Okay, having gone through the Sol Station site, I'm prepared to pin our known nations to some real stars.
The Paladins are from Epsilon Eridani or Tau Ceti, making their and the UTN's contested system Sirius (and adding a reason for them to be cross over losing that system - both of their potential homes are poorer in metals than Sol, and a lot poorer than Sirius or Procyon). Likewise, the most suitable system for the Spiders, given what's already been decided about them (close enough to Earth to have uninterrupted travel, F-class sun), is probably Zeta Tucanae. Put the Imperials in J. Herschel 5173, the Cats in 107 Piscium, and the Feudalists in p Eridani... The Blobs are fairly distant, say, Chi Orionis.
Yes, I have a map. There are quite a few stars that should be able to support life that aren't on it. My original draft allowed jump links between K-or-better mass stars that were less than about sixteen light-years apart, but going to that site's 10-or-less measurement scheme is much more convenient. ^_^
Incidentally, I think I might have an explanation for why our mapping centers around Sol - Jump Points cannot be detected on instruments. The closest you can get is punching your drive and seeing whether it, A, works, B, turns over then dies, or C, just sits there. Unless you're within a couple hundred kilometers of exactly the right spot, it just sits there... I think that the difficulties in using this method for primary location should be obvious, given the scale of your average star system. To calculate where the Point should be, though, you need the mass, distance, and relative motion of your target star with a fair degree of precision. If I understand correctly, astronomy today is as much image processing as it is observation - and processing is computer science, a Terran specialty... In short, none of the other nations likely have enough data for more than one or two jumps away from their home systems.
As for the question of nutrient-leaching on the water moon, I don't think I said that it got most of its energy from the local sun - although you're right, the postion I have it in would have that effect... hmm. Drop it into the number two slot, moving 'desert' and 'homeworld' each out one place?
Anyway, I'll toss a rock into the species discussion by noting that the 'Precursors' who scattered humans all over the place are far from the only or the earliest race to go mucking about in this area... indeed, all the planets that they were dropping people on had already been terraformed before they even evolved. I'm not sure when, though, or even if it was only the once... Anyway, while these worlds may be seperated from Earth and each other by up to a couple billion years of evolution, they're still not entirely alien... Likewise, as with the chlorine issue that Custos was calling me on, the elements and basic compounds making up life aren't likely to change much... Mrr. Most of the local stars seem to be older and poorer in metals than Sol, so absences would seem a more likely problem than new and interesting toxins...
Ja, -n
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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
The Paladins are from Epsilon Eridani or Tau Ceti, making their and the UTN's contested system Sirius (and adding a reason for them to be cross over losing that system - both of their potential homes are poorer in metals than Sol, and a lot poorer than Sirius or Procyon). Likewise, the most suitable system for the Spiders, given what's already been decided about them (close enough to Earth to have uninterrupted travel, F-class sun), is probably Zeta Tucanae. Put the Imperials in J. Herschel 5173, the Cats in 107 Piscium, and the Feudalists in p Eridani... The Blobs are fairly distant, say, Chi Orionis.
Yes, I have a map. There are quite a few stars that should be able to support life that aren't on it. My original draft allowed jump links between K-or-better mass stars that were less than about sixteen light-years apart, but going to that site's 10-or-less measurement scheme is much more convenient. ^_^
Incidentally, I think I might have an explanation for why our mapping centers around Sol - Jump Points cannot be detected on instruments. The closest you can get is punching your drive and seeing whether it, A, works, B, turns over then dies, or C, just sits there. Unless you're within a couple hundred kilometers of exactly the right spot, it just sits there... I think that the difficulties in using this method for primary location should be obvious, given the scale of your average star system. To calculate where the Point should be, though, you need the mass, distance, and relative motion of your target star with a fair degree of precision. If I understand correctly, astronomy today is as much image processing as it is observation - and processing is computer science, a Terran specialty... In short, none of the other nations likely have enough data for more than one or two jumps away from their home systems.
As for the question of nutrient-leaching on the water moon, I don't think I said that it got most of its energy from the local sun - although you're right, the postion I have it in would have that effect... hmm. Drop it into the number two slot, moving 'desert' and 'homeworld' each out one place?
Anyway, I'll toss a rock into the species discussion by noting that the 'Precursors' who scattered humans all over the place are far from the only or the earliest race to go mucking about in this area... indeed, all the planets that they were dropping people on had already been terraformed before they even evolved. I'm not sure when, though, or even if it was only the once... Anyway, while these worlds may be seperated from Earth and each other by up to a couple billion years of evolution, they're still not entirely alien... Likewise, as with the chlorine issue that Custos was calling me on, the elements and basic compounds making up life aren't likely to change much... Mrr. Most of the local stars seem to be older and poorer in metals than Sol, so absences would seem a more likely problem than new and interesting toxins...
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"