I’m trying to figure out how coordinates within a spacestation in Eve work. So we’re looking at a station that can produce artifical gravity without needing to spin which means the coordinates that might have been used by such stations are no longer necessary, but would they still be used out of custom? Directions like spinward, anti-spinward, hubward, rimward to name a few possible examples. Are the cardinal directions we’re used to here on earth be used in Eve lore instead?
Considering that much of the stations in Eve do not actually spin, and they all align to the same plane, I believe their coordinates will follow the x.y.z format.
There hasn’t really been much evidence that they used spins in the first place. Considering that they got much of their space tech from reverse-engineering leftovers they found on their planet, they might have skipped that step entirely.
Fair point.
The three-dimensional cartesian sounds right. It’s logical at least. I’m just wondering because there’s no real on-station ambulation depicted in-game. Combine that with everyone referring to locations in the cluster as being in the North, or to the East I just assumed that the layouts of rooms would refer to those same coordinates.
Remember, the enemy’s gate is down.
I was about to reply that there is no down in space, then I realized that this is probably an Ender’s Game reference. Which caused me to want to read the series.
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It is 
Tiny spoiler
It’s a reference to how, in zero G, there is no ‘down’, other than how you choose to define in. The Gate is a thing in a game. So Ender defines that as down, to help get it through people’s heads.
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I should probably clarify further. I’m writing a room description for my character’s quarters and I need to know how station crew would give internal directions. Up and down are obvious relative to the acting gravitational field. So are deck levels. Would nautical terms be appropriate then like fore, aft, port and starboard?
I can’t see “a desk at 0.2 m, 0 m, 1.3 m from the door” making for a very interesting read. So while I like xyz for precision it’s not useful in this instance. Neither is the “enemy gate is down.” 
That’s an interesting question. I can’t say that I recall maneuvering through stations to be covered in any particular detail in any of the Chronicles or novellas. I’m tempted to go diving through again.
Some Chronicles I know of that do deal, in part, with life on stations are The Yetamo, the Black Mountain series, Post Mortem (one of two prequel Chronicles to the Black Mountain epic), The Spirit of Crielere, Ruthless, Invisible Waves, and Hona is Three (a sort of sequel to Black Mountain). The Black Mountain series of Chonicles is probably your best best, but CCP’s fiction portal doesn’t put them in chronological order. You could read them more sensibly here.
Not sure any of these are going to give you what you want though. From the little I remember (mostly short descriptions of elevator trips and characters walking down corridors), the most frequent use of directions is given in relation to the nearest hangar or docking bay. I’ll have to read back through them to be sure.
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Oh, it’s not going to be that different from giving directions to a very specific shop in a multi-story shopping mall.
Of course, a station is far bigger than that.
However, just noting. It’s very likely that the ordinary guy trying to look for directions in a space station is carrying with him a personal communication device that’s similar to a smartphone with holoprojections for screens (as shown in one of the images in Eve Source. I refer to that as a holocom, personally). It wouldn’t be inconceivable that they would be able to view a 3D map of the station using that device.
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Wouldn’t ventral, dorsal, cranial, caudal, distal and medial and similar be employed?
Perhaps transversal(right-left),longitiudinal(up - down) and sagital(front-back) are marked in rooms.
Oh yeah, that could be for all those. These stations have an obvious up-down orientation so they could have such surfaces and corresponding directions. Even if the didn’t have such an orientation some of those might still be applicable.
I like the idea of marking of the directions relative to the station inside the rooms and passages. It would make transversing the station much easier in an emergency too.
For this cases it would be suprising if stations had not invented path guiding holo Displays (changing from advertisment to a simple go here Symbol) and no catastrophe mass psychology science exists- while it does on our earth.
Most don’t spin but there are some that do, especially in Gallente space.
I’m sure there would be tech adapted to such situations. Might as well have something like advertising panels pull double duty. It would still seem to be a good idea to have markings painted on the corridors and rooms in case of a total black out.
no catastrophe mass psychology science exists- while it does on our earth.
That seems like an odd oversight. Do natural and man made disasters occur so infrequently in the cluster?
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