ralf | May 27, 2010 | Cosmographer, starships, Traveller

By Ralf Schemmann

We’ve been working on the new version of the Cosmographer add-on for a while, mostly because we didn’t want it to be “just” an art upgrade.  We’ve now added some very cool new features and are getting close to announcing a release date. Here are some collected previews of the different styles and features available in Cosmographer 3. Some of the images have already appeared on our blogs, others are new.

Deckplans

We’ve had some talented German artists (the BananaMonks) create a stunning set of  bitmap symbols for starship deckplans.

Here is a full example (included with Cosmographer 3). Note that the new drawing tools will allow you to draw a symmetric shape like this automatically. You justd raw one side of the ship and Cosmo 3 creates the other half as you go along.  And the multiple-levels tool already available in City Designer 3 (for building floorplans) gets included in the new map wizard to auickly create multi-deck ships.

The same set of symbols can be used for outdoor and indoor battlemaps of futuristic locations:

Overland Maps

Of course starship deckplans and battlemaps are just one aspect of sci-fi mapping. On the overland side of things, we’ve create a bitmap style that evokes satellite imagery and can be overlaid with symbols suggesting computer graphics overlay.

A variation of the same general style allows you to create hex maps as originally introduced in Cosmographer Pro.

Starmaps

Another important map type are charts of stars, hyperspace routes and similar things.  They include one of the neat new features of Cosmographer 3: Adjustable Height Symbols. These go on isometric maps, and after placing the symbol, the user gets the option to set a virtual height above the isometric plane. The symbol automatically generates a height indicator to show this and can display it as a symbol attribute. Another command lets the user quickly draw connecting lines between these symbols, automatically calculating the real 3d distance.  Here is an example:

Cosmographer 3 will also include map styles for existing settings, for example the Mindjammer game:

And of course for the granddaddy of them all: Cosmographer will be a product “Approved for use with Traveller” by Marc W. Miller.

As a special feature we’ll include a spreadsheet with lots of actual stardata (from the Gliese catalog of nearby stars and others) . From these you’ll be able to generate starmaps based on the vicinity of earth or other stars.  The maps are automatically generated and the stars coded by class and luminosity.  You can generate some amazing maps with just a few clicks:

Galactic Maps

A new style of map that wasn’t included in Cosmographer Pro are the galactic overview maps. They are not so much for showing individual stars, but for regions of space and galactic empires and spheres of influence.

Some maps for Traveller are included as examples:

I hope you like our little preview of Cosmographer. We’ll soon be able to announce a release date and will let you know!

Ralf

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