Not Yet-Another-D2-style Overlay thread, but I thought there were a couple things that could make the minimap handier for the player.
On the large map, unexplored areas are first covered by fog and on reruns, they are greyed out.
But these same greyed out areas are shown in their regular color on the minimap, so you have to open the large map to check unexplored areas.
As a QoL fix, the minimap should give the same info as the large map, within the confines of the minimap’s display range.
Secondly, the greyed out areas on the large map is a decent idea, but the difference can sometimes be hard to see on areas that have a similar tint to begin with.
Especially in areas such as BoC 2+ that are huge and somewhat like a maze, having a good map is very useful.
It would be useful if the color was altered to be something more distinctive, so the player can easily see at a glance which areas are unexplored, just as with the original fog of war.
Or perhaps it could be changed to a semi-transparent fog of war, to differentiate it from the opaque original.
I’d really like to call some attention to this.
After doing another BoC run, I strongly feel the color of unexplored areas needs some tweaking to be more distinct.
Look at the following minimap:
Look at the parts separating the red line. As far as I can tell, it’s virtually impossible to see which part is unexplored. In this case it happens to be the area on the west side of the line. The parts directly on the east side are actually explored, not just the bottom east parts of it.
It’s not a matter of “You just need to know the trick, then it’s easy to see!” but the point is that the original fog in a first time playthrough makes it extremely obvious which areas are unexplored, while the color feature in subsequent runs is much less clear.
And the issue is made worse on backgrounds similar to this one, coupled with the lacking info on the minimap mentioned in the first post.
The player having a worse map on reruns is a flaw, but one that should be relatively easy to fix as mentioned above.
i didn’t even realize there was a instanced fog of war. i got on the forums to suggest it and did a search first and found this thread. I have never noticed the difference. does it show on the minimap at all?
I would be really nice. My memory is like swiss cheese. I even find myself forgetting what i cam currently doing. This would vastly help as I could just toggle the minimap on whenever i needed to make certain i hadn’t been somewhere before.
This isn’t to much of a issue except when doing find quest where the thing can be anywhere within a whole zone.(there are likely semi random spots they will appear at one of each time but i haven’t played enough to learn them (and refuse to look up learn of them online) With the really large random appearing maps it is extremely tough for me to remember where i have been in them before.
might be a issue when rerunning areas too. not for sure.
I remember having read this thread and just now wondered that it hadn’t been discussed up until LeadShorts posted an answer.
Dunno why that is though, the suggestions seem reasonable and realizable.
Maybe having the minimap show the fog of war might not be that easy to implement, but I would assume that generally just changing the fog of war color to something more noticeable should pose no problem.
Yeah, i wasn’t doing a random necro on either of the threads i posted in. I wanted to make suggestions and seem to remember something about searching to see if the suggestion was already made first. I ended up having to use google to do it as the terms were all thrown out for length on my first search on the site software. Since threads did exist that were still relevant I posted to them instead of creating new ones. This thread actually covers the topic really well.
You are right though. They are working with a rather dated engine. It might be impossible for them to figure out how to code it in(not for sure veiled insults and challenges work on devs(or are even a good idea). I know I like a challenge though. If it is something I am interested in. Hoping they do too) Still it is fantastic they are still updating the game and that engine did save them a lot of unneeded work/time that they could use elsewhere.
Just would be a really nice improvement to the game. It might seem slight but it is actually a really major issue. Truly hardcore players might not mind learning maps by going over them again and again. And earning those memory stats. More casual players(like me)would find it a much more enjoyable experience if they didn’t have to guess where they have been before. Especially with as vague as some of the search quests get. Also not everyone wants to look stuff up on the net to be able to play a game. Some like to learn through the game itself, or the attached manual.
I think the one I usually have the issue with is the find and kill the three zombie ones. Its clue is that they are all in a certain area. Which seems to be 70% of the first act maps. I don’t really want to know specifics. I rather learn them on my own. Just saying how the quest always reads to me.
So that might work as a alternative. name the specific area they are found in on every specific search that is part of a quest. like whitemire, or cronley’s mine. Not somewhere between burial hill and burwhitch. That just tells me to take my time being certain i have enough time to do all that area in one go and search at least the overworld map extremely thoroughly on that go. Which isn’t always possible for me and is horribly off putting when i mess it up.
I really hope they make some changes to the minimap. The way it is now makes me feel like quit playing. It is annoying to not know what area i’ve already explored and the mini map isn’t big enough to see the way clearly. Just about every aspect of Grim Dawn is better than Diablo 3, except this. In Diablo 3 i don’t have to look on the map every 5 seconds and i can focus on farming.
nice thing in this is the minimap isn’t as needed as it would be in lots of other games. The stages in this aren’t procedurally generated, So the stage layout will be mostly the same between every play through. Only thing that changes are certain blockades. Before giving up on the game it might be worth turning off the minimap. I have found that the game plays much better without it.
It would be nice if they overhauled the map system. I have yet to see it as a deal breaker though. The game is actually much more enjoyable with it off. In my opinion.