[Feature Request] Mapper as a scouting item #94
Description
The Mapper
In normal play, the Mapper is an item that reveals secret areas on the map. This is a very useful item when you haven't found the secrets before, and are on the lookout for every hidden spot, however, if you're playing in this randomizer context you would typically know where everything is already. The mapper isn't as useful anymore, unless?
My proposition: The Mapper additionally becomes a scouting item (https://archipelago.gg/glossary/en/#scouts-scouting) that provides the player with hints about the check locations normally described by the Mapper.
Locations it might give hints for:
All platinum bolt locations (except Barlow's Race and Thugs-4-Less Jamming Array platinum bolts)
All nanotech boost locations (except Notak's Promenade nanotech boost)
Oozla's Swamp Monster II fight
Zurgo's trade for the Qwark Statuette.
Reasons why you might want this feature enabled:
- You can avoid trap items from those checks
- You can make informed decisions, skipping or coming back to lower priority items, changing the way you approach the seed
Reasons why you might not want this feature enabled:
- Too many hints
- You don't want hints at all
Some suggestions for implementation:
- Provides hints for a destination's secret locations when the destination is loaded (and not before - if you haven't visited yet, no hint is provided).
- If not providing hints for locations, gives extra hint points on acquisition? (not sure if AP can do this or not, all I do know is that you get some amount of hint points when grabbing any checks)
- Hints related to the current planet are shown in-game as a pop up message on arrival/load. (I saw that text was being used to advise the player about whether or not progression is possible on Tabora/Aranos Prison, so perhaps it could be used here in a similar way?)
- Configurable amount of hints/hint points provided
I'd love if this could be considered, but I do understand it is feature creep. I was thinking about some other items (Megacorp Helmet to breathe on Jamming Array/Underwater, Biker Helmet for races, Hydro Pack to swim) and how they could be implemented into logic somehow, but I saw that those had already been considered a long time back, hence this just being about the mapper.