3-Way Maps? Un-Explored / Full-Color Explored vs. Parchment Brown "Bought" Maps?

***29OCT2021 UPDATE*** We got a little more insight into this today, with the Monthly Dev Update stream! I'll post about it, below. Otherwise, I don't "necro" my own threads!

What if there was a way to still encourage players to explore the world, while still allowing them to buy maps to know the shape of the world?

In real life, you can buy a map - but that DOES NOT mean that you've been there. Since players can always check a website to see the shape of the world anyways, what if the Scribe profession had a Cartography function? What if each of the Nodes had something like 8 or 10 waypoints triggered by a quest at City Hall, that would grant a Scribe like a limited-use schematic (recepie, for those who can't get away from WoW terminology) to craft like 10 or 20 maps?

- EXCEPT! -

Having a map of a Node you haven't visited wouldn't colorize the map; It be parchment brown or some shade of gray, to indicate that this specific character of yours hasn't yet explored that part of the world, personally. City Hall could grant a Scribe a re-do-able mission to ensure the local maps are "up to date" - thus creating a reason to both visit AND to re-visit areas around every single Node. This would create another(and useful!) reason for players to constantly be running around the back-country and the scenic places of each Node - and also to travel to foreign Nodes to sell their wares; Locals won't have much use of the maps, as they're already a resident of that part of the world and will see the local area in their daily doings, anyways.

If maps aren't legacy-unlocked, wouldn't this create another market in the game?

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Comments

daveywavey

There's no reason a city wouldn't want to keep an accurate record of the state of the world around them. I could see that your City Hall might hire people to run reconnaissance/espionage/etc. Can already see a quest-line from the local NPC-scribe.

Dygz

Ashes is a dynamic world, so... there should be tons of reasons to explore and re-explore.
I'm curious to see how player-created maps will reflect all the changes in real-time.

SirChancelot

Dygz wrote: »

Ashes is a dynamic world, so... there should be tons of reasons to explore and re-explore.
I'm curious to see how player-created maps will reflect all the changes in real-time.

Or even better they won't

If you have an outdated map, your Intel is useless... Sounds good to me.

Tyranthraxus

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

Or even better they won't

If you have an outdated map, your Intel is useless... Sounds good to me.

It feels to me as though we should always inherently know where the Metropolises are - whether we've been to them, or not. I've never been to Rome IRL - but I could point out *about* where it is, on a map; It's renown and history are rich enough that I know it's general location, without ever seeing it with my own eyes.

SirChancelot

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

Or even better they won't

If you have an outdated map, your Intel is useless... Sounds good to me.

It feels to me as though we should always inherently know where the Metropolises are - whether we've been to them, or not. I've never been to Rome IRL - but I could point out *about* where it is, on a map; It's renown and history are rich enough that I know it's general location, without ever seeing it with my own eyes.

Maybe
But think about it as Rome a few hundred years ago right after it got sacked. Sure everyone knew of Rome and imagined this big beautiful city but when they got there most of it was burned to the ground. As cities (nodes) rise and fall the maps will keep changing.

I feel like keeping your map up to date should require either seeing them location, other maps, or reading certain pieces of information on message boards, etc. So if the city upgraded to a metropolis and something about that information was posted on your nodes message board you can upgrade your map showing that that City changed from metropolis. Same idea if the city got sacked, didn't happen anywhere near you but you read about it in the "news" so you know that area of the map changed.

Dygz

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

It feels to me as though we should always inherently know where the Metropolises are - whether we've been to them, or not. I've never been to Rome IRL - but I could point out *about* where it is, on a map; It's renown and history are rich enough that I know it's general location, without ever seeing it with my own eyes.

That's assuming that Metro hasn't been destroyed. Also assuming that Metro hasn't been rebuilt and renamed. Is the new Metro in that area still a Scientific Metro or has it been rebuilt into a Divine Metro?

Merek

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

Dygz wrote: »

Ashes is a dynamic world, so... there should be tons of reasons to explore and re-explore.
I'm curious to see how player-created maps will reflect all the changes in real-time.

Or even better they won't

If you have an outdated map, your Intel is useless... Sounds good to me.

No, no... stop talking about interesting systems, the game must spoon-feed players or they'll lose interest!

Tyranthraxus

Dygz wrote: »

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

It feels to me as though we should always inherently know where the Metropolises are - whether we've been to them, or not. I've never been to Rome IRL - but I could point out *about* where it is, on a map; It's renown and history are rich enough that I know it's general location, without ever seeing it with my own eyes.

That's assuming that Metro hasn't been destroyed. Also assuming that Metro hasn't been rebuilt and renamed. Is the new Metro in that area still a Scientific Metro or has it been rebuilt into a Divine Metro?

Whoa, whoa, @Dygz - yours truly was under the impression that the Node types are fixed across all servers and always the same type. I remember this from an update Q&A or an AMA - because it *greatly* disappointed me to hear it. The reasoning given was because there was a need to balance the neighboring Nodes with different types.

I mean, I really, REALLY hope I mis-understood, and will try to look for it while on WFH today - but this was what I was to understand. It'd really make my day to learn they'd all be different/randomized (except the Nodes the castles are in, obviously - the Wiki specifically states these will be limited to Military Nodes that cannot progress past level 3).

SirChancelot

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

Dygz wrote: »

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

It feels to me as though we should always inherently know where the Metropolises are - whether we've been to them, or not. I've never been to Rome IRL - but I could point out *about* where it is, on a map; It's renown and history are rich enough that I know it's general location, without ever seeing it with my own eyes.

That's assuming that Metro hasn't been destroyed. Also assuming that Metro hasn't been rebuilt and renamed. Is the new Metro in that area still a Scientific Metro or has it been rebuilt into a Divine Metro?

Whoa, whoa, @Dygz - yours truly was under the impression that the Node types are fixed across all servers and always the same type. I remember this from an update Q&A or an AMA - because it *greatly* disappointed me to hear it. The reasoning given was because there was a need to balance the neighboring Nodes with different types.

[/i]

That's been my understanding of it too, that they will be fixed types across the map for a set even distribution

maouw

Website confirms that node types are predetermined and cannot be changed:
"Node Types are predetermined, and are the same across all servers. A Node’s Type is static, and does not change based on the Node’s level or destruction." (see here)

This was a point that stood out to me too, so I remember it well.

Dygz

The individual Nodes are fixed, but once the controlling Node is destroyed as different neighboring Node may become the one that controls the next Metro.

I'm not sure how you think it works out that there are 4 Node types and up to 5 Metros.
Each server will have a different config of Metro Node types.
Even the same server will have different configs of Metro types as Nodes are destroyed and new cities and Metros arise.

maouw

Dygz wrote: »

The individual Nodes are fixed, but once the controlling Node is destroyed as different neighboring Node may become the one that controls the next Metro.

I'm not sure how you think it works out that there are 4 Node types and up to 5 Metros.
Each server will have a different config of Metro Node types.
Even the same server will have different configs of Metro types as Nodes are destroyed and new cities and Metros arise.

Ah, I see what you mean - the node that is exerting its ZoI over your node can change.

McMackMuck

Dygz wrote: »

That's assuming that Metro hasn't been destroyed. Also assuming that Metro hasn't been rebuilt and renamed. Is the new Metro in that area still a Scientific Metro or has it been rebuilt into a Divine Metro?

I understood that node types and node names are fixed. I don't believe that you can change a node type from Scientific to Divine. Has there been a change that I missed?

Ahh, I just read further down, you meant the node exerting ZOI over the area could be of a different type (Divine) after the (Scientific) metropolis is destroyed.

Dygz

We cannot change a Node type from Scientific to Divine, but a Metro type can change. Yes.
Each Node has a list of Dev currated names the Government(s) can choose from.

Tyranthraxus

Yay!

We got an update on this today, with the monthly Dev Update Q&A! As it turns out, this specific aspect of the game is still in internal discussion and is not set in concrete, at this point in time.

Yours truly posts in the Q&A every month (just got my 1-year badge yesterday!) and I was *stoked* that Steven and Margaret got to my question today (and Michael Bacon likely saw my live-feed post about it being really, REALLY bright behind them and agreed, because he pulled down the shaders right away; Thank you, Michael!). It's the 2nd time one of my questions has been addressed, and I was quite happy about it!

Ultimately, the question was actually about whether or not the maps & exploration will be specific to each toon or be legacy-shared - but the answer was quite related to this post. For anyone wanting specific reference, they usually post the replay of the Twitch feed on YouTube the next day. It will be marked as the Monthly Dev Update from today, 29OCT2021.

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