This Early Access article highlights an upcoming feature that the Rend community has been asking for since the days of Alpha: an in-game world map. Player feedback has driven the interactive design of this feature, originally only available as a static image on external fansites. Read on for an overview of how the addition of this map is set to change how you play Rend when it arrives in our next major game update!
FROM WORD OF MOUTH TO WORLD MAP
The initial design for Rend was to place iconic landmarks and clear pathways for a faction to use as common points of reference in relation to the central Yggdrasil tree which often defaulted as a generic “north” for each of the three map triads. Although this tribal knowledge approach was functional, it ended up not being practical as it put the onus squarely on player communication. This also made it difficult for new players to get up to speed within a reasonable window of time. To improve overall player quality-of-life, we determined that adding a more traditional navigational tool in the form of an interactive map was necessary.
A relatively common feature in any number of other games, the world map will be immediately familiar to almost everyone. The map is about the same size as the generic in-game menu and can be pulled up via the Map tab along the top of the in-game menu (it can also have a hotkey assigned to it for quick access). When summoned, it can be zoomed in and out and click-dragged to focus on a specific region. The world’s three faction triads have been divided into 71 sections making for 213 total map areas. Each section needs to be individually explored to reveal it on the map (meaning that navigating to the Conclave Highlands won’t expose the Order and Revenant Highlands).
Markers on revealed sections of the map indicate a variety of landmarks such as your current position, the position of your corpse(s), and any members of your current group as well as Faction Strongholds and Control Points. If the section has been explored, Control Point markers will also show ownership and timers that tick down to when they’re up for grabs again. Custom markers can also be placed by players and shared between group members, useful for indicating points of interest such as obelisks, resource nodes, or threats. The world map is also the new home of the respawn and teleport options instead of the placeholder popup menu.
TRY OUT THE WORLD MAP EARLY ON PTR
As this feature has been one of the most common requests from the community, we want our players to have the opportunity to test it out before it hits the live servers. Join us on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server where an advance version of our next game update is currently live and available to play right now! This patch also contains dozens of important bug fixes and gameplay improvements: read all about them with our preliminary patch notes.
Be sure to share your feedback on this new feature with us on Discord and the forums!
https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/new-feature-interactive-world-map
