Map Tools

[hoarmurath]

So, I thought a lot about open world map and what could be done with it, and how exploration could be integrated in the game with these map mechanisms. Here is how I think that open world map and exploration could together to give the game a sailing navigation feel and reward explorers.

 

The open sea map :

 

My vision of the open sea map is a map with only the land mass, and a grid to help determine the longitude and latitude on map. No port, nothing beside landmass, the islands, the shores, that’s all. Then, everything on this map could be added by annotations, let call them bookmarks.  There could be three kind of bookmarks, with different purpose.

Also, the map wouldn’t show your ship position, to know where you are, I imagine a navigation skill with 30 minutes cooldown that would allow you to know where you are by giving you your longitude and latitude, up to you after to check on your map where it is. Precision and cooldown could be affected by special items owned by the captain, like various quality sextants and marine chronometers for example.

 

The Port bookmarks :

 

A beginning player would have a few bookmarks on its map, mainly the closest ports from its starting port. Then, there would be two ways of adding a port to your map, either buy navigation maps of certain parts of the west indies that would add ports to your map, or explore yourself to add ports as you reach them (every time you enter a new port, it adds a bookmark).

 

The personal bookmarks :

 

Every player could place personal bookmarks on its map. These marks would be only for its information and for navigation purposes.  I suggest that each player should be able to see on open world the position of its bookmarks, so he can use them as visual helps for navigation. Each player would only see its personal bookmark, so the open world and map would not be overloaded with infos from other players. To get a better effect on open see,  it could be possible to chose when placing the bookmark how it shows in open world, as some sort of buoy for a sea bookmark, or as some object like a wreck, a temple, a distinctive rock, a tree, a lighthouse, a ruin for a land bookmark.

Additionnally, these personal bookmarks could be copied and exchanged with other players (like the old eve online bookmarks) , so they could share meeting points or location of places of interest.

 

Exploration bookmarks :

 

These would also be kind of personal as no two players would have the same, and as they would show on map as on open world only for the concerned player. However, these marks would not be placed by the player but would be generated by the system according to the exploration game (I speak of this after). These bookmarks would represent localization of ressources that would reward players for exploration, they would stay as long as there are ressources left on it, or as long as the layer keep that bookmark. It could be erased, but also could be exchanged, with the difference that only one player at a time could have the bookmark, so it wouldn’t be possible to copy them, only to transfer them to someone (sell them). The bookmark would not only show the location of the ressources, but also their type and remaining number (to reduce chances of scam, like let sell bookmarks with only one resource remaining).

 

The exploration game :

 

Every player, upon discovering a new port or exploration landmark, could earn exploration experience. Along with its combat rank, he could have an exploration rank that would give him, as it raise, access to more places to explore. A player with a given rank would have generated for him, in the open world, a given number of exploration places. They would be personal and no two players would have the same. The players would not know where they are, just that there’s something that wait to be discovered by them somewhere. These places would be shown on that player open world as some sort of object, just like a personal bookmark. Each such place would contain ressources that the player could take, that’s the reward. Every time a player exhaust an exploration place by taking all the ressources, another one could be automatically generated so the player always have the same amount of places to be discovered. When checking the exploration place, a bookmark would be automatically generated for him so he can come back later, or in the case he want to sell the bookmark to another player. In that case, the buying player would get the bookmark added to its map with the corresponding place in open world, while the selling player would have that bookmark and places deleted and a new one generated.

 

The exploration rank would be different for each part of the world so a player that is a top explorer in west indies would still be a novice explorer the first time he goes to Europe (and vice versa).

 

 

[Black Boots]

A side note to this is that I would like the eventual map to be blank and only filled in as we "discover" each port.

[Vile Tyranny]

Greetings all.

   I would love to see the world map keep the idea of you not really knowing exactly where you are.

Instead of of being shown your location I think there should be in game map tools.  Using Compass's,  Protractor's and Pelorus other items of the like to draw your heading's and plot courses. 

 

That being said, Maybe not everyone enjoys plotting their coarse like I do.  So maybe a setting in options could be added to Switch from Say, Being harder (Or more realistic, The way I like it) to easy course management (Showing someone where they are with a heading line added to the map with this setting)

 

What do you think?  I know from experiencing my friends playing sims not everyone has the time to learn or plot their course. They just want to play. So I am trying to look at it both ways.

Edited June 12, 2016 by Vile Tyranny

[EricKilla]

When I saw "In game map tolls" I was afraid you were going to suggest they charge us money for opening the map.

 

I vehemently disagree with the idea of giving people an easy mode map. We all learned how to do it; so can they.

 

There are third party maps and tools that help you plot a course. Frankly if you're an adult and you can't read a map, you've got bigger problems.

[Hethwill]

Yes, a set of charting tools for the map would be a great addition.

[CaptVonGunn]

Easier map tool would be when you it M you get a circle like you do in port... but have it be a bit random maybe based on your Officers(that are coming)..... and you know your in that circle somewhere... I mean in this time they knew roughly were they were at all times.. how close to right they were was based entirely on the training and experience of the Officers and Sailing Master... Heck add a mini game for the actual taking of the Lat/Long and get rid of the F11 points you here feature. But that's just me

[ObiQuiet]

My rant on this topic, fwiw:

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/10005-harsh-words-about-navigation-tools/?fromsearch=1

[Crayon]

I was on the map today and tried marking my position. I think it would be a cool utility for the map. Just a simple dot would work.

[Rychu Karas]

x

Edited July 14, 2016 by Rychu Karas

[Fastidius]

I agree would be nice.  I actually built one a while back website style for battle plans

 

http://www.fastidius.com/map2.html

 

 down bottom is waypoint mode and of course you can printscreen etc...  I even tried to replace the cursor with an image but it got a bit too clunky.

 

Burning sail and http://map.licornes.eu/  have their overn options too   but it would be nice if devs built a little functionality into the map

[Marques]

I suggest this colors for the Naval Action Caribbean Map:

 

http://quartermaester.info/

[ObiQuiet]

I suggest this colors for the Naval Action Caribbean Map:

http://quartermaester.info/

Mariners are uninterested in land forms and topography, except for identifying major coastal navigation points from the ship's point of view. IRL, soundings and bearings are what you see on nautical charts.

[Crayon]

I like Marques's suggestion. However I disagree with Obi because I think mariners would be very interested in topography of the terrain. A high slope with a shear rock wall facing the sea is a great defensive and raider hideout for the unsuspecting passerby. The person who sits there wouldn't be seen by anyone until they wanted to.

 

A small slope of land is a great bombard position because the ships bombarding would be able to shoot over the land and the defenders on the land wont have an angle to hit the bombardiers.

 

All in all, I think its high time for some map changes! 

[Marques]

Mariners are uninterested in land forms and topography, except for identifying major coastal navigation points from the ship's point of view. IRL, soundings and bearings are what you see on nautical charts.

 

Please read correctly... I said colors... ¿Do you understand...shade??... Not cities names in middle earth. 

This is a game, not a real navigation job...Of course, this kind of map could be modified to become a nautical chart, but need to be something nice to see, no a lot of boring blue. Make you please a better proposal.

 

http://quartermaester.info/

Edited July 15, 2016 by Marques

[ObiQuiet]

Yes, you did say colors. I thought you meant to include the topographic coloring used in that map, not just the water coloring. My apologies.

[Angus McGregor]

I'm not looking for SatNav or even a position indicator on the map.

Just some very basic manual plotting by putting dots on the map that I chart myself according to the long/lat coords given. And of course a way to erase them - individually or entirely.

[Rebel Witch]

would love to see this!!!

[Hethwill]

You might want to refer to other topics in the same subject

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/6402-open-world-map-and-exploration

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14618-world-map-with-map-tools

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15240-map-pegs

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/4552-interactive-travel-map

 

[Angus McGregor]

Maybe the wrong attitude, but I tend to ignore posts that predate the 9.96 patch. It's just such a different game now that a lot of the stuff from old threads doesn't apply. But I admit that's not really the case with this idea.

If you search for 'map chart', there's over 100 results. Ugh - I'm not wading through that. The other thing is that it seems less effective to ping a thread from 18 months ago, or even 6. Best to fire off a new flare than try to reignite an old one.  

[Hethwill]

Indeed. I linked them so the old ideas can be refurbished alongside new ones

[Thonys]

As a good navigator on the map

i need some tools like a:

. drafting compass

. ruler guide

pointer where i can draw a line 

a compass

pointers where i can put other ships/notifications on the map

a pointer where my own ship is

perhaps it is possible to introduce this?

what do you all think of it

 

[Hethwill]

Merged FIVE suggestions about the same subject.

Please use the SEARCH function to add to existent suggestions, instead of creating multiple ones,for easier access by the developers.

[Rebel Witch]

On 8/2/2015 at 1:18 AM, Black Boots said:

A side note to this is that I would like the eventual map to be blank and only filled in as we "discover" each port.

great idea, only problem is that they based the game on a world we all know well, so its not really discovering its just clearing the fog. had the devs made an entirely new world, a giant water world full of undiscovered ports, then players would really be doing a lot of discovery.

the game is amazing, but omg it would be so much more amazing if we had a whole new world to discover and bring back that age of sail and discovery. im not sure why every developer always goes with the pirates of the Caribbean theme,  i know its full of history and such but why cant that history be planted into a whole new world map?

 

the game market is saturated with pirates of the Caribbean style games using maps we all have sailed hundreds of time already game after game, i think people are getting bored with it. the devs have a golden opportunity to change it all up.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Rebel Witch

[Daguse]

1 hour ago, Rebel Witch said:

 

great idea, only problem is that they based the game on a world we all know well, so its not really discovering its just clearing the fog. had the devs made an entirely new world, a giant water world full of undiscovered ports, then players would really be doing a lot of discovery.

the game is amazing, but omg it would be so much more amazing if we had a whole new world to discover and bring back that age of sail and discovery. im not sure why every developer always goes with the pirates of the Caribbean theme,  i know its full of history and such but why cant that history be planted into a whole new world map?

 

the game market is saturated with pirates of the Caribbean style games using maps we all have sailed hundreds of time already game after game, i think people are getting bored with it. the devs have a golden opportunity to change it all up.

Not to mention they had charts at the time the game takes place. 

However, they could make it that you had to buy the chart for each region other wise it's just blank. In addition to the other changes recommend, it could make navigating very interesting.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2017 by Daguse

[Anne Wildcat]

It would be interesting if the map were removed on player start. Yes there are online maps available for those who need them, but let the map build up as you explore. For example, unless I have visited the KPR area, the island and those ports do not show on my map. Once visited, I can see it on the map.