Map of Novia

the road to solania/celestis is deceptive. if does peter out where you marked, but then picks up again until after the bridge.

 

I'll have to check it out again... thanks.

 

@cartodude

You want the trick to get behind the wall? (Not much to see there yet though, especially no roads).

Also since the overland map coordinates is based on a globe they might be a bit off at depending on the perspective of the map shot.

 

Nice job.... But you might like to know about this .

Novia

You can find this on Avatars Circle Or NBNN.
All roads landmarks ect are already in place and can be filtered using the upper right corner.
You can also zoom in to the "HEX" level on the map

There is also a map of the hidden vale.

Laz

 

I was aware of that and other maps. But they didn't suit my needs. They are placed on maps that don't use the in-game coordinates and I also wanted to use the overhead view image. Lastly, I wanted to leverage my own GIS software to do analysis on the data eventually such as this:



Which, for example, allows my to symbolize all the towns by type of lot available (shown above)... and eventually by any other data I decide to collect (such as shop types, shrines, etc.)

I'd love to be able to use the interactive web software we have at the office but a) can't afford it and b) wouldn't have anywhere to host it. I toyed with the idea of some open source GIS web software, but most of the one's I've seen to date require some coding skills (which I'm very rusty at). So I settled on my own personal copy of the desktop software and the PDF output format for now. Both of which are quick and simple for me to deal with.

... and lastly, I was really bored and wanted to do something fun that I had the skills for... I can't do maps like the incredibly artistic ones I've seen (I think they are fantastic btw... but I can't color within the lines... i'm not a graphic artist) so I stuck to what I know best.

 

The in-game coordinates are based just on a flat x,y grid while the other paper/cloth style are supposedly fitted to a lat/long globe*. So I tried to warp the overhead view image to the paper/cloth style (and the other way) but discovered quickly that the land mass shapes are vastly different between the two maps. But since I'm missing the coordinates in the NW I couldn't get a complete registration of the overhead image... so if you have a means to get 'over' the wall I'd love to hear it so I could get a few more control points... but I suspect in the end it won't matter anyways due to the mismatch of the land shapes.

*the lat/long grid on the cloth map may or may not be a true projection... I suspect they tossed a grid and labeled it with lat/long and didn't worry about the actual distortions on a globe. (The maps I make at the office look entirely different if I try and use lat/long instead of the state plane coordinates, but the software we use automatically converts the coordinates back and forth so I can work on a nice flat grid and not Lat/Long.) I know, I know, TMI...

 

I had been looking at GIS software to do this vs. trying to pixel math it in Photoshop, manually. Have you looked at or have an opinion on QGIS? It's open source an free. Alternately, if I was really going to invest more time into this, there is a $100/year non-commercial license for ArcGIS.

Yeah, the hand drawn map and the actual in-game screenshot definitely do not line up if trying to do overlays (already tried it in Photoshop). We've tried asking the devs about the lat/long and map projection styles but haven't gotten an answer on it, likely because that's exactly what they did. Because if you do take the lat/long from the original maps, the island/continent definitely would be squished at the top when projected on the Earth.

 

That's what I get for assuming that Portalaruim made their map based on the IN GAME Coords. Go Figure! LOL

I'm curious on this one. SO you go out and chart all the plots in every town? How can / do / will you ever keep track of what's REALLY available?

And lastly I'm thinking perhaps you might want to get with the good folks over at Portalarium and perhaps get a REAL working map that includes BOTH your info as well as down to the hex with proper Lat / Long on the map.

Again GREAT WORK!! I'll prob have more questions as this thread develops.

Laz

 

Very nice map indeed, love it

 

So I'm using ArcGIS at the office and I did purchase the the at-home use one for myself (like you said for $100 a year). Playing around with it for SotA gave me the excuse to use for keeping my skills up and do something fun at the same time. this way it doesn't feel like work. You can get the free trial version to test it out. I know of QGIS but never needed to use/try it as I've always had ArcGIS available.

 

No, I did not plot all the lots in town, though I have that on my list of to do's... once I get around to mapping the towns. It will probably just be points at the sign or stone marker. I did the town my lot is in as a quick proof of concept and if there's no house on the lot or fence it's hard to map. I don't plan on keeping track right now of what's 'available'... only the max of each type. The town criers will tell you the lot types in a town. But I do want to collect other data like shop and shrine types eventually.

I'm sticking to data that won't really change for now. The types of lots shouldn't change once a town is set (like PaxLair or Ardoris.) I don't really have the means to track the things that constantly change (heck it's bad enough trying to track parcel data at the office, it only takes a few months to reflect the changes on the maps as the new information make it's way through the bureaucracy...)

There's some cool things that could be done if I had access to a full GIS to load all this data in but the open source stuff is lacking or requires way too much coding (nor do I have access to a web server, well outside of work that is...) and the commercial stuff is way too expensive.

In the meantime, I can analyze what I do have (collected) and I can publish in pdf anything anyone wants to see. For example I wanted to see which towns had keep lots so I made the map above of the data to show me. The nice thing about the PDF output is that unlike a jpg I can scale the symbols to work better when you zoom in and I can include the attribute data about the features. Plus eventually I plan to make an atlas for my use with all the maps in one big pdf.

Also, thanks for all the compliments from everyone

 

Very nice, you could include the "track" route through the swamp to Solania, cos that place was a ***** fun to find first time nice work.

 

I know... I missed it myself... which is why it's not on the map yet... I'll add it next time I jump in (this weekend.) I swear it was also dark every time I went out to map more of the roads...

 

If there was a solid plan for creating a good map then I think that hosting / funding could be found. There are a lot of people in the community who see the benefits of having a good map, particularly one which is interactive. We could ask if anyone has hosting and would be willing to donate, or create a Patreon / KS etc and fund it that way. There are a couple of different map projects out there and it would be good to bring the skills and data together.

Should we ask the devs if it is within the scope of their development plan first? Perhaps they intend to make one anyway, or perhaps they can provide some data / images? It would make the project a lot better if we could get their help.

Let me tag some names who might also be interested (never been sure if these properly worked):

@Violation
@Lord Blake Blackstone
@SirRichard

 

I just want to comment on the look of this map image

It just has a better suited style for the OW design direction. This kind of map indicates that the world is vary large and traveling between these towns is a large distance.

As opposed to the 3d map which has the appearance or more cartoon-ish imagery and scale large avatar/large and individual trees and rocks

 

I think it's good that there are multiple efforts to visualize data in different ways (e.g. maps). But I do agree that the data can be shared / centralized for easy access -- be it some web query or file download.

Regarding what the devs can help with? High-resolution in-game maps without labels. High-resolution (super high) overhead screenshots of the actual terrain of the overworld and towns.

In lieu of that, we can try and stitch together community-sourced screenshots, as crazy as that sounds. Perhaps as an R19 event, we can have a "hands across Novia" thing, where everyone gathers on the overworld at the same time (perhaps noon to minimize shadows), spread across the entire continent and takes an overhead screenshot without any UI. The screenshots can be stitched together, removing the Pre-Alpha watermark, etc. It's not that hard, as even one person did this for the Hidden Vale, here.

 

... funny you mention that... That's what I tried before the overhead shot was available. It turns out part of the problem though is the elevation. I work with real aerial photo sets and they are all taken from the same altitude... the problem with the in game screenshots is it forces the shot at different altitude depending on the elevation you are standing on. Made for just enough distortion to be a real pain (not to mention you don't get a very large extent and you really need good overlap to register the images to one another) Then the overhead shot came out and I scrapped any further testing in that direction.

 

Increasing the feel that the world/map is much larger would simple entail making the on screen avatar even smaller and move even slower. I did something similar many years ago with Neverwinter Nights 2. I had similar overland maps and just by playing with the size of the avatar and movement speed you could really imply a much larger distance. The problem is everywhere I read on the forums, everybody wants to to get someplace in a hurry. It all boils to down to scale and perception. The real question is how long should it take (in real world time) to travel between certain points and scale accordingly... just be prepared for a lot of people to whine that they don't want to take that long... they already want ways to zip around the map by fast travel (when it only takes a couple of minutes to travel almost the entire length.)

 

I wouldn't worry too much about those kinds of requests, they are mostly just general comments and don't really contain any actual useful advice to the gameplay design. It's also understandable since a lot of other elements and whole features are still missing.

 

This is awesome. Wish I had found it BEFORE I spent an hour looking for Pixlar (sorry guys - I just haven't had much play time this YEAR). Now if I could just find Spctral Mines and North Grunvald Barrens, I'd be a happy hat owner!!!