Maps & Navigation

[[email protected] 26]

I'm, not about to pull any punches; so I'm going to open by saying I intent to put forward an idea(s) which is intentionally restrictive to the player: concerning maps and navigation.

This suggestion may have been; spawned though some personal bias I have with the game or it could even be the product of a hint left by Rocket in his latest blog post video. Now if I were a betting man; I'd be willing to stake my reputation on the direction Rocket is looking to take maps in and if I know our man I'd bet against him making things easy; for example meeting up with teammates, finding high value loot.

First of all on the less restrictive side: I'd like to see some of the current Arma II map feature moved over to DayZ standalone in a more authentic eventuality. For example keep map tags but have them restricted to your own map and only enable you to share them at set location; such as tourist sign post locations. Allow for map markers to judge distance but have them be reliant on the player having identified their location to up-date their estimated location to that point. Also mapping events like: finding cars, players but only when the player positively witnesses an interaction or interacts with an object like a car or tent, is it mapped.

Second an additional feature: Rocket has spoke several time about; how he has an expansive amount of data on players, including heat maps and kill/death maps, which I'd like to put to some use. I mostly agree with his decision to keep this information pirate but I also think; he should allow players the tools to map this information on their personal maps/hand books and share this information via set in game locations; showing a small unique snap-shot of the overall picture. This feature would be vastly important; it would organically establish which areas are considered safe and which are a complete free for all, without forcing some sort of no fire zone: as with lesser games.

Thirdly; make using and finding a map much more hardcore. This is the part I'd be willing to bet rocket has planned or at-least something similar. I'm betting/hoping all the complete overviews of Chernarus plus map will remain internal and the only way to gain a somewhat complete picture,would be by pooling together different resources and memorising details. So that said, I in-vision maps as extremely rare items; utilising many components to create a semi complete one:

• Military aerial surveillance maps, showing details like terrain heights and military objectives
  
• Civilian, road, town, tourist and train-line maps
  
• Naval charts
  
• Industrial access blueprints, for tunnels, underground rail/power-cables and sewage pipes
  
• Star maps, solar and lunar cycle charts
  

To clarify, when I say extremely rare I mean: you may only ever find a torn out AA guide page of a high way section and a fairly useless height map of a mountain in the far north. Everything else would have to be filled in "automatically mind" as you discover new ground and the accuracy to which, should be jugged simply by how high you were when it was added. Also the ability to tag locations on a blank map; would be a way for seasoned players to get off to a heads start, by guessing the locations of known areas. You could also add to this information by visiting signs and tourist map sign posts of the area and collecting the precise location and additional info from other players. Plus asking a stranger for map information is another way to encourage positive social interaction; as well as killing anyone straying into certain map limits to cut off the flow information available surrounding a potential camp sight.

In this scenes Maps become something of an end game item; whilst simultaneously, prolonging the scenes of discovery and helping keep other end game items hidden safe (And this is where my personal bias come in) "hoard" the one or two cars and tents you've worked so hard to have acquired.

[Olisonera 126]

I like the idea of only getting "bits" of map. Maps as up-to-date as the ones in DayZ are somewhat rare in the real world (out side of the military, and only if they're interested in the area). The maps we use in the emergency services here in west oz are about 27 years old. Though they are highly detailed, they no longer accurately represent the world we operate in, and using them effectively requires a great deal of map reading experience. They're also made with military/disaster response in mind, so they show things like topography and terrain details like bushland and wetland but minor streets and insignificant landmarks are left out. I think it would be awesome if the maps in the SA more resemble local street directories or area maps, requiring several pieces before a more detailed map of the larger area can be made. They should also do away with the zoom and have a scale, so you need to measure distance with a ruler (There should be one on the compass)

Another thing that would be awesome is if the GPS isn't so reliable. Civillian GPS systems, particularly cheap ones, often aren't as accurate as they claim. They eat battery power like it's nothing and sometimes they take forever to locate the satellites. (Which is why we prefer to use innaccurate, 27 year old maps). They are handy for placing waypoints, though, and this should really only be possible with a GPS.

[[email protected] 26]

I like the idea of only getting "bits" of map. Maps as up-to-date as the ones in DayZ are somewhat rare in the real world (out side of the military, and only if they're interested in the area). The maps we use in the emergency services here in west oz are about 27 years old. Though they are highly detailed, they no longer accurately represent the world we operate in, and using them effectively requires a great deal of map reading experience. They're also made with military/disaster response in mind, so they show things like topography and terrain details like bushland and wetland but minor streets and insignificant landmarks are left out. I think it would be awesome if the maps in the SA more resemble local street directories or area maps, requiring several pieces before a more detailed map of the larger area can be made. They should also do away with the zoom and have a scale, so you need to measure distance with a ruler (There should be one on the compass)

Another thing that would be awesome is if the GPS isn't so reliable. Civillian GPS systems, particularly cheap ones, often aren't as accurate as they claim. They eat battery power like it's nothing and sometimes they take forever to locate the satellites. (Which is why we prefer to use innaccurate, 27 year old maps). They are handy for placing waypoints, though, and this should really only be possible with a GPS.

To be honest I feel most modern maps are relatively good and up-date at-least where I live but what you do find is most are specifically tailored to a location or transport system and regionalised maps often come in handbook form as opposed to an actual full sheet map. So of course its likely you'd find pages but not a whole book of an area and also; to get a complete view of an area you'd need more than one type of map.

As for the zoom; I think its should probably be kept to one scale but allow you to focus in, as I play PC games on a TV monitor so in order for me to see details, I need a zoom.

The reasons I suggested bringing over waypoints; are because one, you can set a proposed destination on a really map and two some systems need to be stream-lined to go on a screen but I also think the only way for the "waypoint" to be up-dated should be by positively identifying land marks. So in that scenes there's still a lot of work on the players part to read your position; just differently.

Also you mentioned GPS; I think most civilian GPS tracking would be offline, still this doesn't mean you cant use them as an electronic map, were as military GPS's may still be active a short time after.

Also I must clarify as much as the objective of splitting the map into many pieces is to prolong end game items and the scenes of discovery. I do feel once a piece of map has been found it should simply be added to just existing map; as manually searching though pieces would just be too fiddly and take away from the game overall.