Discussion of 'Directions' command

[Morgenes]

Use this thread if you would like to discuss the new Directions command that was added.

[Tenua]

+1

I think this will be a huge help to newbies.

I just want to remind them to not use this as a crutch after you've been playing for a bit. It will make your life much easier if you memorize the route.

[shadeoux]

Not sure if this has been discussed yet, however, since I am not in my hometown to see I will ask here. What of the Tribals and Nomads in Tuluk. Are they taken someplace past the guard where they wouldn't have access to since they wouldn't be true inked citizens? I.E. Would they be given directions to the eastern or southern gates if they asked or would it come back with an alternative such as you don't have the correct social status to go there.

[Patuk]

I approve.

[DustMight]

I think this is an interesting development.
The curmudgeon in me wants me to tell the newbie player to get out some graph paper and sketch their map like we did in the old days, uphill, in the winter.  ;-)

It reminds me of a feature available to rangers on another mud I played.  The ranger could "mark" a location and using a direction-like command would get a list of directions (much like the above command) back to that mark. 

[Morgenes]

Not sure if this has been discussed yet, however, since I am not in my hometown to see I will ask here. What of the Tribals and Nomads in Tuluk. Are they taken someplace past the guard where they wouldn't have access to since they wouldn't be true inked citizens? I.E. Would they be given directions to the eastern or southern gates if they asked or would it come back with an alternative such as you don't have the correct social status to go there.

Right now it is based on where you point to in the Hall of Kings.  And it only works in Tuluk, Allanak, Luir's and Red Storm.  If you pointed to Tuluk as your hometown, it will assume you know how to get to locations around Tuluk.

[RogueGunslinger]

Very cool.

[WithSprinkles]

Thank you so much for this!

[TheWanderer]

Bravo.

[Harmless]

I approve 100%, because I know confidently that it would be extremely useful to newbies from my own past experience, and yet at this stage in my Armageddon career, I know I will -never- need to use it. Hence, it is a perfect addition. Thank you Morg, you're doing very good work!!!

[boog]

This is AMAZING. Great job, guys.

[LittleLady]

First, this is looking really good. It will be a huge aide for the visually impaired players that are out there. Thank you for working on it.

I also have a question about it. Would this work, for example, to guide a player who is a citizen of Allanak/Tuluk from outside their respective city back to a gate/entrance to the city?

[Morgenes]

Not the way it is written currently.  You have to be within your hometown for it to work.  This was done as a concession to keep it from being able to always know where you are.

[James de Monet]

I cannot meme gif from my phone, but if I could, I would be starting the slow clap right now SO HARD.


Awesome addition Morg!  Love it.

[Harmless]

[LittleLady]

Glad to hear that it only works inside the cities. It's a good tool then for new players, and a lot less exploitable! Good work, this is a great addition!

[QuillDipper]

This sounds delicious, especially since the only thing i have memorized is how to get to [bar name]. Will be super useful.

[Yummri]

Thank you for working on this!

This will be incredibly useful for newbies and VI players alike and I'm glad it doesn't work outside the cities. Though travel out there is real hard, its part of the game so I wouldn't of wanted a constantly shifting landscape due to sandstorms and other things to be mapped anyways.

This is really good!

[James de Monet]

Haha, I appreciate the assist, Harmless, but not that one! That's the sarcastic slow clap. I mean the other kind.

The one where one guy starts clapping slowly and more and more people join in until we're all cheering, then form a mob and set fire to the tenements (n;e;e;e;s;s;s;s;e) in our ecstatic glee. Or something like that.

[mansa]

Is there an in game reminder of the command?

Should I put a request to include it in the newbie help file walkthrough?

[Morgenes]

It is in my list of things to do to update the website with it. I looked to see if it for in the newbie zone and couldn't really see a way to demo/talk about it. I updated a couple of help files to include it. If you have ideas on how it can be better advertised, submit a request.

[valeria]

This is one of those things that is both awesome and appropriate.  There's no reason a character born in a city wouldn't know where the various gates are (even if he or she has never been outside them).

[Drone]

I think this is an interesting development.
The curmudgeon in me wants me to tell the newbie player to get out some graph paper and sketch their map like we did in the old days, uphill, in the winter.  ;-)

I'm a newbie player and I've done this for every city I've been in, so far. Using Google Docs, anyway. It's incredibly convenient and helps me visualize the place a lot better.

[Barsook]

I love this idea but I agree with Tenua.

I just want to remind them to not use this as a crutch after you've been playing for a bit. It will make your life much easier if you memorize the route.

Maybe have it only used for the first three hours to day played?

[BleakOne]

I like it. People would reasonably know their way around the place they grew up in.

[RogueGunslinger]

I love this idea but I agree with Tenua.

I just want to remind them to not use this as a crutch after you've been playing for a bit. It will make your life much easier if you memorize the route.

Maybe have it only used for the first three hours to day played?

That doesn't make any sense, really. It won't become a crutch, because it's not like using it will make people forget where places are, suddenly.

[Barsook]

I was worried of abuse.  But how many will?

[James de Monet]

Abuse how?

The only possibility I can see is if you somehow end up in a part of the city you don't go without knowing how you got there, then using this to automagically know where you are.

[Yummri]

Well, this was put in to stop people from wandering around not knowing where they are.

But as for putting it in the newbie area. Maybe put a note in the Hall of Kings? Then suggest they use it to find one of the adjacent rooms? Practical and informative.

[Zoan]

directions
You are not in your hometown, you are not sure.

...Yes I am.

[Morgenes]

But as for putting it in the newbie area. Maybe put a note in the Hall of Kings? Then suggest they use it to find one of the adjacent rooms? Practical and informative.

That would require adding a new city for the newbie area and changing the persons hometown to that. Honestly though the newbie area is so small, there wouldn't be much point to it.

[Yummri]

Then I would just suggest putting it in as a message in that area. like when you point to the newbie area it flashes up or as you are about to leave..
*See help directions once you pick your home town for help navigating*

[Barsook]

Then I would just suggest putting it in as a message in that area. like when you point to the newbie area it flashes up or as you are about to leave..
*See help directions once you pick your home town for help navigating*

+1

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Wow. This is an amazing development. Neat.

[ale six]

I give it 5/6 stars.

What would have been *really* cool is if the directions had been phrased ICly... so instead of "west;west;west;west;south;south;south;west;north" it was "Take Caravan Road until the intersection of Commoner's Way, then head south three blocks, turn west on Stonecarver's, and your destination is on the north." Like, GPS style. But I gather that's tougher to code.

[Barzalene]

I give it 5/6 stars.

What would have been *really* cool is if the directions had been phrased ICly... so instead of "west;west;west;west;south;south;south;west;north" it was "Take Caravan Road until the intersection of Commoner's Way, then head south three blocks, turn west on Stonecarver's, and your destination is on the north." Like, GPS style. But I gather that's tougher to code.

That would be neat. I'd worry also about things running too many lines and either being cut off or unwieldy.

[Barsook]

I give it 5/6 stars.

What would have been *really* cool is if the directions had been phrased ICly... so instead of "west;west;west;west;south;south;south;west;north" it was "Take Caravan Road until the intersection of Commoner's Way, then head south three blocks, turn west on Stonecarver's, and your destination is on the north." Like, GPS style. But I gather that's tougher to code.

+1, but as Barz said that might get too long

[Yummri]

I suggested this direction system when I started playing as a way for newbies and VI players to get directions to places as walking a route is how we learn, most of us. But the way it is suggested to be phrased doesn't really help us. Because we have so much to read it is sometimes easy to miss the names of a room and what if you don't know where that road is?

As it sits right now. I think it is perfect and I am really, really happy with it. It will make the world of difference to a lot of new players. Its also one of the reasons I've not wanted to move to a new area of the game yet. Hard enough learning one and getting it down. This opens up the rest of the world's cities for me.

[Fujikoma]

I don't know how to say anything someone else hasn't already said, but I'll give it a shot. I strongly approve of this. I doubt I'll be using it, but it's definitely good. When I first started, I don't know how many times I found myself bumbling around about ready to scream because the IC directions I got were not very specific and I got lost, and people were getting annoyed I kept asking the same dumb questions over and over because "You grew up here, didn't you? How can you be lost?".

Unfortunately, I'm unable to test it at this time, but some important places to consider would be tailors, armor repair shops, sources of purchasable water, maybe sources of reasonably priced food, stables, cotton fields, clay pits, dung buyer (and maybe some kind of prompt to read a help file when finding potential revenue sources for these jobs). As it stands people quickly begin to starve waiting on employment. You'd think living a life of hardship would not mysteriously result in a pile of newbie coins if you did not know how to pinch and scrape a little to get by. Sorry if there are already directions to these places, and maybe some of them would be better found out IC, I don't know.

Or maybe just directions to areas like, tribal market, commoner's quarter and such.

[LittleLady]

but some important places to consider would be tailors, armor repair shops, sources of purchasable water, maybe sources of reasonably priced food, stables, cotton fields, clay pits, dung buyer

While most of these places are already listed, some important ones are not, and this brings up a really good point. This might be something for a different topic, but a lot of the areas already listed by using the directions command, pass right by some of the tailors and things. If a VI player has brief room descriptions on, a lot of these places don't even show up in the room for them. It might be wise to either add them to the list, or to make them visible despite brief.

[Morgenes]

If you have suggestions for places that everyone should know how to get to in a city that aren't already listed, it is easy enough for us to add them (without a reboot).  Give us a request and state your case (including the name of the room and why you think everyone should know how to get there), and we'll evaluate it.

[Amoeboid]

As a relative newbie, I find it pretty useful to have 'directions' that first day. Thanks!