the-abe-train
GL-142 - add direction hint
This PR addresses #142
This uses great circle bearing, which can be counter-intuitive as e.g. the direction from UK to Canada (or USA to China) is "north", where one would typically expect the "rhumb line" direction (east or west in these cases).
Having thought about it over the weekend, I think this might actually be the correct implementation for Globle. It is, after all, the path along which the distance for the distance hint is measured - if we were to use the rhumb line direction, it would be more correct to use the rhumb line distance as well.
In Globle, the user interacts with a globe. It's right there in the name. Using great circle direction is a chance for ordinary people to encounter first hand the kinds of real world problems that arise from spherical navigation, problems e.g. airline pilots engage with every day.
Hi Alex! Thank you for putting this together. I will say though, I'm always hesitant to add any features that make the game easier. Many of the people that have made Globle a part of their routine appreciate the consistent challenge and get frustrated when there are any changes to it. How would you feel about this just being an option in Practice mode?
Hi Abe! That would be really cool 😁 it's your baby, so will happily defer to your judgement. I would also be happy to set it up as an option you can turn on in settings (and off by default)? Downside is that would give those players with it turned on an unfair advantage making people's scores less comparable. So yeah, whatever you would like to do!
There would be a good argument for putting it in Practice mode, viz. that that's where you go to hone your triangulation approach.