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Entering in a city

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 05:42
by imorgado
I thinking about those old games as SoM, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, FF, and others.

The city it's just one or two tiles in the world map, then when you get over the city appear giant as magic.

I didn't think that this is good for a MMORPG.

There is some definition about it?

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 07:53
by ElvenProgrammer
You mean how the cities should be displayed in the world map? Well it depends on the kind of map. If we use a map as in th eLord of the Rings then a city will de represented by a simple drawing.

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 07:59
by maci
yeah well this looks nice but i would preffer a useful map .. where you can find a way

well of course you need to buy a map of the place where you are.
and at this place its ard to get another map from a far place where you want to go .. well but not so far places map shouldnt be a problem for player

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 09:54
by Rotonen
The "walking on world map as a giant that's as large as cities" works in single player RPGs, but I think we're going to take the more typical MMORPG approach, right?

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 11:45
by Bjørn
Yeah I'd like everything to be one scale, no walking on the world map. Also, I'd like the minimap to be hand-drawn and not automatically generated from the tiles. Though we could try the latter and see how it looks.

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 17:03
by Argh
Also, I'd like the minimap to be hand-drawn and not automatically generated from the tiles.
I personally dislike that idea, because I think it would much more dynamic to generate the minimap from the gameworld, even it looks not that good.
Think about when there something changes, then the minimap has to be edited, too.

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 20:53
by maci
well yeah these "being a huuge on a small map" thingy isnt good .. well hmm
i more meant a map of current region where you CAN NOT move .. only take a look at it to find a way maybe trhough a forrest

Posted: 14 Feb 2005, 22:33
by Talaroc
I'm going to agree with Bjørn on this one. Giant-walking would defeat a lot of the fun of a MMORPG, and although a generated minimap would be more dynamic, using a drawn version would be that much more immersive and stylistic. It wouldn't be all that hard to edit the map sprite, since I'm thinking that while the game is small, the map probably won't be changing all that rapidly.

Posted: 15 Feb 2005, 01:10
by maci
It wouldn't be all that hard to edit the map sprite, since I'm thinking that while the game is small, the map probably won't be changing all that rapidly.
well this is right..

but my thought was more to have a readable map which has detailed informations about current zone .. well of course you would need more of this map pieces and so its going to be kinda quest to get all map parts you need to have a full map of tmw

Posted: 15 Feb 2005, 01:46
by Talaroc
I'm familiar with what you're getting at. Escape Velocity: Nova uses a similar system (in each inhabited system, you can buy a local map that expands your ship's map to include systems one or two spaces from the one you're in). I don't disagree with what you're saying at all; I actually quite like that. What I am getting at, is the style of the map; hand-drawn on parchment, perhaps notes entered into a character's journal (automatically upon buying maps or encountering points of interest) for detailed location info. I mean, it wouldn't be any harder to make, sprite-wise (it'd actually be easier, especially with a real fountain pen and a scanner, both of which I will shortly have) you could do all the same things (including buying parts of the map), and it would be a hell of a lot more immersive and realistic than a map like the one linked below.

http://www.rpgplanet.com/chrono/images/ ... 000000.gif

At the same time, along with purchased map sections, I would encourage something similar to auto-mapping of explored areas, but, with one caveat: make it skill-based. Not everyone knows cartography in RL, why should they all know it in-game? Rather, have a cartography skill that one has to train through repeated use. Say, you have to be carrying a pen and parchment to attempt the skill, which consumes the parchment for a % chance (based on skill level) of adding just the immediate area to the player's map. Between that and map purchasing, it would make for an incredibly realistic (and incredibly immersive) mapping method.

Posted: 15 Feb 2005, 02:09
by MathGeek
I'd like to see the entire project be the same perspective. Having no differences between worlds maps and towns would add to the realism.

I think that the minimap should be extremely vague to start with. Possibly a player could buy map pieces that would have much higher detail for a region.

This could also create a market for map makers.

Posted: 06 Mar 2005, 04:40
by WakkaCraft
I think this idea is cool. For the sanity of starting cartograper's sake, we should make the skill scale quickly in the beginning, and/or have a place where people can get a decent skill in cartography in a city. (trainer or whatnot) This would give the player the ablility to put on their map large landmarks, so they can know what ways they can't go. (i.e. I can't go this way because there's a cliff there) or finding mountains and whatnot.

Posted: 06 Mar 2005, 20:36
by Kyokai
I'm pretty sure we are going to be doing it in one scale, except for buildings. Some buildings will have more space inside than outside, as well as basements and second floors (because it's too troublesome to have the roof-vanishing thing, and can save us some processing and lag time), and thus require a separate indoor map(s). For the world map, areas link together the same way they do in every other MMORPG, real size.

Posted: 07 Mar 2005, 03:41
by imorgado
I didn't like the idea of buildings have different sizes when we are inside/outside.

And what is the problem of take roof away, this should not bring lag problem. That will be done by client. Just an image layer, if player is under it, don't draw it.

This is simple to do in SDL.

Posted: 07 Mar 2005, 03:48
by Talaroc
The biggest issue with removing building roofs is that you can't make multi-floor buildings that way without doing some serious graphical somersaults. And, while just suddenly not drawing the roof anymore wouldn't in itself cause a whole lot of lag, the transparent fade necessary to make the effect not look goofy probably would.

I'm undecided on whether or not I think having buildings be different sizes inside and outside is a good thing, but otherwise I agree with Kyokai. As long as it's not horrifically overdone (say, a mansion only takes up 10 tiles from outside, or every single building is incorrectly sized), I suppose I wouldn't mind it.