Novia - R17

How does that have any relations to how the city (ANY city, for that matter) is being portrayed on the map? I'd rather you comment on the meaning of my post rather than focus on a single word.

Having a player town is a big deal in today's industry, sure... but does that mean that ALL subsequent player towns will get the same treatment? How does that work in the single-player environment? Even online; how does that work for the player who just wants to do the story? What does that town bring to that player?

If it's so special, why doesn't it have its own label? Why does it share the same label as Ardoris and Solania?

And Solania? What makes it deserving of the golden label?

I've been there and, so far, it just seems bigger in terms of space; not population. Of course that'll depend on player population once it's live yet Ardoris is static; it'll always be big despite population... granted, it'd look like a ghost town.

That's why I asked for the criteria(s).

 

Solania is NPC story related and I'm assuming is the staging point for a ferry to Celestis. I'll probably make Soltown yellow now because of NPC stories and sewer interconnectivity.
They are all residential as opposed to somewhere like Solace Bridge, which is NPC story related but has no player housing.

 

Great work, Birko! How exactly did you create it?

 

I was talking specifically about the towns being portrayed on the map; not the in-game towns themselves.

No offence taken (from you) or intended (by me); I'm merely confused by your comments.

Thanks for clarifying and the map does make more sense if you take NPC stories into consideration (at least once you modify Soltown). How does PaxLair fit into this?

Again, this is just nit-picking for clarity's sake.

 

Wow, very nice. You are truly deserving of the cartographer title in-game.

I'd love to ~eventually~ see one of these representing a completed town in the final release, player-run or otherwise.

 

PaxLair has been NPC mentioned for longer than PaxLair has existed. You'd better start chatting to every character

 

Yay a map that actually matches the game.

 

Birko 10/10

 

I'd start your search in Ardoris, Gix.

 

It is all Photoshop using the "satellite image" that Portalarium posted. It is a rushed job because I wanted to get something out before someone did a Comic Sans version with a legend.

Good valid criticism Gix. But I am making it up as I go along
I have updated the map to make Soltown yellow.

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I'm mainly making maps for myself because it is fun exploring and documenting. The danger is that sharing what I map may destroy a major part of game-play - Exploration.
For that reason, I try to make them generalised. You have to go to a location to have the map make sense. In the real world, a map has the opposite role.

I'm concentrating on residential mapping. I have a plot in Lochfield. No one knows where that is - unless you have a map. Hopefully now you can find Lochfield on the Novia map.
Once you get into Lochfield, I'm at T6 on the Forest Village 2 map. In Ardoris, I think my terrace house is at 3 Stone. Previously, you were lost without /home.

If you live in a village, I hope my system now gives you an address.

It is early days, and I am mapping for myself.
My public map collection is in my sig.

- Birko

 

This map is really wonderful!

Like others, I'm very curious how you were able to draw the landscape and find the data. It seems a bird's eye wiew of the overland map.

A note on graphical consistency: with different hue, brightness and contrast background, the best way to add labels is white (or otherwise light colored) text labels with thin black outline. Like meme's!

Now I need a color plotter to print it in A0!

Edit: oh, and "New Britannia" is actually Brittany, the city.

 

Excellent work! I love it!!!

 

BTW - Is the #'ing correct on the map to game coordinates?

 

Birko ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

*The Mad Hermit's Mind = Blown*

Fantastic work!

 

That's fantastic, Birko!

 

Ya know, everyone says "no offense intended" etc ... but I'm not. I know it's not polite, but I'm not usually known for political correctness.

You talk about nit-picking font size, and coloring, but it's very obvious you want to hijack this thread to talk about favortism regarding player owned towns, and PaxLair specifically.

This was a fantastic project by Birko, and that is the point of THIS thread, and MY post.

FYI, I'm not a part of PaxLair, and in no way I do speak for anyone but myself.

GREAT JOB BIRKO!

 

How does that work in the single-player offline context? Or will NPCs have specific dialogue between online and offline?

 

The source image was included in the R17 instructions sent in e-mail and on the website, as images are not included in Starr's monthly Release forum posts:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=50219

Yeah, Player Owned Towns don't make any sense for the offline mode. POTs are not part of the lore or the story and are entirely community-curated and run. They are part of the multiplayer sandbox, not the story-based RPG experience. So if any official maps are made (especially the cloth/printed ones), I'd be surprised if any POTs are included on them. Not just because they are not part of the story/lore, but because POTs can be disbanded and deleted at any time by the POT owner and aren't a 100% guaranteed permanent fixture in the game. But I could be wrong...

 

That's a big topic and question that I would love to hear explained and answered. As someone who founded a UO town in 1999 that lives on today even though I UO left in 2004, I think POTs should be permanent fixtures in the world, no matter if the original owner(s) are long gone but how an abandoned POT would continue on permissions wise is a big question.

 

@Birko, Did you also made the in-game maps? Or is your imgur account a collection of SotA maps and was inspired by them?

You see what you want to believe.

I see an inconsistency on how towns are being portrayed on a (otherwise) really well done map. I questioned the map creator and he/she replied explaining his/her point of view. While I may disagree with his/her reasoning, that's up to the creator of the map to decide whenever or not he/she takes and applies my feedback.

I ask these questions because typically, if things aren't clear on something as simple as a map, then it failed to properly convey the information... however pretty it may look.

Similar to your post, I didn't believe I needed to sugar-coat my post.