Mod to mark impassable terrain on map?

Pixative · October 2020

Newish player. Doing a lot of running around for skyshards. Constantly playing "guess whether that nondescript smudge on the map is a gentle hill or a 200 foot vertical cliff" especially on certain maps. Getting VERY frustrating trying to walk from point a to point B and constantly having to follow giant walls perpendicular to where I'm trying to go.

I'd like a mod that, for example, draws a simple obvious line along features that can't be climbed or jumped up. Or indicates this fact in some other way.

Ellimist_Entreri · October 2020

Just wait until you get to the zones where they just dropped in invisible walls and didn't even bother with a fence to say "Hey, you can't go here friend!"

(Additionally, if anyone does decide to make the suggested addon, it would be super nice if you were to do what you can to include invisible walls in that list of lines and boundaries please and thank you very much!)

Baertram · December 2020

Addons cannot do this as there is no api to get the information about this terrain AND if it would exist you'd need to also hardcode a lot of information to draw these lines AND let them end somewhere.

I think the effort is just not worth anything, beside it would look awfully on your UI then

Use a Minimap addon like Votans Minimap and enjoy exploring the map.

Pixative · December 2020

Yeah, there's no API but it's something that's known, everybody has access to the same maps. It wouldn't be "hard coded" but rather a dataset downloaded and stored in saved variables similar to say harvest map pins.
It doesn't matter if something is ugly if it serves a valuable function.
I installed Votans Minimap day one, and it's just a PIP of the default map with the same vague artistic bumps instead of a meaningful topographic map. It doesn't solve this problem at all.

Ellimist_Entreri · December 2020

Sounds like an API limitation to me

EDIT: As an afterthought, granting API access to map/blocking-volume data could in fact lead to potential exploits. There is probably a well discussed series of reasons the information in question wasn't exposed.

DewiMorgan · December 2020

It doesn't exist, so far as I know, but for some time I've been interested in creating such an addon. It would be immensely useful for plotting guild zone clear events, doing surveys and antiquities, etc.

I'm interested in ideas on:

How to do it (how are the maps accessed? Can they be extracted? Can they be overwritten? The only addon I've found which seems to do anything to the map other than add pins is the excellent "Votan's Tamriel Map": does anyone know of others?)
How to crowdsource and/or automate the work of getting cliff locations, and cliff heights (perhaps we can record a "GPS path" with altitude info, along the base and top of the cliff, and extrapolate from that? With keybinds for "start/stop logging" and maybe to add metadata like whether we're walking by a cliff or wall, and whether it's to our left or right).
What it should look like? Need a way of clearly marking "impassable wall" and "cliff that can be passed over only in one direction", as well as giving SOME kind of idea of cliff height/deadliness. I've been thinking a black line, then a "shadow" cast by it, where longer shadow = higher cliff?
How to clearly mark those spots where an otherwise-impassable cliff can be scaled.
Would anyone be interested in helping?
Stuff I haven't thought of!

Kwoung · January 2021

Actually harvestmap may have some of this functionality in it already. You have ever used the route creator, it does a great job of marking the exact route you should follow, I have never had a issue with being blocked following the routes it creates.

Which BTW would be a much better addon, click a spot on the map and draw a passable route from your location (or a chosen start point) to your designation. I run into this issue in Craglorn all the time doing survey maps, for some dumb reason I keep going to the closest wayshrine to the mark, instead of the right one which is farther away, but actually lets you get to it.

burglar · January 2021

There's always a way to get on top of something... >_>