"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” -Douglas Adams
By Moon Master Jaxan Brax
Introduction
When I (Jaxan Brax) was in highschool my father and I took a sailing course together. Before sailing the open seas; before charting a course; before unfurling a single sail; before even setting foot on a sailboat, the entire first day of class was devoted to the orientation of the vessel and understanding of the charts.
Reading charts and knowing where you are and where you're going in wormhole space is critical for two reasons.
First, wormhole connections are ever-changing making it comparatively easy to get lost as opposed to the known galaxy of New Eden. One cannot simply pull-up a galaxy map of wormhole space and we must essentially draw and re-draw our own "Wormhole Map" of wormhole space every time a connection is severed using third-party sites such as Tripwire or even a pen and paper like cartographers of olde when Tripwire is down. All wormhole systems start with the letter J (known as "J-Space"; the New Eden known galaxy is known as "K-Space" as short for "Known-Space") and trying to name each and every system we encounter would be tedious and cumbersome for everyone involved. Additionally, disagreements about naming conventions would lead to chaos; see below.
Secondly, agreeing upon and using our naming conventions and designations makes it easier to organize PvP fleet movements. "Dreadnaught tackled in the B5.3!" communicates instantaneous information as to what is happening but more (and probably most) importantly where the action is happening.
Naming Convention and Bookmarking
Orientation Convention Standard
In real-life marine vessels navigate on a two-dimensional plane (unless its a submarine) and as such understanding the two-dimensional chart is critical. On navigational charts colors and symbols are used to indicate where a vessel is heading and the most basic understanding necessary is weather the vessel is heading toward a port / channel or out to sea. The phrase, "Red, right, returning" means that the physical buoys anchored in the water should be on the right (starboard) side of the vessel when the vessel is returning to a port or channel. This is reflected in the navigational charts as the cartographers assume the intended audience and vessels to be heading towards a port or channel as opposed to being drawn for people safely docked and venturing outward to sea (is my understanding).
Navigating in space, on the other hand, is done in a three-dimensional environment and therefore normal descriptions such as port / starboard / up / down are often relative. Therefore when bookmarking in wormhole space one of the first aspects to keep track of is if the wormhole leads towards or away from the home wormhole. Our bookmarking system uses the @ symbol to communicate that the wormhole in question leads away from the home hole while the * symbol communicates that the wormhole leads towards home. The * symbol also ensures that the warp-in on the way back is at the very top of the bookmark menu when right-clicking in space; "Star, top, returning" as it were.
Exploration Convention Standard
As stated, trying to individually name each wormhole encountered would be far too difficult. Instead we use simpler letter and number designations that have the added benefit of communicating instantaneous information. We live in a class four (C-4) wormhole with a static class three (C-3) and a static class five (C-5) wormhole connected to us. Because these two statics are unchanging no matter how many times we might roll them, we have designated hem as the "A-Chain" for the class three and the "B-Chain" for the class five. Dynamic wormholes (and therefore chains) connected to home are labeled with the next available letter beginning with C and descending alphabetically. Chains specifically used for operations generally start with the letter Z and ascend alphabetically. Knowing which chain one is currently navigating is probably the first and foremost important piece of information required.
Our naming convention follows as such:
[ORIENTATION][CHAIN][WORMHOLE CLASS].[ORDINAL NUMBER OF CLASS FOUND IN CURRENT CHAIN] for outgoing wormholes.
For example @B6.3 communicates that the wormhole in question: leads away from the home hole, is located in the B-Chain, is a class six wormhole, and is the third class six wormhole scouted in the B-Chain.
Incoming wormholes, i.e. connections that lead towards the home hole, follow this convention:
[ORIENTATION][CHAIN][# OF JUMPS TO REACH HOME]i/j [SPACE][PREVIOUS WORMHOLE CLASS].[ORDINAL NUMBER OF CLASS FOUND IN CURRENT CHAIN]
For example *B3i 6.3 communicates that the wormhole in question: leads towards home, is part of the B-Chain, is three jumps away (j for "jumps" or i for "in from") from home, and leads to the third class six wormhole scouted in the B-Chain as per the above naming convention. The B before the 6.3 is unnecessary in this case as the *B already communicates that the wormhole in question is located in the B-Chain.
Known-space connections are labeled as [CHAIN][K-SPACE ABBREVIATION].[ORDINAL NUMBER OF K-SPACE CONNECTIONS FOUND IN CHAIN]. H for "High-security Space," L for "Low-Security Space," and N for "Null-Security Space." For example @BH.1 communicates that the wormhole is located in the B-Chain, leads to High-security space, and is the first wormhole of its kind scouted.
Bookmarking Practice Standards
All bookmarks related to movement in the chain should be placed in the "VI.TA Chain" folder and set to expire after two days. PvE bookmarks are generally placed in the "Salvage" folder while gas sites are placed in the "Gas" folder and bookmarks related to safes and pings for PvP fleet engagements should be placed in the "Op Tactical" folder.