place a ship in it and look at it again.... just to see if your perspective changes with the scale of the ships on it...

4 looks awesome. It also explains the free asteroids on the map.

4, but 1 without the trails would win. If you can get those off, pick that one

I cleaned up the vapor trails as much as I could here is the new and improved #1

#1 with your changes for sure! I think it will look neat with the game asteroids too, especially if you sharpie the edges black/dark blue!

I'd use number 1 for dogfighting and 3 for capital engagements.

1

New 1 is better but since you ask, I personally prefer plain non distracting backgrounds, like these:

(of which i have 2, together forming 1 epic mat)

or this

And if I go really crazy, maybe .. pushing it, this:

These are actually already buyable mats so its more an example where i personally would go for

I cleaned up the vapor trails as much as I could here is the new and improved #1

There you Go!

#4, awesome!

New 1 is better but since you ask, I personally prefer plain non distracting backgrounds, like these:

(of which i have 2, together forming 1 epic mat)

or this

And if I go really crazy, maybe .. pushing it, this:

These are actually already buyable mats so its more an example where i personally would go for

I also like that "just stars" image. What is the resolution on that image?

For me, nothing beats a simple star field. :-)

Yup I agree, that is why my table is a plain black tablecloth.

All of these vinyl mats are cute but not worth a **** to actually game on IMO.

I also like that "just stars" image. What is the resolution on that image?

that image is 1600x1600 but it's easy to just put 4 together in 1 big image, touching it up a little using any graphics editor. All in all, a plain starfield is not that hard to make from scratch using any editor.