Implementing In-Game Maps

There's been talk about implementing in-game maps, and some arguments that is shouldn't be done. Here's an suggestion that hopefully could be a more balanced and less immersion-breaking way of doing so.

Essentially, there would be a craftable item called a "Map Data Drive", "Terrain Data Drive" or something like that. They would be quite expensive, likely a mid- to late-game item similar to vehicle upgrade modules. Creating one does not immediately give you a map - it is just an information storage device. Each drive stores map data of a sphere of a fixed radius (up to the developers to decide) around a specific point. There are two ways to write data into a data drive:

1) Seamoth Sonar

First, you anchor the data drive. You "use" it like any other tool, which anchors the drive data to your location. All map data will be of the fixed spherical region around the anchor; any terrain data you attempt to write that is outside of the sphere is simply not written into the drive.

Then, you place the data drive into a Seamoth upgrade slot. If the Seamoth has a Sonar Upgrade, this allows the Seamoth to write sonar data into the data drive. As you pilot the Seamoth, all terrain surfaces within a fixed conical region (the scan is penetrating, but not of infinite range) before the vehicle is written into the data drive. This means that the mapping process is an ongoing endeavor that will take time for you to complete, and that it is impossible to have incomplete maps.

The drive can be taken out or placed back in at any time, with the written data preserved. Attempting to "anchor" the drive when it already contains data will produce a prompt asking if you want to overwrite the existing information; overwriting deletes all the past mapped data instantly and resets the anchor to the new location.

2) Scanner Room

You can "use" the data drive on a scanner room table (the one showing the map data), which saves the scanner room's map into the drive. Locations of resources is not transferred. Attempting to "use" a data drive with pre-existing data will produce a prompt asking if you want to overwrite, similar to the anchoring action.

This makes Scanner Rooms more valuable, as they are a much quicker method of creating maps.

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Terrain/Map Data Drives can be used in several ways: in vehicles, in a scanner room and in your PDA.

1) In vehicles

A Map Data Drive can be placed into an upgrade slot of a vehicle just like any other upgrade module. For Seamoths and PRAWN suits, a 3-D map (basically a smaller version of that seen in a scanner room) is shown in a corner of the screen. Exactly how this would work is unknown, as the UI is not yet finalized. It would be possible to expand the map to fill the entire vehicle screen with a toggle, allowing a better view of the map. Your location is marked and the direction of the map synced to your vehicle direction, similar to the Seaglide interface, but obviously with actual 3-D terrain instead of a top-down heightmap.

The Cyclops would be the same. Only instead of a button toggle, you would actually click on the map to expand/shrink it. There could also be options to rotate/scale/transform the map so that it can be seen better.

2) In a Scanner Room

In a Scanner Room, you would be able to place the data drive as an upgrade module. The data would show up on the Scanner Room map table-interface-thingy instead of the local terrain. Taking the drive out returns it to the regular map.

3) In PDA
You would be able to load the data drive in your PDA by clicking on it in the inventory interface, just as food is eaten. This brings up an interactive map in your PDA interface, which you can rotate, scale and translate through. You would obviously not be able to move while doing this.


I believe that this type of in-game map would be costly and unhelpful enough that it would be mainly used for base areas or specific locations, such as difficult-to-navigate caves and the lava castle. As a result, they would be more of a navigational aid for extreme cases and formal records for unique formations (loading up the lava castle in a Scanner Room would be interesting, for example). For those people who want to build bases all over the map, scan every single object and collect every species in aquariums, mapping every biome would probably be equally attractive.

One problem is that I'm pretty sure that at the moment, Scanner Room maps are topographical, i.e. basically heightmaps. Optimally, these maps would be three-dimensional, allowing the mapping of complex caves and structures. This would make transferring data/imagery between the Scanner Rooms and data drives difficult to implement.

Thoughts?

(Yes, I know that the devs don't really read these, and that no major new features are coming before 1.0. Just let me dream.)