Hide the Map @ Grey Wardens

The Grey Wardens write in with a piece called Hide the Map if You Dungeon Crawl, reminiscing about the days when graph paper was mandatory:

But there was also one other thing. There were graph papers. We would sit in the dark playing and trying to figure out the levels and at the same time map them. Personally, that’s something I miss most nowadays. Playing games has become an industry of its own and today companies develop games for a much broader audience and thus the games become easier.

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More information.

something really is lost with the automap. last time you lived in medeival times did you have the computer automatically do it? or maybe your tag along map gremlin?

I don't know if graph paper can even be done anymore with so much gaming gone real time and smooth scrolling.

I don't know if I'd say, in this case, that games are easier... just, less tedious really. It wasn't so bad if it was limited to a small part of the game though, like in Watcher's Keep, I think it was called, in BG2. I still have that map in my desk drawer...

Lucky Day said:

something really is lost with the automap. last time you lived in medeival times did you have the computer automatically do it? or maybe your tag along map gremlin?

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Last time I was in medieval times I couldn't figure out how to shoot a fireball either. Also, I doubt that all caves were perfectly geometrical.
I don't think it has anything to do with realism - it's about convenience... but when they take away from you something that you 'struggled' to get good at you're certainly going to miss it, no matter how much better the 'new way' is.

holeraw said:

Last time I was in medieval times I couldn't figure out how to shoot a fireball either.

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I have to admit... that was pretty damn funny. :lol:

But even if you turn out the automap. Where in Dragon Age can you actually get lost? The maps are very limited in their basic geometry. I rarely even check the automap.

Grandor Dragon said:

But even if you turn out the automap. Where in Dragon Age can you actually get lost? The maps are very limited in their basic geometry. I rarely even check the automap.

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That might be directly related to the automap actually, if getting lost is improbable then the the need for labyrinthine dungeons is negated. So now we get locations that make sense and look functional (I mean: why would the evil wizard would want to walk for an hour through dark confusing corridors to get to his bedroom every time he came back home from the grocer's?)
Not that I'm saying that it's necessarily better that way mind you. Perhaps taking out that challenge does have an impact on the game's charm. Still, I am personally perfectly capable of getting hopelessly lost in my own neighborhood and as such I never really enjoyed it in games - so I'm grateful that the automap is now an established feature.

Automapping is something I really miss when playing the oldies on pc. If possible, I download un-annotated copies of maps and just write my own legends as I explore. Getting out the graph paper is over-rated

I like automaps, but I don't like hints on them indicating quest-givers, merchants, solutions to quests etc. ...