Below is a suggestion that I first posted on the RuneScape forums shortly after they removed NESW from the in-game compass, written in response to all the complaints from players who could not figure out where they needed to go because they never properly learned how to read a compass. I understand that this change made it easier to translate to foreign languages, however not all players have as thorough an education in navigating, and hopefully this quest will be both entertaining, and educational. My suggestion below contains both the main story/quest, and then a repeatable minigame afterwards for some additional small rewards and help learning to read the compass. In this article, I've initially reposted the minigame and quest in story version, but then afterwards posted it again in a more explanatory (rather than as a story) version.
Btw, for those who are confused, Bomberdanium is me, I've just changed my online identity to be Adarajin somewhat more recently than when I first wrote up this suggestion. Just ignore the long dashed lines - the forums have a 2,000 character limit and I had to break it up into posts for that, and never bothered to pull the lines back out before posting it on my own personal site.
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STORY VERSION OF TELLING THE SUGGESTION:
THE MINIGAME:
Disclaimer: The n00by main character of this story ‘Jeska’ is a completely
fictional character, I apologize if there actually is a player by this username
and do not mean to call them a n00b.
Fresh from Tutorial Island, Jeska has just arrived as a brand new active player
of that great game that we like to call RuneScape. He finds himself in the main
courtyard of a castle, surrounded by other people. He has heard from his friends
that Varrock is the place to go if you ever need to buy something, so he decides
to go see if he can find this place. Heading off, then making a left out of the
courtyard, he decides to follow the path for a bit to see where it takes him.
Getting bored of looking for this place called ‘Varrock’, he decides to leave
the path and see if he can find someone to give him directions. Spotting some
players chopping at a really tall tree, he thinks "Wow, that’s a big tree, if
they are able to chop that, they MUST know where this Varrock place is".
Jeska: Excuse me, but do you know where Varrock is?
Woodcutter1:
Woodcutter2:
Jeska: Hello? I just started playing, could you please help me to find my way to
Varrock?
Woodcutter1:
Woodcutter2:
Jeska: Hmmmm...guess you aren’t feeling talkative today, I’ll go find someone
else to ask.
Continuing to head in the direction that he was heading, he soon spots some
players killing goblins. This time, the players are nice enough to tell them
where to go - East across the river, then North. Oh, and be careful to run past
the dark wizards real quickly. Now that he has directions, Jeska heads off, in a
slightly different direction from before because he doesn’t think that there is
a river in the direction that he is going right now.
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Keeping an eye out for those dark wizards that he was warned about, he suddenly
finds himself under attack. ‘What the, there aren’t any dark wizards around,
what’s attacking me?’. Standing right next to him jabbing with a sword is
a...mugger? They didn’t warn him about - wait, where am I now? I’m back where I
started. Oh well, obviously that wasn’t the right way to go, maybe I’ll go the
different way this time, a large city such as Varrock is supposed to be MUST
have a graveyard nearby.
After getting killed by a rat this time, he decides that it is time to ask for
some serious help. Spotting a player with the name Hans appearing in yellow over
his head, he heads on over and starts to talk to them. To his amazement, it's as
easy as just choosing from a list of options what to say, and one of the options
is asking for help navigating around the map.
Hans: Well, the first thing you need to know about navigating your way around is
how to use a compass, that will tell you what way you are going making it easier
for others to tell you where you need to go. Here, have why don’t you follow the
directions on this scroll for a bit, then come back when you are finished and
I’ll give you a little something for your trouble.
Reading the scroll, Jeska sees that it starts off by telling him to look at the
compass located up and left of the mini-map. N shows what direction is North,
and if North is pointing up, West is to the Left, East is to the Right, and
South is straight down, or behind you. The first direction on the scroll is to
move 3 squares West. Well, that’s easy enough, just walk to the left a bit.
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"Wait, what’s happening to me?" Jeska cries, "Everything is spinning in
circles!!!" After a moment or so, both his character and the camera have
finished spinning around, and the next direction is being displayed. Move 2
squares North. Easy enough, just go straight forward and - why is it telling me
that I’m going the wrong way and I need to check my compass? North is forward
isn’t it? Checking his mini-map, Jeska sees that the N is pointing to the right.
Turning the camera until it is pointing up again, he tries to move forwards.
This time, the scroll is telling him well done, and suddenly he is spinning
again.
Next, he is asked to head East. But wait, he can’t remember which way is East,
maybe he’d better just head in random directions a few times and hope he gets
lucky. First, he turns the camera so that N is up, and then heads backwards -
nope, that’s not it, that’s South. Maybe to the left? No, that’s not it
either... yay, now it’s telling him all 4 directions again, East is to the Right.
After a few more directions, the scroll is telling him to go talk to any of the
helpers to claim a prize. Donie is standing nearby, and her name is on the list,
so Jeska wanders over and receives a Newcomer Map and some shrimp to eat if he
gets low on health. She also asks if he would like to learn the compass some
more. Since he is still a bit confused, he says yes and off he goes. This time
he talks to Han again, and receives another map, along with a few gold pieces.
Wanting to make certain that he properly knows his directions, he continues to
go through this little game, and gets some more food, armor, coins, and of
course, a bunch of extra maps. He just dumps the extras on the ground though,
someone else can use them, he already has plenty.
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THE QUEST:
Then, one time after following the directions of where to walk, instead of some
useful item reward, the helper hands him a raggedy old book. "Wait a second,
this isn’t something I can use!" he thinks to himself, and talks to Gee again to
complain.
Gee: Would you like to learn your directions again?
Jeska: NO! I’d like to have a reward that I can use for my last one!
Gee: Oh? And why can’t you use the last reward?
Jeska: Because it’s just a stupid raggedy old book, that’s why.
Gee: Oh, that old thing - it’s some notes on some strange experiment or other, I
thought that it might be helpful to you.
Jeska: How would it be helpful to me if I can’t understand it?
Gee: Maybe you should ask someone knowledgeable on old things about it? I hear
that the Curator at the Varrock Museum is quite informed in that sort of thing.
Jeska: But I don’t know where Varrock is.
Gee: Just head East across the river to where the goblins are, then North until
you get to Varrock. You DO know what way North and East are right?
Jeska: Yes, thanks for the help.
Following the directions that he’s finally able to understand, Jeska soon finds
his way to Varrock (quickly running past those dark wizards that he was warned
about before of course). Wandering around, he eventually finds the Museum and
its Curator. Unfortunately however, these notes are on a MAGICAL experiment, so
it’s nothing that he would know about. Jeska should go talk to one of the
wizards at the Wizards Tower to find out more about this experiment. Instead of
telling Jeska how to get to this Wizards Tower however, he says to use the World
Map to find his way, with a reminder to properly orient himself to North before
heading off so he doesn’t end up going in the wrong direction.
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Once at the Wizards Tower, down in the basement (after all, that’s where all the
REAL magic occurs), Jeska found the wise and knowledgeable wizard Sedridor.
Letting Sedridor read the scroll, Jeska waited for the answer as to how this
scroll would be useful.
Sedridor: What’s this? This seems to be talking about combining a lizard with a
piece of magnetic metal, but that’s just crazy. No one around here would ever do
anything like that.
Jeska: Are you certain that there is no one else who might know more about this
though?
Sedridor: Well, there has been rumor of a crazy old scientist that has been
living up in the Draynor Manor, perhaps he might know something?
Jeska: Thanks, I’ll go talk to him now.
Making his way to Draynor Manor, then to the top floor, Jeska finally encounters
the owner of the experiment, Professor Oddenstein.
Professor Oddenstein: Ah, thank you, you found my old Journal, I was wondering
where that had gotten too.
Jeska: Not so fast, I was given this, and told that it might be useful. The
wizard Sedridor said that this is about an experiment where you tried to combine
a lizard with a piece of magnetic metal.
Professor Oddenstein: Ah, yes, the Compass Lizard. I locked it up in a shed out
in the yard a while ago, but I lost the key about the same time as I lost that
journal. Now may I please have my journal back?
Jeska: Well, I guess so.
Remembering that those friendly helpers had been the one to find the journal,
Jeska wonders if maybe they found the missing key as well. Fortunately they had,
and he runs back to go take a look at this strange lizard. Picking it up, he
finds that it is a lot like the compass that the game provides, except that this
one says ALL FOUR DIRECTIONS all the time, rather than just saying which
direction North is. With this compass, he won't have to work so hard to remember
what way is what. This IS a useful reward he got, even though it was a hassle to
finally retrieve.
END OF STORY VERSION
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Here is a paraphrased comment that I pulled off of the initial story thread
where I posted this suggestion 2 years ago:
One of the reasons that Jagex changed the compass is that the game interface is
an enormously complex program, and very difficult to modify and translate. Since
the Compass Lizard would be an in-game item that would display much like some of
the quest items that point your way (the cat finder for finding Bob in that one
quest comes to mind) and only displays on the main game window, it should be
significantly easier to program (and also do substitutions on graphics depending
on language) than it is modifying the interface.
As far as winning the quest item from the minigame goes, since there are many
players who don't need to learn the compass, perhaps there should be a "Is there
anything else you can give me instead?" option when you recieve your reward
prior to doing the quest to be able to immediately start. If you don't choose
this option, there is still a chance you will recieve the quest item at random.
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FULL DISCUSSION: Most of this is just a repost without a whole lot of editing,
just a warning ;-)
It has come to my attention that there has been a lot of debate about the new
compass change, more specifically, the removal of South, East, and West from the
face of the compass. I have proposed a suggestion on a way to better educate the
players of runescape on their cardinal directions so that they no longer need to
rely on rs providing the directions for them to read right there in front of
them.
***for those of you that don't understand my fancy language, I have an idea to
teach people North, South, East, and West***
What I propose is a 2-part idea.
First of all, I think that there should be an additional step on tutorial
island, this guide would help you to orient yourself on the compass. He would
know what way your camera is facing, and ask you to move in a certain direction
a few times to help you get oriented. That's the first part, good for new
players or old players creating new accounts.
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Now for the part that EVERYONE would be able to use at any time in their
runescape career. I think that their should be a new mini-quest of a treasure
hunt revolving around the compass. I think that you would start by talking to
one of the lumbridge guides (Donie, Gee, & Hans, NOT the new skill tutors) and
asking them if they have any quests for you to do.
They will give you a magic guide scroll (similar to a clue scroll) with
directions on it. The scroll will start from wherever you are currently
standing, and will tell you to go X number of steps in a certain direction
(North, East, South, West). If you go in the wrong direction, it will re-start
that step from your new location.
After you complete each step, it will then spin your camera (and your character
so that you can't orient back on him/her) around a bit, and then tell you to go
a certain distance in another direction. There will always be a hint at the top
to look at your compass to figure out what direction you are facing. Each time
you achieve a part of the task, and it has finished spinning you around, the
scroll will change its directions.
After you have successfully gone the way you have been directed a number of
times, say 5 for example, the scroll will now say "congratulations on your good
compass orientation, please speak to a lumbridge guide to recieve your reward".
When you talk to a lumbridge guide (doesn't need to be the one you spoke to in
the first place) they will take the finished guide scroll from you and give you
your reward. I think that newcomer maps should DEFINITELY be one of the items
you recieve as a reward, perhaps as a 100% reward, with other items being other
rewards. These can be small amounts of coins, maybe a bit of food for you to eat
and heal on, or low lever armor/weaponry. (maybe black as a rare reward, but
probably not mith or higher).
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Side Note:
The Terms & Conditions of RuneScape state that: "This website is targeted at,
and intended for an audience of 13 years and older. It may contain features that
are not suitable for children under that age. If you are under the age of 13 you
must not create an account or provide us with any personal information unless
you have the consent of a parent/guardian, and it is permitted by applicable
law."
What this means is that runescape is made for players who should already know
their compass directions. Because that is not 100% true, my suggestion is aimed
at helping to fix that problem within this game and provide an educational
experience that can be applied to real life if you ever find yourself in need of
knowing how to read a compass.
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NEW QUEST: "The Compass Lizard"
Ok, to start the quest: as a semi-rare reward from the mini-quest would be an
old book.
Examine: it seems to be some notes on an old expirement, perhaps I should talk
to someone more knowledgeable about them.
Talk to the museum guy in varrock (curator?) and he says that it looks like this
was some kind of magical experiment, perhaps you should talk to one of the
wizards at the wizard tower.
Talk to Sedridor at the wizard tower, and he will tell you that this looks more
like someone was trying to turn a lizard into a compass, and without using any
magic to boot, but that's entirely crazy. He mentions that he HAS heard of a
crazy scientist inhabiting the haunted manor nearby, maybe you should go check
it out?
Now you need to go talk to the crazy scientist Professor Oddenstein in draynor
manor upstairs and he will tell you about the failed expirement he had where he
was trying to combine some "magnetic metal" with a lizard using his machine, but
all that happened was that the lizard's tail always points north now. He
declared this a failed expirement, and locked it up in a shed outside the manor.
Unfortunately, when he lost his notes *the book you have* he also lost his key
to the shed.
Go back and talk to a helper *it doesn't matter which one* and they will say "oh
yeah, I DID find a key with that book". They will give you the key.
Go to the door that the scientist told you about, and use the key on the door.
Inside you will see a "compass lizard" scurying around the room. Go ahead and
choose the "catch lizard" interaction option.
QUEST COMPLETE
Reward: 1 quest point
The "Compass Lizard"
*more on next post*
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If you go back and talk to the helper again, you will have the option of: "Can
you tell me why the lizards tail points north?" When you ask this, the helper
will then explain that obviously the magnetic metal was merged into the lizards
tail, and that it is being drawn north by magnetic fields or something like
that. *basically they explain how a compass works, I'll let jagex figure out the
exact wording.*
----------
ok, here is how the lizard works. First of all, there will be the 3 options when
you right-click on it, "Orient Compass Lizard", "Examine Compass Lizard", and
"Drop Compass Lizard".
If you choose the "Orient Compass Lizard" a box will pop up in the middle of the
screen showing a compass with all 4 directions clearly labeled. In the middle of
the compass will be a lizard with his tail pointing up (North). Pointing in the
direction you are currently facing will be another arrow. *see next post for why
I think this will be an idea that jagex can implement MUCH more easily than
changing the old compass back*
Examine Lizard: "A lizard who's tail always seems to be pointing north."
Drop: if you drop the lizard, a message will come up saying "The lizard scuries
off back to the shed." To get the lizard back, just go back to the shed and get
the lizard back. If you lost your key, just talk to one of the helpers and they
will give you another one. This key can be stored on your keyring.
-------------
Note: this lizard will be non-tradeable, because I want people to have a chance
to learn how to read a compass from just the N sign before they get this
"cheat".
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If you lose your key, you can just talk to one of the helpers to get it back.
(or maybe you need to do the mini-quest again until you get another instead of
the book). This key can be stored on the members keyring.
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WHY I THINK THAT THIS COMPASS CAN WORK WHEN THE OLD ONE DIDN'T
Ok, the old compass was changed because it was too difficult to make it
multi-lingual (able to be translated into multiple languages).
The problem with modifying the current compass some more, is that it is a part
of the interface, meaning that any modifications to it affect everything else
within the interface. So one tiny mistake will mean that no-one would be able to
play the game, because the window that you play the game in wouldn't work
properly.
To make things simpler in the creation of this item, I propose that it be made
by assembling 3 different objects together into one whole item. Due to the way
that I have assembled this item, it should be rather simple to translate it.
Part #1: This will be a background image of a lizard with it's tail pointing
upwards. THIS IMAGE WILL NOT SPIN AS YOU TURN IN CIRCLES!!!
Part #2: A series of pieces of text saying "North" "South" "East" and "West".
Because these text pieces will not be doing anything other than sit there, they
should be relatively easy to translate. Just make it so that the language the
text is in depends on what language the user has selected.
Part #3: Ok, this will be an arrow that will point around the compass in the
direction you are facing. This is the ONLY part that will actively change to
show you which way you are facing *the text only changes depending on the
language*
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Option for jagex: if you think that it wouldn't be too difficult to program in
*and I hear in-game is much easier to adjust than interface changes* I think
that something that looks more like a compass (where everything spins) would
look nicer...I still think that you should completely spell out each direction
though. I'm not going to go into anymore detail on this, because I don't want to
make this extension idea too hard to implement...I'll let jagex figure it out if
they use it.
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COMMENTS/SAVED DISCUSSION (from the complete discussion thread):
*Responding to the post that just happens to be above this one*
Fey Warrior
17-Nov-2006 22:44:12
Hi Bomberdanium,
I find this part of suggestion particularly appealing since it addresses the
issue for those who continue to find 'knowing' their compass directions
difficult. It gives the a tool to use which should hopefully help them gain this
very useful knowledge in-game and in-real-life.
As an added incentive a simple option could be added which as well as showing an
arrow that points, could be something called 'Check direction'. It would then
print in the text box the direction the player is facing (much like with the
Rune Altar Talismans).
e.g. Right click on the lizard - "Check direction".
Prints: "You are facing South South West".
Like the talismans, many players eventually learn where the altars are
instinctively and no longer have a need for the Talismans. I think the same
'learning' principle will work here.
This should also earn some kudos points from Schools & parents as it
demonstrates how RuneScape can be educational too.
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Fey Warrior:
I think the Lizard compass could also help develop the storyline (once written
about in Postbag from the Hedge) of the origins of the Lizards.
As holders of the secrets of directions and navigation they could certainly do
with more background story.
Regards, Fey.
----------------
Fey Warrior posted:
===
While I was helping some players in F2P around Lumbridge and other places, I
noted how the new signs work.
When one clicks on those new signs the screen rotates around so that the
directions given are "North", "East", "South" & "West".
I'm not sure if that function or feature would prove of any use on this
suggestion ('chat box text' direction giving compass players can carry around),
but it's good to know that Jagex did have similar things in mind (text based
directions in places other than the interface compass).
===
Bomberdanium responded:
===
I think that there should be 2 options for jagex....
Easy Graphics: the background lizard doesn't move, just the arm pointing which
way you are facing. There will be a button on the bottom saying "face north" and
it will automatically spin your camera around for you.
Complicated Graphics: This looks more like a lizard lying on a wheel that spins.
"Up" will always be the direction that you are currently facing. It could have a
"face north" option as well.
------
Other suggestions have been to add buttons to spin your screen 90 degrees to
directly face a specific Direction (either directly to a direction, or slowly
spinning in a circle) or to spin your character instead.
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A DISCUSSION WITH ANOTHER PLAYER
Revan1342:
Sounds good, even though I knew my compass when I was 8...
A thought on a reward, you can get letters (N, S, E and W) that you collect.
These would unlock a chest which contains a mith object (Not good for us, but
good for newbs). The letters would be rare and are destroyed when used.
Bomberdanium:
That's a great idea on greater variety for the rewards. Where do you think that
the chests should be located? Somewhere close by and easy for everyone to find?
Or somewhere a bit more remote forcing new players to explore a bit more?
If the chests are more remote, how do you suggest that players be guided to
them? being told by one of the helpers as a sort of mini-treasure hunt (clue
scrolls) with only one clue (or rather exact directions) is my personal idea for
that right now.
Revan1342:
Well, I was thinking mabey the cooks dungeon, but a remote location sounds ok.
Maybe the guide tells you to follow each letter. Operating the letters tells you
how many steps to take in each direction, once you unlock the chest it
disappears with the letters to a different location. The chest is in a different
place for everyone, to avoid 'cheating'
Bomberdanium:
cooks dungeon sounds good....or if you are operating the letters, perhaps you
need all 4 at once, then you will operate them and they will tell you how far
away from the treasure you are (maybe a chest that you have to dig up). N would
tell you have far you have to travel North to find the casket, and the same for
the others.
EDIT: all 4 letters would crumble when you gain the casket of course
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Revan1342:
A thought on rewards, everytime you get the mith piece from the chest you earn a
Compass Point. You can talk to the guide for a different lvl Compass Clue, 5 for
easy, 10 for medium and 15 for hard and 20 for very hard. These would work
basically as clue scrolls.
lvl 1: Rather easy, may earn Omp*** clothes or any mith item.
lvl 2: Slightly harder locations. May earn trimmed compass clothes or any addy
item.
lvl 3: Hard locations, must defeat a Compass Mage (lvl 89, uses mage and dds).
May earn gold trimmed compass clothes or any rune item.
lvl 4: Hard to do quest locations, must defeat a lvl 96 Compass Licilyte
(Reptilian monster). May earn God Trimmed compass clothes or any rune item.
Compass clothes are robes with a picture of a compass on them, and may teleport
you (better clothes for better locations). Depending on what kind they are is a
letter symbol on the front. N for normal through to W for God-Trimmed.
Bomberdanium:
ok, I like the idea for the compass clothing and trimmed compass clothing, but I
think that the monsters are a bit too tough, and addy armor might be a bit
much.... I had intended this to be an update that EVERYONE could participate in,
including brand new players. I won't say that it's not a good idea, and wouldn't
say no to a programmer implementing it, just that it's not where I had
originally intended for this idea to go.
Revan1342:
Well, I was thinking add those higher things to keep high lvls happy, otherwise
the rants would be very busy again. This way there's something for high and low
players (I'm med by the way). That would probably make it more of an update
everyone can do since if it were just low lvls, high lvls would stop it pretty
much straight away