Yes, you forgot that (my wording may have been ambiguous, sorry).

One idea: It may be easier to see the separate lines if some of them are not rectangular again. What do you think about making the blue lines direct connections (and maybe have them start from the same point on one continent)? Same regarding the brown lines on the continents. That way you should win a lot of space to add the missing lines.

And maybe the rectangular lines are nicer if you make them curves (or shaky freedrawn lines, hehe)?

Well, just ideas to play around with. Thanks for your work so far! And very good idea to add a legend regarding the different line colors! :nana:

I tried that at the moment but EQII map updater will always replace the world_map_overlay.dds with the default one. Did I miss something?

Rass

This is work in progress. Don't use the updater if you want to try it out.

added the 2 other connection lines.



I am also including the dds for this build. ony issue I have see so far is the icon locations in the zones_world.xml file:

are in the wrong locations for this map. not sure if the POI icons for the world map are even necessary. My primary use for this map is to quickly see the routes between the major zones.

gm9: I will try a draft with your idea and see if I can get the lines to look any better.

i have an idea... u know how we can filter POIs by type? maybe there's a way to filter zone connection lines by type as well... though that'd kinda make things complicated.

dunno, just tossing ideas out because this is a nasty web that's only gonna get worse as more expansions are released. if we figure out a good system now, we save ourselves a lot of trouble in the future..


and i don't use the POIs i the world map either. hell, i almost never look at it since i know where to go for each zone, but still.. i don't really think we need to have the icons since u have a connection legend in the corner now.

After looking at some of these I think the square lines are just too confusing. Here's a map that I think is easier to follow. I had the lines for bells (dark blue) as straight lines at first but after looking at it, curving them didn't change the appearance too much. The PSD is just the lines and dots, saved from GIMP since I don't have Photoshop.

Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere
Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere



Oh, I haven't tried it in-game but here's a DXT3 DDS.
--
I edited the files a bit after realizing I had the SS and Feerrott docks in the wrong places.

My vote
 

This is much easier to view.

I'm going to be working on a core map update over the next few days and will include everything needed for the new world map. I agree the curved lines are clearer and will use that aproach. I'll also include a legend. All of which will be hidable.

Oh very nice!

Three cheers for smoothed curves!

And the problem is that things aren't to scale, but thats on SOE's side. The isle of Ro should appear a bit bigger, and Faydwer should be _much_ bigger.

But nothing to be done about that. Ideally "Antonica" and "Commonlands" should be removed to keep it consistant.

Four cheers for Zonx =)

As an aside, does someone have the original files for the Freeport City overlay? That one needs two more connections also-- the new doors from Longshadow to the Graveyard and from the Scaleyard to the Sprawl. The Qeynos City overlay just needs one icon for the Down Below added to the Caves.

FYI, the changes anfrey made to show the new zone overview map were pushed live yesterday. I made the overlay blank until we get something that is finished. :)

good deal :) glad i could help

I just put in a legend also. I don't think I really look at this map very much anyways, but if you're new a legend might help.
In-game the lines are a little clearer because you're seeing jpg compression here and the location names are on top of course.


Here's a new DDS file too.

Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere
Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere

((Edit: thanks, forgot that one line))

very nice... now add a blue line between nek and ts

One last suggestion:
Add arrowheads on the ticket-bell curves (ie the lines: -->--) to show that they're one-way.

Here are some small arrows. Anything else that could be made clearer?


Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere
Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere

looks great to me... i think we're pretty much done and ready for dolby to push it on the updater.

after seeing the zone connection lines, it make me wonder why lucan doesn't have ships that go straight from freeport to faywer... it looks to be as far away as cuba is from key west.

I think we should get a live event to build a bridge from Freeport over to Faydwer (and tear down the wall to Unrest on the way). :)

And regarding the map I agree, this looks like release quality. Good job!

I've been away from EQ2 for a long while (recently came back), but where is the Isle of Mara on the world map?

It is not on the map which SOE supplied, the one island without a name is the Isle of Refuge.

Someone more familiar with the lore than I would need to answer where the Isle of Mara is supposedly located (I do not even have that adventure pack).

Frankly, the "world map" is only a guide. It's not size-accurate and I doubt it's distance accurate. I imagine Faydwer is both farther away than it appears, and I know it has to be much larger than it appears on that map.

As for building a bridge... I imagine that would be even more difficult ;)

Anyone want to see Butcherblock labeled. After all, it is a departure/destination zone, much like Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest and more so than even Isle of Ro (carpets only)!

And if any of the lore meisters could come up with a location for the Isle of Mara, that would be a great addition, beyond what even SOE has provided via their maps!

BB was labled at one point, but it was removed. It's not really needed, and if anything I'd have TS + Antonica replaced with that continent's name (which for the life of me escapes me) and Commonlands + Nek replaced with "D'Lere".

The WMap isn't a zone-connection map, it's more of a connection between the major island/continents map.

As for the location of the isle of Mara... theres nowhere near enough info given for us to be able to pick a spot for it hehe =)

I just tried the map auto-updater. For some reason, you're pushing the overlay as a DXT1 file instead of a DXT3 file. The DXT1 is smaller but it only has a 1 bit alpha channel so all the lines and everything is very jaggy looking. All the other overlays are DXT3s with a 4 bit alpha channel. Would it be possible to put it back as a DXT3?


If you need to save file space, there are a few maps that have all the mip maps generated, making them about 342K instead of 129K like most of the maps.


Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere
Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere