Route Planning in the galaxy

I have practically no programming knowledge, but I really would like to have access to a program that takes this map (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130325041255/starwars/images/1/10/MainGalaxy.png) and is able to give me an ETA from one point to another, following some considerations I've made ... considerations that should be debated and debunked in this thread as well.

Okay, so here goes.

The Star Wars: Edge of the Empire tabletop RPG core rulebook states that traveling across the galaxy would take a person between 7 and 21 standard days. If you assume that the rulebook is referring to a trip from galactic north to galactic south (which is a fair assumption, since the Unknown Regions are more rarely considered or traveled), then the lowest average distance per hour is gonna be about 0.0456 units; the fastest is about 0.1369 units. A unit is one of the galactic subdivisions ... or at least, that's what I've called it in the absence of knowing a better term.

Okay, so here's where I need some direction/help/saving. ... I know that the large time range of one to three weeks is due to constant recalculating and exiting and re-entering hyperspace in less well-mapped and more astronomically chaotic regions. The pilot has to account for gravity wells, stellar drift, whatevs, I get it. Luckily, the occupants of the galaxy and the cartographers of the fine map in the above link seem to provide us three modes of transit. There's the five major hyperspace lanes, in which let's say you're getting about 0.1369 units per hour), the minor lanes (where you're getting about 0.0912 units/hr), and the out of the way hyperspace routes ... the kind where you have to head out off the beaten trail and avoid the popular routes and take three whole weeks to cross the galaxy (which is about 0.0456 of those units per hour).

I don't know of any program, and I don't know how to make a program, that can do a Google Maps thing and find the best possible route for a traveler to go, using my rules (which you should poke holes in !!), while considering the efficiencies of the minor and major hyperspace lanes.

Let's take a trip from Onderon to Telos. So, in my system a computer would subdivide the map into 48,300 units (or at least 4,830 units) so that Onderon isn't really O-9 ... but it's something like 14.83,8.81 or whatever. And then we look at Telos and see that its coordinates are in Q-4 but for our purposes are 16.11,3.29. Is it faster to head north through the Hapes Cluster to Taanab and then take the Perlemian Trade Route west to Brentaal so that you can take the Hydian Way north to Telos? Or is taking the smaller, less efficient minor trade route to Nazzri, then heading north to Lantillies, then following the route west to the Gizer system and then northwest to Corsin a better route?

I feel like putting all these systems on a plane, giving an overlay of the major and minor trade routes, and then giving rules for the rate of distance you can travel in the three scenarios would give the clearest understanding of galactic travel in Star Wars history. I just don't know how to do it. :/

Oh, and I've decided that it seems like the major hyperspace lanes are less pronounced in the Deep Core for more than visual effect ... but to also simulate the reality that the Deep Core is a slower transit ... so I'd say that you'd be getting an average distance of 0.0912 units/hour there.

Please, let me know what you think!

 

Edit: I just realized that my numbers reflect a horizontal galactic journey of 23 units. While the concept is more important to me than the raw numbers, I still stand by a north/south journey with 21 units. Therefore, the slowest rate should be 0.0417/hr, the middle should be 0.0833/hr, and the quickest should be 0.125/hr. I don't know; do you think 1-3 weeks references a journey across the Unknown Regions? I doubt it. :/

Also, I've been wondering if the EU ever has a mention of the frequencies of rest stops, refueling, recalculating new routes, etc. Are there any journeys in the EU that are given an exact travel time that you can recall?

 

I put the galaxy map into SketchUp with the galaxy map measuring about a million square meters and then came up with these notes.

This route is along the Hydian Way

Imynusoph to Denon
443 meters
Denon to Uviuy Exen
234 meters
Uviuy Exen to Bonadan
400 meters
843 meters in non-core Hydian Way
234 meters in core Hydian Way
Remember, I assume core Hydian to be the same speed as minor hyperspace routes

Galaxy is 1091020.3209 m2
Length of map 989.83 meters (47.13476189047619 meters per numerical grid block length)
Width of map 1102.23 meters (47.92304347826087 meters per numerical grid block height)
108.8701995046406 light years per grid block length
0.00918525 block lengths per grid light year

It takes 1 to 3 weeks to travel across the galaxy; this could mean an EU 5-15 days week (because a week in Star Wars is 5 days) or it could mean 7-21 days. All other lower time values are the same in both universes (hours, minutes, etc)

This comes from the Essential Atlas, page 14, in a generic example.
Traveling from system A to system C is 36 light years. It is quicker to travel hundreds of light years from System A to system B and then apparently the same distance (hundreds of light years) from system B to system C along a major hyperspace route than it is to go that 36 light years along a rarely traveled route from A to C. If we assume that hundreds of light years means at least 200, then the major routes are 11.1111111 times faster than minor routes. I am unsure if the author means minor as in level 2 routes ... or minor as in super dangerous minor.
This is also on page 14 of the Essential Atlas.
It is quicker to go from Malastare up the Hydian to Denon and then from Dunon down the Corellian Run to Druckenwell than it is to use any other route .... including the minor ones.

I'll be updating this with more information the more I peruse the Essential Atlas. I'm not sure how to reconcile a major/minor hyperspace lane ration of 11.11111 to 1 with the fact that traversing the galaxy should be 1 to 3 weeks, while at the same time accounting for super dodgy hyperspace routes (ie, going off of the major/minor ones not on the map). I understand there could be incredible variation, but I'm going for averages. I'll work on it. Help would still be appreciated.

 

Oh, and I chose the Hydian Way as the route, because I assumed that any traveler trying to go "across the galaxy" as is described in Edge of the Empire and Wookieepedia would be using the only major hyperlane that goes across the whole thing. <shrug> Could just mean the dodgiest hodgepodge of routes, but if that's the case, then the Malastare>Denon>Druckenwall journey wouldn't be vastly superior to Malastare>Darkknell>Sanrafsix>Nelvaan>Christophsis>Radnor>Druckenwell. That's the route, mind ... not actual stops. I'm guessing, since it's not the boonies of the galaxy, the navicomputers would have constant, up-to-date charts and you wouldn't need to stop at each world or anything. Or maybe....