History Main / HighlyVisibleLandmark

High visibility structures meant to help the audience (or characters) orient themselves in an open-world setting. Generally these striking reference points can be seen from anywhere in a region, so that [[NoSenseOfDirection a certain kind of person]] is less likely to lose their bearings

These make for very convenient navigational ''destinations'' as well, since they can be easily tracked on the horizon by eyesight alone (removing the need for a map).

High visibility structures meant to help the audience (or characters) orient themselves in an open-world setting. Generally these striking reference points can be seen from anywhere within a region, so that [[NoSenseOfDirection a certain kind of person]] is less likely to lose track of where they are.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, the Cathedral of Learning is a skyscraper on the University of Pittsburgh's campus that is known locally as the "Drunken Compass." It's one of the tallest educational buildings in the world and can be seen from anywhere in Oakland (the "college town" district that's home to Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Chatham University). As such, it's very common for college kids to use the building to orient themselves while walking home after a night of partying.

These make for very convenient navigational destinations since they can be easily tracked on the horizon by eyesight alone (removing the need for a map).

High visibility structures meant to help the audience (or characters) orient themselves in an open-world setting. Generally these reference points are meant to be so striking that they can be seen from anywhere within a region, so that [[NoSenseOfDirection certain people]] are less likely to lose track of where they are.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, the Cathedral of Learning is a skyscraper on the University of Pittsburgh's campus that is known locally as the "Drunken Compass." It's one of the tallest educational buildings in the world and can be seen from anywhere in Oakland (the "college town" district that's home to Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Chatham University). As such, it's very common for college kids to use the building to orient themselves and walk home after a night of partying.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, the Cathedral of Learning is a skyscraper on the University of Pittsburgh's campus that is known locally as the "Drunken Compass." It's one of the tallest educational buildings in the world and can be seen from anywhere in Oakland (the "college town" neighborhood that's home to Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Chatham University). As such, it's very common for college kids to use the building to orient themselves and walk home after a night of partying.

Larger open worlds may have multiple of these landmarks built into the landscape to make the environment easier to comprehend visually. Where they are placed can vary. They might represent a home base, the center of the map, or a faraway goal. These landmarks might also be part of a PortalNetwork to move between regions.

In video games, this operates as InstructiveLevelDesign, since players will naturally want to head towards large structures, even without knowing what they are--sidestepping the need to make them FollowThePlottedLine. Developers will sometimes subtly drill this into the player's mind using a VideoGameVista to force attention on the landmark.

High visibility structures meant to help the audience (or characters) orient themselves in an open-world setting. Generally these striking reference points can be seen from anywhere within a region, so that [[NoSenseOfDirection certain people]] are less likely to lose track of where they are.

These landmarks commonly manifest as a WorldTree, EvilTowerOfOminousness, PillarOfLight, or DeathMountain. May involve some [[ArtisticLicenseGeography geographic artistic license]].

* In Season 5 of ''The Magnus Archives'', [[spoiler:After the Dread Powers invade reality, the Magnus Institute becomes a massive tower that (according to Jon) is visible from anywhere in the world. Luckily that makes it pretty easy for Jon and Martin to figure out where they need to go to try and undo the changes brought by the invasion.]]

'''Note: It is not enough to be a large structure, its function (either for the audience or for the characters) has to be the practicality as a reference point.'''

'''Note: It is not enough to be a large structure, its function (either for the audience or for the characters) has to be the practicality as a reference point'''

'''Note: It is not enough to be a large structure, its function (either for the audience or for the characters) has to be the practicality of it's wide visibility.'''

Landmarks can also function as omnipresent [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent Meaningful Background Events]], meant to foreshadow important endgame locations. In this case, they tend to be initially inaccessible (or impossibly far away) and exist moreso to taunt the players' curiosity about how their adventure may eventually lead there.

In video games, this operates as InstructiveLevelDesign, since players will naturally want to head towards large structures, even without knowing what they are, which sidesteps the need to make them FollowThePlottedLine. Developers will sometimes subtly drill this into the player's mind using a VideoGameVista to force attention on the landmark.

In video games, this operates as InstructiveLevelDesign, since players will naturally want to head towards large structures, even without knowing what they are, which sidesteps the need to make them FollowThePlottedLine. Developers will sometimes subtly drill this into the player's mind using a VideoGameVista to force the camera's attention on the landmark.

In video games, this operates as InstructiveLevelDesign, since players will naturally want to head towards large structures, even without knowing what they are, which sidesteps the need to FollowThePlottedLine. Developers will sometimes subtly drill this into the player's mind using a VideoGameVista to force the camera's attention on the landmark.

These make for very convenient navigational destinations as well since they can be easily tracked on the horizon by eyesight alone, removing the need for a map.

[[quoteright:1000:[[VideoGame/{{Journey}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/journey.png]]]]

* ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}'': Invoked by players, who in the early game tend to build dirt towers to mark locations. The game itself prefers the use of compasses and maps to find your way around, and banners to mark spots on maps. In the endgame, you can eventually craft a shining [[PillarOfLight beacon]] for this purpose, and place it somewhere important to take advantage of the various {{Status Buff}}s it grants the players in its radius.

* ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}'': Invoked by players, who in the early game may build dirt towers to mark locations. The game itself prefers the use of compasses and maps to find your way around, and banners to mark spots on maps. In the endgame, you can eventually craft a shining [[PillarOfLight beacon]] for this purpose, and place it somewhere important to take advantage of the various {{Status Buff}}s it grants the players in its radius.

* ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}'': Commonly invoked by players, who build dirt towers to mark locations. The game itself prefers the use of compasses and maps to find your way around, and banners to mark spots on maps. In the endgame, you can craft a [[PillarOfLight beacon]], which is nigh-guaranteed to be placed somewhere of importance, so as to take advantage of the various {{Status Buff}}s it grants the players in its radius.

* ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}'': Commonly invoked by players, who build dirt towers to mark locations. The game itself mostly prefers the use of compasses and maps to find your way around. At least until the endgame, when you can craft a PillarOfLight beacon. This beacon is also nigh-guaranteed to be placed somewhere of importance, to take advantage of the various StatusBuff it grants the player's in it's radius.