Additional dioptra functionality

[Sidereal 1,119]

I love the dioptra as one of the few 'scientific' tools that exists in Wurm and keep wishing it did just a few more things when used to reckon location from Sol or one of the moons.  Rough reckoning is the lowest level of skill, and perhaps one or more of these could be unlocked with a skill or dioptra quality:

1. When the celestial body in question will set - "Valrei will set in 3 hours and 48 minutes."
2. Azimuth and altitude for the celstial body in question - "Valrei is 36 degrees above the horizon, bearing 225 degrees."
3. Height above sea level for nearest tile corner - dirts would be ideal for planning, but even a rough reckoning - "You are at least 400 dirts above sea level" would be useful
4. Reveal your location on the map more accurately - "You reckon you are within 2 map squares of M17"
5. Reveal your location on the map down to the square - "You reckon you are in map square N18"
6. Reveal your location within the map square - "You reckon you are in the northwest corner of map square N18"
7. Dead reckoning - "You are standing on x1117, y1223 at a height of 431 dirts.

 

#1 and 2 are pure flavor and fun for those of us ofan astronomical persuasion.  The rest would be useful things to know at various times - especially while traveling or building a mission structure.  Many people determine location using map dumps already, so why not provide an in-game mechanism to get that same information?

 

Stay with me, because I'm going to try and shoot some of the obvious holes in this idea:

1. Since bridge building already creates an incentive to have a high quality dioptra, it might not make sense to also tie these abilities to dioptra quality.
2. There's not a great skill to tie it to - Nature?  An extra perk of the slow Mind Logic grind?
3. Height above sea level is already available with a partner holding a range pole in the water
4. Makes it more difficult to get really lost.  I know I've always been grateful on strange islands for folks that the map square to the name of their guard towers or lighthouses and getting lost is always an adventure, sometimes fatally so.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Sidereal

[Odynn 2,248]

Astronomy and Geography can be tied together as long as you know the current time. Using dioptras to find out your location on the map would be akin to using a sextant at sea (or we can just be crazy and add a new item to be used on both sea and land...).

 

+1 (maybe with some limits on the dead accuracy of 7. )

[neopherus 257]

Interesting suggestion. I can happily say +1 to more use of the dioptra. 

Remove the x,y precision of 7 and I'd really like to see this. Rather than x,y coords, combine the location of 6 with the height of 7.

[Gawain 622]

+1 def interesting suggestion!

[Katrat 2,296]

+1 it is under utilized.

[Wilczan 2,048]

I like dioptras, more functionality would be great.

[Beretel 60]

+1

tie it to a new skill

could be tied to some form of map-making

 

JS

[DaletheGood 1,073]

+1

[Stormblade 617]

Back from 2015

 

 

[Ramilan 103]

As a person who gets lost a lot...

+1

[kordethbludscythe 762]

i say tie it to tracking and mind logic