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Compass Item


DoritoS

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I can't tell you how many times friends and I have been trying to lead a relatively new player to a landmark so we can meet up in game. The compass item would function much like a digital watch. Once in your inventory, a small compass would appear in one of the corners of your screen indicating the direction you're facing. It's a bit hard to believe this isn't an item yet. As for where they would spawn, I would suggest them showing up fairly commonly in residential areas, like your spawning locations and more rarely on zombies. Obviously you want the player to find one within the first half a dozen houses they loot because they're especially useful early game. If you're exploring the deep woods to find a cabin it would be very useful as well.

Edited by DoritoS
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What does camera rotation have to do with anything? You turn your character to face a direction, the pin on the compass moves to tell you the direction. Some compasses have the degrees along the outer edges for even more accurate navigation. That's something even an advanced player could use in the wilderness. There's no possible way to communicate that to a new player. I asked some of the new players in my group whether they'd like to see a compass in game and so far it's a resounding yes.

dual-compass-rose.png

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2 hours ago, DoritoS said:

What does camera rotation have to do with anything?

 

You can't adjust the camera so your view never changes and neither does the direction of North, South etc. W + D at the same time, you're facing North. A+S is South.

 

2 hours ago, DoritoS said:

Some compasses have the degrees along the outer edges for even more accurate navigation.

 

Your character can only face 8 directions so would anymore than an 8 point compass be necessary?

Edited by OffitMan
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44 minutes ago, OffitMan said:

 

You can't adjust the camera so your view never changes and neither does the direction of North, South etc. W + D at the same time, you're facing North. A+S is South.

 

 

Your character can only face 8 directions so would anymore than an 8 point compass be necessary?

 

A compass like the one above is overkill, yea. I just posted it as reference because the face also has the markings for degrees. Imagine a much simpler version of that. The player is still capable of traveling in 360° of direction. For example:

 

player A: I'm at the school

Player B: Where's that?

Player A: Head East at about a 120° angle

 

You literally can't miss the school because if you're not traveling at a 120° angle you know you're on the wrong street. Without the compass you say "go East" and the guy runs past you because there's like 20 streets that go East, gets lost, you gotta run around and find him, it's a mess. If you're trying to look for a cabin in the middle of the woods it's even harder. Some residential areas are huge with hardly any landmarks, and not everyone has been playing long enough to know what"I'm at that house with the box on the porch" means. There's no street names either.

Edited by DoritoS
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3 hours ago, DoritoS said:

You literally can't miss the school because if you're not traveling at a 120° angle you know you're on the wrong street. Without the compass you say "go East" and the guy runs past you because there's like 20 streets that go East, gets lost, you gotta run around and find him, it's a mess.

 

I get what you're saying but most of the fun in this game occurs when things don't go to plan. Plus, if you're just dishing out coordinates to people, they'll never learn the map for themselves because people will just blindly follow instructions given, rather than trying to take note of whats around them.

 

There are plenty of things you can do/use to make navigation easier. In the past, my group have used clothes or corpses on the ground at a junction to indicate a turn you need to make (for example: bright coloured clothes mean left turn, dark clothes mean right turn). There's also the online map and in-game maps (though I've always thought it'd be cool to be able to trace in-game maps onto blank paper with a pen/pencil, especially in MP when its difficult to find multiple versions of the same map). Try to find a creative solution, rather than everything being spoon-fed.

Edited by OffitMan
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It can actually be pretty frustrating too. If you invite 5+ newer players and it takes over half an hour just to meet up because people get bit in the process. A lot of people are just trying the game or only play very casually. They just want to meet up with their friends and have a fun experience. You can already spend hours just making a base. I'd like to make it clear this is the OPTION to pick up an item which will help players. A compass is one of the most basic features of nearly any survival game. what youre describing can be viewed negatively, as a work around for a missing feature. I agree that you CAN have fun when things dont go to plan tho.

Edited by DoritoS
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Seems redundant, since the screen is the compass. It makes it very easy to guess the angle of 120 degrees with the characters facing.

 

With the highways as they are, all you really have to do is walk in a specific Direction and you'll have a landmark for most areas on the map.

 

if you just want to meet up with friends why not teleport them to coordinates instead?

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1 minute ago, EnigmaGrey said:

Seems redundant, since the screen is the compass. It makes it very easy to guess the angle of 120 degrees with the characters facing.

 

With the highways as they are, all you really have to do is walk in a specific Direction and you'll have a landmark for most areas on the map.

 

if you just want to meet up with friends why not teleport them to coordinates instead?

 

XD I'd like people to get the full experience not use admin powers for everything. Using the screen for referrence sounds like a work around again, which is fine, but it can be seen negatively. I just don't really understand all the criticism for such a simple item lol

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So, for a little persepective. I'm seeing the same argument against the compass "it's redundant because of X work around". I'd like to point out that the same argument could be made against the digital watch and everyone seems happy with that item. It's not necessary to know the time and its not like you can't tell its getting dark either, but it's nice.

 

I forgot to mention some of us use a controller with a usb adaptor, including myself and as far as im aware you can't use the keyboard to right yourself North.

Edited by DoritoS
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No, that comparison does not fly.

 

For one: you can't see the sky in Project zomboid. However you can see the cardinal directions due to the fixed camera angle.

 

For two: the light levels vary each day and based on the weather. Though you could probably guess the approximate time, you probably won't be very accurate. Where is, you can get your bearing directly from the facing of the character.

 

I've no idea what the "right yourself North" thing means. Press w and d?

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I'm perfectly aware you can get a general sense of North S, E, W. What you can't do is lead a new player to your location accurately, especially in a large residential, or wooded area, or very easily finf something yourself unless you use landmarks or leave breadcrumbs.

 

Pretend youre in a new city just added to the game and you want to get back to it, unless you remember every turn you got some searching ahead of you. Now if you have a compass it's easy. You just remember "oh it was West at 270 degrees"

 

You have a decent idea when the sun will set if you know how fast an hour passes in your game. The point of the example is that knowing the time is hardly essential, and theres even multiple items capable to doing it.

 

What i mean is, while using a controller you cant face your character North usi g a shortcut (that I,m aware).

Edited by DoritoS
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I might see what you're getting at. For greater distances, telling someone which corner of their screen to follow is not a fine enough reference (basically between corners and sides you have a 45°) and they'll need frequent course correcting. With a compass item overlaying finer degrees (perhaps 15°), you could better direct players over larger distances.

 

I support this. I know exactly what you mean with trying to shephard super casual players.

 

My workaround has been to host locally and set only one spawn point so we start off together. Alternatively you ask everyone to spawn in one of the smaller towns.

 

I like that meta navigation is limited in this game because it does force you to get creative and realistic, but there is a gap between realistic and fun in the situation you describe. Compass seems like an alright way to bridge that gap without really compromising anywhere.

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Occationally things get frustrating and we do, do that, the adventage of spawning seperate is a greater chance to finding the rarer items, especially if loot is set to rare.

 

I believe it's both more realistic and fun to add compasses as loot. I mean, just on your block there's probably at least 1 guy with a compass in his house right? That's really all I'm asking for in terms of rarity.

 

I think legible street names would be fine as well, both preferably.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree that- there needs to be a better way to figure out where you are. I get lost really bad because the maps are horrible low detail quality. even if I look at the map of the place I'm at, I can never figure out where on the map I am. It's way to vague and low detail to figure it out so I don't even bother picking up maps anymore or just use them as firewood. a better map with much higher detail would be really useful so that I could actually guess myself where I am. I always get lost and can never find my base ever again after being chased by zombies which spawn like a tsunami just because I get inside of a car. Not only that but the cars are always extremely loud even if I selected the easy cars option with lowest sound possible. I don't know if that's a bug or something. If I go walking it's because I'm moving on, never to find the same place twice. this can be fun but also depressing that I can't make a base and actually use it. another problem I notice is that if I go into the wilderness I'm permanently lost and can wander or drive for hours on end and never see civilization ever again. I'm not stupid or anything, I just have no way to get good and learn because there is no entry point where I can start to grasp. I hope my suggestions help make the game better! peace :)

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2 hours ago, bobthejob said:

I agree that- there needs to be a better way to figure out where you are. I get lost really bad because the maps are horrible low detail quality. even if I look at the map of the place I'm at, I can never figure out where on the map I am. It's way to vague and low detail to figure it out so I don't even bother picking up maps anymore or just use them as firewood. a better map with much higher detail would be really useful so that I could actually guess myself where I am. I always get lost and can never find my base ever again after being chased by zombies which spawn like a tsunami just because I get inside of a car. Not only that but the cars are always extremely loud even if I selected the easy cars option with lowest sound possible. I don't know if that's a bug or something. If I go walking it's because I'm moving on, never to find the same place twice. this can be fun but also depressing that I can't make a base and actually use it. another problem I notice is that if I go into the wilderness I'm permanently lost and can wander or drive for hours on end and never see civilization ever again. I'm not stupid or anything, I just have no way to get good and learn because there is no entry point where I can start to grasp. I hope my suggestions help make the game better! peace :)

 

Maps do need to be updated; I don't bother with them either. You can however use this; https://map.projectzomboid.com/#

 

I'm not as experienced with mechanics as some, but I think cars inherently have a "loudness level" for lack of a better term, which you can reduce with a performance muffler for that model of car.

 

Going into the woods is like a fucking death trap honestly. Even with the map I posted above, a direction of travel, and another friend we got lost trying to find a cabin. We ran past it twice before finally finding the damn thing and afterwards we built a sign to mark our entry point into the woods. Even then you could easily be moving a couple degrees off and miss it.

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On 6.11.2018 at 5:17 PM, DoritoS said:

It can actually be pretty frustrating too. If you invite 5+ newer players and it takes over half an hour just to meet up because people get bit in the process. A lot of people are just trying the game or only play very casually. They just want to meet up with their friends and have a fun experience.

I bet it would be more fun for those new players running arround hours to find a compass so you can finally lead them to youre location.

 

Get yourself and your friends a Compass Sticker in the top right corner of your monitor. But i guess you would just get lost in the woods again. Thats by the way on of the purposes of those cabin's to not to be found by anyone.

 

Better Maps and even Street names are good ideas but thats a different topic.

Edited by Crashdummy11880
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On 11/17/2018 at 2:45 AM, DoritoS said:

 

Maps do need to be updated; I don't bother with them either. You can however use this; https://map.projectzomboid.com/#

 

I'm not as experienced with mechanics as some, but I think cars inherently have a "loudness level" for lack of a better term, which you can reduce with a performance muffler for that model of car.

 

Going into the woods is like a fucking death trap honestly. Even with the map I posted above, a direction of travel, and another friend we got lost trying to find a cabin. We ran past it twice before finally finding the damn thing and afterwards we built a sign to mark our entry point into the woods. Even then you could easily be moving a couple degrees off and miss it.

Thank you! wont load for me though :(  I agree it easy to get lost.

 

 

it would be amazing to find a GPS in the game and slap a aa battery in it and punch in an X.Y.Z coord and follow it wherever. will always work because solar power sattelites lol

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  • 3 weeks later...

Personally i cant see the point in a compass but i am curios how you would give someone directional instructions when you dont know where they are. if i was to spawn in westpoint and you say go east 120 degrees ill head off at a run and expect to come across you. but turns out i spawned in the motel and your camped in the hardware store which is west of the motel. i would end up running straight out of town. If you know the map well enough to work out where someone has spawned and say oh you need to go west. you know it well enough to say head out the front door, turn left and cross the junction im in the second shop on your left.

 

the same goes for finding cabins in the woods. they are meant to be stumbled on. if you have found one with out the online map you know which direction the road is in because you came from it so walk in a straight line and make a mark so you can find it again. if your using the online map you pick a spot that has a straight line to where you want and walk it. ive spent many days lost in the woods looking for a collection of cabins only to find the trees had grown and obscured the path i was looking for id passed it several times.

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16 hours ago, Laird Thaddeus said:

Personally i cant see the point in a compass but i am curios how you would give someone directional instructions when you dont know where they are. if i was to spawn in westpoint and you say go east 120 degrees ill head off at a run and expect to come across you. but turns out i spawned in the motel and your camped in the hardware store which is west of the motel. i would end up running straight out of town. If you know the map well enough to work out where someone has spawned and say oh you need to go west. you know it well enough to say head out the front door, turn left and cross the junction im in the second shop on your left.

 

the same goes for finding cabins in the woods. they are meant to be stumbled on. if you have found one with out the online map you know which direction the road is in because you came from it so walk in a straight line and make a mark so you can find it again. if your using the online map you pick a spot that has a straight line to where you want and walk it. ive spent many days lost in the woods looking for a collection of cabins only to find the trees had grown and obscured the path i was looking for id passed it several times.

 

I cant spend a long time responding to this right now because I'm at work, but the compass would make giving directions to new players more simple in that all you need to do is face your character in their direction to know where they should go. It's easier to say "East 120 degrees" than it is to give a bunch of landmarks that they ask you about 4 times and still get lost.

 

How exactly do you know you're going straight without a compass? You don't. You can think you're going straight and EASILY be off a couple degrees completely missing the cabin. I've been looking at the online map running "straight" towards a cabin with multiple people and we still missed the damn thing, it's not hard.

 

Compasses would be a fantastic addition to Zomboid for several reasons. I'm honestly dumbfounded by the backlash. They're 1) realistic. I guarentee at least 1 person on your block owns a compass, so why wouldn't you find one as a surviver? 2) optional. Wanna use a bunch of weird half-measures like dead bodies at intersections? Go for it. 3) Helpful. As I said, they're good for new and experienced players and in time, appriciated. Especially as the map keeps growing.

Edited by DoritoS
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  • 6 months later...
On 12/6/2018 at 8:33 PM, DoritoS said:

 

I cant spend a long time responding to this right now because I'm at work, but the compass would make giving directions to new players more simple in that all you need to do is face your character in their direction to know where they should go. It's easier to say "East 120 degrees" than it is to give a bunch of landmarks that they ask you about 4 times and still get lost.

 

How exactly do you know you're going straight without a compass? You don't. You can think you're going straight and EASILY be off a couple degrees completely missing the cabin. I've been looking at the online map running "straight" towards a cabin with multiple people and we still missed the damn thing, it's not hard.

 

Compasses would be a fantastic addition to Zomboid for several reasons. I'm honestly dumbfounded by the backlash. They're 1) realistic. I guarentee at least 1 person on your block owns a compass, so why wouldn't you find one as a surviver? 2) optional. Wanna use a bunch of weird half-measures like dead bodies at intersections? Go for it. 3) Helpful. As I said, they're good for new and experienced players and in time, appriciated. Especially as the map keeps growing.

I fully support idea of compass. plus people will actually learn how to use it (you cant imagine how many people cannot use compass in real life). also it will allow you to write instructions for other player on piece of paper ( from position x travel 2min south east after 5min south after 15 min west - we are there). Which will make kind of nice urban game for everyone. (nd yes when you have clock you can use time as distance so there you go)

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But again, having a fixed camera means that the cardinal directions are literally the edges of your screen. 

 

You can already do this in other words. The only thing you can't necessarily do is have more than 8 directions without guessing somewhat.

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On 6/12/2019 at 6:40 AM, EnigmaGrey said:

But again, having a fixed camera means that the cardinal directions are literally the edges of your screen. 

 

You can already do this in other words. The only thing you can't necessarily do is have more than 8 directions without guessing somewhat.

This guessing over any real distance is useless. A bearing down to the degree is necessary but equally useless unless you could figure out your course with an added feature to the online map or something. Or, pairing a compass with a map item to set bearings for your journeys would also be wicked.

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