Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map

cartographia40k.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 61 posts

Re: Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map

#21

Post by throaway198521 »

ajross wrote: post #15
nope1000 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those words are supposed to be "high gothic" ( https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/High_Gothic ) which is definitly inspired by latin but not the same.

Which is to say, the original authors didn't care and were just writing latinesque gibberish that sounded cool. One of the critically important things to remember about 40k lore is that the game was originally a joke . Their "real" game was Warhammer (the game to be later called "Warhammer Fantasy"). Originally it was just "Let's put space opera tropes onto a game board and have them fight D&D monsters". Then they sh…

It was more than just a joke. It was a satire on England and 1980's society.

The "Imperium," which is led by the possibly-dead body of a entombed demi-god, sustains its control over the galaxy with a mix of intense faith, authoritarianism, and a massive space navy with marine shock troops.

That's England! The Imperium is the British Empire. The dead-God Emperor is Jesus and the Imperial Cult is the COE. The Imperial Navy is the British Navy and the Space Marines (who in the older versions were just common criminals, not super-soldiers), are the British Naval Marines.

One of the old slurs against Christians was that they followed a "corpse-god." They say the same thing in 40K.

Plus, all the rampant materialism, corruption, stratification, militarism, promoted and encouraged by the Imperium. All straight out of 1980's society.

Re: Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map

#23

Post by bbor »

Great start, awesome idea! Definitely need all the Xenos maps from all the various codexes (Lexicanum usually clarifies which codex has the most recent map for each, IME). The crown jewel, ofc, is to see the Tyranid fleets hitting the galaxy from two sides and then below, then zooming out to reveal the oncoming mass, still flying through the void towards us from Andromeda... Terrifying!

UI wise, there's definitely a sense of latency when just moving my mouse around. Obviously 3D (three.js?) has FPS limits, but this should be preventable. Also, a lot of the text overlaps on my random (medium sized) browser window.

EDIT: Also you gotta take the stars outta the intergalactic void! Would be much cooler to see the occasional super distance galaxy, anyway ;)

Re: Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map

#25

Post by darrylb42 »

jmarchello wrote: post #19
wsowens wrote: post #17

I've always been intrigued by Warhammer 40k but never really knew how to get into it. What's the best way?

The barrier of entry is admittedly high for playing the game, but it's tons of fun. You have to pick an army, start collecting models (which aren't cheap), then you have to build them and at least sort of paint them. Honestly the best way is just go on to a local store on they 40k open play night (most have one weekly) and ask around. Folks are extremely kind and generous and will often loan you some models to play a…

Are they doing an edition a every couple of years now? I think I have the 4th edition rules, but haven't painted or played in like 12 years. I do have some of my nicely painted models on display in a cabinet. I mostly stopped buying models when GamesWorkshop stopping letting the UK stores sell online as their models were really cheap compared to what they sold them for in Canada.

Re: Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map

#26

Post by otter-in-a-suit »

wsowens wrote: post #17

I've always been intrigued by Warhammer 40k but never really knew how to get into it. What's the best way?

I recommend the Eisenhorn books if you want to get into the lore. It's a good story and covers a lot of ground without expecting a ton of prior knowledge.

Re: Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map

#30

Post by the_af »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #27
big_babol wrote: post #2

Love it! References to the books would be awesome, since they basically hold the Warhammer 40k "history"

I thought WH40k had an explicit “timekeeping is untrustworthy” kind of rule to avoid anything like a canonical timeline.

I think the parent commenter means the description could include where the planets and major events are sourced from, not necessarily a coherent timeline.
Post reply on HN