dat map font

Are they ever going to change this crap? I have to look up a cipher online to read nearly anything on the maps. I can understand the need for flavor, but most of the letters look nothing like what they supposedly represent.

http://i.imgur.com/M2f3c.jpg

I like the Eorzean font! :P Besides, I can generally see what the area is anyway because there is the English text overlay for all of the important spots!

I know one of those is "UNREADABLE" but the others just seem to be gibberish.

I hope they don't change it, I actually like that it doesn't feel like an Japanese/English/French/German based world in a fantasy game -- It has it's own writing style.

^keep it original make it readable

Read This Unreadable Shit

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...

...

I lose

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Originally Posted by Verecund

Read This Unreadable Shit

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I lose

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You were really close the first word is "F*ck", the rest ya got right :D

Also I really enjoy the font, so long as the important stuff has english text also, not a huge problem

I knew there was something special about that first word!

As for the font... it's probably the only thing that makes the map appear like it wasn't generated from a bot.
IMO keep the font, but add a mouseover effect with the English/JP/etc. word for the location involved

I sort of ran through the same thing when I learned Cyrillic, but if you expose yourself more to it and try to read it from the letters you DO know, you can make educated guesses on the whole words and be able to read it better. I think its a fun little thing at least.

B*tch please.

http://i40.tinypic.com/19tpwx.png

Did I bring someone the hype for some certain game?

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Originally Posted by Renshi

B*tch please.

http://i40.tinypic.com/19tpwx.png

Did I bring someone the hype for some certain game?

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mh, delicious.

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Originally Posted by Renshi

B*tch please.

http://i40.tinypic.com/19tpwx.png

Did I bring someone the hype for some certain game?

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Playing the first one right now :p

Just keep this on hand if you are that desperate to read the useless text on the maps

http://www.ffxivmaps.com/img/character_map.png

As I mentioned in the LS, I find it to be interesting in a "Ancient unknown writing" sort of way.... but it does seem a bit awkward to mix both that lettering, and normal lettering together on it.

And to help people out, you would need to at LEAST have the normal letters.

So in the end, I don't really think I can give much input on the subject.

Other than to say "It's not a big enough concern to set up time for SE to work on it."
Over all, SE and other companies choose what to "change" based on its ability to attract new subscriptions, or prevent those from quitting, and how much money they make doing it, vs how much is lost from resources spent adding/changing stuff.

Hell Blizz just SAYING they wouldn't add "Character customization of your outfit, was enough to make me quit. (the 5th or so time)
The announcement they would implement it, wasn't enough to get me back, as other major issues were needing fixed to get me consider playing again.

So... yeah... That happened...

Not a fan of the font, but I assume it exists to keep graphic art costs down for a multilingual game.

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Originally Posted by viion

Just keep this on hand if you are that desperate to read the useless text on the maps

http://www.ffxivmaps.com/img/character_map.png

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LOL ... Thanks :)

I just want to know why the B looks like an E, and the P looks like a B. Oh, and don't forget the T looking like L while the L is an upside down T. I want to hurt whoever designed them. You can come up a font without making the viewer want to blow their brains out.

And don't forget Q looking like a backwards R. Really?

wow, just want everything catered to you. want to destroy the games lore like that . hell why not just make chocobo cars and make city states hotels.

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Originally Posted by indira

wow, just want everything catered to you. want to destroy the games lore like that . hell why not just make chocobo cars and make city states hotels.

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Don't be retarded. We don't want to destroy anything. We just want to be able to actually read our damn maps.

There is a time and a place when it's okay to write things using cryptic hieroglyphics, but maps that people actually have to use isn't it.

Is there actually anything not marked in readable text on the maps that actually matters?

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Originally Posted by MANTASTIC

Are they ever going to change this crap? I have to look up a cipher online to read nearly anything on the maps. I can understand the need for flavor, but most of the letters look nothing like what they supposedly represent.

http://i.imgur.com/M2f3c.jpg

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About half the time I can cross my eyes and read the font, but this is the other half of the time where I can't tell what any one of those four words says. I didn't have a clue until I read through the thread.

I like the celtic feel of the Eorzean font, but I hate that it's unreadable. I tried to read it in the beginning, but it started to make my eyes hurt. Now I just gloss over it.

It makes me feel like Tolkien is chuckling from beyond the grave.

I have to say that on my list of top ten "What the hell where they thinking?" this one is included. I hate that I can't read the Eorzean font.

I think they should do an epic quest chain where, after you complete it, you can read Eorzean font. Sort of like in Final Fantasy X, where you learn to understand Al Bhed.

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Originally Posted by Verecund

IMO keep the font, but add a mouseover effect with the English/JP/etc. word for the location involved

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Best solution presented in this thread as of yet. :D

I like the font. Makes it seems more imersive, like an actual map from eorzea.

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Originally Posted by Raldo

Is there actually anything not marked in readable text on the maps that actually matters?

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No, there is not.

Well, I like it and I hope they don't change it, so.. yeah, there's my opinion.

They already overlayed it on the maps with English, I think the non-critical, non-dialogue flavour stuff should remain in the current font. It's not important you be able to read it instantly and it's just fun interpreting it - which 90% of the time, I can do fine anyway.

I mean half these games just mark in-world signs with unreadable scrawl anyway, and nobody complains about that. Not only did they bother to make a fair few of these things actually say something, they went and had fun doing so, too.

That 'displays standard font when you mouse over it' idea sounded fine, to me, but for taking away rather from reading it yourself (so for me it's a compromise, I'd rather not). Since they're rewriting the engine and map codes anyway they could probably have the game do that on its own as well, rather than having to type it all out twice with manually placed markers as they do now (which kind of looks ugly, too).

Keep complaining about the small things, people. That'll get us somewhere.

Seriously. I think the only thing the dev team would do is just throw in some text above those symbols to tell us what they say.

...oh wait. :O!!!!!!! damn they're good.

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Originally Posted by Teuciont

Keep complaining about the small things, people. That'll get us somewhere.

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Yep, let's make sure there's nothing unique or interesting about the world.

We all complained about Zelda using 'Hylian' language yes? We raised absolute hell to Nintendo for daring to make their world of Hyrule and Termina not seem like a place found in America or Japan.

People always get pissy when someone wants a fantasy game to be realistic, yet they also don't want a fantasy game to be fantasy.

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Originally Posted by viion

No, there is not.

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Well yes and no. 98% of your statement IS correct but, there are areas for example Glen Miller's Lake and general areas such as this one where, you can say, "Yeah got to X&X camp but you need to go south to....W T F does that say? @.@" In instances like that it can at times be a bit painful.

Now, I DO like the look of it but after reading the alphabet part, I do wonder why some of the letters are so far different from the "English bastardized" alphabet. A little different to make them unique is always cool but some what close would be nice.

I think this is a nice compromise.

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Originally Posted by Verecund

IMO keep the font, but add a mouseover effect with the English/JP/etc. word for the location involved

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Originally Posted by Rhianu

Don't be retarded. We don't want to destroy anything. We just want to be able to actually read our damn maps.

There is a time and a place when it's okay to write things using cryptic hieroglyphics, but maps that people actually have to use isn't it.

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I agree with this, even if the infomation on the map is something we dont need to read, it is very annoying having text on there that is impossible to read. Imagine looking at a RL map and half the words are just a ton of jibberish even if you didn't NEED to read them it would still annoy you.

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Originally Posted by Fear

I agree with this, even if the infomation on the map is something we dont need to read, it is very annoying having text on there that is impossible to read. Imagine looking at a RL map and half the words are just a ton of jibberish even if you didn't NEED to read them it would still annoy you.

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Well, if you visit an middle eastern say of arabic/islamic roots in the world, and you look at a map or maps of natives (who don't speak your language or english) you'll see something like:

http://i43.tinypic.com/2rr7190.jpg

Why? Because in that part of the world that's simply what their written language is like, you can't call it jibberish simply because you can't read or understand it.

The game already overlays important things in your appropriate language, we want SE to be creative, yet we don't want to them be creative at the same time.

Some people have nothing better to complain about.

That said, the problem is a WIP where the developers are adding localized labels on the maps.

I like the font, in fact not to long ago i ran an LS event it was a scavenger hunt which consisted of 7 locations with seven riddles each leading to the next location and I did them all in Eorzea font. Fun times indeed.
http://files.enjin.com.s3.amazonaws....nal/225139.jpghttp://www.seraphimls.com/gallery/m/...328#pid=225139

The extra typography detail on maps is fantastic, cartography is a great way to express the lore of XIV.

To OP: Is this really a distressing game mechanic for you or did you just want to type the word "F*ck" and get away with it?

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Originally Posted by Jennestia

Well, if you visit an middle eastern say of arabic/islamic roots in the world, and you look at a map or maps of natives (who don't speak your language or english) you'll see something like:

http://i43.tinypic.com/2rr7190.jpg

Why? Because in that part of the world that's simply what their written language is like, you can't call it jibberish simply because you can't read or understand it.

The game already overlays important things in your appropriate language, we want SE to be creative, yet we don't want to them be creative at the same time.

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Except that analogy doesn't work at all because foreign maps are written to be understandable to their audience, while FFXIV's maps were written to be understandable to nobody.

If you go to a foreign country, then naturally the maps there would be in a different language because they have to be readable by the people who live in that country. The maps were written in the language of the people who would actually be reading them.

The maps in FFXIV, on the other hand, were written in a language that nobody uses, which is ridiculous.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jennestia

Yep, let's make sure there's nothing unique or interesting about the world.

We all complained about Zelda using 'Hylian' language yes? We raised absolute hell to Nintendo for daring to make their world of Hyrule and Termina not seem like a place found in America or Japan.

People always get pissy when someone wants a fantasy game to be realistic, yet they also don't want a fantasy game to be fantasy.

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None of the Zelda games ever use Hylian script on any of the maps or interface, so your point is invalid.

Again, there is a time and a place when using an unreadable hieroglyphic script is okay, but anything in the game's GUI -- anything that actually has to be used -- needs to be in a readable font.

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Originally Posted by Rhianu

Except that analogy doesn't work at all because foreign maps are written to be understandable to their audience, while FFXIV's maps were written to be understandable to nobody.

If you go to a foreign country, then naturally the maps there would be in a different language because they have to be readable by the people who live in that country. The maps were written in the language of the people who would actually be reading them.

The maps in FFXIV, on the other hand, were written in a language that nobody uses, which is ridiculous.



None of the Zelda games ever use Hylian script on any of the maps or interface, so your point is invalid.

Again, there is a time and a place when using an unreadable hieroglyphic script is okay, but anything in the game's GUI -- anything that actually has to be used -- needs to be in a readable font.

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but you dont need to use anything in game in that font everything you need to use is translated

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Originally Posted by Krausus

but you dont need to use anything in game in that font everything you need to use is translated

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Most of the stuff on the map is translated now, but it wasn't when the game first launched. SE only added the labels after they got a ton of complaints about the unreadable text. Unfortunately, these labels look kind of ugly and clutter things up. It would be better if the readable font was used directly on the map textures themselves. Since SE is going to be redoing all the maps anyway in version 2.0, they should remember not to use Eorzeon font on the new maps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rhianu

Don't be retarded. We don't want to destroy anything. We just want to be able to actually read our damn maps.

There is a time and a place when it's okay to write things using cryptic hieroglyphics, but maps that people actually have to use isn't it.

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I think you replied to a troll post? or maybe I did?

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Originally Posted by PanTone

The extra typography detail on maps is fantastic, cartography is a great way to express the lore of XIV.

To OP: Is this really a distressing game mechanic for you or did you just want to type the word "F*ck" and get away with it?

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It was just a minor bitching, I'm amazed the thread got so much attention. Part of me actually likes the font for the flavor it adds to things, but again, having to look elsewhere to interpret the meaning of it breaks game immersion, defeating the point of adding said flavor.

I LOL'D SO F'N HARD WHEN I READ THE TITLE OF THIS TOPIC BECAUSE I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT OP WAS TALKING ABOUT.

SO
MANY
TIMES
I
OPEN
MAP

AND FACE-FREAKING-PALM.

LIKED x10000 to OP,
AND SE FIX NAO!

CAPS CUZ I LOVE ATTN!!!!