Cool.  Was just curious since someone asked me which was developed first and I couldn't provide them an answer.

As for my confusion over Traithe leaving IRE, there have been numerous rumors, none of which I'd heard had been confirmed or denied by him, as to what happened with the project (supposedly on account of a non-disclosure agreement).  Thanks for the clarification, Matt.

Take care,

Jason

Well, this sounds pretty cool.  But still, I'm never going to play an IRE game so I guess the point is moot.

I just wanted to share what a very dedicated player has been doing: mapping aetherspace (which believe me is a mindboggingly difficult task). Check out the . I must say I'm impressed!

Damn dragons!

--matt

Estarra @ Feb. 09 2006,19:31
Well, this time I am impressed too.
The other examples of IRE maps that someone posted looked pretty mundane to me. This one is more like it. Can't say how accurate it is of course, but it's a really cool map, decorative too.

Just out of curiosity; is the base for it a grid, and if so how large?

Quite amazing how something new and innovative (as well as time-consuming in the coding department) can be instantly bashed. I guess I'm just used to people with a tad more civility.

In any case, the link to Elryn's page seems to be not working, so I'll give you the map of Aetherspace . This one isn't as cool, because on Elryn's you could click a space and it would zoom it so you could see the individual characters, but you can get a general sense of space by looking at the black spots (which were monsters that his automapper skipped over). Those are each one character, one space, and where your ship can be.

And as far as we know, it's completely accurate, as he used a program to map it, bit by bit.

It's quite a fantastic addition!

Your're a MOD of the Lusternia forums so I know that isn't true.

Okay, let me recap here...

As I see it, there are four main threads of discusison under this topic.

1) Similar systems elsewhere (ala Spelljammer, Elite, etc).
2) Repetition of the "ae" prefix.
3) Maps.
4) Source of inspiration.

The first was certainly not bashing anything - in fact, I think, when most people see "aether" or "ether" ships in fantasy, they think Spelljammer. Either way, it was an interesting romp through history.

The second was phrased kind of... condenscendingly, but he does have a point - check his automobile example for a reasonable comparison. That said, at least some players do enjoy having "aetherships" with "aetherengines" and "aethersails", and said system has other positive aspects as well. In the end, a judgement call without a definitive answer, stated rather non-objectively, but it was really nothing so terrible.

The third point was generally positive, so, yeah.

The fourth point did imply that Lusternia's feature may or may not be original, and so forth, but it seemed pretty mild. It did not attack the feature itself, however, just its intellectual genesis, and it never really did so directly.

In the end, I don't see anywhere in here that someone actually bashed the feature. Nobody said, "Omgz0r, lame and stoopid!!!111"

Half the threads are either tangential or positive, and the remaining two consist of one individual stating a difference in position and a question with some iffy implications. Neither time did he discuss the feature itself, just its genesis and the way it is documented/marketed, and both are rather mild by any measure.

So, please, don't trash the forums, don't trash its denizens, and certainly don't masquerade behind a veil of civility. TMS has its sad times (many, in fact, most of which are derived from a handful of very touchy subjects), but this is not one of them.

Some of you may remember Lusternia's release, a ship system where players design their own ships and purchase modifications and upgrades to travel through the aetherways to explore new worlds and realities. Many of you suggested that a trade system would really round out the design. We took the ideas presented here of an Elite-style trade system, as well as input from our players, and implemented a trading system for ships! It's been running for over a month now and players seem to be really having fun with it.