A problem with The Black Parade's map. - by Bup
Bup on 6/1/2024 at 21:22
Hey guys, would you be kind enough to hear my plight?
I've been playing The Black Parade lately. The maps are absolutely sick. They're super atmospheric and just straight up massive, though I have one issue.
The map doesn't indicate in which area I am. Is it supposed to be like this? Call me a little baby but it really messes with me because I want to explore as much as I want, and I inevitably get really lost in these huge maps.
Yandros on 7/1/2024 at 12:24
What you're referring to are called automaps, and the vast majority of fan missions don't have them, including the ones for TBP.
Bup on 7/1/2024 at 14:36
Quote Posted by Yandros
What you're referring to are called automaps, and the vast majority of fan missions don't have them, including the ones for TBP.
Ah nuts, that's the answer I was afraid of...
Thanks for taking the time to answer. I guess I need to grit my teeth a bit.
R Soul on 7/1/2024 at 14:51
Unless things have changed with NewDark, Thief 1 only uses one highlight for where you are and where you've been, so it's of limited use in missions where the player is likely to revisit some places.
One thing I started doing in TBP was using the text annotations to mark each area I visited. A letter v (close to being a tick) or a * usually works. I first did this in mission 7 which has a detailed map and it helped a lot. It would have worked nicely in mission 3 and 6 (I did this in m6 on my second playthrough). For other missions the maps are more vague but a similar system will probably help as long as you can work out which bit of the map matches what you can see in game.
vfig on 7/1/2024 at 14:58
Quote Posted by R Soul
Unless things have changed with NewDark, Thief 1 only uses one highlight for where you are and where you've been, so it's of limited use in missions where the player is likely to revisit some places.
no; thief 1 does not show where you have been at all, it only highlights the area you are in. the highlight for where you have been was added in thief 2 (along with the optional feature for a map to be filled out as you explore, as in Casing/Masks).
the ability to add annotations to the map was also a new feature in thief 2, but newdark brings that to thief 1 missions as well. i, too, made notes on the maps in most of TBP to keep track of where i had been, and which rooms i had looted.
TriangleTooth on 8/1/2024 at 23:55
What might cause some confusion is that Thief 1 uses blue to highlight where you are, while Thief 2 uses blue to highlight where you have been (and white-yellow glow to indicate where you are currently).
As I understand it automaps are something of an ordeal to implement and hence many FMs do not?
vfig on 9/1/2024 at 00:20
Quote Posted by TriangleTooth
As I understand it automaps are something of an ordeal to implement and hence many FMs do not?
your observation about the colours is correct. but making automaps — especially thief 1 style where it highlights a general area rather than room by room — are quite easy, especially with some of the tools the community has made. its a little bit harder if you didnt plan for it before roombrushing, and a small amount of mildly tedious work to test it. for a new fm author its understandable not to have one, but for an experienced fm author it should be a no-brainer.
nicked on 9/1/2024 at 13:55
Unless it's a stylistic/realism choice because in real life you don't have glowing bits on a piece of parchment.
Twist on 9/1/2024 at 16:13
I should just let them speak for themselves, but I suspect in The Black Parade's case it's a matter of having large, complex maps combined with an interative design process involving multiple authors.
It seems they're planning on patches/fixes. I don't know if it's possible or if that ship has already sailed, but I wonder if they'll implement some automapping in a future patch.
One consistent criticism I've seen of TBP is how a number of people have found some of the missions a bit too overwhelming or confusing. Some automapping might allay that criticism.
marbleman on 9/1/2024 at 16:55
Automap support is not currently planned.
