I know a mini-map update is not a high priority but I had some ideas for ways to extend it which I think are in-line with the design goals stated in the posts linked below. I do not know what the technical limitations are, so cannot comment on those.
Context:
Stated goals:
- Should not break immersion
- Should not limit exploration
They don’t want people focussing on a mini-map, instead of the “play space” as this breaks immersion in the beautiful world they have created. So, it should not be what players are looking at as they travel.
They don’t want it to become a part of tactical combat, revealing other combatants locations.
They don’t want efficiency to become the goal of any improvements to the mini-map/compass as this would harm exploration and “getting lost in Aeternum”.
So…
I think, realistically, those players who have already have a primary focus on efficiency will already be using 3rd party tools to plan efficient gathering routes. No change to the game, mini-map, or otherwise is going to stop anyone that devoted to efficiency. This post does not do much for these players.
But, there are players who would like to be more efficient with their game time without losing the immersive part of the experience. I am one of these players. I want more efficiency in my play time when I chose to spend it gathering, so I can get back to the more enjoyable (for me) questing and combat. I want these things without having to break immersion and use a 3rd party site.
The ideas that follow are aiming at these players, like me.
The existing compass does a good job of helping me locate resources once I get near to them (though to be honest I prefer to actually see them in the play space if I can).
However, it can get a little cluttered when there are a lot of location markers active as these show at any distance, so one change I would like is to:
Split the location markers and resource markers vertically so that they do not completely overlap.
What is missing, for me, is a way to remember those areas of the map that I have previously explored, where there were higher concentrations of the things I am looking for.
This is what I currently use 3rd party maps to find. I then mark the location in game and head off, referring back to the 3rd party map to guide me from area to area.
Instead, I would love to have is some in game guidance, to give me a general direction for my travel, in order to make my gathering time more efficient. I don’t want to have to re-discover resources time and again (sadly, my memory is not good enough to simply remember all of them)
This would require that…
The game remember resources I have discovered via exploration
and…
The game allow me to indicate that I want to gather X, or Y, and have it guide me in the direction of travel I need to find them in a reasonable concentration
This guidance could take the form of a glowing line or trail (only visible to the player) on the ground in the play space, or a marker on the compass. It should direct the player to travel in a direction that will take them close enough to the resource they are after, that the current compass markers can take over.
It would only be visible if there was none of the desired resource markers on the compass.
In order to enable this “mode” of travel, players would need a way to indicate what they want to gather.
This might tie in with a loadout system (as suggested here):
As players tend to have a “logging” gear set, and if they were going logging they would equip it. At this point, the game could guide them to wyrdwood trees, ironwood trees, etc.
It would be nice to be able to narrow focus a little, for example if we’re “gathering” we might want to specify what sort of thing we’re after, like “life motes” or similar.
Alternatively, if we are able to “pin” recipe(s) in crafting stations, then activate one of these for gathering purposes whereby the game leads us to those ingredients (we have already discovered via exploration).
I want to stress that this would only lead us to things we had already discovered. So, it does not remove any exploration from the game as we would still need to explore each new area to find local resources. It simply takes away the requirement to record this information “outside of the game”.