Ombeve

Curious to find points of topological interest in the EVE universe, I set up a small experiment. I wrote a program which calculates jump routes from a single system to all other systems. It then counts all the routes that pass through each system, providing a rough measure of expected traffic. This provides a purely theoretical study of the jump-gate network. Of course, relationships of these numbers to actual traffic are largely coincidental. This method makes no allowances from population, economics, player behavior, et cetera, save only one. Given the choice between hi-sec and low-sec jumps, the hi-sec route is preferred.

In the first run, we consider travel from Jita to all contiguous, hi-sec systems.

Code: Select all

HiSec to Jita: (max 35 jumps)

Jita - 1098
Perimeter - 926
Urlen - 921
Sirppala - 911
Inaro - 492
Kaaputenen - 487
Niarja - 486
Madirmilire - 477
Anttiri - 418
Juunigaishi - 416
Uedama - 413
Sivala - 412

Here we see that all of the 1098 hi-sec systems which can be reached from Jita are within 35 jumps of it. We also see a widely connected approach route as follows: Jita -> Perimeter -> Urlen -> Sirppala -> Inaro -> Kaaputenen -> Niarja -> Madirmilire, leading to Amarr, with access to Kador, Tash Murkon and Kor-Azor. At Sirppala, the route forks, leading off to Sirppala -> Anttiri -> Juunigaishi -> Uedama -> Sivala, and ultimately into Sinq Laison and Essence.

Adding low-sec destinations and routes to the mix, we see a very similar pattern.

Code: Select all

Empire to Jita: (45 jumps)

Jita - 1859
Perimeter - 1325
Urlen - 903
Sirppala - 893
Inaro - 782
Kaaputenen - 777
Niarja - 776
Madirmilire - 767
Ashab - 577
Iyen-Oursta - 422
Faurent - 420
Ambeke - 415
Amarr - 413

All of Empire can be reached in 45 jumps from Jita, again, mostly through Perimeter -> Urlen -> Sirppala. With the fork to Essence deemphasized, we see continuation of this main route along Sirppala -> Inaro -> Kaaputenen -> Niarja -> Madirmilire -> Ashab -> Amarr. Our new willingness to jump through low-sec (to reach low-sec destinations) opens up a path down into Sinq Laison, jumping from Perimeter to Iyen-Oursta.

Adding 0.0 regions opens up the traffic somewhat.

Code: Select all

Enitre Galaxy to Jita: (71 jumps)

Jita - 5153
Perimeter - 2498
New Caldari - 2084
Urlen - 1953
Sirppala - 1943
Inaro - 1749
Kaaputenen - 1744
Niarja - 1743
Madirmilire - 1734
Ashab - 1413
Amarr - 1249
Josameto - 1169
Poinen - 1166
Kor-Azor Prime - 1022

Again, we see the well-travelled track from Jita to Amarr, continuing to Kor-Azor Prime. A secondary route appears through New Caldari, forking into Lonetrek and The Citadel, but continuing through Josameto and Poinen.

Now let us expand the inquiry beyond Jita. Suppose we compute routes from every solar system in the universe to every other solar system in the universe. The following chart contains traffic counts, some of them surprising.

Code: Select all

Entire Galaxy to Entire Galaxy:

U-QVWD - 4401938 (Catch to Curse)
Kaaputenen - 3557781 (The Citadel to Domain)
Niarja - 3544729 (Domain to The Citadel)
Madirmilire - 3512873 (Domain to Kador)
G-QTSD - 3466857 (7-KXBJ to Insmother)
36N-HZ - 3420490 (next to U-QVWD)
SV5-8N - 3402622 (Catch to Providence/Khanid)
VOL-MI - 3325381 (Curse to Scalding Pass)
WD-VTV - 3231447 (next to SV5-8N)
9KOE-A - 3230533 (next to WD-VTV)
Amarr - 3166887 (Domain, Kor Azor, Kador, Tash Murkon)
V-3YG7 - 3097738 (near U-QVWD)

Here again are featured systems along the Jita/Amarr corridor, implying that they actually have some geographic centrality in addition to their economic importance. The surprising entries (at least to me) are the 0.0 systems, with U-QVWD taking the title of most central system according to this model. Mostly, these 0.0 systems are topologically close to the drone regions, perhaps indicating some lop-sidedness of the universe in that direction.

All of this analysis, however, skirts around a very simple question. Where is the center of the universe? More specifically, from which system can we reach all other systems in the fewest jumps.

Code: Select all

Anywhere to Entire Galaxy:

Lansez to anywhere in 56 jumps (Khanid)
Bukah to anywhere in 57 jumps
Keberz to anywhere in 57 jumps
Geztic to anywhere in 57 jumps
Hishai to anywhere in 57 jumps
Afnakat to anywhere in 57 jumps

Ihal to anywhere in 57 jumps (Derelik)
Asabona to anywhere in 57 jumps (Derelik, low-sec)

CRXA-Y to anywhere in 57 jumps (Great Wildlands)
JPL-RA to anywhere in 57 jumps

Here, again, the drone regions show their influence, but it turns out that by this measure, the center of the universe is in Khanid, Lansez, to be exact. Let's have a quick look at Lansez.

Code: Select all

Lansez to Entire Galaxy: (56 jumps)

Lansez - 5153
Keberz - 2853
Bukah - 2300
Agil - 2299
HED-GP - 2166
SV5-8N - 2165
Hishai - 2128
Geztic - 2127
Osis - 2126
Sehsasez - 2124
Ervekam - 2120
Masanuh - 2119
Leva - 2113

Here, as we might expect, we see much more even fan-out than we did in Jita. The route through HED-GP and SV5-8N extends through Catch to Providence and to Curse, again showing the pull of the drone regions.

Three avenues of further study could provide greater insight. First, actual traffic and population data should be considered. Some such measurements are available through the API. Second, a stricter favoring of hi-sec routes might more accurately represent the movement of freight around Empire, and then ultimately into low-sec and 0.0. Third, more sophisticated statistical measurements (e.g. root mean square deviations) could be applied.

Cheers,

Brisco Smiley

i love data, cheers

Well hot damn!!

Fascinating info, so basically Lansez is pretty much the centre of the universe? I was wondering about this, as knowing this would be handy for many people, not least of all mercs who have to potentially deploy anywhere in the Universe.

With your permission, can I put this in the release of the revamped maps as a "forward" maybe or an appendix? Obviously full credit will be given In fact, if you want to do any more number crunching, I can include that too- people love stats!

You're certainly welcome to use anything I post with or without credit. I've gotten a lot of use out of the maps, and I'm happy if I can contribute anything back.

The list of systems within 60 jumps of anywhere is actually quite long, and they are spread out around the universe. I'll see about putting together a sorted list.

I refined my methods a bit; now all routes take the minimal number of low-sec jumps. That forces travel through hi-sec as far as possible. I enjoy looking at how routes fork off from various systems. I uploaded route lists for Amarr, Hek, Jita, Oursulaert and Rens.

Cheers,

Brisco Smiley

edit: here is how these routes flow through Caldari space.
edit: or like this.

If you knew the actual algorithm for auto-pilot, that would probably help (I noticed just last night that my auto-pilot wasn't always routing me in the optimal way). I think most people are lazy / frustrated by the star map UI and just "trust" the "set destination" option.

I also think that major shortcuts with only one hop into low-sec are generally considered worthwhile. I'm not sure what the trade-off factor is but I know that going from Aurcel to Jel, I'd never go "around" (through everyshore). I would just make sure that there aren't a crazy number of pod kills in the last hour and jump through Egghelende instead.

How you translate that into an algorithm is a separate question. I'm sure there's some dynamization of the map that could happen if you could get the pod kill data and overlay it.

I also love data