On "blacked out" maps

[Ronan]

Recording how familiar a PC is with an area (i.e. tracking how long a PC has been in a particular area) is easy, especially with C#'s proper collection libraries.

Whats hard is the stuff the engine simply doesn't allow us to do, like update mini/maps in real-time. So at the moment there's no way to do what you request, Dergon.

Edit: Well, nevermind. It seems someone has devised a system that works without the use of placables. I'm guessing OE left us more GUI tools than I would have guessed:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... ail&id=157

[dergon darkhelm]

I guess I fall into the same camp here as I did with anonymizing monster spawns.

There is meta-info used whether you black a map or leave it visable. There is meta info whether you hide a creature's name or show it.

The former examples don't *stop* meta info. They simply reward repetive players and repeitive OOC memorization (regardless of whether that is over many, many PCs or just one) giving them a different kind of meta-advantage.

So what I would favor is *not* blacking out maps for now.

If we want to devise a system that is based on D&D 3.5 rules that would be awesome.

But for now, I could roll up a PC who is a dwarf engineer of Dumathoin with Skill Focus Knowledge, Dungeoneering and max out the ranks and *still* have less available info than a tstrong memoried gamer who just happens to have been through the area 20 times with their last PC.

[t-ice]

NWN2 has me lost in no time without the minimap. I can't put my finger on exactly why but something about the engine fails to click with me.

I would wager it's the "extra z axis" to rotate about on the engine. Intuitive controls are either those where the PoV has a constant direction, and the piece you move changes facing as you move it around. Like a good old isometric map with north up. The other obviously intuitive one is first person view, where your PoV is fixed in reference to the piece you move. Though you might be able look to another direction you move (like any FPS since Quake, which coincidentally is the last one I played profusely), you always have a good reference on forward (e.g. with wasd). NWN2 rotates both the piece and the view independently, leading to near-instant dizziness, unless you just stick to effective isometric.

It would be interesting indeed if one could get a proper FPS-like view on the NWN2 engine. Much of the pure eye-candy of the gorgeous 3D builds is lost due to the only working view being the isometric.

[dergon darkhelm]

I should say that, despite my apparant D&D-based argument, this is pretty much just a personal preference for me. I have a tendency to get twisted around even in areas I know well and the lack of the map exacerbates my own personal limitiations. I'm sure that if I had a good knack for remembering which way I went and how to get out I wouldn't be kvetching so much.