/tg/Station 13

One of the reasons the newer maps like Delta and Kilo are less played is because people don't know their way around.

The signs only show general direction.

Hospitals and other large buildings sometimes use lines on the floor or walls to help people find their way around. Valve used them in Half-Life, and they seemed like a natural part of the environment. The gameplay function was invisible.

We already have floor decals to use for this. The only problem is they're a pain to map, like old cables. It'd be better if they worked like smart cables. Smart cables don't need a direction set and connect to adjacent cables by themselves. You'd only need to specify a pixel offset so more than one line could go on the same tile without overlapping.

https://tgstation13.org/wiki/Guide_to_wire_art

Use this thing with spray cans whats the issue

nobody ever makes pipe painter so maybe this will give it purpose? is it possible to make those pipes premapped

You can try pixel shifting the current line decals to see why this wouldn't work, they won't properly line up with the tiles anymore if you change direction

It's overkill anyway, you just need to color code the proximity/hallways leading into the departments to help people find their way around. Some map do this but not always.

What do you think of a pinpointer that points to some atom unique to each department and present on each map, like their mulebot beacons (assuming those still exist)?

We should use a special entry airlock or a map-placed marker that would go over the entry airlock. There's many strategies that would work once we have that, such as building an adjacency map, using A*, or taking an angle using simple trig. From there displaying the information to the player is an open book. Draw dynamic lines leading there? Why not! An arrow pointing in that direction? Very easy! Highlights on the hallway airlocks and intersections? Sure! Graphics on the status screens? Fuck it, the world's our oyster.