This is the same thirteen slides of "Map Help Information" made larger for easier reading and with annotations.

Thanks Scriv, I've not really looked at that info before. Useful.
It looks complicated, but once set up the map is easy to read.

This is how I like to display my maps. I have the filters selected to show my selections.




Once the filters are sorted, I normally have the map population displayed with the Stats tab.

I had never noticed, but on the deploy options on the left hand side of the map screen if you scroll down the 3 warp gates are listed so you can spawn directly to another continent.
I had always spawned in at the warp gate and crossed continents from there.