Basic Features

[romeroej2]

Hi, i just want to say this is a great idea. i would like to get involved but before jumping to it kind of want to understand your direction and roadmap.

I believe to bring traction its critical to implement

a) mini-radar --- so that you can know where to go.
b) progression. --- i mean some sort of leveling.

i mean. i logged in. find a mob. killed it... nothing else to do logged off.

so before i jump into PR and stuff. would really like to understand your direction and what you want.

[Julian-adv]

Thanks for your suggetions.

I have some hesitation about introducing a mini-radar. I'm not sure a minimap is essential for an isometric-view game, but if we do build one, it should be an option that can be toggled on and off. Also, please pay attention to performance. Be careful about having the server send data over a wider range. and we may need to generate high resolution map data for mini-radar.

As for the second item, basic leveling is already implemented, is there something more that's needed?

[simulacre7]

I'd like to take a shot at the mini-radar, and I think it can be built in a way that answers each of the concerns above. Before writing any code I wanted to agree on the shape of a v1.

Why I think it's worth having

The original feedback ("i logged in. find a mob. killed it... nothing else to do logged off") reads to me as a wayfinding problem: the world is 32km × 32km and procedurally generated, so a new player has no way to know that a town, dungeon entrance, or river is 200m off-screen. An always-visible minimap is the cheapest tool that turns "walking blind" into "walking toward something". The full-screen world map (M) already solves this for planning, but not for moment-to-moment orientation while moving.

Proposed v1 — deliberately small

A fixed-size HUD widget (~180px, top-right), rendering:

• Terrain: the existing per-region minimap PNGs already served for WorldMapDialog — same image cache, same −45° rotation so "up on screen" matches "up on the minimap". No new bakes, no new endpoints.
• Markers: only entities the client already receives — self (heading arrow), party members (the existing marker poll from Show party member positions on the world map (#58 step 2) #66), nearby players already in the game store.
• Interaction: click → opens the world map dialog. Nothing else.

┌─ game viewport ──────────────────────┐
│                             ┌──────┐ │
│                             │░░▒▒▒░│ │  ░▒ = terrain (baked region
│                             │░ ↑∙ ░│ │       tiles, rotated −45°)
│                             │░░  ░░│ │  ↑ = self (heading)
│                             └──────┘ │  ∙ = party member
│                                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Addressing the concerns from the earlier reply

• "should be an option that can be toggled" — agreed; a toggle in the settings panel, and I'd wire it into the graphics preset system so it can also be off by default on low presets. Happy to make it default-off everywhere if you prefer.
• "pay attention to performance" — client-only. One small canvas, redrawn only when the player moves a threshold distance or a marker changes (not per frame). Tile images come from the existing world-map cache, which already has a size limit.
• "careful about the server sending data over a wider range" — v1 sends and requests nothing new. It only draws what the client already knows from the existing radius-gated broadcasts. The minimap's visible radius is therefore naturally capped by the server's existing interest radius — I see that as a feature, not a limitation.
• "may need to generate high resolution map data" — out of scope for v1. The zoom level is fixed to what the current region PNGs look reasonable at. If v1 proves useful and a closer zoom is wanted, higher-res bakes can be a separate follow-up.

Explicit non-goals for v1: monster/NPC markers, fog of war, waypoints/pings, any server-side change.

Questions before I start

1. Default on or off?
2. Any preference on corner / size? (top-right ~180px is my starting point)
3. Should low graphics presets force it off, or just default it off?

If this shape looks acceptable I'll follow up with a PR (and screenshots/video from local playtesting). If you'd rather not have a minimap at all, that's fine too — happy to hear what direction you'd prefer for the wayfinding problem.

[Julian-adv]

1. default off
2. top right (just below time widget)
3. default off