Why are starting planets so far away in my map designer maps?

Here is what I mean:

not sure why....but with the forge you can upload that galaxy you made and move them closer

Jag, I *THINK* there's a variable that determines how far all the starting planets are, you may hunt around for that.

IDK, but this is pissing me off too.
I ended up just setting the "planet distance" bar farther out, so the extra planets were closer to the home ones

I'm still trying to figure that one out myself, but I believe it has sth. to do with these parameters in the map's galaxy file:

randomizerParams
starPosOffsetRange
minPercentage 10.000000
maxPercentage 15.000000
playerParams
startingCredits 3000
startingMetal 800
startingCrystal 250
homePlanetType "TerranHome"
homePlanetStarRadiusRange
minPercentage 1.000000
maxPercentage 1.100000
areExtraPlanetsColonized FALSE
extraPlanetsMaxRadius 15.000000
extraPlanetsRadiusRange
minPercentage 0.900000
maxPercentage 1.000000
extraPlanetGroupCount 2
extraPlanetGroup
minCount 1
maxCount 1
planetTypeCount 1
planetType "Asteroid"
extraPlanetGroup
minCount 1
maxCount 1
planetTypeCount 1
planetType "RandomIceVolcanic"

Will try that one out later, when there is time...

There is another thing, the map size!
This is for small map:
metersPerGalaxyUnit 25000.000000
pixelsPerGalaxyUnit 1.000000

This is for map with "retardedly" long phaselanes:
metersPerGalaxyUnit 200000.000000
pixelsPerGalaxyUnit 1.000000

Turn orbit radius or whatever it's called under the star section down. If you have 3 planet groups all set to mix, you can just have one with the exact same effect. Try that. Maybe that would help. Also, try raising the max slider on the planet group(s).

The only reason you'd need more planet groups is if you want to customize the type of planet, how far away it is, etc. If they're all set to mix, just have one big one.

i was worried about that too and i tried every combo possible. but once i got in game i realized that the particular "long" phase jump to the rest of the inner planets really isn't long at all. and it lets you get prepared when "they" attack your 3 starter planets. i think the phase jump is about 3 minutes long.

I have tried it just once, so no extensive testing, but it seems, that the parameters I highlighted in my first post do indeed influence the distance of the home planets to the star. The ones further down in the galaxy file influence the positions of all the other celestial bodies in the system, but not, it seems to me, the position of the races' home planets.

If you want to change those you have to open the galaxy file (mine is with random generator on, don't know if other files have the same outlook), then look for "playerParams".

There you look for:

homePlanetStarRadiusRange
minPercentage 0.x00000
maxPercentage 0.x00000

Change x as you please, the lower the value, the closer your home planet will be to the star.

If you have extra planets on true, you might have to change their position, too:

extraPlanetsRadiusRange
minPercentage 0.x00000
maxPercentage 0.x00000

But these might also represent the distance of the extra planets to the home planet and not to the star. Does anybody know for sure, which one it is?

I'll try now to create a faintly realistic solar system with a habitable zone around its star.

I've played around with the map maker a lot. The slider bar in the upper right (map size, i believe) is what determines the general size of the area. Just by looking at the map result I suspect the coding is designed to put equal distance between the empires and the center of the map so there are no unfair advantages to any player.

Basically, if you have a very large map area but few planets to fill it, it will look like what you have. if you want to keep the layout you got to decrease the slider to the left.