In game compass?

[explorer]

Will there be and in game compass? I realize that its a cone-shape area, so giving it a logical explanation for how it works might be hard. But I think it will make traveling to cities easier. What are other peoples view on this?

[Moraudin]

A compass or some sort of map (I\'m thinking something like the automap feature from Doom) would be very handy.

Moraudin

[kyp14]

I\'d say just a compass a map takes the fun out of exploring cause it has all the right paths on it

[Kiva]

How about only having a compass, and then you draw your own maps ?

[kyp14]

Then we can sell them at ridculously over priced prices to the bums in the game who are to lazy to figure out the meaning of the word explore

[explorer]

Compass works for me, then we could give them directions. I\'d love to see them: \"Where\'s the big tree? And how to do go 20degrees north? Muhuahahah. Maps arnt on the top of my list, I think orienteering(sp?) would be mroe fun.

[kyp14]

I would still like to be able to make maps for ps it could work you could ingame buy a blank piece of paper and to draw a map you\'d make it so whereever you walked it would draw a line and the surrounding features and the colour of the line would change accordingly to what you were walking on eg country side, path, city road
anad then when you are finsihed you add in special little notes on the map then if you got a nother piece of paper you could copy the map across till you have the amount you want and sell them to people

[hook]

compass and do your own map sounds best

but drawing your own map could be painstaking ...but these would sell pretty good. the other problem about the maps is how to actually make PS let you draw maps (if you get my point) - exactly how you would draw maps in PS

if there would be non-obligatory self-made sellable maps, it wouldn\'t take the fun out of exporing. ...but if there\'s not good option how to make maps in PS, then better no maps then auto-map (it doesn\'t fit in a frp like PS)

[kyp14]

to make it work you (ingame) you buy a blank piece of paper and the blank piece of paper could have various options
Draw Map
Misc Write
Copy another work
etc....
if you select the draw map option the paper shrinks in size and goes in the right hand corner of the screen

then where ever you walk it draws a line and the colour of the line changes colour according to what you are walking on eg
grass
dirt track
city road
bush bashing
etc.......

The game could also why you are walking add little things  to the map numbers that tell you how hi or low you are on the ground

and then when you have finished the map you can add little notes all over it like name of the path, names of citys pictures of little trees to signify a forest or a picture of  a village to signify village etc

[hook]

that\'s exactly what i would like to avoid - that\'s too easy. as less maps there are the better the gaming experience based on exploration IMO.

the way how you draw maps would have to be hard and there would have to be good and bad maps.

my idea:
you walk around, and when you find a spot you think is importaint you mark it on the paper/parchement/wooden piece/whatever whan you\'re on that spot. later you can draw by hand the details and add comments. this way a good map would require quite some work, and it would be the most realistic to the true map-maping IMHO.

also if this kind of map-making was added soon, there would be quite some work for curent players

[explorer]

Just give me the compass, then for maps if there\'s books, you can write down the directions in the book. 54 degees north till you reach the cavern, head east etc.

[Lorune]

Yeah, a compass and map making skill would be way useful.
I\'d think it would be worth a lot of skill points though.

That way you could sell maps to merchants.
Like if you\'ve been to a far off land and have a map of it.
Then it would be worth a lot more to merchants.

Also there should be a bit of a speed penalty for setting yourself into map making mode.
But it would still be way useful in a dungeon.

You will need materials to create a map or copy one.
Plus if you copy it there will be a skill time involved.

So the better you are at making maps then the faster you can run while creating them and the faster you can copy them. )

[Moraudin]

hmmm... how\'s this for an idea:

Some sort of central authority that can give out an official seal of approval for self-made maps. That way people buying these maps could ensure themselves that when the map says \"X marks the gold\" it doesn\'t mean \"X actually marks a family of really pissed of dragons\"  

Expanding on this idea, maybe you could even have two different types of seals: one for veracity (gold means gold, dragons means dragons) and one for completeness (the entire dungeon/whatever has been explored and mapped out).

Of course since this could be considered a cheat, each of these seals would have to come at a fairly steep price to the map maker which he/she in turn would charge the people buying the map so that there\'d be more \"unsanctioned\" maps in circulation (every time you buy one of those you could be taking a risk).

There are other ways of making sanctioned maps yet more valuable: if there\'s only one place (e.g. Great Library ala AD&D\'s Candlekeep) in the world where you can get the map verified, you\'d have to incur travel costs to get there; distribution of the seals could be limited to a certain time period and even then they could be limited in numbers; you could submit a map for verification and get it back with an official \"we don\'t know about this area either\"-seal ...

So what do you all think about my ideas?

Moraudin

[hook]

i don\'t know ...maybe \"official\" maps for main territory, ways and cities - you know, like you can get those tourist maps IRL, that you could copy from a map you would find in a library, which could not be stolen (you would need map-skill for that - about the detail and quality the same rules would apply as for making maps - read last paragraph)

but other maps, that you can buy everywhere (especially from a map-maker) that would be pretty realistic, and would probably increase the fun

the auto-map that would slow you down, even hinder your actions to only walking - no fighting, no talking, no gathering or ussing objects, since that would deconcentrate you - you could do (some of) these actions along with mapping if you would have a higher concentration (or whatever equals this in PS) could be an option, but i dunno, that way you would only have incomplete maps, not actually badly drawn or fake or differenty detailed maps.

these problems could be solved with different levels of map-making skill: with a higher level you would have more detail added (at fist only main places (plaza, temple in the city), later even floor territory, other locations, ...), wider area mapped around you, you could add notes and later even your own drawings/objects/monsters/... to it, ...

[explorer]

I dont like the ideas of maps too much, after a while, everybody would have maps through the mazes etc. If there were maps, I\'d like to see them only being able to be seen my that player/guild members. A compass is enough for me. \"Go west from Cheese vill, to reach Schnauzer Vill, follow the west road\" Thats all I think a person would need.