Mini-Map Marker that tells you where you entered a map.

[Sunsette]

Ever entered a cave and gotten twisted around which path is the way forward? Ever been afraid to use reveal in case there are three elevators and you don't remember which one you entered through?

 

Have the game give you a marker each time you enter a map that says where you entered the map from. This might be doable via an invisible pet of some kind that is named ENTRANCE or something, idk.

 

I am very bad at spatial orientation and I would love to reduce the liminal space effect I get in this game's office buildings and caves at times. Thanks.

[Shenanigunner]

One part of me says having something like breadcrumbs to drop would be useful.

 

The other howls from its cage that some part of a game like this just has to be carried in wetware, and that's the point. To automate a game so that the player doesn't really have to pay attention to anything is... not the right direction. But you'll note that part is in a cage in the basement, so. 🙂

[Sunsette]

3 minutes ago, Shenanigunner said:

One part of me says having something like breadcrumbs to drop would be useful.

 

The other howls from its cage that some part of a game like this just has to be carried in wetware, and that's the point. To automate a game so that the player doesn't really have to pay attention to anything is... not the right direction. But you'll note that part is in a cage in the basement, so. 🙂

 

I think the idea that this game gathers any legitimacy or interest in play from having nearly featureless maps for its procedurally-generated escheresque dungeons is... kinda weird and I don't know where it comes from. I could see it if we were playing a rogue-like, but CoH is decidedly not. Newer mission design tries to avoid this problem of confusing, near-featureless levels in numerous ways, but a marker like this would improve a lot of older content.

Edited February 27 by Sunsette

[AboveTheChemist]

You could use the thumbtack/loc functionality for this. Create a bind or macro that looks something like:

 

/bind <key> local "ENTRANCE: $loc"
/macro ENT local "ENTRANCE: $loc"

 

I use local in this example, but put it in whichever channel you like (aside from serverwide channels, preferably). When you enter the map, press the key or click the macro and it'll drop a clickable link with the coordinates in your chat. When you need to find the entrance again, just click the coordinates it gave you and it'll drop a thumbtack on the map and a nav marker in-game.

 

Depending on how 'busy' your chat windows are, you might need to dedicate a tab to that channel to minimize the amount of scrolling up you need to do to find that link, but I've used this same functionality plenty of times when I need to get back to places I've been.

 

Edited February 27 by AboveTheChemist
clarification

[Lockely]

1 hour ago, Sunsette said:

 

I think the idea that this game gathers any legitimacy or interest in play from having nearly featureless maps for its procedurally-generated escheresque dungeons is... kinda weird and I don't know where it comes from. I could see it if we were playing a rogue-like, but CoH is decidedly not. Newer mission design tries to avoid this problem of confusing, near-featureless levels in numerous ways, but a marker like this would improve a lot of older content.

 

Old CoH maps really do be the Backrooms before the Backrooms ever existed. AboveTheChemist has a workable solution for you using current methods of adding a thumbtack via macro. Being that we get a green dot for elevators, maybe a Red dot for the entrance/exit might be useful? @AboveTheChemist is that doable with something like how we can track badge locations on VidiotMaps?

[AboveTheChemist]

4 minutes ago, Lockely said:

is that doable with something like how we can track badge locations on VidiotMaps?

 

If I understand what you are saying, no it is not practical. Indoor maps like caves and offices are generated by piecing together smaller maps, and there isn't any way to know reliably which smaller map contains the entrance. So even if it wasn't a monumental effort to try to put red dots on all those smaller maps, most of the time the dots would just be in random places, and not the actual entrance.

[Shenanigunner]

I also don't usually have any trouble seeing my entry point on a cave map; if there's no entry marker, there's usually a characteristic room shape, positioned more or less centrally. Some caves (may they burn in hell) are pretty complicated, but even fully revealed a map zoom shows the most likely entrance point.

 

That is, zoom your map large. A quick zoom-return bind helps a lot in this and if you're peering at a tiny map trying to see things, or panning around with the map zoomed in the window... well, yeah, you're gonna get lost. 🙂

[Lockely]

12 minutes ago, AboveTheChemist said:

 

If I understand what you are saying, no it is not practical. Indoor maps like caves and offices are generated by piecing together smaller maps, and there isn't any way to know reliably which smaller map contains the entrance. So even if it wasn't a monumental effort to try to put red dots on all those smaller maps, most of the time the dots would just be in random places, and not the actual entrance.

 

Ideally, at least for offices, there is a distinct entryway with doors that aren't generated elsewhere, and that's where you'd want the dot, but it may not be a practical application of effort trying to identify which 2x2 blocks are entryways versus the dozen other 2x2 blocks if they're not labeled in any distinct fashion.

[Sunsette]

I will probably adopt ATC's macro (thanks!) and I already keep my minimap on screen fairly enlarged and zoomed out at all times (which has helped immensely now that I have a large screen that can support it -- on the 13" screen I last played, not so much).

 

But my suggestion stands in that I am generally of the opinion that this sort of QoL is best made standard rather than left to stopgap player solutions, at least where technically feasible by our volunteer team. 

Edited February 27 by Sunsette