I had this idea a while back when working on an RPG mod (which suprisingly didn't get finished). Basically the idea was using a graphic for the map instead of the automap.

This would be displayed the same way as SavageX's (and others) in-game menus, an animation plays where you get the map out and bring it up to your display.

Basically, it wouldn't be an accurate map. You'd have a different frame in the mat for the player being at the different locations. Obviously this is only feasible with a fairly small number of locations. But it would be a rough guide about your overall location for those complex maps like Drazen and Barons Hed RPG. I thought it could also be used in things like Rollmod to show you your location on the course.

How it Works
- You place a ghost thing at the middle of all your major locations (or at regular intervals around the rollmod course).
- For each ghost you have a corresponding frame in the map mat which indicates the player being at that location.
- Whenever the map is viewed, a cog calculates which of the ghosts is closest to you and chooses that frame of the mat to display (you'd probably also want to give routes between locations a ghost/frame as well - Pokémon style).
- For Rollmod, all you'd need is a way to keep the map on display at all times to one side of the screen.

Thoughts?

Its a good idea, but it'd be a huge PITA having to make different map screens for all the different locations. And with a huge map, it would be a time consuming task to say the least.

Might I ask, what was your RPG mod was going to consist of? I've been sort of kicking an idea like that around lately.

Can't really remember. It wouldn't really be that many images though. Think of Zelda 64, huge world, only about 10 map locations.

In Drazen you'd just need stuff like:
- Beach
- Boat
- Drazen Gazette
- Mayor's House
- That Clothes Shop
- That Restaurant
- The Tunnel
- Security Office
- Hotel
- Swimming Pool

I suppose if you broke it down into basic chunks it wouldn't be that hard.

You'll probably need a better system than the ghosts/distance calculation though. Locations are usually oddly shaped, and a small location next to a large location would very easily yield the result of you being in the wrong location on the map.

It would be a pain...but sector flags would be exact.

I suppose locations could be given a priority variable and a range variable. So if you're closer to a small location with a small range but a high priority then it gets chosen over a large area you may also be in range of.

You could just change a variable whenever a sector adjoin was passed.

We should be able to pop up a 'holographic' map (like a HUD) of drazen isle (or parts of it, if you like) and put a marker on it showing the exact location of the player as the player moves. This would just be cog calculations running in a pulse. The player's position is given in x,y,z coordinates, so for an overhead map, just translate the x,y coords into the map's coords.

Am I missing something here, or is that what you were saying?

That's a possibility, but I was thinking of a more RPG-like map. Or a treasure-map. Not a particularly accurate representation of the level but has all the key landmarks and locations and the paths between them.

Or with rollmod, just having a drawing of the outline of the course.

Put up an image of what you mean, cause, yeah, I was thinking like what Zeq was...

I think he means like Thief's maps. A map showing the basic outline of the level, landmarks and your general position (sectors work well for this).

Like This:

In such a case, a sector listing might be more appropriate to determine the region the player's in.

Levels tend to have quite a lot of sectors. There could easily be 100 sectors to represent just one area, that's a lot to enter into cogfields. Not to mention the fact that as you're developing the level the sector indexes will be changing all the time. A method that isn't affected by moderate changes in level structure would be far more appropriate.

Personally, I would use sets of unused sector flags to define the different zones. Then I would just get the players sector flags to determine zone in game.

It would require work for the editor, but I cannot think of any way around this that would always yield correct results. You could use adjoins to set things as well, but what about spawning? Or teleportation?

Entering all the sectors in the cog would not work, as cogs have a limit of 200 or so definable variables.

Perhaps, but it'd bring up a particular problem. One I noticed in your map. Assuming it was just distance nearest ghost, consider the canyon. The radius to center of canyon, would overlap the grassy area outside of the canyon. I suppose a solution would be to define a greater amount of location ghosts along the canyon itself.

yeah, you could have multiple ghosts representing the same area, that should be fairly easy to work with.

I still think sector flags are the way to go. Multiple ghosts would still be error prone and more difficult for the editor to set up IMO, since you'll need to account for Z axis coverage as well as X/Y. I'm not saying you couldn't make it work, I just think it would be very hard to do. Especially since you aren't going to get a visual sphere representation in JED to make it any easier.

Set different zones as different layers, multiselect the layer when finished, add the relevant sector flag and you're done.

You can increase the robustness of that system by, in the COG, checking if there is no applicable flag. If there is none, it'll find the closest sector to the player that does and assume that. This reduces error if the player is standing in a small sector the author forgot to flag.

Thats a good idea.