Remember strategy games? Warcraft and so on. There the map opens gradually as you explore, and until then it’s hidden by the so-called “fog of war”. Below I’ll explain why I’m mentioning this.
Of course, I’m not suggesting making town maps invisible at the city selection stage. But when I settle a new family in some town - it would be nice if Zois didn’t know what and where is located until they visit that place.
My Zoi went for a walk in Cahaya for the first time. He went to the market, had a snack. Started looking for minerals in the park. But when I didn’t give him anything to do for a minute - he suddenly confidently set off down an unfamiliar street, passed a couple of turns, entered an unfamiliar café and used the restroom there.
It’s wonderful that he satisfied his needs on his own. But you have to admit, it would be more logical if he went home to do it, or to some establishment he had already passed (a thrift store where there’s a restroom, which he had encountered earlier on the way). The same goes for any sudden actions: eat, rest, and so on. When a Zoi goes to a place he’s never been to and that’s beyond his line of sight, but he knows for sure what’s located there - that’s very strange.
Perhaps it would be possible to come up with some kind of “geographic memory system” for each family? You could even actually use a light “darkening” of the part of the map where no Zoi from the played family has ever been? (If at least one character was there - you could assume he told everyone in the family about it, and they already know where the restroom is and where the kitchen is). This would add an element of additional exploration to the game, plus it would help better remember where we haven’t yet tried to search for the same minerals, or where we should go or sail to in order to “open up” the entire town.
