Is Anyone Surveying the Planets?

[RightBigToe]

I was wondering if anyone had plans/ideas to somehow survey the planets in the starter system, especially Alioth, so that we can develop GIS portals (Google maps but with more features) out-of-game?  

[ATMLVE]

What exactly would the extent of this be? I'm not familiar with GIS by that name. You're saying we would make topographical maps of the planet, with location data marking places people have made, outside of the game?

[Lethys]

We already did a WMS implementation and we plan on doing this for every planet - early work:

 

 

 

 

 

[Shockeray]

Nice work Lethys!

[RightBigToe]

2 hours ago, Lethys said:

We already did a WMS implementation and we plan on doing this for every planet - early work:

 

 

 

 

 

So my question is, how do you plan on getting the topographical data from DU?

[Lethys]

Ideally you get it from some sort of datadump incl all data like ownership, exact location of the tile and stuff

 

Or, if you don't get the background pic, I just hire cartographers who make 2 sets of pics: high and low for different resolution. 

 

In gis you can easily compile that info on the fly and publish it, but we're working on that. Wms+Google earth has some drawbacks

[Cybrex]

I wonder if NQ did a full character API, could they do one for planet/system stats so we could create real time maps out of the game? My knowledge of that stuff is limited though, so could be wrong. 

[Shockeray]

56 minutes ago, Cybrex said:

I wonder if NQ did a full character API, could they do one for planet/system stats so we could create real time maps out of the game? My knowledge of that stuff is limited though, so could be wrong. 

Would be nice. I wonder if there are reasons why they wouldn't want to do this other that the time.

[RightBigToe]

On 9/14/2017 at 3:36 PM, Shockeray said:

Would be nice. I wonder if there are reasons why they wouldn't want to do this other that the time.

 I would think it would take a good deal of time to determine a method for compiling and storing all of this information, as it would be fairly extensive.  It is certainly possible unless there is something weird with the procedural generation, just not simple.

[CoreVamore]

On 14/09/2017 at 10:14 PM, Lethys said:

We already did a WMS implementation and we plan on doing this for every planet - early work:

 

 

 

 

 

The only issue I would have with such a map showing ore deposits etc is that if someone is the first to find a new ore load, and they are the only ones that find it, then using info from the avatars/players API would reveal the new ore find to everyone. Which has the potential of shortening the window of opportunity for that miner from days/weeks down to potentially a few hours.

 

(Unless I am totally misunderstanding the intent of the original post)

[Supermega]

3 hours ago, CoreVamore said:

The only issue I would have with such a map showing ore deposits etc is that if someone is the first to find a new ore load, and they are the only ones that find it, then using info from the avatars/players API would reveal the new ore find to everyone. Which has the potential of shortening the window of opportunity for that miner from days/weeks down to potentially a few hours.

 

(Unless I am totally misunderstanding the intent of the original post)

 

 

That's also my concern....

[Oije]

I would prefer a limited API. DU should be driven by discoveries which are made inside the game by spending time inside DU and by doing research inside DU. The players should gain advantages they made inside DU and not by spending time at programming bots or 3rd party tools. The most active gamer shall have advantages and not the best RL programmer

[Lethys]

regardless of the API - if allowed people will do such maps. If it's via manual input of dozens/hundred of members or via some api - it'll be done.

OFC such a map would be used to get an advantage - that's the whole point of it

[Oije]

2 minutes ago, Lethys said:

regardless of the API - if allowed people will do such maps. If it's via manual input of dozens/hundred of members or via some api - it'll be done.

OFC such a map would be used to get an advantage - that's the whole point of it

I have no problem with your point. I am only hoping for a weak API support by NQ to make it harder to create 3rd party tools. 

[Hopestealer]

On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 8:44 AM, Lethys said:

We already did a WMS implementation and we plan on doing this for every planet - early work:

 

 

 

 

 

Oh this is very exciting indeed

[JOKER_CN]

I still remember how we digitalized an old map in GIS in college: by manually re-drawing all borders and coloring ore deposits on the software. Even if Devs don't provide such an API, we can do it with lots and lots of screenshots anyway.

[TheMasterArchitect]

I plan on using a cartographer in my group to chart planets and star locations.