Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
so big
As a hobby I collect maps. The coolest one I have is a 16th century map of the world. Europe is pretty detailed, as is Asia, but North and South America are really jacked up and misshapen.
I love to look at the lines changing over time, such as my 1880's map and then my 1930's map, to see a huge part of the middle East is the Ottoman Empire. But then it's broken up into Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria in the 1930s.
Kind of like how, if a large metropolis was to fall, and the nodes all split off. Very relevant to this game in my opinion.
Maps change all the time. It's what keeps the map makers in business.
Well, I try to anyway... I always end up drinking them and then there I go collecting them from scratch again...
It's a life long hobby as I never get to collect them all, but as they say... the journey is what matters.
The boys down at the pub will be glad to hear this.
They should give it a shot.
That would mean your map is only as up to date as the last time you visited any particular area. Over time things change; forests fall, animals migrate, resources get depleted, etc. So just because you gathered that flower last week doesn't mean it will be there for you today.
I would then hope you could sell your understanding of the world last you saw to others. This would encourage your to continually explore the world and, for those who don't like extensive exploring but want to know, to be able to purchase your knowledge of places.
I work for a company that makes mapping and navigation apps, and people love to drop points, and love a variety of icons, to note down where things of importance to them have happened. This provides them with the feeling that they are making their own maps and creating their own stories. In our context this is a huge dollop of player agency.
I would also like if we could do our own overlays, ala heat maps. Many mods in other games do this, but allowing the player to draw their own, directly onto their map and be able to turn layers on and off would be an amazing system that would provide a huge benefit to those of us that like to keep track of things.
My personal wish for the world map is to be fairly sparse in information. Name the nodes and major geographical features, maybe a few places of renown (that everyone knows from basic lore) but apart from that leave the map empty for players to add to.
I prefer the "You will have to remember where things are" kind of situation tho :P
Throughout most of it, most people didn't have access to maps.
Yet thousands of people every year managed to find their way across countries and continents every year on pilgrimages, wars, trading etc.
How did they do it then?
Every body knew the important basics, ie London is in England, Paris is in France, Azerbaijan is somewhere near Russia on the continent.
So you'd get directions from your little village on which road would lead to Paris, then at the next village you'd do the same, until you got to Paris, where the knowledge would change, they might have more information on where to go next, or what to look out for etc.
Crusaders (i think) had mugs they took with them to drink from on their journey, with a list of the town's they'd need to stop at to find their destination. All you need is to find the next nearest town. and so on.
To Implement this in the game world, you wouldn't need maps, just compasses and npcs in towns offering basic directions etc.
That way you COULD cope with a cartography skill even if the maps made became out of date.
However, something like roadsigns I think would be amazing. I even use them today. If I have to go to city or village Y, I go, oh, right that's near X, and will drive in that direction. I'll only get directions (gps) once I am in the actual village I want to be at.
A compass being a tool is something I would love.
But that's probably more of a SP game feature
We won't know where nodes are until settlements pop up.
I wonder if the mini-map markers (after we've uncovered the fog of war) will differentiate between settlement, village, town, etc..
Cartography generating maps that could be pulled up by the M key is quite tricky.
That's a character skill - which means there have to be various forms of failure.
Even if the devs are able to design a workable mechanic for turning character exploration into an accurate Map translation of the current state of the region.
What we had at PAX was a mini-map.
Non-functional in the PvE demo, but reasonably functional in the PvP demo.
Getting properly lost generally has nothing to do with the size of the area.
People can get properly lost in a maze.
My best friend used to say, "I am not lost. I know where I am and I know where my destination is - I just don't know the path/roads to get there from here."
Regardless of size, people still need to be able to navigate around terrain obstacles, etc. The world doesn't have to be large for me to want to look at a map to recall where I need to go to get past that river or how far I need to go reach the bridge that connects two cliffs.
There will be online maps for Verra that display the terrain.
My immediate thought is as soon as someone creates a map or buys one from another player: () -> screenshot + () -> upload to your favorite wiki or website.
Suddenly the time spent developing a cartographer class/skill is wasted as well as it becomes a meaningless in game skill that likely won't produce much of a return to the player specializing in it. Not to mention players create game maps outside of the game all of the time already anyways.
This is the same reason I don't see them doing much to change the world map layout. Think back to EQ which had no world map function. EQMaps popped up right away. I used that website during nearly every EQ gaming session. So nowadays it makes sense to just put a world map in game.
Quote For Truth
I don't use those resource/wiki pages, if I don't have time to play and find what I want I do something else until I can come back with a good amount of time. I'm a casual player so I find task I can do in the time I have.
I know others use these websites from rarely to frequently, and I think that is okay (I am not against them). I think the thought "they shouldn't do it because some will put it on a wiki" is sad.
As far as my opinion on others using the wiki's...
I just imagine that somewhere in the world is a vast library called 'Wiki' and that the world is filled with people who loves to visit the library to read. Which other players have submitted their information to before it is added into the library's books.
Equally for people not wanting a world map, just because one is put into the game doesn't mean you have to use it.
If you want to enjoy the game to the fullest then do not use wiki and web maps, if you do it's your own choice and you have no right to complain.
I do understand those people that, for example, only care for arena, and then just skip half quests, just farm max level and start arena fights. But those people didn't wish the rest of the content in the first place, so also no problem.
For me the existence of the info on the web isn't a problem at all. I will play in the way I can enjoy, and thus will not use "shortcuts". Whoever wishes, can.
I only tend to "goggle something up" if some quest has some "ridiculous" assignment that I can't figure out for the life of me, and no one in guild can give me a hint. Then I google this particular issue up. But that's about it. The rest I discover while playing.
Even if the devs did put in a Cartography skill for crafters, I wouldn't be paying crafters money for maps. I would be googling a basic map and relying on twitch and Twitter for references before paying a player for a crafted map.
It does not mean that IS shouldn't implement cartography, or that cartography wouldn't be good skill and beneficial for the game play of other community members.
I can see the merits of both sides, but I would agree that as a source of income for a player Cartography is probably not the safest bet.
If I designed a character that was focused on exploration, and there was a Cartography skill, my character would likely have the skill even if there wasn't a huge market.
If IS wants to make a Cartography profession, great!
The devs will decide whether they want to or not.
I'm just not convinced Cartographers would be making much money selling maps.
Seems highly unlikely that they would.