the illusion of links in a force

<!DOCTYPE html>
<meta charset="utf-8">
</style>
<body>
<script src="https://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js"></script>
<script>

D2R = Math.PI / 180;

var width = 960,
    height = 500;
    
var node = [];
var link = [];

// here is the function that will
// determine the radial location for 
// each node in the force layout.
//
// arbitrarily, it uses the nodes index in the 
// the data array to pick out where it should
// land. In a real program, you might want to
// specify this by some grouping attribute
//
function radial(data, index, alpha) {
    // check out the post
    // https://macwright.org/2013/03/05/math-for-pictures.html
    // for more info on how this works
    var startAngle = 30;
    var radius = 350;
    var currentAngle = startAngle + (30 * index);
    var currentAngleRadians = currentAngle * D2R;
    // the 500 & 250 are to center the circle we are creating
    var radialPoint = {
      x: 500 + radius * Math.cos(currentAngleRadians),
      y: 250 + radius * Math.sin(currentAngleRadians)
    };

// here we attenuate the effect of the centering
    // by the alpha of the force layout. 
    // this gives other forces - like gravity -
    // to have an effect on the nodes
    var affectSize = alpha * 0.1;

// here we adjust the x / y coordinates stored in our
    // data to move them closer to where we want them
    // this doesn't move the visual circles yet - 
    // we will do that in moveToRadial
    data.x += (radialPoint.x - data.x) * affectSize;
    data.y += (radialPoint.y - data.y) * affectSize;

}

// this function gets called every 'tick' of the 
// force layout
// first we call the above radial function on each
// node
// then we move each node based on its data's x/y
function moveToRadial(e) {
  node.each(function(d,i) { radial(d,i,e.alpha); });

node
    .attr("cx", function(d) { return d.x; })
    .attr("cy", function(d) { return d.y; });

link
      .attr("x1", function(d) { return d.source.x;})
      .attr("y1", function(d) { return d.source.y;})
      .attr("x2", function(d) { return d.target.x;})
      .attr("y2", function(d) { return d.target.y;});
}

var svg = d3.select("body").append("svg")
    .attr("width", width)
    .attr("height", height);
 
// create some fake data
// each data element is an
// object with x & y attributes
var data = [];
for(var i = 0; i < 30; i++) {
  var d = {x:0, y:0, i:i};
  data.push(d);
}

var link_data = [];
for(var i = 0; i < 30; i++) {
  var d = {source:data[i], target:data[(i * 5 % 30)], i:i};
  link_data.push(d);
}

// create circle elements to 
// represent our data
node = svg.selectAll("circle")
  .data(data);
node.enter().append("circle")
  .attr("r", 10)
  .attr("fill", "steelblue");

link = svg.selectAll("line.link")
  .data(link_data);

link.enter().append("line")
  .attr("class", "link")
  .attr("stroke", "#ddd")
  .attr("stroke-opacity", 0.8)
  .attr("stroke-width", 0.8);

// create and startup force
var force = d3.layout.force()
  .size([width, height])
  .nodes(data)
  .charge(-20)
  .on("tick", moveToRadial)
  .start();

</script>

Modified http://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js to a secure url

https://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js