Map / Cartography Idea / hidden Profession.

Hushkal

I had another Wild idea (go read my other about gathering

Imagine if in game you can only purchase the simplest simplest of maps. However you can add notes, drawings etc to your. Anyone can do it, its not locked behind a profession.

Thing is, expand the system a little...

Imagine if in game you could then show your map to another player, who could overlap your onto theirs. Now with a system where you granted permission they could do a copy, a rubbing of your map to capture all your wonderful cartography skills.

The permission is important as if you became well known for making great, up to date maps you'd potentially have a hidden profession where you could charge for the map. The copy would be made weaker than the master map and you couldnt be able to copy from this one.

Expand this system further still.. In a guild there could a master map for the guild. All the guild members could do their scouting and observations and the guild appointed cartography officer could scribe them onto the official master map. In this way there could be some amazing guilds of artists and explorers who take on the role of unofficial world cartographers making amazing maps which they sell of a lot of gold in game. They would be able to remain active constantly due to the changing node system that would need to be reflected in updated maps. They could also add little images to celebrate world firsts or draw guild emblems on the map at towns... they could be genuinely things of beauty

Hushkal

apologise for the typos and grammar, I can get a little careless when excitedly imagining some cool game idea

AidanKD

To *some* degree we have a dynamic map system - in that you have to either discover areas or receive information to uncover points of interest on the map.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/World_map

Now - to what DEGREE is what is really up for discussion! If it won't be a formal life skill which we know it won't be anyway and it's something everyone has access to - then there has to be a way of rewarding aptitude for the player.

An example I could think of, is at a base level, everyone can document information about your parent node. As you get more experienced, it might extend out so that if you have visited a neighbouring node, then you can pass on that information (which of course could be exchanged for gold) - but then it would also have to be information that is competitive enough to be more valuable than people just telling people.

Another thing is that I like to think that if we assume since nodes can level/de-level all Points of Interest are dynamic to a degree - then they aren't all permanent. What was once on the map might not be there. I like the idea that your map will always see what you see, until you either visit the location and come to find it has changed drastically - or someone who has a more current reading of the area can update your map. Using this - you could have time-stamped "areas" so you can see how current your information is.

I had another dive in the Wiki, and it seems that libraries will be the intended way of getting this information in cities but exclusive to lv 3 + scientific nodes. This makes it much more sparse to get this information, which I actually like - and seems to be exclusives to citizens of THAT node.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Exploration

So assuming this is the case, the only known current method other than that of updating your map is literally going out there, or asking people!

Sylvanar

https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/46485/the-importance-of-getting-lost/p1

Hushkal

thanks for the info. I just think it would be incredibly cool though if they tested completely uncoupling a system like map info from a "system" and just allowed a really intelligent way for players to share and grow the information organically and see what came of that. With my system above there would be no need for "unlocking scientific node lvl x" it would all just be word of mouth of what guild / player could sell you a great detailed map of the area. They could sell them as a copy or even perhaps sell masters at a high price.

When you put things behind unlocks a node level its gamified, if its organic I could feel special.

Hushkal

*it could feel special. Edit typo

Vaknar

Interesting idea! In what ways do you imagine this would change the way the game works? Especially when it comes to spying, espionage, and guild vs guild play, I wonder? ^_^

Hushkal

Vaknar wrote: »

Interesting idea! In what ways do you imagine this would change the way the game works? Especially when it comes to spying, espionage, and guild vs guild play, I wonder? ^_^

Ok well, even though I said remove "systems" from this feature, you could set some limitations. If you were thinking in terms of strategic maps of enemy guild areas you wouldn't want a player to ride through the area with a video recording and then draft the map afterward. So you can set a rule that states the player characters can only draft maps in areas they can see (or if they line of sight is too hard to programme, in an area around the character).

I don't think you could prevent spies, any efforts to place prevention of spying would just be circumvented by out of game methods. I suppose you could implement some interesting systems where if guild are in open war, killing an officer of said guild might drop a bloodstained version of their map (obscured and half legible). I also suppose there is always the fact that money talks, perhaps a less honest guild member could be convinced to transfer a map for enough coins.

What you'd most likely see though is If a guild was planning some open world organised attack they might need to send 3-4 scouts to map all around the area and do some updated info the day / hours before. If those suspicious player were noticed the defending guild might be able to piece together the intentions when they spot 4 players scribing maps. You may also find guilds trying to find map locations that are easier to defend not just for combat but in restricting people mapping their headquarters.

If you base map was truly truly simple, it would be fascinating to see how overtime the ingame maps become more and more accurate. Think to how crazily inaccurate very old real world maps were. Over time with maps being shared the base geography (paths, rivers, passable and impassable terrain) would get really accurate. Someone might even be crazy enough to try and add elevation information like and OS map, good luck with that though!

One final thought. Uncoupling something like this from gamified systems would be hard to predict what evolves, but the emergent interactions really could be awesome... it would be so cool if certain players become literally well known not for server firsts, pvp skills, but something creative like their in game maps.

My apologies to your programmers if your took on something like this though, I can imagine it would be very hard to implement...plenty of headaches working it out im sure

tautau

Remember the 'Marauder's Map' from Harry Potter, the one showing your location and the locations of others? Perhaps advancing in the mapmaking profession would give you the ability to start to show locations of various things, such as:

- Friends
- Guild mates, or Guild Officers
- Certain level of mobs that were nearby, or specific mobs
- Enemies
- Lumber yards, Taverns, Farms, and other specific buildings in outholdings
- Ships, of various types, and fishing spots
- Caravans, of various sizes

....the possibilities are almost endless