Discoverable landmarks with map pins, fast travel and achievement hooks.
Locations & Discovery
A location is a landmark a player finds by getting near it — walking up to it, or arriving inside its radius by stepping out of a town, fast travelling, respawning or logging in beside it. When they do, they get the "Location Discovered" card, the place is pinned on their map for good, and any rewards are paid once.
This is the loop that makes a map worth walking across: every corner might hold something that fills in a little more of the world.
Where to Author#
Two places, and you need both:
- Database → Content → Locations — create the landmark itself: its name, icon, radius, rewards and fast-travel rules.
- Map Editor → Events — place a Location marker on the map, and pick which landmark it is.
Authoring the landmark separately from its placement means one landmark can appear on several maps and still be edited in one spot.
Setting One Up#
- Open Database → Content → Locations and click New.
- Give it a Name — this is what players read on the card and the map pin.
- Set the Discovery radius in tiles. 10 is a good default; use more for a mountain range, less for a hidden shrine.
- Pick an Icon for the map pin.
- Optionally set Rewards, Fast travel and an Achievement.
- Save.
- Open the map, switch to the Events layer, pick Locations from the palette, and click where the landmark sits.
- In the event properties that open, set Definition to the landmark you just created. This is the step that links the two — a marker left on -- unlinked -- is never discovered.
- Publish.
Location Fields#
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Internal name, and the fallback shown to players |
| Display name | What players actually see, if different from the name |
| Description | Flavour text for the journal |
| Icon | The map pin and the discovery card's icon |
| Category | Groups the entry in the journal: landmark, dungeon, town… |
| Discovered by | Walking near a placed marker, or Entering a biome |
| Discovery radius | Marker triggers only: how close, in tiles, a player must get |
| Biome | Biome triggers only: stepping on any tile of it discovers the place |
| Map | Biome triggers only: which map counts. Empty = any map with that biome |
| Clears minimap fog | Tiles of fog burned away around the place when found. 0 = none |
| Notification template | Overrides the default discovery card for this one place |
| Show on map | Off = discovering it fires the card but leaves no pin |
| Acts as a spawn point | Off by default. On = every placed marker of this place is also a respawn point (see below) |
| Fast travel | Whether players can travel back here, and what it costs |
| Achievement | Ticks that achievement's discovery criteria |
| Rewards | Silver, skill XP and items paid once, on first discovery |
Regions: Discovering by Biome#
A mountain range or a swamp is not a point, and ringing it with markers to approximate it is miserable. Set Discovered by to Entering a biome instead: stepping onto any tile of that biome discovers the place.
- Set Discovered by to Entering a biome.
- Pick the Biome.
- Pick the Map. Leave it empty only if you truly mean any map painted with that biome — otherwise the first such tile anywhere in your world discovers it.
- Publish. No marker is needed.
The pin lands wherever that player first entered the biome, so two players can have the same place pinned at different spots — which is usually what you want, since it marks where they found it.
Clearing Minimap Fog#
If your minimap uses fog of war, a discovery can burn it away — the Zelda shape, where the map fills in as a reward for exploring rather than as a by-product of walking.
- Set Clears minimap fog on the location to how many tiles it should reveal. A mountain range should clear far more than a shrine.
- Open UI / HUD Editor → Minimap → Fog of war and set Reveal mode:
| Reveal mode | What clears the fog |
|---|---|
| Reveal as explored | Walking only — discoveries do nothing |
| Reveal by discovery | Discoveries only — walking uncovers nothing |
| Explored + discovery | Both |
The radius does nothing under Always visible, Reveal as explored, or Event-driven only.
Fast Travel#
Turn on Fast travel and a discovered location becomes a destination on the player's world map (N), where selecting a pin shows what the trip costs before they commit. The whole-world view of that screen is authored separately — see World Map & Overworld.
Who is allowed to travel#
One world-level rule, set from the Fast travel access dropdown above the Locations list.
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| From the map | Players open their own map and travel from any discovered pin. The default. |
| Only from a travel NPC | Their map shows pins but no Travel. Only an NPC running Open Fast Travel can send them anywhere. |
| Both | From their own map, and NPCs can offer it too. |
| Off | Nowhere. Pins still mark the map; the shortcut is gone. |
This is enforced on the server, not by hiding the button — so Only from a travel NPC genuinely means it.
Travel as a service someone provides#
Put the Open Fast Travel command (Scene / MMO commands) on any NPC page — a ferryman, an innkeeper, a wayshrine. Everything above it on that page is your gate: charge them, check a quest, turn them away. When it runs, the world map opens with travel unlocked.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Who's offering | Shown on the map's banner — "Ferryman Aldric" |
| What they say | One line under it — "will take you to any port." |
| Only these categories | Limits the offer to those location categories. Blank = everywhere they've discovered |
A ferryman who only sails to ports is a better fiction than one who teleports you anywhere, and the restriction is checked server-side — a player can only reach what the offer actually covers.
The offer lasts five minutes or until they travel, whichever comes first. One crossing per conversation.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cost | Silver charged per trip. A player who can't afford it is refused, not charged |
| Cooldown | Minimum seconds between trips |
| Minimum level | Gates travel behind character level |
Players can never fast travel to somewhere they haven't discovered, or while a Travel Lock effect is on them.
Where and when travel is allowed#
Three more rules decide whether a trip may start. All of them are checked on the server; the player's Travel buttons are switched off with the reason shown, so nobody clicks and fails.
Close a map. Right-click the map in the map tree → Map Properties → Gameplay Rules → untick Allow fast travel. To change many maps at once, select them, click Bulk edit, tick Fast travel and set it.
Close a biome. Open Manage Biomes, pick the biome, and untick Allow fast travel. The rule follows the paint: it applies on every tile of that biome, on every map — a cursed marsh, a dungeon floor, a battlefield.
World rules. In Database → Content → Locations, under the Fast travel access dropdown:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Allow fast travel (on a map) | On | Off = a player standing anywhere on this map cannot fast travel away. |
| Allow fast travel (on a biome) | On | Off = a player standing on a tile of this biome cannot fast travel away. |
| Block fast travel in combat | On | A player in combat is refused until the fight is over. Turn it off to let players travel mid-fight. |
| Restricted maps and biomes also block arrivals | On | A closed map or biome can't be travelled into either: a location whose marker stands on one is refused as a destination. Turn it off and closed places only stop players leaving — a town players can always return to but must walk out of. |
How they combine:
- Either one is enough. If the map or the biome under the player's feet has Allow fast travel off, travel is refused. An open biome does not reopen a closed map.
- It is where the player stands. One step out of a closed biome and the buttons come back on.
- A dungeon or arena copy follows its map. Close the map and every private copy of it is closed too.
- Travel NPCs obey it too. An Open Fast Travel offer made on a closed map opens the world map with every destination switched off, so stand your ferryman somewhere travel is allowed.
- Your own transfers always work. Doors, portals, Transfer Player event commands, teleport abilities, respawns and admin teleports are not fast travel and ignore all of these rules.
What the player sees: No fast travel from here, No fast travel to this place or Not while in combat on the button, and — if a request still reaches the server — You can't fast travel from here., You can't travel to that place. or You can't fast travel while in combat. The three server lines can be reworded or translated on the Localization page.
What holds teleporting#
Return items and recall / map teleport abilities are not fast travel: they work in combat. Two optional rules let monsters hold them anyway, and both are off by default:
| Where | Field | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Database → Locations, above the list | Monsters block teleporting within | While a hostile monster is this many tiles away, return items and recall / map teleports refuse ("A monster is too close to teleport away."). Tick Only monsters fighting the player to ignore bystanders. A passive monster only counts once it is fighting the player |
| Database → Mobs, the mob's form | Blocks teleporting within | That monster's own anti-teleport aura — a boss, a jailer. Works even with the world rule off |
Both are checked when the player tries to leave, never continuously, so they cost nothing while nobody is teleporting. A recall ability that is held is refused before its cost is paid.
The Description you write is shown on the map's detail card, so it's worth writing — it's the line that makes a pin somewhere a player wants to go.
Respawning at a Landmark#
A player who dies comes back at the nearest spawn point on the map they died in (then the nearest one on a neighbouring map, then the world's starting location). Normally those are the map's SPAWN markers from the zone editor. Turn on Acts as a spawn point and every placed marker of this place counts too — a wayshrine, a camp, an inn.
- Open the location under Database → Locations and tick Acts as a spawn point.
- Make sure it is placed: Events layer → Locations → click the tile, set the marker's Definition.
- Publish.
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| Nearest wins | The map's own SPAWN markers and every opted-in landmark are one pool; the closest tile to where the player fell is used |
| No discovery needed | A respawn is not a reward — the player comes back at the nearest landmark whether or not they had found it. Arriving there discovers it, like any other arrival |
| Marker triggers only | A biome-triggered place has no marker tile to stand on, so the toggle does nothing for it |
| Instances and arenas | Keep their own rules (checkpoints, entrance, team spawns) |
Achievements#
Two criteria types work with locations:
- Discover location — find one specific place
- Discover count — find any N places
Set the location's Achievement field and it ticks both automatically.
Gotchas#
- Place the marker, or nothing happens. A marker-triggered location with no marker on any map can never be found. This is the most common mistake. (Biome-triggered locations need no marker.)
- Pick the landmark on the marker. Placing a Location marker is only half of it — set its Definition to the landmark. A marker left unlinked is inert.
- Arriving counts. A player who lands inside the radius — a map exit that drops them beside the marker, a fast travel, a respawn, a teleport, or logging in there — discovers the place at once, and a walk only has to pass through the radius, not stop in it.
- Put the marker beside an event, not on it. A tile holds one event, and a Location marker can't share a tile with one: on a door or transfer tile the two would sit on top of each other and you couldn't see or pick the one underneath. The map editor refuses the placement, so use the next tile over. The discovery radius still reaches the door.
- A biome trigger with no biome picked is refused on save, because it would otherwise match every tile and discover the place on the player's first step.
- A marker pointing at a deleted location is inert — it won't error, it just does nothing.
- A destination can be closed by the ground it stands on. With Restricted maps and biomes also block arrivals on, a fast-travel location whose marker sits on a closed map or a closed biome's tile can't be travelled to. Move the marker, reopen the place, or turn that world rule off.
- Closing a map or a biome needs a publish. The game reads Allow fast travel when its content is published, like every other map and biome setting.
- Discovery happens once per character, forever. Walking back through the radius does nothing, and there is no way to "undiscover" a place from the editor.
- Undiscovered locations are never sent to the player's client, so nobody can datamine your map. That also means the pin genuinely appears the moment they find it.
- Publish after adding locations. Markers reference location definitions by id — publishing a map without the definitions leaves every marker inert.
- The radius is a circle measured from the marker tile, and it ignores walls. A radius that reaches through a cliff will trigger from the far side.
- The whole system sits behind the Discoveries feature flag.