Greendogo wrote:
I think it would be interesting to show the shortest path to a location. I think this could be done easily with discovered locations. You just create a list of all transportation NPCs and Propylon Indices, then do a brute force calculation for the fastest route.
On another related topic, the wheel on the mouse should be usable in the zooming function on the map.
I personally wouldn't want to have the map in 3D, because it would ruin the fantasy element a little. If we could find a reliably map-ish filter/shader, we could alter the exact picture of the map taken from the gameworld and make it look like some cartographer sketched it. I don't know how well that would work out.
If you still wanted to have 3D maps, I would suggest making them low resolution in the sense that the only thing portrayed in 3D would be the terrain and maybe large structures like Ghostgate or castles. Flora such as the mushroom trees would just be flat on the ground. But at least this way the player has an idea of the topography of what he is looking at.
I'd also like the ability to make notes, of course. I think you should be able to grab and move notes and that they should be indicated on the map by something other than what indicates cities and settlements, like a small golden upside down arrow. Zooming into the closest setting to the ground should allow you to set or move a note-arrow to a precise location, but you should still be able to see it after zooming all the way out.
On the topic of cities and settlements, I think something other than that rather
blocky indicator square should be used. I think that all of the indicators for one particular location, say Vivec, should be combined into one unified outline, sort of how the newer Civilization games use
colored borders to denote the reach of influence. Upon zooming into a city, say Balmora, the
good ol' fashioned golden block can be used to indicate the location of interiors. The colored borders could also be used to indicate the borders of regions and provinces (in order to accommodate mods that add Black Marsh, Skyrim, or Cyrodiil). The colored borders could be turned on or off at the City, Region, and Province level somewhere if they got annoying.