Re: am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:26 pm
@ kakku:
As I've pointed out above, optimizations aren't a priority because it's not needed normally as an area free map would have to be stretched out so much in many places that it becomes useless -> too few rooms would be drawn unless you'd use a huge map display size which is not what people want. How does the map know what rooms are close by if the rooms belong to different areas? Areas have no spatial relationship vis-a-vis each other and if you plan to make a MUD wide world map of all areas you'll end up at problem 1. It's impossible to solve most likely simply because MUDs weren't designed with realistic maps in mind and even if they were it would still be impossible to produce useful maps because of useability and playability issues.
The map script that I wrote for Avalon solves this problem nicely because the MUD has been created on the basis of grid wilderness maps. When you enter a sub area the mapper switches from grid map mode to standard mode and the cities, dungeons etc. are rendered by humans with the visual map editor in such a way that the area rooms are as densely packed as possible while keeping the layout logically correct. When you enter a large building in a city you create another sub area for this building in order to keep the city map as spatially condensed as possible. This is a nicely useable solution that focuses on playability. If you are in a building you don't need to see what's outside and thus the city maps are kept as small as possible so that even large cities can be entirely displayed even on relatively small map displays (= easy orientation).
In the end you have several large grid overview maps that contain large areas of the MUD (main continent, underworld and the islands) When you enter a room on the grid map that is the entrance to a sub area the sub area map is shown which, in turn, can contain further sub areas. The main grid maps are not visually connected because it wouldn't make sense in this MUD to do this.
@ vadi:
How does the map "know" what it "needs to draw"? The map has no brain and knows nothing about a given game. Show me an overview map produced with mudbot please. What I've seen in the past was pretty much similar to the in game map and full of warp gates (= exits to unmappable places because they wouldn't fit in the current map) which is exactly the same sub area concept that we are using. My mudbot mapper / Achaea experience is next to non existent so pardon me if I'm wrong, but this is what I remember.
As I've pointed out above, optimizations aren't a priority because it's not needed normally as an area free map would have to be stretched out so much in many places that it becomes useless -> too few rooms would be drawn unless you'd use a huge map display size which is not what people want. How does the map know what rooms are close by if the rooms belong to different areas? Areas have no spatial relationship vis-a-vis each other and if you plan to make a MUD wide world map of all areas you'll end up at problem 1. It's impossible to solve most likely simply because MUDs weren't designed with realistic maps in mind and even if they were it would still be impossible to produce useful maps because of useability and playability issues.
The map script that I wrote for Avalon solves this problem nicely because the MUD has been created on the basis of grid wilderness maps. When you enter a sub area the mapper switches from grid map mode to standard mode and the cities, dungeons etc. are rendered by humans with the visual map editor in such a way that the area rooms are as densely packed as possible while keeping the layout logically correct. When you enter a large building in a city you create another sub area for this building in order to keep the city map as spatially condensed as possible. This is a nicely useable solution that focuses on playability. If you are in a building you don't need to see what's outside and thus the city maps are kept as small as possible so that even large cities can be entirely displayed even on relatively small map displays (= easy orientation).
In the end you have several large grid overview maps that contain large areas of the MUD (main continent, underworld and the islands) When you enter a room on the grid map that is the entrance to a sub area the sub area map is shown which, in turn, can contain further sub areas. The main grid maps are not visually connected because it wouldn't make sense in this MUD to do this.
@ vadi:
How does the map "know" what it "needs to draw"? The map has no brain and knows nothing about a given game. Show me an overview map produced with mudbot please. What I've seen in the past was pretty much similar to the in game map and full of warp gates (= exits to unmappable places because they wouldn't fit in the current map) which is exactly the same sub area concept that we are using. My mudbot mapper / Achaea experience is next to non existent so pardon me if I'm wrong, but this is what I remember.