Cartographer's Pen

If I could pick one thing to add to Aenea, it would be a "Cartographer's Pen", an item you could click on once you had fully explored an area which would add the area to your "Map Book", which you could then click on just like with Beld's Big Book of Towns and reveal the area after server resets.

It would probably be incredibly complicated to code and take up a gazillion resources, but it would overcome the biggest drawback to persistant worlds.

Anyway, just a suggestion, I am sure already thought of this and the engine just won't support it, but it never hurts to ask!

Oh, that would be great!

I think this is a good idea.

Unfortunately, there is no way for the game to save the amount of an area that has been explored. It would be kind of an all-or-nothing sort of deal...if you even stepped foot in an area, count it as explored? and if that was the case, it would reveal parts of maps you haven't even see yet.

Ye, it should only be possible after the area is completely explored or it would be open to exploits.

But I thought there had to be some sort of flag set when you get to 80 or 90 percent explored, because if you still have a few patches of black on your map, and zone out and back in, the engine shows the whole map........

Oh well, if it can't be done, it cant be done, not that big an issue, just a convenience thing.

I know "Beld's big book of towns" covers most towns and cities in Aenea.. taking this idea in another direction.. would it be possible to have a "map" findable in (nearly) every area via chest/etc that when used would reveal the map for that area alone... then people would truely have to search an area for a map and hold it in thier inventory.. now the obvious thing here is that with 400+ areas in Aenea thats a big stack of maps to carry.. so maybe some kind of database function to "add" area's to Belds book??... just an idea... ...

Or further more .. how about a guild of cartographers that one could join that store "maps" for an area(s).. ..
... or even a little wandering worshipper of Gort located every where to give out "maps" of the areas surrounding him/her.. these maps would be a once used is gone item but would reveal the area map for that area.. then on the server reset people would need to hunt these guys/girls again to get those maps revealed again... I can see this possibly being exploited in some areas though...

... how about a variable that says "area explored" in that guild house so you can only purchase maps of places you've been to... I'm almost sure that there must be a workable system for this in Aenea.. ..

.. failing all that stick to "Belds big book" for now and "use" it in every area you come to.. its surprising sometimes what area's are included... ... ...

I personally like the ideas of the cartographers guild and of the wandering Gort worshippers ... those sound like they have some great potential! , what do you think?