Roads and signs

[LigH]

@ Elady:

I wonder if you are a wonderer or a wanderer... 

[Sarras Volcae]

roads and signs? how can you be complaining about roads and signs when there's a riverlakething blocking the path to ojaveda? we need a bridge! 

[LigH]

What "riverlakething"?! -- Ah, the river Irifon, running from the Leaky Rock... well, if you are such a hydrophobic Fenki, then walk around it. Real men walk through as if it was thin air.

[ravenrise]

Most real men I know can't walk on thin air

[LigH]

Not "on", just "through". And if they need to hold a breath because their head gets below the surface...

[wesleybruce]

Adding a sign with the word North on it and oriented in a fixed direction would help players. We don't have a compass yet and its hard to make one work. With one sign in each major zone; people can then give others directions and make better maps.
 

[weltall]

there is no north just like there are no cardinal directions. East is the name of a person and "north hydlaa" / "north tower" are player given nicknames which have nothing to do with the setting

[LigH]

The compass directions are rather OOC, based on the directions of the map models. IC art is still very vague. It is not even certain where e.g. Hydlaa and Ojaveda are located exactly on the ring of the 1st level, the Dome. But because the Eagle Bronze Doors seem to be in the north (based on OOC coordinates) and Ojaveda in the east, I would expect Hydlaa in the southwest of the ring.

@ weltall: Even if there is no compass, no magnetic field to use -- directional terms may still exist, and may be based on any arbitrary reference point. Why not expecting e.g. the Eagle Bronze Doors (or another one) as the "North of the level ring"? In this case, "East passage" can be a directional term without settings issues. Someone will have cartographed the whole dome already. A map of the whole dome will exist. Maybe not in Jayose's library, but somewhere else. And I hope that the Settings will prepare one in time before finishing all the maps, not afterwards.
__

About the road signs:

I already wished that more signs would exist -- several months ago. They may not need to point towards generic directions, but should point to major locations, like cities, as this would be the most expectable and logical use. I was told that many more little details are much more important ... at least one of those already exists near the clacker valley, in the middle of BDRoad1.

I'll grant the developers all the time they need to handle the more important issues first. Road treks support the community between new and experienced players much better than road signs, anyway...

 

[verden]

there is no north just like there are no cardinal directions. East is the name of a person and "north hydlaa" / "north tower" are player given nicknames

Next someone will claim that prime numbers do not exist in Yliakum, or that there are no phrases for "up" and "down" as those directions don't exist either.

[Elvicat]

um... verden only reason there ain't no north, south, east and west is becuase yliakum is in a bloody big round stalagtite

[Sarras Volcae]

can someone please invent some kind of directions?

[ravenrise]

Weast sorth nouth eest, there problem solved.

But really I think this issue can be completely solved by the settings team. Just a paragraph on the directions of a world, or at least tell us the directions referring to different places. E.g. Oja is weast of Hydlaa, or something like that. The directions don't have to be well thought out or anything, as far as I know the cardinal directions don't have a specific origin, so the team could just throw some random letter together.

[verden]

um... verden only reason there ain't no north, south, east and west is becuase yliakum is in a bloody big round stalagtite

And we live on one bloody big round planet. Directions will exist, no matter what labels are put to them. Just as mathematics will exist, no matter what you call it. The use of cardinal nomenclature in game is simply confusing. This part of settings is not well thought through.

[Under the moon]

Given that it is in a big round cave with no magnetic field, it would not be hard to figure out where you were by a few things.

1. What level you are on. If you don't know that, you are pretty much screwed anyways.

2. Angle of the Crystal. You would need a sextant. The greater the angle, the further you are from the Rim (being the place the level ends.

3. Cave roof structure orientation. In other words, look up. The roof has (will have) a distinct pattern to look at, like stars.

To get your directions, all you would need is a sextant with a thing used to orient it with the cave roof. Line up the base with the roof, then line up the sextant view arm with the crystal. Done, instant exact-ish coordinates. Of course, you still need a map to look at to know where those coords are.

Directions would be similar to ringworld. Looking at the crystal would be Crystalside or Rimways or something meaning 'In'. Looking away from the Crystal would be Wallward or other, meaning 'Out'. Don't know what you would call left and right, but it would likely be dealing with facing the crystal and either rotating aroung the rim to the right or left.

People have used the stars for navigation in this manner for far far longer than compasses have existed, so it would be easy to conceive that Yliakum would use a similar.

What about being in a cave where you can't see the sun? Well, lads and lasses, you best bring a good map and a ball of string.

[Akkaido Kivikar]

It's all good and well being able to tell where you are, but it's a different story giving someone directions to get to where you are, or where you need to go.

For this, I think a system similar to the Halo game's directional bearing would be best. In Halo, directions would be given out as direction "upspin" and "downspin" based on the ring's movement, with a metric value. You would often hear their characters say "We need to get XX clicks upspin" etc. So Yliakum would have that measurement, but unlike Halo, it would need to be measured in degrees rather than kilometres.

As the other directional value would be distance from the point at which you are directly beneath the Crystal, I would assume.

However, that is not the only way of approaching it. N,S,W,E is still valid as the planet Yliakum is inside would still have an electromagnetic polarity field like any other planet, and as such measurements could always be done that way, allowing for more accurate, grid-based mapping and directions.