DOTLAN EveMaps

After multiple requests, I removed the internal ship limitation and added the Jump Bridge for the Jump Planer. Additional I modified the rules that gets applied to the routing calculation

• Jump Bridge has a fixed jump range of 5 light years, not affected by the pilot skills.
• Jump Bridges must pass Non-NPC Space. A Jump Bridge can’t go through NPC 0.0 Space!
• I’ve not limited the calculation to Sov Levels or alliance systems, because its a planning tool and should not be affected by the current sovereignty holders and levels.

Have fun.

btw. Fanfest is coming closer!

Some days ago I introduced the ability to fill the maps with more colors like security status and number of shipkills. Today I was playing around with some more javascript stuff and came up with the idea how to improve the usage and navigation with this infolayer. The map will know use the browser history while switching between the info layers, you can always can go back in your browser and it switch backs to the previous informations. The map also safes the currently used infolayer. If you switch to a different region map or shuffling through the page, the selected infolayer will stay during that session.

Additionally, info layers like belt and moon count got their colors (green = less belts, red = max belts) aswell as the constellation groups.

Update:
I justed fixed one feature with the infolayer: If you scroll back in the timeline of the map, the kills/jumps, etc of that day (downtime to downtime) will get display. That way it’s easy to track the usage (Jumps, Kills) of a system, constellation or the whole region. Remember: My database only contains the last 30 days of those stats due to the huge ammout of data (500mb+)

Example (now with fixed links):

• Scalding Pass – Kills 2009-08-25
• Scalding Pass – Kills 2009-08-22

Thanks to Johnathan Roark who provided me a bunch of outdated alliance data (names, tickers and ids). Yesterday I added around 300+ already disbanded alliances which my database were lacking. I don’t have much informations about them like former corporations or systems they were holding but at least I could fill some holes. Sadly I didn’t paid attention and added an alliance with allianceID 0 (Zero) which ended with some funny results on numerous pages.

As always: If you’ve old or current data of whatever type and you’re willing to share it with the rest of the EVE Community: Drop me an email or evemail and I’ll see what I can do.

I updated the alliance logos based on CCP’s Apocrypha image package and the user maintained allianceID to iconID mapping list. To bad that many of the older, disbanded alliances aren’t in my database because I don’t have any informations (name, id, ticker, etc) about them.

I also removed the black background from all alliance images. I think they’re looking better on a clean background. What do you think?

If you’ve historical API XML files and/or backups from sovereignty and alliance API exports, I would be happy if you’re willing to share it with me.

After fixing the maps for the Internet Explorer I started the next big map update. First I fixed some alignment errors in the SVG maps but in the background I was more working with javascript to get the SVG and VML Maps colorized. If you now take one map and change the info layer to Sov, Security, Jumps, Kills, NPC Kills or Moons the Systems will get colorized.

But what do I’ve to say more expect take a deep breath and enjoy the pictures and updated maps.

P.S. The moon colors are linked with my moon mining database. If there’s a R64 moon in specific system it will be displayed red, dark orange if the max rarity moon is R32 and so on. The same colors like the moon mining database. Here again the call. If you’ve moonscans from regions please feel free to email them to me.

After doing some research about SVG in combination with the Internet Explorer I found out that Microsoft has their vector graphics format (VML) which got rejected by W3C 10 years ago. VML is supported from IE5.5+ and is likely the reason why Microsoft isn’t implementing SVG like all the other big browsers.

I did some tests and realized, that  it isn’t that much different compared with svg, at least for the features I need from a vector based graphics format. Because VML is based on a HTML/XML syntax it’s possible to modify it with Javascript (like I do with the infolayer switch on the maps to switch between: sovereignty, kills, jumps, etc.

After some hours of work, I finally replaced the Flash maps (which were only a workaround for IE users) with new maps based on VML (for IE Only).  I would be happy if the minority of IE Users can check if everything is working as intended. Firefox/Safari/Opera/Chrome user shouldn’t be affected.

Yesterday evening I updated the search function on DOTLAN EveMaps and just activated it for the live usage. You can now search in for agents, alliances, constellations, corporations, regions and stations in a single search window. I hope that helps you. I also updated the opensearch extensions.

Opensearch what’s that?

Browser which’re supporting opensearch (IE7+, Firefox, Safari, etc.) can use the search function of the DOTLAN EveMaps as quick search for your toolbar. If you’re browsing EveMaps just open the dropdown menu of your quick search and select DOTLAN EveMaps as search engine from the list of advertised search engines.

2 big updates for the navigation tools in 2 days? Really? Ups. It wasn’t intended 🙂 But the changes are so nice that I can’t hold them back.

Route planner with more options:

You can now select what kind of route you wanna show. Fastest, Prefer Highsec or Prefer Lowsec/0.0 It’s now your choice. In addition you can now select also regions and systems which you wanna avoid. The routing planer will guide you around those areas.

Save Jump/Route Settings:

I got asked if it is possible to save your personal ship and route settings (like carrier with skills 1, 2, 3) in your browser for further usage. Quickly added and approved.

Fly safe and have fun.

With the new update to the jump planner you’re now able to select regions and systems, which you wanna avoid in the jump path calculation.

Example:
You’re sitting in NPC Delve and wanna plan how to get out there back to your lowsec home in Derelik, but you don’t wanna go through Querious because it’s full of Goons which perhabs don’t like you or otherwise. With the updated jump planner you can now just add regions and systems which you wanna avoid (because you don’t like them or you know those systems are cyno jammed) and start the calculation.

Direct way:
https://evemaps.dotlan.net/jump/Thanatos,444/319-3D:Futzchag

Alternative way with 2 regions on the avoid list:
https://evemaps.dotlan.net/jump/Thanatos,444,-Querious,-Providence/319-3D:Futzchag

I also changed some elements in the universe map that’s being used by the route and jump planner tools. System with stations are now marked with a little rectangle, systems without stations still keep their circle.

An additional smaller change has been made to the route planner. The calculated route is now highlighted with a big yellow line in the background on the path, instead of the thick black line before.

Just a quick note: I doubled the number of colors which I use on the maps. I’ve now 36 colors (12 colors * dark/medium/light) and I hope that this will reduce the problems with alliances having the same color on the map.  I just can’t use every color because I’ve always to make sure the text inside the system boxes are still readable.

How are the colors assigned?

I load all alliances that had sovereignty on this map in my history database and assigned the colors in the chronical order. When all colors are assigned I start from beginning. This method allows me that on a single map the color per of each alliance will be the same the next day or when you scroll back in the history. On a different map your alliance still can have a different color.

With currently over 1700 alliances and over 320 alliances that were holding sovereignty in my history database, it would be a hard job to assign fixed colors to alliances. On the big influence map all alliances hava a color assigned but only a few alliances are shown due to their influence which limits the number of simultaneously displayed colors.

– Update –

I found a bug in the color assignment which resulted that some colors got more often assigned then others. I fixed it and it’s now working as intended. But it is still possible that alliance are getting the same color and/or just a brighter/darker one which is already used. Until I find a better solution with so many alliances it will stay this way.