Compass East and West backwards?

[Swiftbear]

Can someone else verify that I'm not losing my mind, but when heading back to my base holding the map and compass I mean I know i was traveling east to go home but the compass was reading west, north and south indicate fine.

[bol]

Never Eat Shreded Wheat. clockwise north east south west. is this not the case.

[QuestNewt]

@Swiftbear: you are quite correct. I've just checked the in-game compass, and it does indeed point West when you're heading East and vice-versa.

The problem lies with the compass model: it has a marked needle spinning above the compass-rose, which is incorrect. A real compass has the compass rose spinning, with markings on the case around it.

[GothiccWerewolf]

Originally posted by gypsythief:

@Swiftbear: you are quite correct. I've just checked the in-game compass, and it does indeed point West when you're heading East and vice-versa.

The problem lies with the compass model: it has a marked needle spinning above the compass-rose, which is incorrect. A real compass has the compass rose spinning, with markings on the case around it.

There is not just one kind of compass lol

[Swiftbear]

Originally posted by gypsythief:

@Swiftbear: you are quite correct. I've just checked the in-game compass, and it does indeed point West when you're heading East and vice-versa.

The problem lies with the compass model: it has a marked needle spinning above the compass-rose, which is incorrect. A real compass has the compass rose spinning, with markings on the case around it.

Yeah I thought so hopefully the devs catch this post, should be a easy fix to add to the list -)

[Habraka]

Lol, I thought I was losing my mind after spending the last six hours taming Stego's and Carno's. Good to know it isn't just me that got confused by the compass...

[Nibiru]

Same thing just happened to me and I was going to make a post but thought to search if someone else had this issue. So here I am finally made my first compass and I got my map and compass both out and I'm facing North (or maybe I'm facing south??) but anyway.. I think I'm facing north and then I look "to the right" and yet my compass says I'm looking West. Then I look back north and then "to the left" and it says I'm facing East.. I too thought I was losing my mind. Sheesh

This won't be much better than without the compass. Hope this gets fixed soon so I can finally go exploring w/out getting so lost.

[Whiplash]

I'm sorry to say you guys just don't understand how to use a real compass. We have been spoiled by games that use a different style of compass. Maybe that should be the norm. But this game, like a couple others (Savage Lands, Stranded Deep) goes for the tradiational, old school, real compass.

East and West are not backwards. A compass always points north. If you are facing north, and turn 90 degrees to your left, you are now facing to the west. The compass is still pointing to the north, but because you have turned, your orientation makes it appear it's pointing east.

See this site for more details:

http://www.compassdude.com/compass-reading.shtml

Originally posted by Kynigos:

There is not just one kind of compass lol

Yes, he is referring to more modern compasses. This game uses the original implmentation of the compass.

[4ArmedTryhard]

Originally posted by Whiplash:

I'm sorry to say you guys just don't understand how to use a real compass. We have been spoiled by games that use a different style of compass. Maybe that should be the norm. But this game, like a couple others (Savage Lands, Stranded Deep) go for the tradiational, old school, real compass.

East and West are not backwards. A compass always points north. If you are facing north, and turn 90 degrees to your left, you are now facing to the west. The compass is still pointing to the north, but because you have turned, your orientation makes it appear it's pointing west.

See this site for more details:

http://www.compassdude.com/compass-reading.shtml

Pretty much this. Now they just need to put in a second-tier azimuthal compass and predictable star skybox :D

[Swiftbear]

Yeah I got in another post about this and finally someone explained it to now i understood it, that this compass is a old school floating needle type , the one pretty much everyone is used to is a floating rose. dunno if i can get used to this seeing my whole life im familiar with the other type hehe.

[BellatorMonk]

I just use the Sun, shadows and landmarks...fancy dancy compass people..bah.

[Kruger]

Oh that compass ...some of our crew still think its messed up

[QuestNewt]

Originally posted by Whiplash:

I'm sorry to say you guys just don't understand how to use a real compass. We have been spoiled by games that use a different style of compass. Maybe that should be the norm. But this game, like a couple others (Savage Lands, Stranded Deep) goes for the tradiational, old school, real compass.

East and West are not backwards. A compass always points north. If you are facing north, and turn 90 degrees to your left, you are now facing to the west. The compass is still pointing to the north, but because you have turned, your orientation makes it appear it's pointing east.

See this site for more details:

http://www.compassdude.com/compass-reading.shtml

Originally posted by Kynigos:

There is not just one kind of compass lol

Yes, he is referring to more modern compasses. This game uses the original implmentation of the compass.

I'm actually referring to any compass; at no point in history have compasses ever shown you as going East when you're going west and vice-versa.

I would like to draw your attention to the section "Basic Compass Reading" in the page that you linked above.

The situation we have is as described in the second section of bullet points. I quote:

Turn your body while keeping the compass right in front of you.
Notice that as the compass rotates, the needle stays pointing the same direction.
Keep turning until the needle points East like the picture below, keeping the direction-of-travel arrow and North mark facing straight in front of you.

This compass is pointing East (90 degrees)


Important: This is a very common mistake! The compass needle is pointing towards East so I must be pointing East, right? No, no, no!

This is where we are at with the in game compass. Carrying on with the website you provided:

To find my direction, I must turn the compass dial until the North mark and the "Orienting Arrow" are lined up with the North end of the needle. Then I can read the heading that is at the Index Pointer spot (the butt of the direction-of-travel arrow).

This is the bit we cannot do, and can be fixed by having a floating rose. All compasses have always worked this way: either a floating rose, or a floating needle surrounded by a rotatable rose. No compass has ever worked with a floating needle and a fixed rose, because as we see from in game and from the website you linked, it simply does not work.

[OperationDx]

haha this still has not been fixed. It's backwards and I keep forgetting it. Come on.

[IronHenry]

They still haven't fixed the compass. Actually it's not the compass that's broken, it's the programmer doesn't know how to use a basic compass. No shame, most people don't.

The link to compass dude isn't very helpful either, as there it describes using an orienteering (mountaineering) compass. That's not what's in game.

To read the type of compass in game correctly, the user must rotate the compass so that the arrow is ALWAYS over North. Sorta like the "red in the shed" reference on compassdude, only you don't turn the bezel you turn the whole compass and then read the direction that is on the far side of the compass (opposite your belly button).

Trouble is your character in game doesn't turn the compass, s/he always holds it with "N" away from them.

The simplest fix would be to use a mariners (card) compass, as mentioned above, where the compass rose turns with the needle, and there is an indicator (lubber) line on the case or glass to indicate the direction you are looking.

[Lori37]

dude, did you seriously have to necro a topic from 2015 for that? Come on...