You guys asked for some visual aids of what my Star Wars Galaxy map would look like so I took an hour break from studying for finals ( -__- ) to make this first draft. The only part of the map that's aesthetically near completion is the galaxy (which still needs considerable touching up) and coordinate grids I painted in the background (which are shown in the second image).
The main purpose of this draft was to figure out the spacing of the planets and make sure I had enough room for their names in the tightest packed areas (which is why not everything is named in the outer areas). The current names are not final (some are missing, in the wrong spot, or misspelled) and they will have something behind them to make them easy to see against the background and to connect them directly to their planets. The lines indicating the routes in between planets will also be changed to something more interesting. The green circles will be replaced with painted images of the planets. The planets will be visible but will be light enough and the correct size for the army numbers to be placed directly on them. The inner edge of the white box defines the actual border of the map and forms a box 600 pixels by 480 pixels. There are currently about 80 planets on the map but I will be adding more mostly in the top right and lower left to get a little past 100 total planets.
Gameplay:
The bonuses are probably the most important feature of this map and occur in several different types. Currently there are at least 3 sectors that work like regular continents on other maps. Then, there are 5 Hyperlanes (the thicker lines) which award bonuses depending on how many consecutive planets on them you hold. They will be separately marked and named later. Finally, there are resource bonuses given for holding at least a couple of one type of resource planet. For instance, Kashyyyk, Geonosis, and Kamino are all Troop planets, Kuat, Corellia, and Fondor are all Shipyard planets, and so on (with 6 types total).
Movement along the Hyperlanes will also be unique. Each planet on a Hyperlane borders both adjacent planets and planets two spaces down along the Hyperlanes. Armies on Malastare (lower left) can attack Denon directly without having to touch Atzerri for example. This will mean that two consecutive spots on a Hyperlane must be fortified to prevent passage. Hopefully, this will make gameplay more interesting.
This map also doesn't have any areas that are very isolated and all locations (and bonuses) are canon based. The only thing that isn't really correct are the borders of Hutt Space but I couldn't resist expanding it for its currently near perfect borders.
I don't have any more time to work on it this week so don't expect any updates soon.
That's all I can think of at the moment so here are the images:
FOR ANYONE WHO DIDN"T READ THE ABOVE, THESE ARE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO FINISHED SO PLEASE QUIT TALKING ABOUT HOW IT LOOKS AND GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK ON THE GAMEPLAY... -___-
