Map

Map are a type of book that provide recreation. They are guaranteed to contain a quest which can be triggered while reading.

Acquisition[edit]

Maps, like all books, can be purchased from trade caravans, orbital traders and faction bases, or earned through quests.

When starting a new game, there is a chance for your starting colonists to carry books as possessions based on their traits or backstory.

Summary[edit]

Maps can be read by colonists as a recreation activity, with a recreation power of 100%. All books will also train intellectual at a rate of 250 XP per in-game hour.

As opposed to other books, maps have no quality. However, they are always guaranteed to contain a quest. Reading a map has a chance to trigger such quest with a MTB of 12,500 ticks (3.47 mins). Once a quest from a map was triggered it can no longer happen again.

Once a specific map had its quest trigger, it can no longer happen again. Such maps can still be read for recreation, contribute towards reading bonus, and may be sold to traders. However, compared to other book types, reading them doesn't provide any bonus.

Analysis[edit]

Maps always contain a quest, which can be useful for finding rare items. For example, the ancient mercenaries quest can help find unique weapons, the alpha thrumbo quest is the only way to find alpha thrumbos at all, and ancient launch sites can be used to generate an orbital quest. There is also a chance that the quest is a dud, e.g., a bandit camp or ancient complex without much useful loot.

The quests can be quite distant. Since most quests have a time limit that begins once the quest is generated, it may be wise to prevent colonists from reading maps until the trip can be made quickly, e.g., with a gravship or passenger shuttles. For the same reason, maps are not a priority to obtain in the early game due to the difficulty of standard travel.

Maps have no particular advantage when compared to other types of books with a quest inside them.