Forums » Suggestions
Exploration & Navigation Basics...
Ok, so the devs have alluded to plans for exploration in the future... but how about some basics to start with?
Expandable Maps
With the imminent advent of exploration, they would be a given, but even now it would be a nice feature if the initial universe map included only your starting sector, maybe the other sectors in the starting system, and the systems of your own nation. Your maps could be expanded on in a number of ways: You could buy expansions in the commerce tab of stations, have them wired to you piecemeal from other players, or create them yourself and add them into your map. The expandable map would have a number of features:
a. System Information
The most basic level of imformation required for navigation. System info contains information on the locations of wormholes and stations within the system. It can be annotated manually by the player, and system notes can be wired to other players using a GUI command.
b. Sector Information
All the fun little details of the system. Sector Information includes bots, roid belts, faction monitoring, map graphics*, and any number of things I haven't thought of yet. Like the System info, it can be purchased, annotated, loaded or sent.
*The System map alone would only show a blank grid with station and wormhole sectors, and not roids, planets, etc.
System Info would be acquired automatically upon entering a new system through a wormhole for the first time. If you didn't want to go through the trouble of exploring systems on your own, you could purchase area maps that cover an entire nation's space, or simply a set of several adjacent systems. The cost of the expansion would be determined by the number of systems purchased and the source of purchase. You could also haggle other players for copies of their own system maps, and hope they wire it to you for a discount price (or inflated price, if they wire their annotations along with it)
In addition to the system information, some stations would offer sector information. Sector information however would vary in content. Some stations may offer bot information, while others offer trading goods information, asteroid information, government information, or any combination of the above. For example, a mining station might sell maps that include locations of roid sectors and the different classes of asteroids found within each, and a barracks may sell maps that include monitored sectors, local government jurisdictions, hive bots and patrol zones. Most if not all purchased maps would include the background image for the syetm. When purchased, sector information would be merged with your existing sector information, allowing you to expand on your data indefinately. Sector information would be displayed in the navigation pane on sector mouseover, and stored in modules. For example, you could purchase the 'bots' module, and then you could choose to toggle it on or off so the bots info is visible or not. Sector maps would sell by system, or in some cases, multiple-system maps could be purchased. Modules could be layered, parted or merged by the player. You could also create modules of your own and expand upon them or transfer them to other players or guilds. For example, TGFT may decide to make a trade commodity module, or an ores module, and share it amongst their guild, or market it to other players. Module creators could 'protect' their modules, choosing to prevent other players from sharing their copy unless permission was wired to do so.
Advanced Navigation
There was a thread on this earlier, but I can't be assed to meddle with the search feature until it randomly turns it up...
Basically, navroutes could be wired from player to player using the nav GUI, both as saved routes (that the player could load later) or as live routes for immediate navigation. In addition to this functionality, the Nav UI should include the following features:
GUI to load and save navroutes
ability to click and drag a segment of route to form a new navpoint mid-route
ability to selectively delete navpoints
ability to click and drag a navpoint to move it
Expandable Maps
With the imminent advent of exploration, they would be a given, but even now it would be a nice feature if the initial universe map included only your starting sector, maybe the other sectors in the starting system, and the systems of your own nation. Your maps could be expanded on in a number of ways: You could buy expansions in the commerce tab of stations, have them wired to you piecemeal from other players, or create them yourself and add them into your map. The expandable map would have a number of features:
a. System Information
The most basic level of imformation required for navigation. System info contains information on the locations of wormholes and stations within the system. It can be annotated manually by the player, and system notes can be wired to other players using a GUI command.
b. Sector Information
All the fun little details of the system. Sector Information includes bots, roid belts, faction monitoring, map graphics*, and any number of things I haven't thought of yet. Like the System info, it can be purchased, annotated, loaded or sent.
*The System map alone would only show a blank grid with station and wormhole sectors, and not roids, planets, etc.
System Info would be acquired automatically upon entering a new system through a wormhole for the first time. If you didn't want to go through the trouble of exploring systems on your own, you could purchase area maps that cover an entire nation's space, or simply a set of several adjacent systems. The cost of the expansion would be determined by the number of systems purchased and the source of purchase. You could also haggle other players for copies of their own system maps, and hope they wire it to you for a discount price (or inflated price, if they wire their annotations along with it)
In addition to the system information, some stations would offer sector information. Sector information however would vary in content. Some stations may offer bot information, while others offer trading goods information, asteroid information, government information, or any combination of the above. For example, a mining station might sell maps that include locations of roid sectors and the different classes of asteroids found within each, and a barracks may sell maps that include monitored sectors, local government jurisdictions, hive bots and patrol zones. Most if not all purchased maps would include the background image for the syetm. When purchased, sector information would be merged with your existing sector information, allowing you to expand on your data indefinately. Sector information would be displayed in the navigation pane on sector mouseover, and stored in modules. For example, you could purchase the 'bots' module, and then you could choose to toggle it on or off so the bots info is visible or not. Sector maps would sell by system, or in some cases, multiple-system maps could be purchased. Modules could be layered, parted or merged by the player. You could also create modules of your own and expand upon them or transfer them to other players or guilds. For example, TGFT may decide to make a trade commodity module, or an ores module, and share it amongst their guild, or market it to other players. Module creators could 'protect' their modules, choosing to prevent other players from sharing their copy unless permission was wired to do so.
Advanced Navigation
There was a thread on this earlier, but I can't be assed to meddle with the search feature until it randomly turns it up...
Basically, navroutes could be wired from player to player using the nav GUI, both as saved routes (that the player could load later) or as live routes for immediate navigation. In addition to this functionality, the Nav UI should include the following features:
GUI to load and save navroutes
ability to click and drag a segment of route to form a new navpoint mid-route
ability to selectively delete navpoints
ability to click and drag a navpoint to move it
I agree with the post in its entirety.
I agree with toshiro's post in its entirety.
(No, seriously.)
(No, seriously.)
A nation would normally provide even the most basic noob with the most commonly available information. This would include all known systems and stations. There may be parts of some systems that are not well explored, but for the most part, we all know the major landmarks in the existing astrography at this point.
The is already a lot of demand for various maps. Maps for mining, hunting, trading. How about we build the frame work for mapping first, and see where it goes.
The is already a lot of demand for various maps. Maps for mining, hunting, trading. How about we build the frame work for mapping first, and see where it goes.
I like this. The more that this game becomes a 3D multiplayer version of EV:Nova, the happier I become.
the nation a person starts with should provide them with basic maps of all of that nation's space, maybe including the bots and minerals in their home system. this would mean that UIT would give out maps of Ukari and Edras too! but only the basics, not advanced stuff.
whome and TRS:
I think the gov would probably volunteer a mostly complete sector map for the current system, and system maps for the rest of the nation when starting out. However, while expansions to that may be cheap, I doubt they would be free... It's like the US Gov giving out a national road atlas to every citizen - that stuff's just not free, although digital copies range in value, they're not free either for the *full* map. Supposing you *worked* for the government, they would probably provide you with more expansions at no cost, but as a lvl 0 newbie taking his/her maiden voyage in a freebus? If they did offer free information, it would be limited in usefulness... i.e., they probably wouldn't give out monitored sectors, patrol zones, military information, ship and weapons availability, etc... and some imformation may only be available through the private sector, so would need to be bought at stations or from players (mining and trade information for example).
Perhaps it could be so simple as completing your first trading mission for your home nation to earn basic sector maps of the entire nation space, but I don't think it should come automatically... higher standing or licenses, or maybe military service, would be required for the purchasing of some information modules.
I think the gov would probably volunteer a mostly complete sector map for the current system, and system maps for the rest of the nation when starting out. However, while expansions to that may be cheap, I doubt they would be free... It's like the US Gov giving out a national road atlas to every citizen - that stuff's just not free, although digital copies range in value, they're not free either for the *full* map. Supposing you *worked* for the government, they would probably provide you with more expansions at no cost, but as a lvl 0 newbie taking his/her maiden voyage in a freebus? If they did offer free information, it would be limited in usefulness... i.e., they probably wouldn't give out monitored sectors, patrol zones, military information, ship and weapons availability, etc... and some imformation may only be available through the private sector, so would need to be bought at stations or from players (mining and trade information for example).
Perhaps it could be so simple as completing your first trading mission for your home nation to earn basic sector maps of the entire nation space, but I don't think it should come automatically... higher standing or licenses, or maybe military service, would be required for the purchasing of some information modules.
or, simply a "fog of war" type effect.. you enter the sector, it becomes permanently added to your map, you see a sector with a wormhole, and wonder "hmm.. wonder whats on the other side of that? could be friendlies.. could be nasties... should I find out?"
This would also cut down on the number of newbs heading to grey at 1/1/1/1
This would also cut down on the number of newbs heading to grey at 1/1/1/1
The System Information would work like Fog of War, but specifics and Sector info would need to be attained by thorough exploration (your ship logs the sectors you visit and ads things like bots, etc, automatically) or by purchasing them at stations or from players.