Whenever we see galactic maps in science fiction or movies, or fantasy maps in DnD campaigns or games, they're immediately made interesting by the markers that call out the sites of past battles, locations of great fortresses or key strategic chokepoints.
Whenever I am playing Stellaris I feel certain systems or areas become hugely important strategically and narratively to me, but at best are marked by the same generic star base symbol as almost every system in the game.
What if you had a simple interface that let you wrap a skull backdrop over a system on the strategic map, or a fortress, or make the system name glowing red.
What if you could place two crossed swords over a system where a critical battle happened (like a manual version of Total War's campaign map markers) and have hovering above those swords "The Disintegration of the Kantor Fleet".
What if your four glorious key worlds could have golden text names and have their hexagons ringed in a stylised laurel wreath.
What if the three key targets for your border war have holographic crosshairs sitting behind the hexagons.
What if critical route hyperlanes between military stations glowed a vibrant red, while you make the key trading artery through your empire glow gorgeous green.
These little progressive annotations you make onto the map would do more than any other possible change to immerse yourself in your galaxy, with the literal history of your campaign being marked out iteratively onto the stars as you play.
When you finish, you're no longer staring at a bland monoculture wreathed in your empire colours. You're staring at a living history with dozens of battle markers, key systems, vibrant trade routes, military installations, and cultural monuments.
These could be entirely manual, be only visible to the player who placed them and be enormously satisfying. It would also outsource the solution to Stellaris' key immersion problem (gorgeous systems but bland, flat, and landmark starved galactic map) to the players, turning the solution to a key immersion issue into a hugely satisfying parallel activity to be enjoyed in the quiet moments between wars and acquisitions.
TLDR: Let us paint and amend out galactic map with markers, tags, and system backdrops as we play.
NOTE - This was posted by me on the subreddit and got some positive responses, but was told it'd be better placed here if I wanted to catch the eye of a bored Stellaris team artist!
Here it is and here's the link
Whenever I am playing Stellaris I feel certain systems or areas become hugely important strategically and narratively to me, but at best are marked by the same generic star base symbol as almost every system in the game.
What if you had a simple interface that let you wrap a skull backdrop over a system on the strategic map, or a fortress, or make the system name glowing red.
What if you could place two crossed swords over a system where a critical battle happened (like a manual version of Total War's campaign map markers) and have hovering above those swords "The Disintegration of the Kantor Fleet".
What if your four glorious key worlds could have golden text names and have their hexagons ringed in a stylised laurel wreath.
What if the three key targets for your border war have holographic crosshairs sitting behind the hexagons.
What if critical route hyperlanes between military stations glowed a vibrant red, while you make the key trading artery through your empire glow gorgeous green.
These little progressive annotations you make onto the map would do more than any other possible change to immerse yourself in your galaxy, with the literal history of your campaign being marked out iteratively onto the stars as you play.
When you finish, you're no longer staring at a bland monoculture wreathed in your empire colours. You're staring at a living history with dozens of battle markers, key systems, vibrant trade routes, military installations, and cultural monuments.
These could be entirely manual, be only visible to the player who placed them and be enormously satisfying. It would also outsource the solution to Stellaris' key immersion problem (gorgeous systems but bland, flat, and landmark starved galactic map) to the players, turning the solution to a key immersion issue into a hugely satisfying parallel activity to be enjoyed in the quiet moments between wars and acquisitions.
TLDR: Let us paint and amend out galactic map with markers, tags, and system backdrops as we play.
NOTE - This was posted by me on the subreddit and got some positive responses, but was told it'd be better placed here if I wanted to catch the eye of a bored Stellaris team artist!
Here it is and here's the link
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