Colored arrows and other navigation tips?

[moonracer]

I've been playing a while and still don't have a good feel for the map. I've learned that the yellow arrows on the ground point to the food district and thus are handy for finding my way home. What do the other colored arrows pioint to? Are there other signs to help navigate the world?

[Lein]

Hey, don't sulk your pleasure.
The game relies a lot on feelings of disorientation and dizziness. It will put your memory to test, and will also chaff your sense of direction.
Maybe you should try to figure it out on your own : every good turn taken will be a victory, and you'll feel so proud once you get it (approximately) right.
And who knows, you might stumble on something during your gameplay that COULD help you understand this confusing topology.

Happy frantic wandering !

[Ora Oraora]

The best way that I found to deal with the map was to actually keep a pen and paper handy so I could record which districts led to which and where I found things about the city. I was inspired to do it by the fact that you are encouraged to keep a diary in the game and I was getting super confused by everything to the point where it would become overwhelming.

[bluepotatosack]

Someone did make a map, if you want to take a gander. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/439488775822532041/952301999889372CABAF4C9526950CDD49DFF777/

[moonracer]

Thanks.

[Lein]

Originally posted by bluepotatosack:

Someone did make a map, if you want to take a gander. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/439488775822532041/952301999889372CABAF4C9526950CDD49DFF777/

Well.
The creator of this map has posted it here on Steam, in Diaries Of A Spaceport Janitor's artworks section. Here's SundaeMonth's answer in its comments :

this is great! But we took those images down, because we wanted to force people to draw their own maps.. guess it's too late haha

You'll never be able to forbid gamers from sharing maps of course, but maybe we could trust developers a little bit when it comes to how we should apprehend their work.

[moonracer]

I just wanted some navigation advice from my fellow emplyees. But clearly space port janitors are a fickle lot.

[Empathy (They/It)]

I would give you the map I tried to draw myself, but man did I mess that up. Cartography is a challenge when the world wraps in odd ways.

Anyways, each of the colored arrows leads to their respectively colored districts, which is simple as long as you aren't colorblind. Yellow is your Home, Blue is the Bank/Old District, Purple is Clothing/Jewlery/Spells, Green is Materials/Tech/Cards, Red is Weapons/Armor/Zigguraut. There's no arrows that lead to the Spaceport, but it's connected to the Green and Yellow districts respectively.

Any specific info you need?

[Lein]

Originally posted by moonracer:

But clearly space port janitors are a fickle lot.

It's actually that damn spaceport you can't rely on !

[Empathy (They/It)]

Oh, and on the side, I find it a bit odd that the devs wanted the player to draw their own map. It's fun, but the geometry of some of the buildings make it kind of hard to map things out. It's not like say Miasmata where mapping is a player game-mechanic, or Grimrock where the map is laid in squares so mapping can be done with graph paper, or La-Mulana where mapping actually lets you solve a big puzzle. It's also incredibly easy to make mapping mistakes when trying to draw out the strange roads and alleys of the spaceport.

It's easier to feel your way around the spaceport after an in-game week than it is to map it out, anyways. Though I could just be belly-aching cause I threw away two map attempts, whatev.

[Lein]

Originally posted by moonracer:

What do the other colored arrows point to? Are there other signs to help navigate the world?

So yes, the arrows point to the different districts. The color of the shop signs around you indicate which district you are currently in. Empathy's recent thread "district info" seems very comprehensive to me.

Originally posted by Empathy:

Oh, and on the side, I find it a bit odd that the devs wanted the player to draw their own map. It's fun, but the geometry of some of the buildings make it kind of hard to map things out. It's not like say Miasmata where mapping is a player game-mechanic, or Grimrock where the map is laid in squares so mapping can be done with graph paper, or La-Mulana where mapping actually lets you solve a big puzzle. It's also incredibly easy to make mapping mistakes when trying to draw out the strange roads and alleys of the spaceport.

It's very probably intentional. They played a lot with disorientation, and managed to get the player to be constantly overwhelmed with absurd activities : you always feel your incinerator runs out of battery too soon, that shopkeeper you wanted to see after work packed up and left, yet in the morning you keep taking some time to rub yourself against a giant sword, expecting to increase a unique stat that you never really know if it has a true impact on the course of events.
It's confusing by design.
When the devs say they would like the players to draw their own map, - and maybe this has not to be taken too literally indeed -,I think they expect them to face another perplexing and discouraging task.
But discouragement and hope, call it faith or superstition, are pretty much what the game is about. :)

[moonracer]

Awesome, Thanks Empathy. The general descriptions of what shops the arrows point to is what I was looking for. I also didn't realize the stores were color coded.

[Empathy (They/It)]

Originally posted by moonracer:

Awesome, Thanks Empathy. The general descriptions of what shops the arrows point to is what I was looking for. I also didn't realize the stores were color coded.

Most are, but there's some shops that change what type of wares they sell randomly. Or shops that alternate types pending on the day (For example: There's a trader in the purple district near Orloqq that either only trades common spellswatches, only bones, or only dungeon loot penind on the day.) Oddly enough, there's a trader that always trades common spell swatches who's in the same area.

Some shops also have their traders leave the stalls at night. There's a lot of variables to account for, actually. So keep all those in mind if you notice a shop selling completely different stuff sometimes.

[Lein]

Also, what about feeling a lil curious and go get some infos about the game, or the dev team, on say, a pretty blue (or is it mauve?) tumblr page, har har ?

[gort]

I made a guide about the coloured arrows and what they lead too.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=778406604