Fan Developing Much Needed Skyrim Map App

[Greg Tito]

Fan Developing Much Needed Skyrim Map App

The iOS application will let you browse and make notes on a hand-drawn map of Skyrim.

For all the hugeness of the world in Bethesda's RPG, the map functionality in the game is a bit lackluster. Yes, you can zoom in, place markers and fast-travel fairly easily, but there is no way to mark a location for later exploration or remove that silly blue triangle. And like having the ability to carry every book in Skyrim with you on your Kindle [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114406-Take-Every-Book-in-Skyrim-with-You], I would love the chance to look at the map when I am at work or otherwise away from my gaming rig.

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Enter Dragon Shout. This application currently in development for Apple's mobile operating system will let you explore the entirety of Skyrim from your iPhone or iPad and annotate on the map where you left that cache of iron ingots. Dragon Shout has a rudimentary website up [http://www.dragonshoutapp.com/] and the unnamed developer already submitted a working version to Apple. Once it is approved, we should be able to download Dragon Shout and dive even further into Bethesda's RPG. Oh, and did I mention that this genius application is free? Well, it is.

It looks like Dragon Shout aims to create a Skyrim social network of sorts. You'll be able to make notes on the map for private use, but you can also share these notes with your friends. I anticipate people using Dragon Shout's journal entries to create a sort of explorable piece fan fiction. Imagine writing a series of entries all tied to locations on the map describing your Dragonborn's adventures through Skyrim.

I hope that Apple allows Dragon Shout to go through its approval process quickly so we can try it out. I'd also love to see an Android version, or an extension to work in a browser. Indeed, Dragon Shout has a lot of possibilities.

Source: Toucharcade [http://toucharcade.com/2011/11/28/dragon-shout-a-hip-upcoming-skyrim-map-app/]

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[AlotFirst]

Silly blue triangle? You mean the custom map marker which you CAN remove?

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Yeah it's already been said, but you can just click on an open patch of ground and select 'remove marker'.

Took me a while to figure that one out. And yeah, this looks pretty neat. Shame I don't have an iPhone, but still. Also it looks like it shows roads, which would be pretty damn helpful.

 

[mattaui]

I like the Prima online map I got with my copy of the CE guide, though I've really only played with it a few times. The world isn't that hard to negotiate or figure out, and since you can always fast travel back to wherever you've been, it's easy enough to return to a point and then branch out from there.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

The only think I hate about the ingame map is that it doesn't show any of the fucking roads.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

Android port, maybe?

And hell, while we're at it, you mentioned something about having every Elder Scrolls book on Kindle. I'd love something like that on my phone.

Hop to it, devs!

I mean...when you're not busy yelling at giant lizards, that is.

 

[redisforever]

Map App? Maybe we should call it a Mapp? *lame joke*

Yeah, this seems cool. I don't have Skyrim, but oh well.

 

[Handbag1992]

Within two hours of playing I downloaded a jpg of the skyrim map so I could write on it in paint.
It has things like:

Volunruund: All-powerful Draugr in tiny room, return with more Magicka

Shearpoint: Contains ghost-thing called Krosis, return with resist fire enchants.

 

[HaraDaya]

Hmm, need an Android port. I got an alchemist character, and I thought of how beneficial it would be to write down what plants grew in what parts of the map.

 

[Creamygoodness]

submitted a working version to Apple. Once it is approved, we should

I Love that people let Apple decide what apps they can put on the their phone!

 

[Vrach]

Actually, the silly blue triangle is to mark a spot for later exploration... and it's easily removable, as others have and will continue to say.

Or is this another PC version bug?

Removable on the PC as well, even though one might never find it out. Like a lot of other things.

Yeah, I figured it's an oversight by some players.

Hell, I spent over 30 hours playing on a 360 before I learned the left and right on the directional pad were used for hotkeys!

lol

I assume you mean Bethesda. It's not the players' fault the game is unintuitive. Like the sprint key, why the fuck is it binded to "Alt" by default? I've never - ever - used the Alt key in a game, at least not more than once or twice. Meanwhile, Shift is used for a meaningless 'slow walk' function. The game is riddled with dozens of these stupid oversights.

Well, it is in the instruction book, and it flashes on the screen the first time you use the map and during loading screens... so yeah, I blame the player. (same for the hotkeys)

As for PC gamers, you don't get PDF's anymore? That sucks. The two people I know who play it on PC said the interface is only a mild annoyance, so I don't have much input on the UI problems PC gamers have. But I could have sworn details on using the UI were all over the internet (day one), it's just people don't like them, not that they don't know about them.

I'm talking about how intuitive the controls are, you're talking about whether they're there at all.

Considering how easy it is to rebind them, what exactly's the problem?

 

[newwiseman]

I remember when we were all happy with the TESIV-map.exe, a program made by ripping the game files into a custom executable. It had the location of every item placed in a predetermined location as well as every load zone and map marker, and you could toggle the different markers on and off as well as do searches through the whole list of available markers. Best of all it was completely free.

I'd prefer to see a sequel to that rather than a 'hand drawn' map people guess approximately where they were when they found 'X'...still I do love putting new apps on my company iPad.

I'll get it if it's free. But if they ask for a single penny I'll just do a 300ppi scan of the map the game came with and make my own app.