Gloomy empire maps

2016
In 2016, Gloomy empire received access to The Dad's python script to allow him to create maps for the game. The lack of experience of Gloomy made him hesitant to share the maps to all players so for the most part these maps where shared to Reavers who helped give advise on how to make them better. Most of these maps were trying to show the changes that had happened during the games long history. The first map below was created to show all of the new Reavers players where they were on the map and give them a good idea on how much free space was around them. Having all of the other players in black was not very interesting so a new map was made so that each individual player could be mapped out. In this map each letter has its very own color to help distinguish between players. It is not perfect at this but it does a good enough job. Grid lines and squaring it was added to help make the map as accurate as possible. Using the same code but using data from 2015 another map was made to show what the game was like before coherent constructed his ring around the map.

shape
The map is basically infinite and increases in size based on if players explore new space that no one else has. At different points in the games history the map growth has been locked and unlocked based on the what Dean wanted at the time. Currently the map is unlocked and players can explore the great void and see if they find interesting star names or just see if they can find a random player who is finding there. Below shows the general shape of the map as of September 1.

Timelapse
The map is ever evolving and changing over time and no part of the map is safe from change. The map below shows a time-lapse of the colonized stars from 2013-2017. The color is as follows orange for 2013, yellow for 2015, green for 2016, and blue for 2017. Unfortunately the grid-lines were needed to interface the maps so they have to be there. If Proto baggins's 2014 map with all the empires is included then the map changes quite considerably. It makes it quite hard to see the 2015 yellow part of the map but there are still a few places it can still be seen.

Last seen
Not everyone can play all the time and many players have to take long breaks for their busy lives and not play the game. In many of these cases the players do eventually come back but some times it takes them many years to do so. In the map below you can see the areas of the map where players have left with little warning ant may one day return when they have the time.

This map also shows the areas of the map that have active players populating them and those that have players that haven't done much in many years. In the map the players that have recently logged in are red and right colors and the ones that haven't logged in awhile are darker colors of blue and purple.

Wormhole map
Wormholes tie the map together into a confusing web that is not that easy to figure out but it is still extremely important. Knowing if an enemy has a wormhole or wh pointing in your direction can be key when war situations break out. Since whs are created by players they are often hard to find since the map is so expansive. The map below shows the locations of all the wormholes in the game as of September 7 so that players can see where they are but not give away whose they are. Only the players that are watchful enough can know that.

January
Being a new year a new map should also be made to keep everyone informed on how the game has changed in the last few months. The map below includes all players that have 3 or more stars so about 3.4k players in all. Each first character in a players name is given a color that is unique to help distinguish between other players. This is not perfect by any means because players with the same first character could be next to each other but it generally works quite well. For the ones that have this issue the in game map will be required for further examination.

Ships
Although data about the exact location of large fleets is hidden to protect players there are other ways to get a general idea of the distribution of ships in war worlds. To map this the top 100 players ship count was used as their color and it was used to distinguish other players. This is not meant for military uses at all.

Colonization density
As the game progresses the map gets larger and the old areas become more densely populated. Not all the areas grow in the same way and while some areas may see massive growth due to competition, other areas are left to obscurity and silence. By making a density map of colonized stars the goal is to show the areas that are being forgotten by other players and could be completely devoid of activity. These areas could prove useful for new colonization in the inner part of the map to promote a closer community. In the map above it gives a good overall view but it averages many important areas we want to look at. To adjust for this 2 more maps have been made to help the look at the areas where the amount of colonized stars is being smoothed out due to small clumps of colonized stars. The first map uses 5 coordinate unites for each square and does a decent job at showing where empires are mostly found. The number of stars colonized by a certain section is visible when zooming in which makes it adds to reason why it has many advantages over the map above. The second map uses 2 coordinate units and does an excellent job at showing empires and the gaps in between empires. Although the number of colonized stars in a section of space is not visible the amount of detail that it provides with its small unites makes up for this. Both maps are helpful in their own way.

May
As classes end the map needed to get updated to keep players up to date on what is going on. It includes 3.4k players that have 3 stars or more in different colors based on the first letter of their name. It is not perfect but should still be useful to players.



Alliance
Alliances play a big part in the game so a map of most of the active alliances has been created to help players see where they are. These specific alliances were chosen based on activity, size, and number of players. The alliances in the map are Reavers of War Worlds, Children of the Sun, Warriors, Hawk Nation, Watchers, and One Only.



June
Once Gloomy Empire found out about using Tableau to make maps for the game he decided that making them any other way was basically a waste of time as they could never be as useful as a zoomable interactive map. This marks the end of the quest for a perfect view of war worlds. Check out Zoomable maps here.