[Adonthell-devel] Quest map

[Sasha Kushnirenko]

Hi,

I have a suggestion about quest map.  We are generally used to
"geographical" maps in the game, which show:
 - where you are located
 - how much area you have discovered and how much there is left
 - where to go to find unexplored territories
 - location of useful items and so on.
 - generally map is a tools that help and can can give you a hint you in the
   quest.

I must say that I really like maps in games, and this is the object perhaps
I look at quite often.

One of the drawbacks of the games that involve quests (especially with
dialogs) that there is a lot of information to keep in mind (who said what
and so on).  If you left the game for a week, it really takes an effort to
dive back and restore this net of information.  Some games introduce diaries
- but they are usually quite long and that is the last thing I do is going
back to read it again.

I suggest we can use a "quest map" - graphical representation of how far you
have progressed in your quest.  It can show goal of the quest, suspects,
possible leads to the solution and so on.  To be specific I attached
wastesedge possible quest map (I apologize for poor drawings) in the middle
of the game:
 - you know about the noise
 - you know that Jelom was singing
 - there was an argument and for whatever reason Alex was listening
 - you start to suspect that gems are fake ....

During the game certain pictures can show up and go away.  For example at
some point you can cross out chemist as it does not help you in the
solution.  And so on.  Generally the idea is to have a quick representation
of how far you have progressed in the game, and one can even use it as a
tool to give player a hint.

I do not think that map can replace diary: they probably can coexist and you
can extract diary entries for example by clicking on some pictograms.

>From programming point of view quest map uses same global variables as
dialoques and should be "straightforward" to implement (that is usually what
I say when I have no idea how to do something :)

What do you think?

Sasha.

quest_map.jpeg
Description: JPEG image