Hi Jeremy,
See comments in-line.
Grace,
As to players not giving out info, that's possible, though it doesn't
seem to be nearly as common as it once was. However, I'll freely
admit, I like to encourage people to explore myself.
However, that said, there's a number of ways to handle your navigation
issues
1. One friend of mine writes down notes about where he is whenever he
accepts a quest and what the text of the quest is so he knows where to
go back.
Having to make and then scroll through heaps of notes can be very time
consuming. If more comprehensive information were provided this would
not be necisary.
2. Alter does have a coordinate system. While i'ts not super useful
for every situation, it can give general ideas of where areas are. If
a quest gives a location you think you recognize, looking in the area
list for that area name and is coordinates can at least give a general
direction.
Not all areas are findable via this method. Also coordinates will give
you a very very general idea and you may just end up wandering around
in circles chasing your tail.
3. Asking people where a specific mob or town is usually gets results
or at least a general direction.
I'd say you get useful results about half the time. Otherwise you get
people telling you that you should explore which is very disheartening
if that is what you have been doing for the past half hour. Telling
someone to explore is not providing helpful information. The less
condescending thing to do is to not say anything at all.
4. You can map A.A. on excel, but you just have to take into account
that room sizes vary a lot. A far better way that I found was to use
a series of directions (something like the speed walk instructions on
aardwolf) but include landmarks. So something like this go all west
from Ralnoth until you encounter a biomantically enhanced tree, go
around the tree to the north or south and get back on an east west
line til you see a lamp post. Then go south and trend west til you're
on a fading road. Go all west then north then one east and you're 1
room south of the green dragon.
The directions above would be exactly the type of instructions
required in a tool giving directions between areas on Alter. These
directions would not work in an explorable dungion which is where
being able to create maps would be useful.
Landmarks, the nearby command, the various map commands map -old, map
-explored, map -blind, all help as does the coordinate system. No one
of them is perfect, but combined they can make a powerful set of ways
to find places again.
Having a few simplified tools for navigating would provide a much more
streamlined less frustrating user experience.
Lastly, you can if you have people who are interested in it form
direction maps to areas. My clan actually did this, then the mud map
changed significantly. We started again, and while it's an ongoing
and frustrating process (the map keeps changing)) it does help.
This is the issue with the clan system. Information is kept within a
small group of people and not shared with the wider community.
I hope that helps,
Jeremy
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