the devs have told us repeatedly that they dont plan on making 3-D a serious issue in game, star map or otherwise
maybe they will change their minds later... but not yet

although I want to make this note: currently it is rediculously easy to bypass planetary defenses like the gauss groups by simply using ~ to go up, this will obviously create exploit issues... its a worrysome element.

I know what you're talking about here, to me the game feels almost too flat. I understand the issues making combat and planetary movement etc. 3D, but surely it should be possible to just change the heights of the planets in relation to each other. But when you phase jump to another one, you'd stop at the height of the gravity well, same as usual, making combat etc. the same as usual, but adding that 3D element of space into the game by having the actual planet slightly higher than the planet you jumped from.

Personally I don't think varying the heights of planets relative to each other would really add anything but confusion (espeically if there wasn't actually any gameplay significance to it). Co-linear phase lanes are a possible problem with galaxy generation that the devs have worked to lessen, due to the confusion they can cause.

This is legitmate concern and we have taken steps to prevent this from getting out of hand in Beta 2. Is this a recent problem, and if so, can you post a screenshot for me.

Suprisingly we started with a 3D map. It was very disorienting at the scale of our game. We know this is a tender spot with some, but we feel this is a step forward for our game. There have been a number of ideas to get that sense of 3D'ness back in the map - one that has been mentioned quite a bit in the forums is moving planets slightly above/below the plane (simulating our own solar system). Likewise for the solar systems. There are some technical issues that would need to be resolved to make this a reality. This is not high on the list at the moment, but deserving of our attention in the future.

3d star maps suck , see SOTS for the perfect example of confusion is space...

Granted. For a game like SOTS, 3D maps work because you have time to think about it, time to plan, time to keep from beeing too discombobulated by these 350 world galaxies. With SSE, we really don't since it's all in Real Time. While yeah, we're in space and there's this whole other dimention that's hardly used, it would add too much more complexity into a game of this scale.

SSE? We call it SoaSE or SINS around these parts... Pilgrim...

Yeah...but SINS makes me feel...I dunno...Evil. Like I'm a bad person for involving myself in mass genocide just so my faction can flourish across an entire galaxy....hehehehe. Mass Genocide...

Mmmm yes...

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. "

...me wonders if that will be in the game as well.

Meet the Advent!

Would love to. Umm...when will we be given formal introductions?

Yes, actually I have had this in almost every game. I am using the very latest version of Sins. I'll try and grab a screenshot to show you.

I do appreciate that when playing a very large galaxy, a 3D map could get very disorienting for some.

But, if it would be somewhat simple to incorporate, I wouldn't mind having 3D maps as an option, where we can turn it on and off as we like.

a cool feature just for eye candy would be galaxies that are either oriented in 3-D, or are at angles. zooming in on one would change your perspective etc. the only issue I would see with that would be how ships orient themselves after they enter a new gravity well

seeing a 1-2 degree displacement is hardly important with the planets, but its highly unrealistic for all of the solar systems to all be oriented on a plane as they are.

To help stop the Gauss/3D exploit, maybe the Gauss canons could get a range that covers half the grav well or more.