EVE General Discussion

Are the constellations in Eve meaningful in geographic terms?

Were there any rules that went into decided what would constitute a constellation? (# of jumps between stars? # of links? etc.)

Besides incursions and sov, are there any other functions they play?

Poitot is the only named system in syndicate

if that doesn't indicate a higher power at work, then I don't know what does

I heard they pulled them out of hilmar's arse

It's odd because of course constellations from the point of view of Earth aren't systems of stars that are relatively close together - e.g. a constellation seen from earth may be composed of some stars that are close and some that are more distant.

Why they decided to call systems of stars that are relatively close together in EVE "constellations" is a mystery. There doesn't seem to be much point to it. I guess it was meant to help orientation in some way, but what with the map, I never think of where I'm going in terms of constellations, just stars, jump routes and regions.

Still, the names are cool.

Actually the naming of things in EVE is one of its most attractive features. Brilliant naming of things all round - must have been some great drunken brainstorming sessions!

Yes, they're easy to ignore, but if you make a small effort then the spaces of New Eden becomes more differentiable and interesting. Especially when you start to make decisions along constellation boundaries, such as "I'm going to present a constant threat to war targets in Jayai", or "I want GSCs for bombs, torps, and loot in every system in Sound."

Boundaries are useful even when they're arbitrary.

So, here are two tools to help you stop ignoring constellations: F11. Dotlan.

Oh, also, take a look at the constellations in this map. It's very obvious on the Minmatar side, with Hed, Essin, Eugidi; they're very tightly interconnected groups of systems. (And 4 of Hed's 6 interconstellation connections are also regional connections, with their large regional gates that make gate-camps such a pain.) If you tally up gates-per-system, you get a sense of 'appendixes' (Oyeman, Lantorn, Vimeini, Auner, Lulm) in which you might be able to act with less chance of being found. Right now, Dotlan has Lantorn at 6 jumps and the rest of the constellation at 87 (Vard) to 100+ (everything else) to 200+ (Auga, Amamake). Oyeman likewise has 6 jumps; no other system in Semou has less than 60 jumps. And you get a sense of local hubs. Eugidi's Aset, and Jayai's Asghed both jump out as obvious centers of those constellations.

A little off topic but maybe related! I've always wondered how CCP came up with the system names?

CCP-US and null systems like that are from what I'd guess was the start of naming, the rest, hit keyboard, call it good.

I know that when I was in highsec we set up shop in a system that was the entrance to a constellation, the only way in or out. While during normal operation this meant nothing other than what systems our agents would send us to, when it came to war, we could still operate as we only had one gate to watch. That's a use for identifying constellations, which ones are defend-able, and which ones aren't. They are manageable chunks of space, much more so than regions. Easier to remember how 8 systems are linked by remembering 2 4 star constellations than trying to remember every connection between the 8

If I recall correctly, many system names within the various faction's space follow themes. I heard, for example, that many Caldari systems supposedly have names taken from Japanese Kanji.