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Finally, my copy of Star Charts arrived this afternoon and already it is in pieces ready for indepth scanning/studying ;)
So basically now that I've got a copy of what the populace got. I can better answer any and all questions. I even have easy email contact with Geoff Mandel for any off the wall questions.
So ask away!
Myself I'm quite impressed with the final product. Its certainly come a long way from its humble beginnings.
As to the poll:
I choose good and bad points.
If I and the other contributors had gotten the beta test (ran out of time). We certainly would have changed a number of points to make it more canonical.
I rated them top notch. I'll never be able to do anything even remotely close, and there's tons of info in there that I can use in my games. I don't care if it's 100 percent accurate to canon. It looks great and there's stuff I can use.
It's a winner in my book. :)
Top notch: art production values were grand, I liked the new planetary class bit, liked the inclusion in the planets list on some of TOS planets, plces were close enough to explain the ability to get someplace quick at max warp, yet still be months away at normal speeds.
All around great product
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I'll be the first to list a critism here. Maps are way to busy for my taste. Too much info at once and what they did to the Dominion war maps was horriable too tiny to be of any use, and I have not been able to reconcil them with the larger political maps, and what do they have against foldouts by the way? However I did notice the Triangle is still there and the Klingon Fed border is fairly the same as FASA's was.
I loved it, but I'd have been willing to lose a map or two (or add a few dollars to the price tag) in return for an index...
It's like being given one of those huge road atlases of the United States and asked to find the location of every town named Marlborough, Lincoln, or Springfield... With the index pages torn out.
Oh my! Is the shoe-hunting season open already?!? :eek:Quote:
Originally posted by StyroFoam Man
Stood there and read it while the wife went shoe-hunting. Great book, wish I had more time to read it... Can't buy it now because Christmas is comming up... :D
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Ok, my three big problems with the Star Charts book.
1) Tholia was only on one of "title page" political maps, not one of the detailed ones. I was looking forward to this as I am (when I have time) working on a sector that borders Tholian Space...Unfortunately not much good to me.
2) Why is the Federation afraid of fighting a war? They completely surround all other major governments, or at least on 3 sides. According to those maps the Federation is HUGE.
3) And last, but not least....THE ROMULAN EMPIRE IS WAY TOO FRIGGIN' SMALL!!!!!! I mean smaller then the Klingon Empire????????!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please. As an Imperial force, going on LUG info which is about as canon as the charts are, the RSE has been around alot longer then any of the other major powers, and according to the charts it's just a 'speed bump.' ARRRGGGG! Where's my disruptor?
Ahh, I feel better now.
Thank you for your time. :D
I do have a few small criticisms: As Dan said, an index would have been nice. Just last night I was flipping pages looking for Alpha Ceti. The Dominion war maps- were they made small so readers wouldn't notice that they do not correspond with the other maps? A big (and I mean big) poster size would be nice (with lots of star labels). I know this isn't realistic nowadays, but high on my wish list are classic era maps. Also, I wish all the tiny, anonomous, filler stars had labels too! On the other hand, it would give gamers plenty of opportunity for exploring and creating their own adventures. Can you imagine how cool an interactive CD version of this would be?
I want to end this post on a positive note, because that's what the book deserves. A great job all around. I like the text color coding. Interesting to see the mix of Federation and non-fed worlds within fed space. The trade routes were a cool addition, too. I couldn't resist pulling up some "Its full of Stars" maps just to compare. Wow. My star list is definately out of date! Which brings to mind a question that I hope someone here could answer: Is there any new 3D star mapping software comparable to IFOS? I am not interested in planetarium or "sky" type programs. I like IFOS, and I'm looking for something that operates on the same principle but prettier and more powerful. Suggestions?
Good points and bad points.
For the most part, I love it. But there are a few niggling discrepancies:
1. Betazed. This is damn close to the Cardassian border and if the Dominion war maps are correct, it would be the first planet to fall in the war. It's capture certainly wouldn't put the Dominion in striking range of Federation core worlds.
2. The positioning of the Tholians. If Kirk encountered the Tholians, why weren't the Cardassians encountered earlier. (I know that there is no canonical date for this.)
I do like some of the supposition used:
The whole spralling yet small Federation really works, and explains apparent discrepancies in the series.
Trill. Was Trill really on a trade route in the 22nd Century?
The use of Klingon ship names and classes as planets, as though the Vor'cha class was named for a star system.
I would have liked to see a little more explanatory text, eg saying that the maps from the series were just graphics and bear little relation to the maps in the book, and maybe explaining why some assumptions were made.
I put "good points and bad points."
The main "good" is the presentation (artwork, graphics, etc.).
The main "bad" is WHY IS THERE NO Z+/Z- PERSPECTIVE?!
So many of the "this is too close to that" or "this empire is too big compared to that empire" problems would be avoided if there would have been side views showing things such as: The Romulan Empire expands more "galactically up-and-down" than "galactically across"; or the Klingon Empire expands more "galactically across" than "galactically up-and-down"; or Ferenginar is a couple hundred ly Z+ of Cardassia; or the Federation wraps around the Klingon Empire (and other empires) in certain sections by going above and/or below it.
It just surprises me that Mandel, having worked on "Star Trek Maps," which did have side views, would just skip them in this work (well, except for pp 18-19).
Two minor "bads" were no index, and using Romulan and Klingon ship names for system names (that seems excessively "cute").
I don't really think adding in the x,y and z axis would make any difference. The Romulan Empire would have to extend a very long way in 'x' direction to even begin to compete with the size of the Federation. Whcih would be correspondingly bigger :eek: as well.
Dave -- "Alpha Ceti"? Or were you looking for Ceti Alpha of Khan fame (I found that one :) )?
SIGs -- I have one for you....where the heck is Eminiar? (sp?) :) I was thinking it'd be on the BQ side of the Federation, but I couldn't spot it.
All-in-all, I think it'll be a nice reference book, just like the OkudaChron is for me. However, I'm now going to have to find a way to reconcile my Gorn writeups with the map.... :p