btplanets

An interactive map of the Inner Sphere in the year 3025.

Content

• Disclaimer
• What is this?
• Features
• TODOs / Known issues
• Coming "soon" (currently planned features)
• Future possibilities (cool features that are not currently planned)
• Credits

Disclaimer

btplanets is a non-profit open source fan project for the BattleTech universe. It uses data from the public fan Wiki at www.sarna.net, as well as several art assets from the community forums of the upcoming computer game BATTLETECH by Harebrained Schemes, most notably the BATTLETECH game logo and the house and faction sigils. The author understands these assets to be promotional and free to use in an appropriate context.

The author is not affiliated with Harebrained Schemes and intends no copyright or trademark infringement.

What is this?

The Inner Sphere

The Inner Sphere is the human-inhabited part of space in the science fiction universe of BattleTech. It is described to be a spherical region centered on the Sol system and extending roughly 500 light years outwards in all directions, containing somewhere between 2000 - 3000 star systems (depending on whether formerly inhabited and periphery worlds are included).

Since all available depictions show a two-dimensional starmap despite the "sphere" moniker, the consensus is to regard the Inner Sphere as essentially 2D (accompanied by the fluff explanation that all maps are simply 2D projections of 3D space).

See also:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Inner_Sphere

The year 3025

The BattleTech universe is rich in history, and there are many interesting eras to explore. However, the quintessential era (at least to old-school table top players from the 80s and 90s like yours truly) is the time of the late Succession Wars, characterized by technological decline ("LosTech") and the Macchiavellian politics of the five Successor States and their feudal lords.

The year 3025 marks the end of the Third Succession War and sees the five major powers locked in a stalemate, exhausted after centuries of war. Despite an uneasy cease-fire between the combatants, there are plenty of localized conflicts for the domination of single planets, not to forget the ongoing struggles with bandits and minor states in the periphery. The Successor States, burned out as they are, are trying to conserve their military assets and oftentimes employ mercenary companies to fight their battles.

In contrast to previous wars which were fought with giant armies and countless anonymous soldiers, combat in this era is much more up close and personal. This is due to BattleMechs ruling the battlefield - 30-foot-tall robots, highly mobile, heavily armored and armed to the teeth. If controlled by a skilled pilot, a BattleMech is the equivalent of an entire company of lesser machines or infantry. Convential wisdom says that the best way to combat a BattleMech is another BattleMech, which means that most battles consist of a limited number of Mechs fighting each other to decide the outcome of an entire conflict.

See also:
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Succession_Wars_(History)
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Successor_States
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMech

An interactive map

I've always wanted to be able to explore the BattleTech universe visually from a top-down perspective. The upcoming game BATTLETECH inspired me to make this interactive map, and I hope that it will help newcomers to familiarize themselves with the universe quickly and enjoyably.

Features

The basic features can be seen in the following video:

TODOs / Known issues

• Known issue: Performance isn't great when running in MS Edge (bad) or Firefox (slightly better). Chrome is the go-to browser, appears to have the best SVG support. Safari has been reported to run well.
• MS Edge seems to lack support for some SVG features, parts of the Steiner and Liao logos are not displayed

Coming "soon" (currently planned features)

• Sarna data comparison script

Future possibilities (cool features that are not currently planned)

(in no particular order, especially not ordered by priority)

• SVG export
• Other eras
• Full mobile support
• 3D-ish effect (parallax)
• Faction statistics
• HPG networks and message path plotting
• Books guide: Highlight all systems that occur in one of the books
• Regions within states
• Factory worlds
• Hidden worlds

Credits

The BATTLETECH logo and the faction sigils were created by Harebrained Schemes.

All planet names and coordinates are from www.sarna.net, with some corrections applied.

Programming by Christoph Wassermann.
Data editing and cleanup by Wraith_81.