It would add a unique effect if you could stake out your ship in a specific part of the galaxy to alter the NPCs, players, and planets you find. For example, if you set your ship to patrol the outer rim, you would more likely find terran outsiders and volcanic planets, less likely find crimson blades and gas planets, and also more likely find other players who are also patrolling the outer rim.

Interesting idea but so far no galactic map feature has been added would be neat too if you could see your worlds on the map and your legion territory it would obviously have to lump all legion members in a general area though and that would really mess with map when someone jumps from one legion to another unless the planets were locked into location .

but that would add a whole host of options in like being able to invade an area instead of just a planet also would like the map to be 3d rotatable

This idea is really interesting. You could get a whole different scan percentage by where you were at. I can just picture Dan's face as he sits there and tried to figure out how to do this one. But it would not have to be that bad. If you assume this all remains in one galaxy, you could technically say it was flat. You could divide that flat map into 9 zones. So you just randomly assign 1-9 to each planet. Now you know what sector each planet is in. If you are guarding a planet in a sector, it receives you full defense bonus, but every planet in the same sector could get a 25% fast response defense bonus too. You could raise/lower NPC and artifact drop rates in different sectors. This will keep higher /lower players separated in the galaxy. You could also figure out which legions were controlling each sector, for a little legion warfare. If it gets too full, you can offer a worm hole to the 0 sector, where all the big boys can duke it out. You could also 'move' the missions to different sectors requiring people to travel. Missions could even be made to start in one and finish in another, like transport job. Lots of great opportunities, I this is a thread to work on.

space is 3d

In all reality yes, but this is a game. Call it 9 cubes then to make you feel better. It's like water it's only the top 5 feet that matter. The idea was just to simplify a complex issue into a workable reality. You can call it 9 galaxies if you want, I was just trying to help Dan see a possibility in the practical application.

why not 9x9x9

There would be nothing wrong with that if Dan feels he can take it out that far. I only said 9 with a bonus 10th zone because it would only require programing in a single digit to each planet and mission, ie 1-9 + 0. I think starting smaller would help test the idea and get it off the ground and could be expanded if it added great to the richness of the game play.

I like the idea of flat also, just because 3d adds that much more complexity. There are things that I enjoy about this game.... being graphic lite and not requiring me to zoom thru a huge 3d map to find a planet is one of them.

Though honestly, if you want a game with a map you should try tribalwars. I would prefer the game stay mapless.