Adventures in AR: Points of Not Much Interest

We've got points

Alright, time to talk about a problematic turn of events. Phase 1 of the quest system largely hinged on generating NPC quests around the player's location. One of the major grievances I had with Pokémon Go was that in my neck of the woods the game was practically unplayable. Sure, it loaded up just fine, but there was nothing to do! The nearest PokeStop was two and a half miles away, with the nearest Gym and other locations another couple miles beyond that. Very few Pokémon spawned nearby either, so I guess that balances out the lack of PokeStops. Not like I would need to get Poké Balls from PokeStops if there were no Pokémon to Poké catch.

I planned to overcome the woes of semi-rural life in AR by utilizing Mapzen's Points of Interest layer to choose locations to spawn NPC quest givers, who would generate quests that take the player to other Points of Interest. Unfortunately, there was a slight miscalculation with that plan. There's not much of interest around me. Obviously, my living situation isn't representative of everyone, but it was least a baseline. If I could make my sort of neighborhood a suitable place to play, damn near anywhere with decent cellular service would be suitable.

The funny thing is, there are actually a handful of Points of Interest dotted on the map around me. I expected two, the school and church at the top of my road, but instead I got four, pictured above. First off, there's the school, of course. Then there's the baseball field on the school's playground. The soccer field on the school's grounds is also there. Finally, there's the small cemetery by the church. Yet, the church itself is strangely absent. And that's it. I scrolled around the map to see if there was anything else around and found very little. The electrical substation is present, though that's probably not somewhere to direct players towards. Meanwhile, I looked at locations that I knew were notable, such as not-too-far-away the fire station and found nothing.

We find ourselves at a crossroads... where there should be a point of interest.

While I was happy to see something around me, this isn't really something I can work with. The Points of Interest aren't particularly interesting, though that could still be salvaged if I really wanted to force it. The real problem, however, is density. Of the 81 tiles loaded, 4 had Points of Interest, all residing within a 2 by 2 area of tiles. A quest wouldn't be particularly exciting for the player if they are already at their destination after accepting it. I don't want to make people run a marathon to reach their objective, but I'd like it to at least take a little effort. Furthermore, with such a poor selection of points, the quests are certainly going to lack in variety. "Oh boy, the Explorer is sending me to the school again..." is an issue I'd rather players not have.

Obviously, I can't really fault Mapzen for this. Such is the nature of open sourced mapping. If I scroll over towards town, the density of Points of Interest ramps up significantly. By the time you reach the city, every parking spot and traffic light is a Point of Interest (which is ridiculous in its own way as well). I feel kind of silly about harping on about how Points of Interest were going to be the solution to everything in for the quest system. It was a bit naïve of me to think that and now I've got to find a new solution.

So, what comes next? I'm so glad you asked. My goal for NPC's was that the player could start up the game and have a quest waiting for them just down the road. It would seem I only reliably have the road to work with, so I may very well have to simply spawn NPC's close to the player's location. This naturally comes with a whole heap of problems to solve (such as spawning NPC's only in safe, public areas), but I've already covered most of those fears in a previous post. I think for the time being, NPC's will be put on hold. But fear not, after I've actually created a working, playable quest, I'll come back for them. That probably should have been my first priority to begin with.