Re: a fist full questions
 

thanks for help gulli...sun virtual box is working...

i know the map is not that kind of cannon, also its a little bit questionable if all can be drawn in 2d...don't they all expand in 3dimensions?^^

nevertheless i'm working on that map. i like the DMZ with the marquis.
but there is still a question of what ships the marquis uses...

peregrine
marquis raider
bajoran impuls raider
perhaps a stolen miranda?

one little empire with only 5 ships? there will be no fun.
anyone some idea?

i like the idea of a full TNG mod, short after the fed-card war.
this is the shiplist i've made so far...

Fed-ships:

Oberth, freedom, cheyenne, miranda, saratoga, excelsior, ambassador, nebula, galaxy

Klingon ships:

Bird of Prey, BoP D12, K'vort, K'tinga, Koloth (K'tinga variant), Vor'cha, Negh'var Prototyp

Romulan ships:

Talon, Shrike, ???(perhaps some ships from BOTF) ,D'derix Warbird

Cardassian ships:

Hideki, some other...don't know name, Galor, Keldon

Marquis:

Bajoran impuls raider, Peregrine, Marquis Raider, stolen BoP, stolen Miranda

so, sombody some ideas?

Re: a fist full questions
 

Actually the galaxy is pretty flat, so the chance of any region having two systems on top of each other, both with habitable planets, is pretty small and I don't think empires like it when other empires "dig" underneath them (they could put listening posts there and borders would become much longer). So a 2D map should be a good representation.

The maquis aren't really an empire: they don't have the means to field starships bigger than raiders, the only reason they didn't get their butts kicked is because the Klingons helped them. You could make them a minor faction, at war with the Cardassians and allied to the Klingons (like pirates who only go after the Cardassians), you could also give them cloaking devices and maybe Klingon BoP's. Or just give them a few more Klingon ships to play with, give the Maquis the exact same relations to other races as the Klingons and pretend that Maquis Vor'cha is just a ship sent by the empire to aid the Maquis.

You can only have 4 playable races anyway (hardcoded I believe), so why not make the Maquis and Ferengi small AI empires?

I don't know about the Romulans but you could add the Centaur class to the Feds and to give the Cardassians more of a punch you could give them the Hutet (not canon, but a nice dreadnaught/battleship nevertheless).