So what, and who, are the new maps for?

[Shiraek 464]

Newbies need maps to get un-lost and find their way from deed to deed. The new maps absolutely wont help with either. To get unlost, you find a deed you're in or whose perimeter you're in, locate it on a map and then you know where you are. New maps have no deeds, so no good.

 

Oldbies will take one look, think "oh that's pretty" and go straight back to the player made maps which have all of the deeds.

 

So... who are the new maps for, and for what are they intended to be used?

 

Regards,

Shiraek

[rosedragon 2,282]

my alliance use it to pinpoint where we located... now i can see where we 'reign'.

[lithi 77]

Could not have been said better. Though, for me, since I know (by using the player made maps) where I am, I can pinpoint stuff / points of interest near me.

[san_tropez 394]

It doesn't really bring much for solo players, but it's a nice feature for villages and alliances when it works

[joedobo 1,187]

Many players already tried to point out similar objections months ago. The consensus among the devs seems to be that they don't care. You can either make use of the new maps as they are or just go back to the existent community ones.

 

imo, the real problem is at least one if now more of the Devs are personally biased against maps. This is was limited the new maps.

[Zwei 210]

Tbh, the maps are useless for lower-end users, Since yeah, that texture problem, I still use my own map because it has a load more detail and generally easier to edit (in my opinion.) All though i'd like to have my own basic map in game with all the deed locations, and random stuff, but I can't have that due to the problems mentioned.

[Ruxin 32]

You don't need anything marked on a map to find out where you are.

 

Look at the shape of the lake you're near, where the mountains are in relation to where you are...easy stuff and you can easily pinpoint your location using that alone.

[Zwei 210]

You don't need anything marked on a map to find out where you are.

 

Look at the shape of the lake you're near, where the mountains are in relation to where you are...easy stuff and you can easily pinpoint your location using that alone.

This only works for people with higher set textures. The map is completely bogus otherwise, and theres already a bug with it for lower resolutions, the map is too big, so you have to do some funky stuff to remove it from screen.

[Ruxin 32]

The texture problem should be fixed, then it would be fine.

 

In the meantime though...

If you're only playing on 1 account at once, as any newbie would be, you can run wurm with decent texture settings on a computer that is many years old.

At some point, technology has to move forward, can't keep designing games for 2005 hardware forever :s

Edited February 23, 2014 by Ruxin

[Mjneal 29]

They're nice for marking out the relative locations of reasources for alliance newbies but other than that not incredibly useful for all the reasons stated here.

[Zwei 210]

The texture problem should be fixed, then it would be fine.

 

In the meantime though...

If you're only playing on 1 account at once, as any newbie would be, you can run wurm with decent texture settings on a computer that is many years old.

At some point, technology has to move forward, can't keep designing games for 2005 hardware forever :s

You're assuming this, Wurm is so unoptimized, especially now with the new update, a beast of a computer of mine couldn't even run Wurm, but could run other java programs, and on my lower-end computer, I can barely run it at all (Sitting on a 512 Mb graphics card, 2 Gbs of RAM, and some other odd-ball stuff.) on a decent setting, so I have to leave it on low.

 

:[ Wurm is a surprising laggy game for what it has to offer.

[Ruxin 32]

That's what I mean, the specs you mentioned were decent 6 years ago.

 

It is true Wurm is badly optimized though.

[Shiraek 464]

Maybe for newbies, the same buff that means mobs don't attack and you can get food from bartenders, means you get a "you are here" pin on the map and/or all of the deeds are visible?

 

24 hours in, it all goes.

 

Personally, I didn't want ingame maps in wurm at all, but if we're going to have one, it may's well help with player retention?

[Ruxin 32]

That seems like a pretty good compromise Shiraek.

 

Although then I guess people could "exploit" that and just create alts to always know where they are on the map. (If say you're traveling or w/e)

[Shiraek 464]

That seems like a pretty good compromise Shiraek.

 

Although then I guess people could "exploit" that and just create alts to always know where they are on the map. (If say you're traveling or w/e)

 

I reckon having to make a new character every time would keep that down to a minimum.

[Object 281]

I use the new maps constantly, same with pretty much everyone else on epic and I've been told the chaos players love it too.  Also I find that the players without two monitors love the in-game map as well.  The problem with a post like this is players who are satisfied with the current maps won't really jump on here and complain about liking the new maps, so as far as I've noticed it's a relatively small part of the playerbase that doesn't like it.

 

Now on the other hand, if you don't like the new maps, why bother even griping about them?  It's not like the new maps prevent you from doing anything you used to be able to do.  I also seriously doubt a dev is going to read posts like these and then remove the feature.  They've also already stated they don't want players to know their location, while we may agree or disagree with that decision, it's really not ours to make.

 

I'm also absolutely positively sure that the devs know that a portion of the playerbase would love to see current location on maps as well, but they've explicitly stated that won't happen.

 

Now the map resolution thing, I agree 100% with that, it's odd that it happens so hopefully we'll see a hotfix for it soonish.

[MVGWoody 19]

Speaking as a newbie the in game map is pointless. I took one look at it then went straight back to the community map.

 

Either have the map with detail or lose it completely. If you're in a forest there is no chance of knowing where you are with the current map, but if you've just walked through a deed the community map gives you a clue.

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

Let's be honest here; there was probably never any intention to make detailed maps for accurately determining your position. They were likely intended to be used for general reference only, and the main point of the map interface is supposed to be the marker recording/sharing and the world overview. These are two very useful features, mind. The world overview in particular was a necessary addition to help visualize the way the servers are interconnected (which is very relevant for new players).

The map blurriness at low resolution settings is probably a developer oversight, but I don't believe simple means of determining your position in the world to help new players has been or will ever be considered.

[Arronicus 634]

Newbies need maps to get un-lost and find their way from deed to deed. The new maps absolutely wont help with either. To get unlost, you:

To get unlost, you find an obvious landmark, like a mountain, part of a cove, or some very distinct landmark. Then you face it, and wait for your compass to settle. The bearing on your compass, facing that landmark, is your angle from that landmark on the map. You are somewhere on that line. then do it to a body of water, or any deed or known point, and voila =)

[Object 281]

Speaking as a newbie the in game map is pointless. I took one look at it then went straight back to the community map.

 

Either have the map with detail or lose it completely. If you're in a forest there is no chance of knowing where you are with the current map, but if you've just walked through a deed the community map gives you a clue.

 

Well if your in an alliance or even a village that documents things well, the in game map could potentially have the same deeds listed that are on the community maps.  Hell if you're village/alliance explores a lot, your in-game map might actually be more up to date then the community map.

 

Also, as noted before, on the pvp servers the community maps won't show that many deeds, if any, because of spies.  So the in-game map, even for just personal annotations only, is extremely useful.

[Dairuka 888]

The worst part about the map is the coordinates.

 

Nothing is worse than being force fed a new standard, when the one we've been using for years has worked out perfectly fine.

[Druidnature 1,118]

The worst part about the map is the coordinates.

Nothing is worse than being force fed a new standard, when the one we've been using for years has worked out perfectly fine.

How are they forcing a new standard...? The other maps are still there, and will likely be used by most people still.

[Elen 1,013]

I've been marking public mines and non-map deeds. As one of the "never add maps,  " people, I am fairly satisfied with how this turned out and find the maps useful.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Elen

[Ganken 60]

Newbies need maps to get un-lost and find their way from deed to deed. The new maps absolutely wont help with either. To get unlost, you find a deed you're in or whose perimeter you're in, locate it on a map and then you know where you are. New maps have no deeds, so no good.

Oldbies will take one look, think "oh that's pretty" and go straight back to the player made maps which have all of the deeds.

So... who are the new maps for, and for what are they intended to be used?

Regards,

Shiraek

Getting lost is a feature of Wurm Online.

"Wurm is a game about getting lost in the wilderness, and then getting eaten by wolves."

-Notch

Honestly, I see no point to the maps, other than to please the noobies that say "We have to look at maps in another window? Ewwwwww!"

Maps in browser will still remain the most popular choice, I'm certain. I'm still going to use the community maps, and noobs that are not on a town yet will end up using the community maps anyways.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Ganken

[Object 281]

 

Honestly, I see no point to the maps, other than to please the noobies that say "We have to look at maps in another window? Ewwwwww!"

 

 

The map annotation system is quite handy, even for personal use.  Sure, you could use something else like paint.net to do the same thing but as with the built in IRC client, the Wurm devs have realized what external programs the playerbase use regularly and are including them into the client.  (or at least the purpose they serve)

 

This is what I call progress and I give the devs of this game tons of props for understanding that most players are using maps with annotations on them and decided to build a comparable system directly into the game.

 

The funny thing is, once all your personal maps with village/alliance annotations gets updated, I seriously doubt people will use community maps anymore, because they will be exactly the same.  One big difference, you know those deeds that don't want to be shown on those community maps?  Guess what, mark them with a village/alliance annotation on the in game map and the problem is solved.

 

This entire thread reminds me of another thread, the old thing will always be better then the new thing because I hate the new thing and I love the old thing.  http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/96735-this-new-thing-it-is-bad/