New Shop Feature: Compass

[The Warrior]

A compass on both the map and on screen relative to position. (Maybe part of the Erolin Device)
(Possibily disabled in Labyrinth)
[attachment=1730:Compass Map.gif] [attachment=1731:Compass.gif]

[Fenrir Greycloth]

It's a good idea, but the practical use of it is lost on me. Only time you would NEED it is in the Labyrinth.

[Pipstickz]

It'd be kinda neat to play with, even if there was no practical use.

[Chewett]

it would be useful for a new player who doesnt know the layout of magicduel, Which would help people to navigate, But for people who have learnt the art of moving, Then it really has no use.

[The Warrior]

In some locations the way you entered a room can not easily be identified so you can get out of the room again. After many visits and over a year of activity I still make errors and get slightly lost in MDA and a couple other locations.
A compass would allow such people to navigate though thes locations with more ease; once people become used to the compass, the absence of the compass in locations such as the labyrith will give players a greater challenge of navigation, and challenge them to try to understand the co-ordinate system for these locations.
I myself have a little understanding of the co-ordinate system but in locations in the MDA the co-ordinate system is increadibly difficult to use.

[Kyphis the Bard]

I actually like this idea.
It would be very useful for many quests that require you to go in specific directions, as well as making it another point of reference when helping new players find important areas in the realm.
As such, it would be a valuable asset to both new and old players in the realm.

I am not certain about it's location on top of the Erolin device however, I think a better location would be the "Creature" slot below the live help icon which represents us (the one we click for our daily progress)
I assume the indicators for North, South, East, and West would rotate to correspond to the scenes orientation? If so, it would mean it would need to be callibrated for every scene.

It would amuse me if we discovered that the Gazebo of Equilibrium was actually MD's magnetic pole... It would certainly simplify the creation process for the compass', as they could applied via code and co-ordinates (except in the MDA and TBL). It also wouldn't make the compass useless as a navigation tool, just a little harder to learn.

Last of all, I don't think there would be any point in having it as a shop feature. If it is a shop feature, then it would make it useless for directing new players, as they will not be ready to spend money on the game nor will they have learnt/earnt free credits. It would also make it more prohibitive for use in quests, as it would limit the players who could participate to those who had purchased the compass.
I think that the best option to limit server load with adding such a feature direct to every players interface would be to either have it as part of the universal interface (like the LHO Button or the background), or if it needs to be part of the individual interface (like the Erolin device and Left side bar) then it could be applied automatically to all new accounts, and put in the Extra Features section of the shop as a free item. Or even just put in the Extra Features section as a free item, and LHO's can tell the player to pick it up.

At any rate, good idea, and I hope that it gets implimented. Especially when you consider that you can have magnetic anomalies without detracting from the functionality of such an item
(Imagine a spell that turned someone into a walking magnet for 10 minutes, that would prevent them navigating via compass as the needles would just spin for them)

[Yoshi]

[quote name='Kyphis the Bard' date='29 May 2010 - 05:35 PM' timestamp='1275168946' post='60600']
...I think a better location would be the "Creature" slot below the live help icon which represents us...
[/quote]

I assume you mean the Progress Log?

Anyways, It's a good idea but might not be too easy to implement.

[Chewett]

It could not easily be automatically coded in because the scenes co ordinates do not match up to orientation, Some scenes are totally wrong orientation wise.

Still, it would be a lot of work, and im not sure the benifits would outweigh the amount of work for each scene

[Rendril]

I think it would be also be useful to be able to change where you have it point to or to be able to change it through mdscript.

It should be possible to work out a rough orientation to some point based on the scene coordinates.
The load on the server would not be much, less than the chat, particularly if it were flash-based and got loaded from cache.

[aaront222]

Why doens't someone test it out on an item or try to make it work. If it works on a item it should work on the interface...
OR
Extend the scene slightly so below it is a universal clickable on all scenes displaying a compass.