Custom travel waypoints

[Rias]

Per the changelog: Custom travel waypoints (which will function the same as forks in the road with the auto-travel mechanic) can now be set. Type TRAVEL WAYPOINTS for information and subcommands.

I figured these would be useful for people who want their own customized spots where auto-travel should stop automatically, even if there's no fork in the road. Some good candidates might be the scarecrow farm near Shadgard where a blazed trail strikes off toward Kildr Dale, or some point along the road north of the abandoned canyon village in order to turn toward Blackwater rather than continue on to New Emberlight, or to stop and and turn off the road toward the Tse Gaiyan Chapterhouse, etc.

They function like forks in the road, meaning if you set a custom waypoint but don't want to stop at it this trip, you can specify at the outset to keep going past it just like you can with forks in the road.

To be perfectly clear: These are character-specific non-tangible waypoints, they don't create an item in the world or cause other characters to stop at them. It's just a user interface update specific to the character who sets them.

The code got a little complicated, so please do report any bugs with via BUG command in-game. I don't want to mess up anyone's existing expected auto-travel behavior or scripts; this update shouldn't affect anyone who doesn't want to utilize it.

[Serity]

Technical note for anyone who captures room information (name, environment, etc) for travel/mapping/script purposes: the room name line changes from:

Code: Select all

[Wooded Plains Road] (OutWldPlFrDt) Midnight, Mild, Clear, Calm

to

Code: Select all

[Wooded Plains Road] <WAYPOINT:town town town town> (OutWldPlFrDt) Midnight, Mild, Clear, Calm

There is a twenty-character limit on waypoint names.

A couple ideas: 'travel waypoints list' display your set waypoints with their names, and perhaps 'travel waypoint find WAYPOINTNAME' to show the direction of it from where you are. People could set waypoints before they wander off the road and then find their way back to it after they're done exploring so they don't get lost.

[artus]

Nice one, Rias! Love you!

Testing it out.
It seems this thing doesn't interfere with soundpack stuff, woohoo!

[Karjus]

Really cool addition. Love stuff like this.

You know we'll now want to see most commonly waypointed spots to go with class/race demographics.

[Rias]

I just added TRAVEL WAYPOINTS LIST to list all a character's waypoints, good call.

I thought waypoint direction sense might be a neat thing for a special ability and/or item. I could see mundane versions for people with the right class/skillset, occult spell versions, and occult object versions that can be handed out to others who lack the skills to do it themselves and occasionally need to be replaced. A lot of potential there!

I'm already pondering the possibility of public waypoint buckets that could be exported/imported among players and characters. Does that seem too meta? I think it could be useful for standardizing sets of travel waypoints to help people that have a harder time navigating the wilderness. Then they all have the same references for helping advise each other on how to navigate around the major roads. Considering the waypoints can only be on roads, I think it could be within acceptable meta levels. Any thoughts on that?

You know we'll now want to see most commonly waypointed spots to go with class/race demographics.

That'd be a good one!

[Karjus]

I thought waypoint direction sense might be a neat thing for a special ability and/or item. I could see mundane versions for people with the right class/skillset, occult spell versions, and occult object versions that can be handed out to others who lack the skills to do it themselves and occasionally need to be replaced. A lot of potential there!

I'm already pondering the possibility of public waypoint buckets that could be exported/imported among players and characters. Does that seem too meta? I think it could be useful for standardizing sets of travel waypoints to help people that have a harder time navigating the wilderness. Then they all have the same references for helping advise each other on how to navigate around the major roads. Considering the waypoints can only be on roads, I think it could be within acceptable meta levels. Any thoughts on that?

Could tie it to tracking/bushcraft, give extra functionality to the both. Possibly a command available to those with at least 1 point in either, with a scaling roll based off the distance to the spot they're looking for. Could piggyback off the corpse code for the distance aspect?

And I think that would be a wasted opportunity for characters to show people around, if it was done in a simple export/import function. Personal take, would prefer if the people talked about the spot, then got showed it at the least for it to be unlocked.

Might be a good idea to update the travel tutorial to feature these now, or maybe a new tutorial.

[artus]

The first wilderness travel and food stuff already gives you experience when you're well packed to the wilderness. May be something like adding tutorial lines for waypoint and then a cute little 100 exp for the first waypoint set is a nice addition to the existing tutorial we have.
I also second the disagreement with the import export idea. There's a good bit of rp potential there and learning ic+relearning ooc can be one of them.
Now let's see who'll end up having 50 waypoints before anyone else.

[Taliaferro]

I'm already pondering the possibility of public waypoint buckets that could be exported/imported among players and characters. Does that seem too meta?

It does not seem too meta! I think you can trust people to RP it out, as appropriate. I don't have any objections to Karjus' suggestion, though, if you want to get fancy.

Anyway, this is a great and useful tool! Thanks very much!

[Jilliana]

I don't think the ability to export/import waypoints is meta so long as you open the way for it to involve some sort of roleplay.

I've yet to take advantage of waypoints but that's because I keep forgetting they're a thing. I know for sure they have already proven useful for folks who tend to play when it's the dead of night in the US and not always easy to find someone to remind them where a place is on the map.

[Lexx416]

I just added TRAVEL WAYPOINTS LIST to list all a character's waypoints, good call.

I thought waypoint direction sense might be a neat thing for a special ability and/or item. I could see mundane versions for people with the right class/skillset, occult spell versions, and occult object versions that can be handed out to others who lack the skills to do it themselves and occasionally need to be replaced. A lot of potential there!

I'm already pondering the possibility of public waypoint buckets that could be exported/imported among players and characters. Does that seem too meta? I think it could be useful for standardizing sets of travel waypoints to help people that have a harder time navigating the wilderness. Then they all have the same references for helping advise each other on how to navigate around the major roads. Considering the waypoints can only be on roads, I think it could be within acceptable meta levels. Any thoughts on that?

Mostly just wanted to say that I love the idea of tying in some or all of the above to physical objects, like a map. Maybe with the correct tools and skill(s) PCs could generate maps (either from a parchment, or some special map-thing you can buy from Qamar) that include their waypoints, which players can then use to memorize the same waypoints.

The only downside I can see is folks (especially new players) might get confused if it's a map that you can't ACTUALLY read - I can imagine folks might expect a big ascii art thing, or written directions, etc., though I'm not sure what else would be as appropriate as a map.