The long dark maps


Rifleman

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I think maps would destroy the game for new players. As a new player I think you would underestimate the advantage of map knowledge and maybe accidentally look at a map of a new region before exploring it yourself. 

The best time I have had in this game are those first few hours in a new region where I have no clue what's in front of me. After I got a good sense of all regions then I looked at the online maps to see if I had missed any locations. If maps are added into this game then they would need to somehow be made into an endgame loot find. 

Non-map navigation on the road map, like a compass, I think will be a good addition. Helps you stay oriented in low visibility conditions, and requires some skill to use effectively.

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2 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

Dont bother. There is a strong movement of "purists" who say that maps would ruin game. Its like feminism, a lot of yelling and no arguments.

I know there's a lot of controversy for maps being added to the game 

but I find it useful so I made it that I spawn with a map

it doesn't matter if the developers add it or not because I already have maps for my sandbox games

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What would be great is if a map feature was added to the journal, that fills in as you explore a region, it would fit nicely with how the journal is currently set up, especially if it had a nice hand drawn appearance to it. That would prevent a new player from spoiling that pure experience of exploration and give a reference for later.

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On 7/16/2016 at 3:51 PM, ShawnB said:

I think maps would destroy the game for new players. As a new player I think you would underestimate the advantage of map knowledge and maybe accidentally look at a map of a new region before exploring it yourself. 

The best time I have had in this game are those first few hours in a new region where I have no clue what's in front of me. After I got a good sense of all regions then I looked at the online maps to see if I had missed any locations. If maps are added into this game then they would need to somehow be made into an endgame loot find. 

Non-map navigation on the road map, like a compass, I think will be a good addition. Helps you stay oriented in low visibility conditions, and requires some skill to use effectively.

Question not in map idea in general but in implementation.

Last thing this game needs is some shitty minimap. My vision included topographic map of region, findable, just map, where player can make notes(both manual and automatic, like upon finding new locations or poi, like marking birch spawn if unable to harvest it right away). Not marking player location, no directions, no backtracking(if found map it doesnt automatically mark already discovered locations on it), just map. Compass, for better orientation, separate item to find, that would be affected by em activity and notebook, that combined with map would allow for more detailed information regarding areas(just map would mark Dam, but with notebook player would also be able to keep track of supplies stored there, with dates, etc).

When i play i do use maps, even tho i know game topography pretty well. It actually adds immersion for me, since i consider it to be far more logical that in areas present in the game, maps would be fairly common sight and navigating by them should be considered normal.

And my worse experience were few first games, since i had no idea wtf am i supposed to do and tried to just push tru it, grinding teeth(if i had something better to play at the moment, id probably would simply drop game be4 i figured it out, for beginners it can be 2 tedious and 2 grindy figuring things out without any basics), till i found something or learned some basics. I have Forest, that in some aspect similar to tLD, but i still havent really played it much - every now and then i start it, run around for an hour or less and then drop it again. For simple reason that i dont have a faintest idea wth im supposed 2 do and im 2 annoyed to die again and again and again till it comes to me by trial and error. I dont like hand holding, but i do consider lack of somekind of intro to be serious shortcoming.

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Non-map navigation is in the HL roadmap but who knows what creative ideas they got in mind. 

The one thing I know for sure is I can't wait for new regions. I can't wait for those moments where the decision to explore left or right while your are near hypothermic is a life or death decision. Unfortunately those exiting decisions only last you first few games in a new region.

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Newbie here (only for this forum), played 46 hours so far. No maps, no drawing maps in journal, no compass, and not specifically having a bound key to place my own landmarks is flat out ridiculous. The PC is a flippin PILOT (!) so they should know how absolutely invaluable maps are. The only option I can think of is a line of snares to follow in a blizzard, I haven't played long enough to know if a broken snare or a dropped stick disappears on it's own. I learned how to use maps and compass when I was 7 and learned how to make a compass when I was 9. Beat open one of the many radios, flake a shard off speaker magnet, float it on a stick in a water bottle and presto! Even with geomagnetic upheaval, there has to be some magnetic field or the solar wind would slowly kill most life on Earth.

Although I can understand why Hinterland didn't provide an option for a compass, if only for the fact that it would show how clueless the development team is for having the sun rise in the Southwest in the Pleasant Valley area.

I would totally love the Whiteberry maps if they were all made with North being up.

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On 7/17/2016 at 9:18 AM, TROY said:

What would be great is if a map feature was added to the journal, that fills in as you explore a region, it would fit nicely with how the journal is currently set up, especially if it had a nice hand drawn appearance to it. That would prevent a new player from spoiling that pure experience of exploration and give a reference for later.

I have had this same thought. A way for us to have the map and knowledge without spoiling anything.

Another thought I had was simply having one posted in game. For instance why can't there be a map of the zone posted inside the Mystery Lake Camp Office.... this allows us to get a feel for our surroundings without losing immersion of the game. We don't even need to be able to take it with us, but rather have to come back for reference. I'm sure there is at least one location in each zone where this wouldn't be entirely out of place. 

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