What direction is West in Outer Space ?

[Deleted User]

In the pve mission Day of Doom one of the npcs tells you to fly west to the next point on the map to attack some ships.

LOL

evilmark444

That is pretty funny, didn't notice that, lol. I assume there is some way to refer to directions in that way in space, but while I don't know what exactly that would be I highly doubt it would be "galactic north" or anything like that.

fmgtorres1979

It's that way

officerbatman81

There really isnt, compass directionals are polar based, no magnetic north in space so there would have to another way to refer to direction in space if you needed to. In Star Trek they do use "headings" though like naval ships but has to be based on something else that earth style map navigation. Also they have spatial coordinates on an X, Y, and Z axis.

Edit: but as to why its in game? Idk, dev messed up or wanted a fool npc who was trollin'?

[Deleted User]

As silly and funny as this is it really sums up the amount of thought they put into this game lately

artan42

Press 'M' and look to the left side of it. That's west. That's not that dificult.

fmgtorres1979

theunknown0#4185 wrote: »

As silly and funny as this is it really sums up the amount of thought they put into this game lately

Have you noticed the game is almost 2D? Being so,things do work with N, S, E, W without trouble. The same way they'd work with up, down, left and right. It's adjusted to the gameplay. Would you prefer the NPC to say "go 123,12,106"?

daveyny

If I remember correctly, the Federation uses the Center of the Milky Way galaxy as a main reference point for navigation.
Kinda-sorta a Galactic North if you will.

They then of course have Navigation Space Buoys that are placed at specific points to also aid in getting around.

One of the ENTERPRISE episodes even talked about how they were "planting" marker buoys, as they travelled out away from Earth.

My guess is that there are certain astronomical way points that even the Vulcans must have used as they moved around also.

Once one has a way to determine a heading..., going "west" would amount to going Left or Port along that path.
Just as turning "east" would be Right or Starboard.

memnoch

null
Well you're in space so face north, now turn left.

daveyny

memnoch#6978 wrote: »

null
Well you're in space so face north, now turn left.

IF, the Galaxy's Center IS considered "North", then it's just a matter of making your ships heading toward that point and then Yes, turn Left/Port/West from that direction.

I get folks are making a joke out if it, but humans in general will always use the terms that best suit their mindset...

Thus, using Left/Right, East/West, Port/Starboard will always be a part of the lingo no matter where we go, be that to space or even the depths of the oceans.

tousseau

It's to your left... 0.o?

thetanine

theunknown0#4185 wrote: »

In the pve mission Day of Doom one of the npcs tells you to fly west to the next point on the map to attack some ships.

LOL

American? Probably. Our schools are really going down the tubes.

This is going to shock you, so brace yourself:

North is up, or toward the top of your computer monitor/tv/fldd.
East is to the right...like your right hand is on the right side of your body.
West is left. Or, the OTHER Right.
South is down. The bottom of your display.

And so now look up, north, what I just typed along the west side of the screen here the first letter in each of the four cardinal points spells NEWS. This is a mnemonic device. I suggest you study this and be able to recite it to anyone, any place, any time.

If you ARE an American, California is on the West Coast. The LEFT side of America.
New York and Florida are on the East Coast. The RIGHT side of America.

When you are looking at a PLAN VIEW of a three dimensional object, that object has just become TWO Dimensional. This applies to Space as much as it applies to tangible objects, like space ships.​​

Unknown

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wired2thenet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system

daveyny

wired2thenet wrote: »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system

Heh...

So, according to that, everybody is traveling using East/Right/Clockwise coordinates all the time.

<chuckle>

pwstolemyname

Silly silly trekies. pick up a book some time. Specifically one of the works of the late grate Sir Terry Pratchett.

The discworld has no north east west or south, but that is no hindrance to its inhabitants, and it shouldn't be any hindrance to galactic travellers either.

The galaxy has Hubwards, Rimwards, Turnwise and Widdershins obviously.

daveyny

Once one gets a look at the Giant Star Turtle -The Great A'Tuin - one doesn't really care about the direction one is going.

Unknown

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officerbatman81

I dont care what anyone says, there is no west in space.

Say that to the civilized public and theyll laugh hard at you.

Unknown

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necreliosis

9 'O Clock

gawainviii

Even in real-world astronomy, we have a galactic coordinate system which is remarkably similar to the quadrant system used in Trek.

An imaginary line running from Earth through the galactic center of the galaxy--and another perpendicular, again running through Earth, along the galactic plane--divides the Milky Way into 4 quadrants. A third "vertical" line divides the Z axis.
Warning: Big image

Star Trek uses the exact same thing, except the axis is focused on the Galactic Center instead of at Earth. So, to say "go west" would easily be understood to mean a heading of roughly 270 degrees--because 270 would correspond to a westerly direction of you were looking at a galactic map from a top-down (Galactic Zenith) point of view.

Unknown

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nadiezja

Take your point of reference (in this case, the starbase). Take the center of the galaxy. Don't go to the center of the galaxy; God will demand your starship. But take the center of the galaxy.

Draw a line between those two points. Label the direction toward the center of the galaxy on your line North. The direction away, therefore, becomes South.

Now you can find east and west by drawing another line perpendicular to that one and parallel to the galactic plane. Left from North is West.

daveyny

https://youtu.be/SezoGW_z9w0

tacofangs

Left.
West is left.

ddesjardins

theunknown0#4185 wrote: »

As silly and funny as this is it really sums up the amount of thought they put into this game lately

It has to do with the mini map. It's two dimensional, and the use of 'west' or 'north' is because we all share the same minimap regardless of when or where we entered it. It's something we should all be able to recognize Plus some people still struggle with simple left and right directions.

wylonus

star chart is base on grid format, going north is like climbing to next block up insread of going north.

if flying straight up, there almost nothing there, galaxy are like huge disk, thousands of years ago, they said earth is flat and disk-like until Columbus said the earth is round.
it would be several thousands years for technology for galaxy to galaxy travel, sort of new "fold" tech gates or known as Nth space dimension, the hub of nexus as part of celestrial gates. Nth Space is the Nexus dimension.

officerbatman81

How is west left, always left? If i am facing south the left is east, west is right.

Whatever happened to port and starboard?

nadiezja

West is left on the minimap. All minimaps are oriented coreward.

officerbatman81

On a ground map, yes. You have your west.