Feature Request: Settlement / Burg LOD Visibility System

[FearNaBoinne]

Summary

Implement a configurable Level-of-Detail (LOD) visibility system for settlements ("burgs") to improve map readability and usability at different zoom levels.

Problem

Currently, all burgs are treated similarly in terms of visibility. On large or densely populated maps, this creates significant clutter when zoomed out, especially when many small settlements such as homesteads, hamlets, shrines, mines, or watchposts are present.

At the same time, some very small settlements may still be narratively, geographically, or strategically important enough that users want them visible even at lower zoom levels.

Right now there is no flexible way to:

Hide low-importance settlements automatically at distant zoom levels
Keep specific small settlements visible
Define visibility behavior by settlement type

Proposed Solution

1. Settlement Type LOD

Allow each settlement type to define a default visibility threshold based on zoom level.

Example:

Capitals → Always visible
Cities → Visible at medium/far zoom
Towns → Visible at medium zoom
Villages → Visible when closer
Hamlets / Homesteads → Visible only at close zoom

This would significantly reduce clutter on large maps.

2. Individual Settlement Override

Allow individual burgs to override the default type-based LOD.

Example override modes:

• Hidden
• Local
• Regional
• Major
• Always visible

This would allow small but important settlements (story locations, strategic forts, holy sites, unique landmarks, etc.) to remain visible regardless of population size.

Suggested Use Cases

• Story/worldbuilding maps
• Historical maps
• Dense fantasy worlds
• Strategic maps
• Large procedurally generated regions

###Benefits

• Improved readability at all zoom levels
• Better support for dense maps
• Reduced label/icon clutter
• Greater flexibility for worldbuilders
• Better distinction between demographic importance and narrative importance

###Optional Enhancements

• Separate icon and label visibility thresholds
• Manual importance weighting
• Grouped visibility presets
• Automatic scaling based on total burg count
• Different LOD behavior for capitals, forts, ruins, religious sites, etc.

###Example

A map could hide all homesteads when zoomed out, while still keeping a single remote monastery or fortress visible because it has been manually flagged as important.

[goteguru]

It would be a nice upgrade.
I think instead of arbitrary "override" modes, we should simply assign a lod level (eg. 1-5) to the objects.
Capitals would get LOD priority 1 automatically towns get 3. The user can simply change the number and that's it.

(The same system could be extended to roads, etc.., however if it's a consistent generic system, it would require a major refactor). At basic level (cities only) doesn't seem to be very complex (need ui changes though).

[Azgaar]

Yes, it's not complex. We can just use scale as the number. We already have this system for label, it's not hard to extend to other objects. But I would like to merge the Labels migration PR first.

[inviktos]

Instead of hardcoding this, it could be a feature tied to burg groups. Towns and Cities already exist as separate default burg groups, but adding in custom burg groups for capitals could have the desired effect of "always having capitals viewable" (In maps with large numbers of small states, having capitals always be viewable would likely not change much in terms of readability).

Thus, by tying the LOD to burg groups instead of a hardcoded designation, it could be even more customizable

[Azgaar]

Just to clarify, it's not hard-coded now.