslo 18:48, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

New Traveller Wiki logo

As the current Traveller wiki graphic artist I need to ask a favor. I would like a new logo for the Traveller wiki. The current one is really quite boring.

There are actually two logos: one (smaller one) is used for the default Monobook skin Image:Wiki.png. This should be the yellow Imperial sunburst on a transparent background. The second (larger one) is a default one generated from the smaller one (see links above).

Technical details: This image needs to be a PNG file, 266 pixels wide by 75 high. You will need to upload the file to some name in the wiki, then I'll need re-upload it to it's correct location (for security reasons).

I'd really like to have the black background, with the red stripe and yellow sunburst with the word Traveller and Imperial Encyclopedia. Tjoneslo 17:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

O.O I'm a graphic artist?! The good news is that while reading this my thoughts were headed towards the same type of graphic as you were thinking of.

I'll have to spend some time fiddling on the basics before I can do much. So, don't know when I'll have something, but it shouldn't be too long, either. --Rindis 18:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

You are more of a graphic artist than the rest of us. Last bit of important stuff to consider. The logo goes with the Quartz skins, of which there are six. Go to Special:Preferences and select skin tab and you'll see the list. If you make the logo look better with one of those skins, let me know and I'll make it the default. Except the Gaming one. Tjoneslo 18:53, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I like #3 best... 216.9.243.107 14:11, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Ugh. I noticed the comment to Dcorrin, but I really think an encyclopedia style wiki should stick with a wikipedia-type look. It doesn't help that I don't think the wikia-style looks as good. (Also, everybody else uses left-hand nav, why are they going right?) Forced to go with quartz, I'd vote for Beach and against Brick. --Rindis 19:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

How about this: I coundn't fit in Imperial Encylopedia Dcorrin 19:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I think that's pretty much what we're looking at. I just want to spend some time making it 'cleaner'. --Rindis 19:38, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I whipped up a couple variants. see [1],[2] and [3] and see what you think. --Rindis 08:10, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I like number 3 with the "Traveller Wiki" text in there. I, of course came up with my own version , which includes the text "Imperial Encyclopedia". And I'm using the wrong font... Tjoneslo 23:27, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Stealing your good ideas, I came up with this Tjoneslo 23:45, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

The Traveller font is "Optima". (I asked my roommate, "What is the font used in the Traveller logo," and he knew off the top of his head. Which might give you an idea of the type of household I live in.) There's a few rip offs of it, including one with CorelDraw. ^_^ (Zapf-somethingorother-601)

I forgot until this morning that the original used all caps for the name. Which do we want? All caps, or mixed case? I'm also going to see if a (different) roommate can get Corel's trace program to behave so I can generate a better sunburst (the inner disk is a bit lumpy, even in my version - also, I think a yellow will work better with the black background). --Rindis 00:00, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Would you believe that I didn't notice that I used "Imperial Library" instead of "Imperial Encyclopedia" until late this afternoon? 1, 2, and 3 above have been updated. Better verbiage, tweaked the sunburst color, and some minor stuff. And, building off of the popular #3 here are [4] and [5]. I'm still having problems with the line weight on the text. I can artificially tweak with that, but before I do, I have a question. Does it have to be png? For what I'm doing, jpeg would be better; png is good if you have a very 'graphical' design (the text is the problem) and/or need a transparent background (which isn't the case here). I think I can get a jpg better looking without tweaking the font in ways that make me nervous. --Rindis 03:49, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Okay, a quick test disabused me of that notion. Here's [6] with tweaked text, and I'll be tweaking some more in a few minutes. --Rindis 04:26, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

For the purpose for which we are going to put this image, it must be a png file. In fact it will end up being named "Wiki_wide.png". The Quartz skin looks in the local wiki for that name to use as the logo. For the monobook, the image is "wiki.png" (See Image:Wiki.png and Image:Wiki Navy.png). To prevent vandalism, only administrators (Dan) can upload files to these image names.

If you're taking votes: I vote for number 5. Tjoneslo 04:29, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

If you're happy with it, save it off to your machine, and upload it. ^_^ Also, if there's any tweaks you'd like (say, putting "Wiki" in italics), I can also do that. --Rindis 16:23, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Logo

The new logo looks great. I'll update the logo with your permission this weekend. Tjoneslo 13:49, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

I hate to complain, but... I need the logo as a .png file. Tjoneslo 14:05, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

I've put the image up, if you refresh the page you should see it. Two more things, just to try. The image needs to be 135 × 155 (picky wikia people). Can you create a version where the black background is actually transparent. The space where the logo goes has a black background (to make the original logo look better). Tjoneslo 20:03, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Mapping

I'm interested in a colaberative project to expand all the sector and subsector pages for all of known space with mapping resources etc. Is this project still up and running? If so how can I help and if not are you interested in having another crack at it?

Imperial Grand Survey 01:26, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

BTW Do you have a blank copy of your subsector map? Once I'm done with the Rim Expedition sectors I'd like to move on so subsectors. Imperial Grand Survey 06:56, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Sorry for being a stranger. I've had other hobbies taking up my time lately. What format do you need it in? The original is a CorelDraw (vector) file, but I can try to export it to whatever you need. --Rindis 16:33, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

No worries, I quite understand, the same happens to me from time to time. I use Paint Shop Pro by Corel, so either a PSD or PSP file with all the layers would be fine. Paint Shop Pro is meant to be able to read a CDR file, I've never tried that so not sure how well it does it. BTW what font did you use (in case I have to go looking for it)? Imperial Grand Survey 02:03, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I'll just upload the CDR and see how it goes, but do note, that this is vector file, and I recommend that you get a vector image program, it makes things like this much easier to do. ^_^ Fonts: Sytem names - Arial; nations & subsector label: Souvenir Lt BT. And occasionally Symbol for Greek letters. Go to http://www.backbreaker.com/~rindis/Subsector.cdr to get the file. --Rindis 14:29, 13 April 2008 (EDT)

Thanks, got it now. It's not quite the same as the finsihed jpg files, is this an earlier version or do you manipulate it further to get the finished result? PSP will do it entirely as vector layers and save it as a .psp image before I save the final result to .jpg but this provides me with a nice excuse to get Corel Draw :-) Imperial Grand Survey 21:05, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Whoops! That was the initial version I did and then reworked for this project. Try http://www.backbreaker.com/~rindis/LSubsector.cdr instead. --Rindis 01:50, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, looks good. Imperial Grand Survey 14:30, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Sorry about this, however having finished the Rim Expedition sectors I've just started playing with this and I'm unable to opent the LSubsector.cdr file, I get an error message. The other one is fine. I've tried downloading it a couple of times with the same result. Could I trouble you to upload it again so I can have another bash at it? Imperial Grand Survey 06:21, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. I can open it straight from the site, but I've re-uploaded it anyway, and we'll see. If it still doesn't work, I'll probably try to create an EPS version for you. --Rindis 03:07, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I can download it, but unlike the other .cdr file PaintShop Pro says it's not in the proper format. Are they from different versions of Corel Draw? Imperial Grand Survey 06:48, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Nope, been using the same version of Corel for years before I even started either file. I've uploaded an EPS and Illustrator version of the file. Here's hoping one of them works for you: http://www.backbreaker.com/~rindis/LSubsector.eps http://www.backbreaker.com/~rindis/LSubsector.ai

Thanks, EPS works fine. It's curious as I had the cdr open once, but not a second time. Very odd. Imperial Grand Survey 05:03, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Subsector Map page - colors?

I've had to come up with a lot more colors (and color combinations) for the Subsector Map page, to try to keep them unique within anything close-by (e.g., a sector). Any suggestions on improvements? Thanks very much! Allens 16:06, July 19, 2010 (UTC)

Well, if you can live with just keeping adjacent (differently-aligned) cells different colors, map theory says you can always avoid both sides of a border having the same color with four different colors—which is why I have four non-major race colors in the first place. Past that, I would recommend at least starting with the four I've been using, and we can figure out a couple more from there (note that one of mine is effectively white, I'd use that, and use a gray for Na). --Rindis 04:36, July 20, 2010 (UTC)

Hmm... I see I should have given more info; I'm sorry. I'm also using these colors to produce (on an automatic basis - not nearly as nice-looking as your ones...) sector maps (in order to make them into trade route maps - still in progress). I thus need for the colors and color combos to be distinguishable even without text, for hexes without text in them. I did start with the four you've been using, actually - see Sandbox/Subsector Map Colors for the full listing. (It's interesting how the human eye & brain deal with colors - I can see how it's not apparent that I'm using those colors to start with.) I use the C4C4C4 color in some places already, albeit in combination with other colors. Thanks... Allens 18:15, July 20, 2010 (UTC)

The Traveller Wiki is leaving Wikia: Forum:Traveller_Wiki_is_leaving_Wikia

Tjoneslo (talk) 13:15, December 3, 2012 (UTC)