Did some searching, didn't find anything suggested like this yet.
With the new map system, you can add paper to a current map to "zoom out" the map to cover a larger area. The problem is, you lose the original, high detail map, you have to craft another one to keep that level of detail. Takes up inventory space.
I would like to see the ability to zoom back to the original map size once you've zoomed it out by adding paper. Holding the map and right-clicking seems to be a nice way to zoom in/out. Adding a piece of redstone or something else to the current zoom out recipe to make it more balanced would be fine.
Just a thought, I know I would find it useful.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
I don't see many good ways this could work, unfortunately. I do not know much about how minecraft handles the maps, but I would imagine that zooming the map out takes the ID of the map you are zooming out and uses the new zoomed out picture. This would mean that it would create a completely new map file and get rid of the old picture. If one were to save all the old maps, it could become a problem on large servers. And while the ability to zoom would be really nice, that would suggest that the map is displayed at low resolutions when zoomed out, and a higher res while the map is zoomed in. While that may seem really freaking obvious, it means that the map is a large file that is printed to the map, which must be interpreted for your zoom level and drawn to match that level, as well as load the damn picture. Given the amount I have seen maps have loading in 1.3.2, I don't think your idea is really feasible.
All map files are saved as they are created, at least that's what it looks like to me. I just created a full zoom out of a map. The files saved were map_0.dat through map_4.dat. These files were not changed or deleted once I closed the world, they are still there. Opening them in Image to map showed that they are all exactly as I left them. The map data is stored, it doesn't seem to me to take up any more space, since a map data file appears to be about 5K or so, I didn't fill them all out to see. So it's not going to take up any more space on a server really. It would seem to me it should be possible to cycle back through those map files pretty easily.
Upon more testing, it definitely is each map has it's own map file in the save folder for that world. Each file is independent of the other. I just used INVedit to put my original maps back into my inventory, and they all work fine. Each map has it's own damage value, and can exist in your inventory. I don't see why these can't be chained together in a command to have it switch between map files when you right-click. Since it looks like the largest map maybe takes 10K (I didn't explore the whole thing to fill it in) but the next zoom level down is 7K, so data file size shouldn't be a big deal on a server either.
Thing is, this doesn't need any new items, just a revamp of the current way maps are handled. Essentially, if you zoom out a map to it's biggest size, the three previous map files are ignored and never used again. If you explore any area in those smaller scale maps, that information is thrown away when you expand the map. The files are already there in your save folder, why not a way to use them? I don't think you need to add a new item just to zoom maps, just holding the map and right clicking would be fine.
And, again, as for any feature in Minecraft, if you don't like it, don't use it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
With the new map system, you can add paper to a current map to "zoom out" the map to cover a larger area. The problem is, you lose the original, high detail map, you have to craft another one to keep that level of detail. Takes up inventory space.
I would like to see the ability to zoom back to the original map size once you've zoomed it out by adding paper. Holding the map and right-clicking seems to be a nice way to zoom in/out. Adding a piece of redstone or something else to the current zoom out recipe to make it more balanced would be fine.
Just a thought, I know I would find it useful.
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
Upon more testing, it definitely is each map has it's own map file in the save folder for that world. Each file is independent of the other. I just used INVedit to put my original maps back into my inventory, and they all work fine. Each map has it's own damage value, and can exist in your inventory. I don't see why these can't be chained together in a command to have it switch between map files when you right-click. Since it looks like the largest map maybe takes 10K (I didn't explore the whole thing to fill it in) but the next zoom level down is 7K, so data file size shouldn't be a big deal on a server either.
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.
And, again, as for any feature in Minecraft, if you don't like it, don't use it.
D_B
To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.