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databasesimplificationentity-relationship

E/R diagram untangling


I'm trying to create a dark souls database system. I have included an image with my e/r diagram. The issue I'm having is, it looks far too tangled. But, I've tried to revise it to make it more aesthetically pleasing, to no avail. If anyone could help me out, i would be very grateful. Also, if this is the wrong community I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

E/R diagram


Solution

  • Identify the tables with the most relationships and organize them toward the center; strike a balance between minimizing crossings and grouping related entities closely together; and accept that ERDs of sufficient complexity tend to be kind of ugly, although there's definitely room for improvement with this one.

    You might start by looking at Keys hanging way out there on the left. It has several relationships, all of them with tables much further to the right. Moving it near Inventory or Drops eliminates several crossings and should make the diagram noticeably cleaner.