Tech 3 Crew Mapping & Bookmarking

Foreword

Over the years T3C started out using publicly hosted Tripwire, then after a few years we transitioned to Pathfinder, in this case a fork of the original now maintained by Goryn Clade. Our bookmarking methods have gone through at least half a dozen iterations, before landing on the method we now use, largely copied from Almost Dangerous, of Wolves Among Strangers after my year flying with them. Almost Dangerous have a modified Pathfinder system that far more neatly integrates ChainID into the map, we have yet to modify ours at all but likely will do similar some day.

This guide is aimed at our own members, but wormhole groups or individuals looking to streamline their bookmarks may find use in it too.

This Guide assumes you understand basic EVE Mechanics, if you feel there are errors or room for extra explanation send an EVE Mail to Lasse Ker'Khan in game (Or just send a message in Discord if you're in T3C).

Terminology

Pathfinder: A third party browser-based mapping tool used to track where systems in J Space are located relative to each other.

J Space: Systems in EVE Online outside of New Eden, also known as Wormhole Systems.

J Code: The "Name" of a J Space system, the letter J followed by six numbers.

ChainID: A Unique Identifier for each system currently on the map, relative to which chain it is in.

Splash: Means the same as Jump, but for a wormhole.

The Process

The longest bookmarking system we used before our present one operated similarly at a base level, it was Signature Letters, Destination Class, and Destination (Last three Digits of J Code if J Space). For example GTI C3 615 meant it was Signature GTI, led to Class 3 J Space, to a System with J Code ending 615, all the basic info quick and simple. This system had two major issues, firstly knowing the system name made having the class redundant, if it was Perimeter everyone already knew it was HS. But secondly and far more significantly if we had a larger map with more than 10 to 16 systems on it, even the full J Code J100615 required everyone to search the map for that name every time content was found in such a system. This is solved with ChainID, a Unique Identifier for each system on the name, relative to where it is in chain. Again, this was designed by Almost Dangerous, and we merely took it over as our main method.

We now use ChainID, Signature Letters, Destination (Class or Full Name if Known)

ChainID

The ChainID is a classic case of seeming really complex initially, then after a day of using it you ask yourself why it felt so complicated initially. The further away from our home system you are the more number of digits the ChainID contains, the actual number in each does not say anything about distance from home. By setting each subsequently added digit as a child of the prior as will be described in a simple example following, any system becomes trivial to find even for people who do not have the map open at all, massively improving response times as people only need to get in their ships, and can open the map while they're already traveling.

Letters are more quick to identify, and are used for the very first system in a chain, this means that with us having two static wormholes we will always have an A and a B. Any word is fine as long as it's easily identifiable, for simplicity I always use ALPHA and BRAVO. NOTE: Always skip CHARLIE, or the letter C in general, it can lead to confusion as will be explained in the example.

Simple Example

Let's assume you've splashed our C5 Static, you are in the first chain out of home, therefor the system you are in is A, or ALPHA.

The Bookmark from home would be: [ALPHA RXI C5] Where the first bit is ChainID, the second are the first three letters of the Wormhole Signature RXI, and the last tells you it leads to C5. Added bonus if you rename C5 to the actual system J Code, but this is not required.

The Bookmark back home, no matter how far down a chain you are, if it's toward home should be asterisk Home:

*Home

Now let's assume you've found 5 Wormholes inside ALPHA. Signatures RIT-098 leading to "Unknown parts of space", FRZ-657 leading to "High Security Space", HIT-836 leading to "Dangerous unknown parts of space", HEY-903 leading to "Unknown parts of space", and FIN-434 leading to "Deadly unknown parts of space". Some of us after years of playing can identify these by their 3D Visual appearance, however this guide will teach you the minimum requirement. To give each a ChainID, simply take the system you're in "A", and append a unique number:

A1 RIT C1-3

A2 FRZ HS

A3 HIT C4-5

A4 HEY C1-3

A5 FIN C6

^ This is how your list of bookmarks should look inside of ALPHA, topped by *Home

Now, for how to Map this. Since we do not have Almost Dangerous' Pathfinder modification for integrated ChainID, we rename the system to prefix it with ChainID. To do this, simply double click on the name in Pathfinder and write the ChainID in front of the System Name, if the server is being laggy (it's running on a Raspberry Pi) you may have to do this a second time. When you splash the five wormholes in ALPHA, simply rename the systems on the map with the ChainID before the name, as shown in the example: