Improving maps readability

Hello,

After more than one year spent wandering in Eorzea, I decided to be brave and ask something that was slowly killing me:

Am I the only one to think that our maps (both the mini map and the big one) are everything but clear and could use a bit of improvement?

Especially now that every area is designed on more levels, I think it's so painful trying to figure out whether the quest mark is just hidden around me or in a totally different place. I think icons should change according to your position, so that you know if you need to "climb" or descend something.

I know we are supposed to "explore" and I'm totally ok with disclosing the map a little by little, I'm just questioning the current readability of our maps: mountains, walls, stairs etc should be highlighted somehow once you have explored the 100% of the map.

I spent half an hour looking for an item which according to my map was near me and I had to look it on the internet to figure out I had to find a stair to reach another area of that very same location.

I agree with you. I'm playing for a few days now, but I already feel map should be improved!

Agreed. Admittedly, it is rather hard to clearly show three dimensional areas on two dimensional maps, but I think they could do it better than our current ones. Have it clearly show just what's at or near our current level, with grayed out icons for places at higher or lower altitudes and lighter or darker shaded areas showing where we can ascend/descend to those different parts of the map. Then, just as we can move a cursor around the map, allow us to shift the map up or down along its z-axis, so different areas get highlighted until we find which elevation our desired destination lies at.

There is a little of this at the south-east corner of Eastern Thanalan, and there's that area of Ul'dah's Steps of Thal where it switches between two maps without a region-change boundary as you go up or down a flight of steps, but there's a lot more areas that could use this sort of map logic and don't currently have it.

oh god.. the maps in this game need some SERIOUS redesign.. I wish it could just be one whole map where we could see everything. They could do some section off things where if you click on it it will like.. zoom in and show you more detail.

But my biggest gripe are the aethernets.. I never know which one is the one I need to go to.... >.<

I sit staring at the map.. then looking at the options an aethernet gives me.. then the map again... and so on, until I find out which option is the one I need to click on to get where I need to go. They should just label the aethernets IN THE MAP as they're named in the options they give you.. instead of placing it in an area, which in some cases has like 5 different names, and then choosing one of those names for the options.. making me have to look through the entire map for that area so that I know which aethernet takes me where.. >.<

It's an issue I face a lot as a relatively new player...

The 3D detail of the new areas, included with all the "seek out" work, aye, it's an utter pisser to get "The nearest Aether Current is 6 yalms north..." only to realize it's also 50 yalms straight up, or down, from your current position.

Need a Z-axis coordinate, stat!

They definitely need layered maps, considering the vertical nature of the geography in Heavensward. Being able to set waypoints with distance tracking in yalms would be fantastic as well, though I've always felt it might feel out of place in a game like this. It works in sci-fi games like Firefall, but I dunno. Immersion and whatnot.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Agreed. Admittedly, it is rather hard to clearly show three dimensional areas on two dimensional maps

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Bethesda managed it with Skyrim's map.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

There is a little of this at the south-east corner of Eastern Thanalan, and there's that area of Ul'dah's Steps of Thal where it switches between two maps without a region-change boundary as you go up or down a flight of steps, but there's a lot more areas that could use this sort of map logic and don't currently have it.

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This. I wish they could take into consideration changing the way maps are displayed ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Souljacker

Bethesda managed it with Skyrim's map.

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Only on outdoor maps. Used a version of the world height map for it.

The map in this game is absolutely garbage, and the Eorzean script is unreadable to me. Quest markers on the map, as well as objectives, are marked poorly and the minimap is useless. A compass would have been better.