Update#77 : Playing With Coordinates and Mapping

Today I came to a decision, to do something which was contrary to what I wanted to do for a long time.

With regards to in-game messaging... My hope was to let the mail formatting system automatically handle the detection and linking of spatial coordinates. As I approached this task, I realized that there was a flaw in my strategy, due to the fact that I would allow proper names to be used in coordinates, to make things nice and easy for users. The problem showed itself when I realized that names could contain spaces, which would be problematic for efficient detection methods...

So, the solution for which I was hesitant but have now embraced, is to use 'tags' in the messages - like BBCode - that players can put around the coordinate that they are trying to share. While this does take a bit of manual work (for which I will try to make a shortcut/action link) it will allow you to link your friends to exactly the position and view level that you want to link them. This is significant because a single point coordinate could be valid for several map views. For example, a basic planet address could be used to view the planet's overview page OR view the planet's surface map. The overall solution carries one further advantage: by using tagging instead of scanning, it helps to avoid some of the processing effort that would otherwise be required to [do all of that stuff].

This brings me to another bit of news regarding mapping and coordinates, with relation to players. I realized that I could make a small expandable icon/link/popup/app-thing... it would be a coordinate validation tool. It would normally be just a small button/icon in teh corner that isn't much, but clicking on it would load a mini-page containing the validator, which you would use to make sure that the coordinate that you're looking to use (or share) is allowable and will work; and also provide various links and transformations for the location.

The validator doodad will also help me a lot with testing and development.


Revealed: A location might have several methods by which to address it. For example, you could refer to a star or planet by either its coordinate OR its given name. It might sound complicated, but you'll enjoy it when you can address your planet by name instead of a collection of letters and numbers!