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Navigating the Galaxy

Charts, surveys and how the map gradually fills in.

The Galaxy Map

Open Galaxy › Galaxy Map. The view draws all two million stars at once. Pan with click-drag, zoom with the scroll wheel, and click any star to open its detail panel.

Galactic structure

Reach. The disk extends to roughly 70,000 LY from the galactic core, measured by the cursor coordinate readout in the HUD.
Spiral arms. A central bar and two major spiral arms carry most of the stellar density, with three thinner spur arms branching outward. The brightness ramp from core to rim is roughly 30:1 — the bulge is dazzling, the rim is sparse.
Density taper. Star density falls off radially: dense bar / arms in the inner 25 K LY, mixed inter-arm field through the mid disk, and a patchy thinning band in the outer 15-20 K LY where roughly a third of all systems live.
Frayed rim. The outer boundary is intentionally not a clean circle. Low-frequency noise pushes the rim in and out around the disk so some lobes reach past 70 K LY while others fall short, giving the galaxy a torn-nebula silhouette instead of a hard edge. Cellular voids carve into the outer band so frontier systems sit in irregular pockets, never on a tidy ring.

Note·Frontier expansion

The frayed rim means the very edge of the galaxy is also the most fragmented. Expect long unclaimed corridors, irregular fleet routes, and stretches of empty space between adjacent rim lobes — all of which become natural defensive choke points later in the game.

Discovery vs. Survey

Discovered — a star is "charted" the moment any of your fleets passes through or near it. Charted stars are visible on your map and can be re-targeted.
Surveyed — a Research Ship survey mission reveals every orbit in the system: planet types, asteroid belts, moons, anomalies. Required before colonisation.

Tip·Cheap charting with probes

Espionage Probes are by far the cheapest scouts. They are fast, lightly built, and burn very little fuel. Send them in a wide net and use Research Ships only for systems you intend to colonise.

The System View

From the map, click a star and choose "Open System". You'll see the three orbital rings, a list of slots, and any colonies or stations you own there. If the system is unclaimed and surveyed, a Claim button appears — provided you can deliver a Colony Ship.

Coordinates

Every system has a galactic coordinate displayed as Galaxy:System:Position (e.g. 1:234:5). These are deterministic — they don't change with the map seed.

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