Unity map issue or question.

[Fear Grounds]

Not much of a question asker, usually figure it out for myself but this was a last ditch effort for an answer. I'll keep hoping I figure out a better way but I wanted to thank you all for the suggestions.

Are you building the map as you go, or are you just uploading partial maps until getting to the finished map?

[pdegrand]

I did the main world map in wonderdraft and I update it every session with the new towns and forested areas and the like. It is basically just adding a dot for the city and a name or adding some trees for a forest and reuploading.

[Fear Grounds]

The simplest solution would then be for you to upload the whole finished map with whatever Final map name you prefer. Before you share the map, mask off the whole thing, and reveal only the areas and poi's that the players have discovered so far. As they explore new areas, you can reveal the mask exposing the added features as they find them. You could even reveal the entire boarder of the land masses to make sure players know where they are in the big picture of things.

[pdegrand]

Normally I would say that would be the route I take, but it is a custom world that is nowhere near done or my players as usual go off the rails and wander into an area I didn't think I need to have ready. lol

[Fear Grounds]

Ah yes, the dreaded player logic, LOL.

Since you are actually building the world as you play, the mask won't work for you. Without a complete map, you are pretty well stuck having to upload additional maps. Though I would advise getting rid of the previous versions in order to decrease clutter and avoid confusion.

Here's a crazy thought that just hit me, I haven't tried it, so I don't know if it will work. Upload the entire landmass map if you have it finished. When it comes to adding poi's add them inside of unity as assets in the image tools. My theory here is by creating a new drawing layer in order to add the feature, it should refresh the map. Not tested but worth a try at least.

[pdegrand]

Yeah I had thought of that and played with it a bit. From what I can tell it should work except for the naming of the city's. I cant seem to figure out how to quickly do that in unity, only option I could come up with is to do the city label in a photo shop type program and use the stamp tool, or use the built in system to write the notes on the city and drop pins for the players to click on and make them public.

[Fear Grounds]

What I have done, is to share the map and add pins to story entries that give a brief description of the POI. This works really good in city maps, since the map is not covered in text, yet players can quickly and easily see what everything is. For places they haven't explored yet, I don't share the pin with them until they do.

For a regional map, I was thinking more of generic city/town/terrain icons that could easily be stamped where they need to be. I'm pretty sure these assets are a part of any map making software. Then you could drop the pin on them, with the descriptions linked.

If you want the names on the map all the time, I'd recommend photoshop/gimp and export the names as png with transparent backgrounds. Then they should blend in with your map better.