Discussion of 'Directions' command

[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!