am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name

All and any discussion and development of the Mudlet Mapper.
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Heiko
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Re: am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name

Post by Heiko »

@ 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.

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Vadi
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Re: am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name

Post by Vadi »

The map takes your current position and draws out until it hits the radius draw limit. It never draws the whole, big map - http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~vadi-mappe ... er.c#L2166

Perhaps some algorithm here that calculates "at this zoom level, x rooms can fit height-wise" and then does not draw rooms outside of the dimensions - that is for the 2D mode.

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Heiko
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Re: am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name

Post by Heiko »

This isn't an answer to my questions. I'd like to see a screenshot of 2 or 3 neighbouring areas on the same map.

kakku
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Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:03 pm

Re: am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name

Post by kakku »

i want to use the map for two reasons:
1) to know in which room i am and not feel lost.
2) to see where i could go.

if i would be in a city and planning to go outside to kill some trees.(which are good exp) i would like to see the map of the area surrounding the city to see where i should go. if i would need to go to a city gate just to see the surrounding area on that side of the city, i would have to run to each city gate to go see surrounding areas. it would be easier if i could see the map of the city and its surrounding areas.
Or if i am in area 1 and i want to go somewhere in area 3, then i wanna see which route to take. if area 2 would already be not visuable than i would have no idea where to go. and it would make the map useless.

also if i think about areas as you describe them it would be best to seperate areas at "door" rooms or single rooms which connect two areas. since the mud i play is a PvP mud as well, it's important at times to keep moving. it wouldn't help me much in PvP if i had to stop and see where to go each time i enter an area . sometimes i just have to know how to spam through an area fast.

for those areas that would have only one entrance i do agree that they don't have to be shown. but most areas do have more than 1 entrance/exit. though when i think about it now: they dont have to be shown when you are outside of that dungeon/area but when you are in there it would be nice to see the direct surrounding outside area still.. so you can plan an escape when needed.

kakku
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Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:03 pm

Re: am i doing this right? storing roomdescription as name

Post by kakku »

an example of 2D map view.

all rooms are on the same level and in same area.
i added some orange lines to show how things connect. since up/down connections wont show up in 2D.
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Screen shot 2011-03-24 at 3.36.04 PM.jpg

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