BattleTechWiki talk:Project Planets/ArchiveUserVolt

User Volt has withdrawn from BattleTech and has requested his account here be deleted. To save the valuable work he did for this Project, I have archived his userpage and talk page here (the talk page content was edited, trimming irrelevant content). Please do not modify this archive.

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Cartography

My main project is the collection and consolidation of coordinates for every known system, and the faction ownership history of these systems. The project is an on-going endeavor and the output is freely available to anyone who would wish to use them, all that I ask is the appropriate credit to myself and Bad_Syntax, who started the tedious job of collecting the coordinates. The data can be used to generate maps as what was done by Blacknova in OBT.com using GIS software, or Bad_Syntax's Stellar Cartographer application. As of this writing, this site has also used the output of this project (albeit an "obsolete" one, using the 3130 Dark Age map as the base) to indicate the coordinates and determine the nearby systems as seen on each system/planet's article. Big thanks to the Project Planets team on their work, which I use to cross-reference my data.

Complete PDF map of the Human Sphere

The searchable map shows all systems that have ever been plotted on a map, and published in a sourcebook. All of the coordinates were extracted by Bad_Syntax and myself. The process is described by Bad_Syntax here.

Believe it or not, this map was made in Excel and Mr. Rob Bovey's XY Chart Labeler

Era-Specific maps:

Star League	2571	2596	2765
Succession Wars	2822	2864	3025	3030	3040
Clan Invasion	3050	3052	3057
Civil War	3063	3067
Jihad	3075	3079
Republic	3081	3085	3130
Dark Age	3135	3145

Systems Database

WIP, updated 9.Sep.15, total system count 3,141.

Database of every known and mapped systems in BattleTech, including extrapolated absolute coordinates with Terra set at the Origin (0.000,0.000).

Coordinates were extrapolated from the PDF maps using the process described above and scaled & consolidated using a formula I made.

Linear distance from a reference system is also displayed. Default is Terra, but it can be changed, and the distances will adjust accordingly.

Approximate number of Jumps is also indicated, but is more of a "ballpark" number than an actual in-map routing. The total linear distance is divided by 9 parsecs (29.3540732395153LY, yes I actually did the math to get the closest approximation I could) and rounded up.

Faction Ownership is an on-going cataloging activity, based on which faction possessed the system during a specific year. This is limited by what published data is presently available to us.

Faction Legend (2nd sheet) gives the Faction Abbreviation I used, the full faction name, the foundation and dissolution year of that faction, and the number of systems that faction possesses in the relevant year.

Scaling and Consolidation of RAW coordinates

In order to consolidate two maps, we first have to select the base map. In the coordinates database I made, I used the single-page 2764 Inner Sphere Map from Field Manual: SLDF because the whole map is in one PDF sheet and it is the most dense map presently available. Meaning, the map would already have most of the systems on it, so less consolidation work for me. Bad_Syntax used the 3075 map from Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, and when I took over I initially used the Single-Page 3130 Dark Age map. I had since moved to the 2764 map because of significant positioning errors in the 3130 Dark Age map.

Once the raw coordinates of the systems in base map have been determined, they would have to be flipped and positioned so that Terra would be at (0,0) and the coreward region would be +Y.

In order to consolidate the second map onto the base map, we collect the raw coordinates of the 2nd map. After collecting the coordinates, we select at most five reference coordinates of systems that appear on both the base and the second map (actually we could select more to increase accuracy, but that would have made the formula too long, and the difference would only be between 0.001 to 0.01LY, which is insignificant in terms of plotting on a scale of 1px = 1LY map). These five references coordinates would be the basis for the scaling of the X and Y axes (independently). Such would be the case, for example when you want to plot the system Fable, which happens to only appear in the 2822 and 2864 maps (ie the Third and Fourth maps) from Handbook: House Davion, onto the 2764 map (ie the base map).

In this case, I used Novaya Zemlya, Brabent, Meglan/Victoria, Branzoll and Kluane as the reference points since these five systems appear on both the 2822 and 2764 maps. From there, I am able to determine the appropriate X and Y offsets so I can position the space bounded by the five reference systems on the appropriate location in the 2764 map. The coordinates will also give me the linear distances between the reference systems, so I am able to get the ratio of the base distances to the 2822 map distances to get the X and Y scales. Once the offsets and scales are determined, we apply these to the coordinates of Fable in the 2822 map to determine the coordinates in the 2764 map.

The sample of the formula at work can be downloaded here.

I will not be sharing the actual file where the consolidation is done, both for security reasons and for data consistency. The file above should be sufficient in auditing the process made to transfer coordinates from the raw format onto the base map, as it yields the exact result as the actual consolidation file.

Distances Matrix

This file contains all the (as of this writing) 3140 plotted systems written vertically and horizontally, the coordinates, and the distances between each other, in LY. In this version of the file I reflected all the actual values instead of the formulas because the file size would have been too big for my connection to upload. As it stands, this file is ONLY around 89MB. 9,859,600 cells containing a compounded formula is just too much for my current laptop to process.

Talk page

Y coordinates

Hi Volt,

it's great that you have taken up the thankless task of fixing the system coordinates. That's one of the glaring problems on BTW that few people find the time to improve so your work on this is particularly welcome.

However, please don't triangulate if you can help it - that will produce inaccurate results. For most core systems, the correct coordinates are put down in the old housebooks on the last pages; unfortunately, the free PDF scans don't include that data. Personally, I only own the Kurita housebook in paper format. Next best source would be the IS Atlas, though it is only a meta-source. It should be right most of the time. Just don't cite it as a source.

If you absolutely need to triangulate a coordinate or otherwise guess the coordinates by reading them from a map, please indicate clearly in the coordinates section that the coordinates are an approximation and may be inaccurate. Frabby 08:52, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi Frabby,

Yeah, sorry about the triangulation thing, it's the most accessible scientific procedure I know of because I don't have access to any of the old source books except Warriors of Kerensky. I checked with IS Atlas and thankfully the data I put in matched to the 2nd decimal. I didn't change any data outright because I was unsure of the veracity of the data.

Also, are you familiar with Comstar Historical Archives Website? I combined the list of planets from there to what we have here and what's on IS Atlas, and I've gotten a total of 2,249 worlds! That doesn't count those listed under the CBT forum listing "Unmapped, Lost or Misnamed planets". I don't know if I'll have enough free time for listing them all down, then mapping those that already have confirmed coordinates, but I'll see how far I can go with this work.

-Volt 15:00, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Hy Volt, iam very interested on your planets map project, can you tell me what a programm you use, to create new maps, and who is the procedure, thanks.--Doneve 16:05, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Hey Doneve, I use AutoCAD to manually plot all the planets. I take the coordinates and draw a 1-unit diameter circle to represent each planet, 3-diameter one for a regional capital and 5-diameter one for the national capitals (thinking about resizing them once I get a better feel for the overall scale of the map). Am currently at 274 out of 2,249 (identified so far) planets. After mapping the planets I intend to apply solid colored hatches to represent ownership per era. Still a long way to go but it's the best I can come up with since the usual cartography sites have not been updated in years. -Volt 00:54, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

CBT Interstellar Map Viewer

Hy Volt, i copy this post from Rev. What your are think, is the programm usefull.--Doneve 01:09, 2 July 2011 (UTC) copyed from Rev talk page

Take a look at the thread on CBT forums (specifically this post). Bad_Syntax is working on a planetary mapping program that does a whole slew of things, including mapping jump routes. For us, what jumped out at me was the program will link directly to a planet's BTW article. I'd love to see a real move to formalize the articles, ala BattleMechs. I know Frabby prefers not to align himself with any one project, but I nominate him as Planetary Head Honcho. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)}

hey Doneve, i tried clicking the link but i get "The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you" message. Also couldn't find anything on the forums from Bad_Syntax about the mapping program, i think i read about that message from Revanche on the Projects Planets page so I decided to finally start plotting the planets manually myself -Volt 05:17, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

The old CBT forum was archived after a hacking earlier this year. I have changed the link above to the archived thread, it should work now. Frabby 11:35, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Ok i got the link, thanks! This is what I've been looking for. I guess I'll just have to study the data and correct some of the errors. I see some planets hopping from one location to another between eras. You mentioned in Project Planets that you have your own data? You think we could update the data on the IMV and clean up some of what's in there to get a more accurate map? -Volt 02:17, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

Question

Hy Volt, at first iam not a fluff writer (to many handycaps about englisch ;), i read your last system coordinates post, the problem is we have so many published maps, on various soures and i agree with you we must work from one [Master Map], and i think this is the Map of the Inner Sphere 3130, what is the best programm or software to handle this problem, the cartographer don't work as best in my sense, Adobe Publisher was refered as working, but i think not really, AutoCAD hmm, have you any idea what is the best.--Doneve 00:21, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Hi Doneve, don't worry, English is not my prime language as well. Yes, that is the map that I will be using as base map. At this time I am using Adobe Illustrator. I open the PDF file, then click on the white circles (not the black outlines) to get the X and Y coordinates in pixels. I then put these on my excel file that converts the scale to 1LY = 1pixel. These coordinates become my base for when I convert the other maps. My spreadsheet automatically converts the raw coordinates from those maps into the scale of the "Master" or "Base" map based on the averaged scale of 5 different worlds (I normally use the top-most, bottom-most, left-most, right-most and middle system that is available to both the master map and the one I want to convert as basis for scale).

Let me know if you need help with the process. --Volt 07:36, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Maps

Hy Volt i found a question on a forum about the 3075 Map, i think we take our view of the new published Field Manual: 3085 Map (fall under moratorium), i think this works well, any thoughts.--Doneve 15:53, 17 January 2012 (PST)

Hey Doneve, yup I saw the 3085 map and I have to say I like the colors on that one. I've already even extrapolated the four new systems on that map and added them to my list. I'm just trying to collect all two-page maps in PDF version for sentimental reasons, since I did not use the 3075 map at all for extrapolating coordinates (all systems on the 3075 map are also found on the 3063 map from Era Report: 3062). Can't wait for Handbook: House Kurita to come out! -Volt 01:50, 18 January 2012 (PST)

Substantial Addition award

Great job with the update of the Clan Invasion article. I'm glad to see you're applying your planetary expertise to improving the articles that need it most. To show my appreciation for your efforts this day, I'm awarding you the Editor's Substantial Addition award.

I'm also adding the award's board and the Time In Service (6 months) ribbon to your user page (now you're no longer a red shirt!). When you've been here 9 months (March 29, 2012), please update this award and when you hit 100 edits (search for your name on Special:UserScore), you can add that Edit Count ribbon. Glad to have you aboard!--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 06:47, 29 January 2012 (PST)

too cool! Thanks, Rev, I'm honored. The entire point of developing my database was so that the fans get the most accurate data possible. Work in progress, but getting better with each passing day.-Volt 16:34, 29 January 2012 (PST)

Silence

Hi Volt, Doneve and I have just done a run through sarna updated the planet entries for all of the worlds depicted on the map of the Inner Sphere from 2596 shown in Historical: Reunification War. I took the opportunity to update a lot of the entries with detail from the Map of the Inner Sphere 3130 put together for Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction, and noticed something a little odd. I think the world of Ougadougou has reappeared on maps. There's a world that's appeared in the Bjarred Prefecture of the Draconis Combine called "Silence" that from my crude overlay one map on another photoshop perspective looks to be in the same place as Ougadougou, but Silence isn't listed in the most recent System Co-ordinates file I've got - am I version behind? Or has this tricksy little world sneaked through? BrokenMnemonic 00:00, 24 February 2012 (PST)

Hi BM, Yup, Ougadougou=Silence, I have it in my updated list. I think you may have Bad_Syntax's old list with you. you can download he latest list I have in here, I've added the Chainelane Isles there and updated all the coordinates based on the 3130 map scaling while using a different formula so you will notice some differences from the original coordinates from Syntax. -Volt 15:15, 24 February 2012 (PST)

I've taken a quick look at the Mediafire folder - which file is the one with the correct co-ordinates in? Do we have a definitely final set of co-ordinates for all the planets? Doneve and I went through all the entries here updating to the last list we had from Bad_Syntax, but I gather all of the co-ordinates have changed again, and I'd rather not go through them all again more than once... BrokenMnemonic 15:55, 24 February 2012 (PST)

Ugh, iam with BM...oh my god.--Doneve 15:58, 24 February 2012 (PST)

er, yeah... the correct file is systems by era.xlsx. Unfortunately the coordinates are meant to be dynamic, taking into account possible future information on correct scaling, or any future rulings from TBTB. As it stands now, all locations and distances are based on the 3130 scale, assuming the X and Y coordinates are scaled uniformly, and on the 3067 deep periphery map from WoR. There are obvious discrepancies if you run the maps through illustrator, but I've taken precaution to either minimize or eliminate such discrepancies by using common reference points to merge the systems in a uniform scale. As such if for example we eventually get the correct scale of the Hanseatic League, it will only affect the systems in the league and not all the systems. If we get new canon scales for the inner sphere, it will only affect the IS systems, not the deep periphery worlds, and so on...-Volt 16:05, 24 February 2012 (PST)

Owner History

Holla Volt, welcome in the owner history update team , i hope you have fun, but i think you can include more citiations by the Era Report: 3062 and Jihad: Final Reckoning maps, take a look on Techne's Revenge what i mean, but good to have you here.--Doneve 15:27, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Hey Doneve, well I had a bunch of data on owner history from my database, so I decided I might as well reflect that here. I was originally running through the systems to see if I have any mis-tagged ownership but looks like the opposite just happened haha. I'm not really sure which is out of moratorium so I limited myself to pre-3025 just to be on the safe side.

Is there a script that we can use to automate this monster? I was hoping for something similar for the coordinates so that when/if more accurate information becomes available it would be a breeze to do. -Volt 15:35, 28 February 2012 (PST)

The best way is you set up a talk to Nic, the father of sarna, he added at first all planet pages by coordinates by a bot, but make some mistakes about the coordinates, set up at first a talk to him, and send him your data, and i hope he can help us to tackle this monster.--Doneve 15:48, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Cool, I'll do that! Thanks for the pointer -Volt 15:50, 28 February 2012 (PST)

No problem, Dude i where very appriciated to have you on bord.--Doneve 15:54, 28 February 2012 (PST)

I have the nasty feeling from things Nic's said before that to get the update done via script might involve overwriting the entire article... as I'm adding owner history details from text entries at the moment (curse you, pre-Capellan Confederation states) the thought of losing all those dates dug out of house books makes me whimper. Given how many maps there are scattered throughout the sourcebooks, getting all of the maps relevant to a world cited in the owner history can be a bit of an elephant task... I think I'm up to 16 or 17 entries on some of the Outworlds Alliance worlds, although I'm guessing half of those are from the 31st century. I'm hoping that Øystein will give us a nice 2760-ish map of the entire Inner Sphere somewhere in the two Liberation of Terra books... even though I know that will probably mean adding lots more worlds to Sarna. Although, one thing I find a little odd given comments by TPTB about how destructive the 1st Succession War was is that when you compare the 2750 map of the Rim Worlds Republic, which shows most of the Lyran Commonwealth, and the 2822 Lyran Commonwealth map, only a handful of worlds have vanished between the two. BrokenMnemonic 23:54, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Ugh, looks like we're doing everything by hand, then...

On a different note, from what is currently available from the maps, we lost 49 systems from 2750 to 2822 [1st SW], 145 systems from 2822 to 2864 [2nd SW], 492 from 2864 to 3025 [3rd SW], and only one from 3025 to 3030 [4th SW]. Of course the 49 systems looks rather unimpressive because the only time we have maps of those at this time are those from MB:MPS, which shows very little of the five houses except for LC. Regardless, I don't see how the devastation in the 1st SW will match or even surpass that of the 3rd SW.-Volt 02:32, 29 February 2012 (PST)

2750

I forgot to say the most 2750 owner history date is created by Nic when he stard his bot project on first days of sarna, we don't delete the date, i hope when Historical: Liberation of Terra, Vol I was published we found maps to correct this problem.--Doneve 16:47, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Thanks, Doneve. I actually have a big chunk of blank space in my database for 2750 to 2821, so I do hope that Historical sees the light of day with some juicy maps for us. It's also going to be a big update on my database when we see when each of the five houses eat up the former Hegemony worlds. I didn't touch the 2750 ownership, just put in comments on the talk pages so it would be easy go get back to them if/when we finally have the info available.-Volt 16:51, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Glad to help, sorry for my raw writing , but you understand me LoL.--Doneve 16:56, 28 February 2012 (PST)

English is not my primary language so I can infer what you mean from what you write hehe. We need more people on this team, there's a whole lot of updating needed LOL-Volt 17:02, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Haha, i know, what is your primary language, hope i don't steep on your feeds or so.--Doneve 17:14, 28 February 2012 (PST)

My primary language is gibberish, from the land of Crazy, where people update wiki at work instead of what they should be really doing haha.-Volt 17:21, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Shoot, wrong talk by me.--Doneve 17:27, 28 February 2012 (PST)

Uploading Database info

Hy Volt, Seth can help us to automatise the owner history and other thinks but need more info from you, please talk to Seth.--Doneve 10:01, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Hi Doneve, yup I read Seth's reply in Nic's talk page and responded accordingly, thanks!-Volt 16:31, 29 February 2012 (PST)

Liao

Hy Volt, great distance sheet :), but i miss the planet Liao, or have i tomato on my eyes.--Doneve 16:04, 7 March 2012 (PST)

Ugh, i see the planet was first named as Cynthiana, i have tomatos.--Doneve 16:08, 7 March 2012 (PST)

Hi Doneve, sorry for the late reply, the real wold kinda caught up with me. Yup, I picked-up the name change from [Handbook: House Liao] I'm considering opening the hold handbooks for more allegiance and name changes when/if I find the time to... my sourcebook and novel reading backlog has just grown with Liberation of Terra v1 coming out... -Volt 02:47, 9 March 2012 (PST)

Discrepance

Hy Volt i found on the distance spreadsheet a failur, from [Achernar] - Conway had 39.335 as coordinate and Mesartim 47.824 but the planet Conway is redirected on sarna.net to Mesartim iam a little bit confused about this is this the same planet or change his name or or.--Doneve 11:20, 9 March 2012 (PST)

Hi Doneve, Conway and Mesartrim are two different systems in Chesterton Commonality of Capellan Confederation, as found in the 2822 map in HB:HL. I think the error is on the redirecting.-Volt 14:32, 9 March 2012 (PST)

Thanks, i fix now the Achernar nearbay systems page.--Doneve 14:37, 9 March 2012 (PST)

Hy, i found on your spreadsheet that Homer is also called Zara, but Zara is a Free Worlds Leage Planet, in which soure can i found the planet is renamed, then i can set up a redirct and a note section in the article, thanks.--Doneve 04:02, 28 March 2012 (PDT)

Hey Doneve, the article of Homer in The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, says it was first called Zara, then renamed to Homer.-Volt 04:28, 28 March 2012 (PDT)

Great, thanks.--Doneve 04:35, 28 March 2012 (PDT)

Planet

Hy again, in wish source i found the planet Mohacs, thanks.--Doneve 15:28, 9 March 2012 (PST)

Hi Doneve, it's actually Mohács. Sorry about that, I mean to correct the spelling in my list. Do you think you guys can send me a list of systems with "non-standard" english characters in their names?-Volt 19:54, 9 March 2012 (PST)

These are the ones I'm aware of:

Ålborg

Córdoba

Hè-shì

Hódmezovásárhely

Jápminboddu

Jászberény

Kaetetôã

Kirkvåg

Köln (HL)

Köln (FWL)

Köningsberg

León

Lübeck

Mohács

New Ålborg

Périgueux

Shui-pào

Úr Cruinne

Várri

Yàn-huì

I can't guarantee that there aren't more, but as I added the vast majority of these to the database, I've cursed each one personally while playing hunt-and-peck to find the various characters needed! BrokenMnemonic 02:24, 2 April 2012 (PDT)

Dunklewälderdunklerflüssenschattenwelt (ugh!)

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

I can't remember if there are any more. Wish I could make a filter for special characters. -Volt 20:04, 2 April 2012 (PDT)

New list

Hy Volt hope all is well with you, ähm when you have new (corrected, updated, etc.) systems by era and distance xls. for me, can you talk to me, i need your beautiful exel's ;) for some planet revamp's, greetings.--Doneve 10:53, 12 May 2012 (PDT)

Hi Doneve, everything is fine, thanks for asking. I just uploaded the lastest file on my mediafire. You should be able to access it here: (Coordinates+Distance.xlsx) -Volt 06:07, 13 May 2012 (PDT)

A Request

Hello Volt, new member SnagaDance here! I've just joined and immediately Doneve prized my ideas for a BattleTech GIS map out of me. See my Talk page for an elaborate description http://www.sarna.net/wiki/User_talk:SnagaDance He directed me to you as the holder of an xlsx which holds the planetary data I could use (and reading your Talk page, it's something you painstakingly constructed!). The last link towards the file's location doesn't work though. Would you happen to have a new link? Thanks in advance. --SnagaDance (talk) 05:28, 6 February 2013 (PST)

Hey guys, Bad_Syntax has given up on BattleTech, and with it all BT related projects he's working on. One of those projects is the cartographer app that allows dynamic displaying of systems and their faction colors. It's by no means complete, but the reason i did all the consolidation of various systems, their ownership and coordinates was primarily for use with this app. With the app gone and with no other app like it, I've decided to discontinue updating the database as well. I've been trying to get help with my database for a while now, with absolutely no response (there have been some inquirires but no one followed through). So with that, i guess this will be the last i will be posting related to coordinates. The procedure on getting the raw coordinates is documented on this site, and consolidating is juat simple pythagorean theorem so someone will be able to add new systems when new maps become available. -Volt (talk) 07:23, 6 May 2013 (PDT)

Sorry to hear that. Your work is well-documented though, so hopefully somebody else will take it up at some point. You (and Bad_Syntax) have achieved much and can be proud of that. Frabby (talk) 09:12, 6 May 2013 (PDT)

Nearby Systems

Hy Volt hope all is well, one question can you provide my a nearby systems spreadsheet if you have it to hand, thanks.--Doneve (talk) 19:07, 10 June 2013 (PDT)

Hey Doneve, just uploaded it to my Mediafire. Distances.XLSX. Have fun! -Volt (talk) 19:00, 16 June 2013 (PDT)

Ähm you understand my falls, i mean the spreadsheet with all planets there give the distance from one major planet to another as example Bountiful Harvest to Dustball to Blair Atholl and so on, and not the distances sheet i have, i know you have this but i can't found it on your mediafire uploade.--Doneve (talk) 17:15, 19 June 2013 (PDT)

Oh sorry, I deleted that as it was too big. What you can do is type or select the reference System in Cell D1 and it will show you the distance of all other systems with regard to the system you selected. The default one in the file is Terra, but you can change that and it will instantly show the updated distances. Hope this helps. --Volt (talk) 19:45, 21 June 2013 (PDT)

Hidden Worlds

Do you want to move the info over to the correct pages for those articles, or should I? -BobTheZombie (talk) 21:03, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

hey Bob, I would appreciate if you could. I'm not sure how I would transfer the information and merge the appropriate articles, but thanks for asking.-Volt (talk) 21:19, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

Okay, I merged Obeedah; how does it look? -BobTheZombie (talk) 21:42, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

I went ahead with Taussen; should we put the BT forum ruling on the main articles then? -BobTheZombie (talk) 22:12, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

Looks good. What bothers me with the announcement though is that suppoedly the Hidden Five were taken over by Comstar during the First Succession War. Sharpe and Tangerz were not lost until the Third, according to the maps on Handbook: House Liao and Davion, respectively. Jardine matched up correctly. Versailles didn't even appear in the House Davion handbook, only in the full IS 2750, 2764 and 2765 maps. Looks like this system was invented after HB:HD was published.

My personal opinion would be to make a reference pointing to the forum, I am not sure how other articles treated external references, whether it is a section within the article or a footnoted reference-Volt (talk) 22:21, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

I think that that would work (having it as a link ref), but it might be best to ask someone like BrokenMnemonic who'd know better which way to go. -BobTheZombie (talk) 22:36, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

I agree. I was surprised that piece of info has not made its way to Sarna since being posted in the forums. My only concern now is whether that post is considered canon and correct, since it was posted in the General Discussion section instead of the Ask the Writers section, despite coming from Herb.-Volt (talk) 22:47, 31 July 2014 (PDT)

Frabby put some of the detail on Sarna, I think - I hadn't gotten around to it myself (although I had the link bookmarked) because I haven't really started working on ISP3 yet, and I wanted to dig out the remaining info from there at the same time.

In terms of what needs to be done, I'd recommend taking a quick look at the Hotspur article - it's one where I've included a clarifying comment from one of the writers. With the Hidden Five, more detail needs to be added though - in addition to the confirmatory comments from the various writers including Mr Beas, each article also needs to include the statement Mr Beas made about not being the Line Developer any longer and everything might change in the future - and it needs to be noted that the information wasn't given in either the Ask the Writer/Ask the Developer forum, because technically that makes it less canonical. Does that help at all? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 11:38, 1 August 2014 (PDT)

Herb actually discussed that further in the www.ourbattletech.com forums.

Hi,

I should note one small detail, by the way: I'm not in charge any more. What I say doesn't matter to the plot any more, unless and until it's published. I could spoil a secret here and there and the only way to know if it's true is to wait until a product comes out that confirms it. Some of those reveals I just made, therefore, may never be confirmed, and could even be completely overturned by whoever runs the line after me.

Thanks,

- Herb

I think you need to be registered to view the forums.-Volt (talk) 03:46, 4 August 2014 (PDT)

I recall reading pretty much the same text from Herb (probably verbatim) on the BT forum. So what he's telling us is that the location of the remaining three hidden worlds wasn't officially published, and hence the information he gave us isn't canonical (yet), but that behind the scenes these three worlds were made out to be them by the dev team while Herb was still Line Developer. In a way he broke his own "If it ain't published I can't tell you" rule here, but for all we know the remaining three locations weren't going t be published anyways; we as the fans were let in on something that will likely remain a mystery in the BT universe. Frabby (talk) 04:16, 4 August 2014 (PDT)

Yes, that is what apparently happened. Currently TPTB are not interested in going back to WoB, but can change at any time. Might as well consider it canon for now, and then just adjust the articles retroactively. By the way, Three of the Hidden were published. Mayadi was identified as Tangerz in ISP3. When Herb disclosed the other two in the forums I literally searched all the Jihad sourcebooks I had for any reference, I was about to go crazy when I read in the forums that it was just a revelation that was not documented in any publication.-Volt (talk) 04:47, 4 August 2014 (PDT)

Wasn't there also a comment from one of the writers on the official forum about Sharpe? Something along the lines of the WOB Hidden planet name was the name of one of the major antagonists in one or more of the tv/novel series based on Sharpe and Sharpe's Rifles? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 05:07, 4 August 2014 (PDT)

Yes, that was Oystein in the same thread. Obeedah = Sharpe -Volt (talk) 05:31, 4 August 2014 (PDT)

So would someone who knows how to address this add the reference(s) to those pages? -BobTheZombie (talk) 09:23, 4 August 2014 (PDT)

Spreadsheet update

Hy Volt, have you updated your spreadsheet with the maps from Handbook: House Kurita, or you in work, a short statement is welcome, cheers.--Doneve (talk) 05:03, 23 July 2015 (PDT)

Hi Doneve, yes the spreadsheet has been updated with the HBHK maps. The link to the file can be found on my page here. There are discrepancies between the HBHK map and previously published ones so what I inputted in the spreadsheet was the more logical or likely scenario given all current data available. Unfortunately no one replied to my questions in the official forums, so we really do not know the answers to those questions now. I doubt they will still get answered though.

On another matter, do you mind sending me your email address or another way to contact you aside from here in Sarna, if you do not mind?-Volt (talk) 15:08, 24 July 2015 (PDT)

Okido send you a test mail.--Doneve (talk) 17:21, 24 July 2015 (PDT)

But have not a reply for ....!--Doneve (talk) 05:35, 25 July 2015 (PDT)

I sent you the link, let me know if you received it!-Volt (talk) 18:47, 25 July 2015 (PDT)

All is wunderfull thank (oO)--Doneve (talk) 18:54, 25 July 2015 (PDT)

Volt, I'm updating BattleTechWiki:Project Planets to indicate your present copy of the Systems Database is the most current. Would you mind giving me the month it was last updated? Thanks. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 15:49, 28 August 2015 (PDT)

Hi Rev, faction ownership last updated 28.Aug.15, coordinates last updated roughly a week or two after the release of HBHK-Volt (talk) 06:20, 29 August 2015 (PDT)

Thanks; I'll put mid-July. Good job, BTW. Your work is used by a lot of people.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 09:56, 29 August 2015 (PDT)

I'm glad people find it useful, makes all the time and effort in building it up worth it. Can't wait for the ilClan and Succession Wars books.-Volt (talk) 19:55, 29 August 2015 (PDT)