One Map Generator

Preview: http://icsim.99k.org/omgPreview.png

I've been working on this project for quite a while now on and off. My plan is to create the ultimate map generator. One that would make you go "OMG", basically
I don't like the design or flexibility of any of the generators out there now. I want my map gen to be the one that's used by everyone in the game. It's my goal and it's what I'm working towards.

One of the most exciting features that hopefully everyone will like is the ability to store files on my icsim server. You'll be able to create an account within the generator. If you want you can create your own "group". From there you can assign a secret passcode for others to join that group. Groups will be able to share project files, galaxy files, map files, collection lists, regular lists and possibly some preferences. I'm still not sure how much ui modification I'm going to allow but I'm thinking of making it possible to color several elements of the UI. The framework is there but I'm still working hard on making the design elements. Nonetheless you'll be able to share critical information between you're family members or alliance members. No more transfering files or putting lists on the forum for people to look through, just log in to omg and pull the latest files.

I'm still working out how things are going to work. But put simply there will be projects, collections and lists (system lists and planet lists)
Projects will contain all of the elements within a certain project. All of your collections, all of your lists and all of you're configuration settings for that specific project. They'll also contain the information for the galaxy you have loaded for that project also.
This could be helpful if you play in two galaxies for instance, just open the project that relates to the galaxy you're currently playing in.
Collections will contain a list of lists that you have. Some people may never use collections, they may just have a single collection and keep all of their lists within it. But if you're the type of person who likes to plan ahead or store things in separate locations to view later then these are for you. You could also put certain lists in a collection and share only those lists. Whoever downloads your collection will have access to only the lists within it.
Lists will be either a list of systems or a list of planets. Most will be planets but if you're like me I like to plan out my strategy and mark off certain systems that I plan on attacking or plan on exploring into. And I thought having the ability to store these lists as two separate but equal types would be helpful. They act the same when viewing them on the map viewer anyway, they are just different in the way that system lists only store x,y values.. planet lists on the other hand will be able to store the x,y: p as well as if the planet IS portaled, WAS portaled, WAS NOT portaled, is NOT portaled and might/might not be portaled. You'll be able to do a Infil on someone and input that information into omg and have it store that data. It'll reset the flags and depending on you're choice in the preferences you can choose how long ago to show that the portal WAS/WAS NOT/IS/NOT portaled. In other words, anything can happen a tick after you do an infil.. this setting allows you to choose how soon a newly created portal on a planet shows "was portaled.. but might not be portaled now" type of thing.

A note about collections.. You can duplicate, or link, a list within a collection. A linked list will reflect changes made to that list onto all other lists attached to it. Duplicate lists will not reflect changes of the list it was duplicated from and can be independently altered. This could be helpful if you like to separate things like I said above, but want them to reflect the same information.

A note about lists.. You'll be able to modify and create lists in lots of different ways. One way would be to copy your planets page and omg will parse the information and create a list with it (including which one of your planets have portals on them). Omg is going to monitor you're clipboard when you have it's window focused so if you have any type of list copied it's going to respond by telling you something like "Hey! I see a planet list in your clipboard. Would you like to create a new list with it? Do you want to replace a list with it? Or would you like to add these planets to a list?" - As with any major map gen you'll also be able to compare lists to see how far the planets are from each other. But take into consideration that it WILL use portal information. If you have a portal close by it'll use that portal as it's starting point making share-lists much easier to work out (Just make sure you update "your" planet list with your planets page often)

You wont see too much on this preview but there's a lot of things that are hidden at the moment. I actually spent a very large chunk of time making my own textbox control for displaying coords etc (And my undo/redo function is still jacked up! ugh, at least it mostly works? lol). On that note I spent a hugely large amount of time developing my own widget control architecture. Handling events and interface graphics and user preferences all take a long time to develop. I mean sure I could have just gone with a regular windows form and made things slightly easier (but a lot less attractive) or I could have gone with a full graphics engine. I'm developing this using Visual C# and XNA Game Studio (You could probably use omg on an xbox lol) Anyway developing it from the ground up is both fun and very time consuming. Especially since it's literally the first c# app I've ever created, let alone the first DirectX/graphical thing I've made

The reason I'm posting this preview is just to start up some hype about it and also to get some suggestions. If there's anything that you'd like to see in a map generator then post here. I'm definitely open to ideas! So post away imperial conflictians!