Marker Shortage

[korin77]

I constantly prospect and find mission points and place markers of where I found those. I also place markers where i find choice mats. Unfortunately the game only limits you to a certain low number of markers. Can we get more? I find its way too little for the amount of possible items out there. Is there a space issue? are these markers stored online or in a personal space on your hard drive? If it is the latter then I don't see an impact for increasing your limit. If it is the former then please change it.

[jesder]

I constantly prospect and find mission points and place markers of where I found those. I also place markers where i find choice mats. Unfortunately the game only limits you to a certain low number of markers. Can we get more? I find its way too little for the amount of possible items out there. Is there a space issue? are these markers stored online or in a personal space on your hard drive? If it is the latter then I don't see an impact for increasing your limit. If it is the former then please change it.

A guildmate did find a way to port markers from one PC to another. So it would seem to be stored local on the client. I have not looked yet.

[darq787]

They're stored on the server. The limit is not a space issue, it's a design aspect so you will never know where everthing is. I say this because the ammount of data needed to store a single custom map marker is like 20 bytes, you could have thousands of them and it still wouldn't take up a noticeable ammount of space.

[korin77]

If thats the case it should be changed. Theres not enough markers to go around for even 1 land much less all the lands... I don't see how it would affect knowning where everything is. Its just an inconvience. I would have to resort to marking it on a printed out map instead of in game. I think convience would be nice don't you?

[anicolai]

If thats the case it should be changed. Theres not enough markers to go around for even 1 land much less all the lands... I don't see how it would affect knowning where everything is. Its just an inconvience. I would have to resort to marking it on a printed out map instead of in game. I think convience would be nice don't you?

I second that! I would understand the storage issue if we were storing thousands of landmarks but right now we only have the option to store 16. This is somewhat crippling when there is no exact method for tracking coordinates either. I recognize the tri-strangulation of terror method but find it too unwieldy to use, especially considering I have a hell of a time honing in on the last 10 meters of my ranged prospection actions.

I am just hoping that I at least get 16 more landmarks for each homeland that I visit. If I only have 16 for the whole world I will get a bit annoyed.
20 bytes per landmark isn't that bad either. If 50,000 players have 1000 landmarks then that is still only about a gigabyte of space used.

I just hope that, if they up the max landmarks, they remove the highlight ring from existing landmarks. Sometimes I want to add one near another and can't because it keeps defaulting to the one already there.

Safe Travels!

Glimmung

[jdiegel]

One thing I might suggest...I blow up the maps, take screen shots, print them, and keep my own notes. It works pretty good for me and nobody can force any limits.

Actually, it works better for me than the regular system, but that's just a personal thing.

[darq787]

They should be stored client side, makes no sense to store them on the server. There should be NO limit and they should be all stored in a "map.dat" type file right on your PC. Faster loading and no worries about server space. This would also allow sharing of maps, so you could go and download a map where somebody else marked down all the locs of the good resources. But that is what I think Nevrax doesn't want.

[lyrah68]

Try marking the entire resource nodes map with that few pins. LOL

I think this info is stored SERVER side, which why they limit the number of pins. I wish they would move this to client side and let ME chose the number of pins (I got THREE hard drives, I think I should be able to handle...Oh say 2k per region *chuckles*).

I would also like to see the map zoomable to the 25 meter range like the compass.

Putting in a /loc feature would REALLY help.

[anicolai]

Try marking the entire resource nodes map with that few pins. LOL

I think this info is stored SERVER side, which why they limit the number of pins. I wish they would move this to client side and let ME chose the number of pins (I got THREE hard drives, I think I should be able to handle...Oh say 2k per region *chuckles*).

I would also like to see the map zoomable to the 25 meter range like the compass.

Putting in a /loc feature would REALLY help.

I got to thinking about this topic and I am now wondering if the unusually low number of landmark pins and the lack of a coordinates system is intentional. If the resources are primarily static, accounting for some change due to weather and time of day, then an exact coordinate for a Supreme and desired resource would be a highly important bit of knowledge. Currently, the only sure-fire way to convey this knowledge is by taking another character by the hand and leading them to the priceless location.

The more I think about it, the more I like this mindset. It adds value to foraging and it adds a sense of true accomplishment and discovery to those players that uncover a prime resource location. This locational knowledge is exactly the sort of thing that not many other games can offer. If there was a coordinate system or a client side map then anyone could download all the best foraging spots, thus making them overcrowded. It would also take away the sense of accomplishment or of attaining secret knowledge when you have to wait in line to forage your Supreme Big Shells.

I know I'm being a Flip-Flopping Waffle Machine but I have completely changed my mind on this topic. If the developers want to keep resource locations static then they should make it even more difficult to mark locations. Heck, if I was really anal I could take screenshots of all my maps with their accurately marked locations, print them on transparencies, and have a hard copy that I can just hold in front of the monitor to get the exact spot.

In my opinion, the only other option would be to make all resource nodes completely dynamic. This, however, would detract from both the sense of discovery and the transmission of incredibly valuable knowledge through required personal interaction.

The only example I have of this is in the Ultima Online treasure hunting system. The UO treasure maps all had a static location but, in the beginning, players had to find that location on their own, through trial and error. Although the contents of the coveted chests were quite lacking, a treasure hunter got a real sense of accomplishment in pulling one up. That treasure hunter could then mark down the coordinates and the lay of the land just in case they ever came across the same map again. What ended up ruining the sense of discovery was that all the treasure hunters got together and made a database of all the locations. Then all one had to do was compare their treasure map to pictures of other treasure maps and write down the exact coordinates.

This transformed UO treasure hunting from an act of discovery and excitement to a mere act of outside-of-the-game web browsing and an in-game act of travel. Like I said, the contents of the chests were not worth all the excitement but digging one up on your own was a real feeling of accomplishment. Similarly, the act of finding your own plot of land, that nobody had previously discovered, and placing your house there was much more exciting than the frantic last minute bidding for one on Ebay.

In summary, my opinion is that the marking of resources should never be made easier so as to preserve the feeling of accomplishment upon finding a great resource and so as to not detract from the transmission of valuable knowledge through in game and in person interaction.

Think of it, other foragers may travel far and wide to consult the Grand Masters of foraging, such as DoubleTap, in an attempt to prove themselves worthy of receiving a fraction of their priceless knowledge of the lands of Atys. That is a quality that most MMORPG games cannot hope to attain as they cater to the lowest common denominator and make all of their secrects available to anyone that can run to the local EB and pick up the $20 strategy guide.

That is what transforms many of these games from hopeful online worlds full of discovery into the standard levelling treadmills where we go check a website to see what quests open up to us at level 20 and happily travel to "A" and talk to "B" so we can kill "C" and finally acquire our Super Power Gloves of the Adorable Snake.

I think most of the MMORPG players that have been to a number of the available games can agree that something really needs to change in order to keep players interested. I, for one, am sick of quests, camped locations, strategy guides with the best player builds, and maps of all the best harvesting spots.

Well, I guess that in summary wasn't really in summary...but now my lunch break is over. I like the different feel that Ryzom currently has. I would prefer it if the developers geared themselves toward polishing up and implementing qualities that evoked that different feel more than working on adding all the features that we have come to love to hate in the games we no longer play. I think I left my point back up about 3 paragraphs...


Cheers!

Glimmung

[jdexter1]

I don't think they are stored server-side.

When I log in from work (no comment!) my action bar is set up like it is at home (obviously stored server-side) but none of my pins are there. I can have a different set of pins on my home machine and my work machine. That makes me think it is local to the machine.

JDexter