Smoke Signals

[ThirdEmperor]

I was thinking about how hard finding other players was when I thought of something, how about being able to see fires from a distance. Here's the idea, by tapping on the day/night display at the top of the screen you bring up the "lookout display" from here you can see the smoke given off by nearby fires and the direction they're coming from, normal fires give off white smoke, hearth fires of inactive players are pale green, active hearth fires a deep green and your hearth fire gives off purple smoke that's always visible.

[sabinati]

that's pretty cool, jorb talked about something similar once

[ThirdEmperor]

Yeah I spent an hour looking for active players before thinking of this.

[Riou1231]

That's a great idea, It should make sure that you and your friends never get separated and even if you did, you would be able to spot your friend more easily.

[Jackard]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4229&p=47399&hilit=smoke#p47399

[ThirdEmperor]

Okay, I'll admit this has been posted before but from the look of the pics on that thread it was posted in the 1st world and is therefor rather less relevant then it was and I think there is no particular reason against creating a new post instead of reopening such a archaic one. I also had a few other ideas I would like to add, seeing as I've already suggested a way of detecting other players why not use it for other things as well? Perhaps a skill called Navigation it allows you to detect the direction of the nearest source of water without a claim on it, as well as that of the nearest town and you claim. I propose this because it would allow you to find other players who are actually active, making trade that much easier and allowing newbies to find a town to join, which is an even bigger concern now because of the mandatory wilderness spawn. Finally, how about smoke signals, you type in a message and it is continually broadcasted to everyone in the mini-grid until you stop, all players in the region will see a smoke plume apear in the day/night display when ever a new message is sent and can click on it to see the message.

[Jackard]

it was posted in the 1st world and is therefor rather less relevant then it was

that was second world, less than half a year ago. a new thread is appropriate yes but only because the previous discussion was offtopic in a large announcements thread. the material is no less relevant - still worth reading/quoting

I've already suggested a way of detecting other players why not use it for other things as well? Perhaps a skill called Navigation it allows you to detect the direction of the nearest source of water without a claim on it, as well as that of the nearest town and you claim. I propose this because it would allow you to find other players who are actually active

where is my vomit emoticon. please think about this a little more. hmm what could possibly be wrong with this picture?

mandatory wilderness spawn

charterstones

Finally, how about smoke signals, you type in a message and it is continually broadcasted to everyone in the mini-grid until you stop, all players in the region will see a smoke plume apear in the day/night display when ever a new message is sent and can click on it to see the message.

what happens when more than one person does this

[ThirdEmperor]

Actually I don't see the problem you keep refering to? So the best I can do is take the shotgun approach and answer all the possible question I can think of, but please if you're going to say my idea is no good, please right a full explenation rather than just a few scattered sentences, I spent a lot of time writing this, the least you could do is spend half as much time dismissing it. The first problem I can think of is griefers blocking hearths, so maybe inactive hearths shouldn't appear and maybe you could extinguish your hearth to stop it showing up, but you couldn't tell where it is yourself. If you're claiming seeing your town and hearth is unnecessary because you can port there, remember there's a lot of players who hate teleporting and this would be a step towards it's removal. Finally if your concern is that this skill would make mapping useless don't forget that mapping shows you all nearby houses, towns and terrains, this skill only shows you where active players are (I agree inactive players appearing is a jorb-awfull idea) and the nearest town and river, and most players know where the nearest well/river is. So far nobody else has a problem with this idea, I think I can see a direct relation to that and the fact you probably already have a town and a trade route, I don't and I think this skill would be worth 5,000 lp easy. It's not that I want to make the game easier, I like how brutal it is, I merely want to make getting started less of a hassle, and I believe this skill will go a long way in that regard. So please, cut us n00bs a break.

[ThirdEmperor]

Hey Jackard, could you at least reply? I really would like an explenation of what's wrong with this idea. I just thought it would allow people to find others, and therefor help trade.

[Jackard]

You must be very naive. Here is the far more likely scenario:

it would allow people to find others, and fuck with them