Jump to content

Mapping/Navigation of starting location


PPete

Recommended Posts

The starting location of an Adventure is often a parking lot or another important reference point to start the Adventure. Some months ago we were able to navigate to this point, which has been ideal. Right now I think this is not possible, correct?

 

Please make the this Starting point viewable in an Adventure's map (besides its Lab stages). And also make it possible to navigate to it too (besides its Lab stages).

Link to comment

Every AL contains starting location coordinates. They are the one where the icon in the main map of the app is placed.

Not to be confused with the coordinates of Lab-Stage 1 which could be far distant from the starting location (parking lot, trailhead etc.)

 

screenshot.png

Edited by PPete
Link to comment
3 minutes ago, PPete said:

Every AL contains starting location coordinates. They are the one where the icon in the main map of the app is placed.

Not to be confused with the coordinates of Lab-Stage 1 which could be far distant from the starting location (parking lot, trailhead etc.)

The icon is often placed randomly it seems. I have arrived at where the icon is to find WP1 some distance away. Nothing to do with parking, trailhead, etc. That was in the early days when I thought that where the icon is would be WP1. Seems logical to me. No silly me, no reason for the icon to be there at all, rather than the logical first WP. Didn't impress me I can tell you, as it meant I couldn't find the AL that day, but had to cycle home and plan another day. These days I am more aware of that, but as I don't find ALs every day, or even every  month, this still can fool me at times.

  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
10 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

The icon is often placed randomly it seems. I have arrived at where the icon is to find WP1 some distance away. Nothing to do with parking, trailhead, etc. That was in the early days when I thought that where the icon is would be WP1. Seems logical to me. No silly me, no reason for the icon to be there at all, rather than the logical first WP. Didn't impress me I can tell you, as it meant I couldn't find the AL that day, but had to cycle home and plan another day. These days I am more aware of that, but as I don't find ALs every day, or even every  month, this still can fool me at times.

 

Sometimes there's a logical place to put the icon and sometimes there isn't. For my first AL, Wreck of the Maitland, the logical place was the car park at the entrance to the national park since the waypoints are placed along a loop track that starts and ends there and none have direct road access. My second one, Broken Bay Sands, is spread along 5km of beach-front. I'd considered putting the icon in the middle of the bay at one point, but instead decided on the car park at the Ettalong end of the walk. While it has a common theme (sand), It's non-sequential and makes as much sense doing it in one direction as the other, or even just driving to each of the locations, but the icon had to go somewhere. For the third one, Five Lands Walk, which is a 10km coastal walk from MacMasters Beach to Terrigal, the logical place was the car park at MacMasters but, so far, everyone who's written a review has said they just drove to each location and no-one has yet done the walk. But, as with Broken Bay Sands, the icon has to go somewhere.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

The point is: These starting location is not random - but exactly at those coordinates the AL owner entered in the field of my screenshot. So especially if the AL-owner defined it onto a certain location (like parking lot or trailhead) it makes sense to make this point viewable + able to be navigated to. This was already working in the past - before we have been able to navigate to the Lab stages itself. So the coordinates Lab Stage 1 in general is something different then the location of the AL's starting point.

Edited by PPete
Link to comment
1 hour ago, PPete said:

The point is: These starting location is not random - but exactly at those coordinates the AL owner entered in the field of my screenshot. So especially if the AL-owner defined it onto a certain location (like parking lot or trailhead) it makes sense to make this point viewable + able to be navigated to. This was already working in the past - before we have been able to navigate to the Lab stages itself. So the coordinates Lab Stage 1 in general is something different then the location of the AL's starting point.

You're making so much sense I'm having a hard time imagining what's actually happening. Are you saying the app ignores the AL coordinates and, instead, is putting the AL on the map at the location of the first stage? Is this only when the AL is sequential, or does it do this even if the first listed stage isn't the first stage you have to find. Ignoring the coordinates where the owner want the AL to be listed would obviously be a bug.

 

Or does the app show the AL at it's designated location, it's just that the app has lost any way to navigate to that point? I never use AL navigation that way, so I wouldn't know if that's changed.

Link to comment

Ok, I'll try explaining it using a series of 3 Screenshots. Remember: The starting point is an individual field which a AL-owner has to fill with coordinates. It has nothing to do with the 5 lab stages, and so it's also undependend if the AL is sequential or not.

 

1) On the overall screen, where all AL of a region are drawn, the icon of my AL is listed at its starting-coordinates: OK! But no ability to navigate to yet:

 

1175314426_Screen1.png.2febea9363258d84bc4cfb74a11adb1b.png

 

2) When clicking onto the AL we can see the follwing screen. Still not possible to navigate to the start-coordinates. In my opinion it would make sense to have it here.

 

927958623_Screen2.png.2b45b20623025f31a3e9273def906ddb.png

 

3) After clicking onto "Start" the we can see the following screen, a map of 5 AL's stages - but not its Starting-coordinates (which I draw green). Hence we just have the ability to see and navigate to one of the 5 stages - but not the starting coordinates. But this feature would make sense, cause a starting-point (parking lot, Trailhead) can be distant to the location of Lab-Stage 1

 

769960519_Screen3.thumb.png.94eb16b39367a5ea5a50e8d467d1f332.png

 

 

Link to comment

Not sure if I understand your problem. 

 

If the AL is sequential, the arrow is leading you to the first stage.

If the AL is NOT sequential, always the closest stage is marked.  All you have to do click on any other of the stages to make those "active" and the arrow will get you there.  You can make any of the stages your first stage

 

Edited by Mausebiber
  • Funny 1
  • Surprised 1
Link to comment
On 9/22/2022 at 5:49 AM, PPete said:

Ok, I'll try explaining it using a series of 3 Screenshots.

Thanks for making it clear. So you're saying there used to be a button to navigate to the starting point in the second screen? Regardless, I agree that's an obvious missing feature: if the owner can set an address where the user should start, the app should provide a way to navigate to it.

Link to comment
47 minutes ago, dprovan said:

Thanks for making it clear. So you're saying there used to be a button to navigate to the starting point in the second screen? Regardless, I agree that's an obvious missing feature: if the owner can set an address where the user should start, the app should provide a way to navigate to it.

 

The trouble is, how can you tell if the listed coordinates are meant to be somewhere to go to (a car park or trail head) or just the equivalent of a mystery cache's bogus coordinates? I've seen ALs that are a circumnavigation of a body of water have their listed coordinates in the middle of that water, like this one:

 

WaterAL.jpg.60a22a30a97a0c6062523a31e04bfd21.jpg

 

I'm pretty sure its creator doesn't want people to drive there.

 

Often times, particularly for a non-sequential AL, there's no "starting place" to go to, you just go to whichever of the five locations you want to do first. But the listed coordinates have to be put somewhere, otherwise it won't appear on the map.

Edited by barefootjeff
Link to comment
23 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

The trouble is, how can you tell if the listed coordinates are meant to be somewhere to go to (a car park or trail head) or just the equivalent of a mystery cache's bogus coordinates?

 

This is a good argument! Sometimes AL owners describe that the listed coordinates are e.g. parking coordinates. Or people can see on the map that the listed coordinates are placed at a certain location next to a way to start the AL.
But anyway: I think users should have the ability to navigate to this start/listing coordinates. If they are placed on a spot to drive to: very good. If they are just placed on a random spot like in the middle of the lake or people are unsure about it: just don't click onto the navigate-icon. But in all cases it makes sense to add the starting point on the map together with the 5 red dots of the Lab stages to judge the meaning of its location on the map.

Edited by PPete
Link to comment
1 hour ago, dprovan said:

OK, so some owners won't use it as the place to start. How does that lead to the conclusion that there shouldn't be a way to navigate to it for ALs that do use it that way?

 

I didn't say there shouldn't, just pointing out that a lot of the time it mightn't be useful, particularly for non-sequential ALs that are spread over a fair distance.

Link to comment
8 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

I didn't say there shouldn't, just pointing out that a lot of the time it mightn't be useful, particularly for non-sequential ALs that are spread over a fair distance.

OK, good. I'm not too worried about your counterexample because I wouldn't expect most AL spread over any significant distance to have unrelated coordinates set as its location.

  • Funny 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...