Mapping

I haven't yet gotten a chance to tinker with the mapper. I plan to test it out. Though I might have to code my own. I'm having trouble thinking up how to do the visual display. I see that there is one as an example of what you can do with miniwindows. Is that that able to be downloaded from somewhere? I'd like to build off of it if I can. Why reinvent the wheel.

Also, it is my understanding that the mapper is more for just remembering a path than creating an in-depth map. Am I incorrect in this assumption?

Mapping is a large project after all, so just trying to figure out where the best approach is. I can say that the specific area in the mud I plan on mapping does have directions that make sense. If you go north, south will always work to get out (at least in all places that it really matters, unique rooms may vary but there are few, and I want them marked on the mapper). There are 'levels' in the map. i.e. northwest might actually lead down a level and northwest. And you may or may not know that you went down. Which presents a problem. But the saving grace is that the map would probably fit neatly on a 3d grid system if you got the locations correct. (The level message is skill dependent, and there are too many factors in that to get a reliable message.) And the last difficulty I forsee. The area is huge and most rooms are not unique, so I will see a ton of instances of a room with the same name, desc, and exit directions.

If anything that can handle this has already been produced. I would much appreciate it. If not and someone has some insights or suggestions, that would also be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot folks. I really appreciate the help.

An example that I did for Aardwolf is here:

http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=8816

That basically takes the mapper information as received and redirects it to a miniwindow.



Yes, the mapping functionality basically is for remembering how to get from A to B.

I am not aware of a more sophisticated mapper. A while back we did some posts about calculating the shortest path from one point to another, but that required knowing where everything is.

Most of us who use MUSHclient to play IRE games use the MudBot/IMTS/LMTS (same app, different flavors) mapper module. I love the little miniwindow plugin for displaying my in-game map as an augmentation of my speedwalking map system, though.

Oh, that sounds promising. Is it something I can basically have parse MUSHclient text to automatically map as I move around? How customizable is it? Where can I take a look at it? Thanks man.

It was originally developed for Imperian and it's been ported in various forms by a few individuals to other games. I'm working with a version I modified for Lusternia.

You can download the original code from http://imts.sf.net.

Basically, it's a proxy server, meaning that you configure it to connect to your game and then you connect to it. It has its own Lua scripting module, too, which you don't have to use. I only use the mapping module myself.

If you don't play IRE MUDs, though, this isn't for you unless you're really interested in porting it for a completely different kind of game.

Hmm... To be completely honest, I don't know what an IRE mud is, so I have no idea if DartMud is such a mud. How would I be able to tell?

If it were, you would know. :-) IRE == Iron Realms Entertainment. It's a company that runs commercial MUDs.