Consider it done. I'm splitting the file up now (just starting on the map icon pages) so what you're asking is a pretty small change in comparison. Also good thinking. Glad you already saw that as a potential problem.

Quib

Thanks a lot, Quib. :)

I'll try to get more involved in this and think of ways to help out. If you've got anything you want me to do or look into, I'm at your service.

Well, change of underwear
 

I met a real ******* in-game today (big surprise, there are alot of them).
Very nice to come here and see this EXCELLENT project being done.
That kinda nullifies that ass I met today.

Thanks alot! I mean it! :nana:

You're welcome benrangel! and thank you very much for the praise. ^_~

I'm about 25% done modularizing the map icon pages. It's quite a bit more tedious than I expected. No one offer help or anything, it's something I gotta just buckle down and get done and there's really no way to divide up the work without confusion. The good news is, I'll be done tomorrow evening and will probably go ahead and do our 3rd official release so people who want to mod the window style can have at it.

Quib

could you post an example of an <Icon> line that has everything set the way you want it in the order you want it so that i can use that format for the thing i am writing to generate the xml that should *hopefully* be integrated into the map site soon

I'll use code tags, but it might add random spaces. I'll also paste in a line without code tags (as long as it doesn't make the thread scroll far right) to hopefully clarify where spaces are and aren't).
<Icon IconStyle="MOB" IconType="map" Location="191,196" Name="MOBviciousbadgers" pathfindlocation="947, 0, -352" ScrollExtent="10,10" Size="10,10" Tooltip="Vicious Badgers" TreatAsButton="true" OnHoverIn="Parent.Parent.Parent.Parent.WC_Titlebar.QM_LocEntry.QM_LocText.LocalT ext=pathfindlocation Parent.Parent.Parent.Parent.WC_Titlebar.QM_LocEntry.QM_LocPath.pathfindlocation= pathfindlocation"/>

That's a good example of what a complete icon line looks like. IconStyle is what it looks like, IconType is so pahfindlocation will draw a find trail, pathfindlocation is standardized as "###.##, ###.##, ###.##" where the commas and spaces are important for uniformity. Notice there's a Tooltip but no LocalTooltip to cut down on file size bloating. The OnHoverIn passes the pathfindlocation to the Path Finder.

Quib

Speaking of IconStyle, if the display icons by selected type idea gets off the ground you might want to consider adding a new IconStyle: markable. I know, usually those items aren't hugely useful, but they're fun. :D

But finding those markable objects on your own gives a certain sense of adventure...

Quib, one thing we have to get knocked out sooner rather than later is separate xml files for each zone's icon page. We really dont wanna generate a .4 meg file (and only getting bigger) from the web :)

as soon as that gets knocked out, we should be generating dynamic xmls constantly,

worry not tony, I might not be adding the POI's like we used to but I'm trying to save us ALL the hassle

Ehehe, don't worry about that first part; I'm now 50% done splitting the icon pages off into their own XMLs. I still can't believe how tedious and time-consuming the process really is. I should be done in a couple hours.

Quib

My wish list (for now)

Make the connection overlay button remember what state you left it in. Currently, I have to toggle the thing each time.

Make the PoI's toggled/optional. Personally, I would just want the maps, with only the zone entrances. If not that, then at least a simple/verbose toggle for the things. While I may care that X mob or type of mob is in a location, I probably don't want lines and lines of other stuff like "lots and lots of quests" or "see this mob during the X quest" cluttering things up.

But thanks for all of the work folks. :)

Thanks! And definately good feedback. I'll whip up an optional download that'll start the zone connection overlays in their "off" position after ger makes a couple minor corrections to the overlays. It'll be a day or two, but I'll get it made.

As for the POIs, we're working on a filter for them that'll allow you to select which ones you want showing. While this toggle won't save when you camp, it'll definately let you cut down on the POI crowding. Until that system is ready, you might want to check out this download:
http://www.eq2interface.com/download...fo.php?id=3497

It makes the POIs hidden until you move your mouse over the map window, then re-hides them when your mouse moves back off of the map window. It doesn't distinguish between zone markers and any other type of POI, but it'll reduce the clutter for when you're just trying to navigate a zone.

Quib

Just kinda posthing this here, rather than start a new topic (cause I didn't really see a Nek Forest topic). But I noticed when I zone in, I get the zone icons for zones like TS, but not Commonlands. (is it because I haven't near commonands maybe?) It just seemed like in other zones the zone icons still showed even if I haven't been there yet.

Did you use the auto-updater? There're very few POIs for the commonlands, I believe none in west commonlands so far.

If you just got the EQ2MAP - Main Download but haven't used the auto-updater then you should have plenty of icons in antonica, TS, nektulos and commonlands. In other words, if you're not seeing them there's a bug and I'll look into it.

Quib

Didn't use the auto-updater.

I'm saying the zone icon FOR commonlands IN Nek doesn't show. Meybe it's just me :p

Wish list:

1. Resizable maps
2. Making the loc enterd put a mark on the map as well as the guide trail.
3. Publish a tool that will allow us to help you make maps. I travel zones all the time and most high level zones are grey to me or I can invis through 99% of it. I would love to help make the maps!


I love this map UI you guys have made. It has made my life a lot easier and made game play much more fun. I would love to help out any way I am capable.

I'll let quib comment on this one...
This is a great idea. I'm sure that will get popped in soon.
Ok this has been said too many times. Someone needs to write up a quick, yet all encompassing tutorial on how to do this. If nothing else just how to get the locs and post the raw data so we have it for when someone feels like drawing it up. We'll get back with you Blue.
Thank you :)

We tried this before and it has some drawbacks. Fog doesn't scale with the map, so it may cover parts of the map you've been too. The biggest problem is the location arrow's location doesn't scale with the map, so the arrow is in a spot that has no relation to where you are on the map; this is why it's not resizable.
This is on my wish list too but is unfortunately not possible at this time. If we can ever break apart strings in OnEvents so that we can get X,Y values seperated and usable in math, and then be able to re-concatenate them, this feature will be added. That's a big if though. I just wish I could click on the map and leave myself a marker so I remember where I was going.
Right now there's a couple methods to make maps and a handful of tools made by EQ2MAP folks to make mapping easier. I helped Killarny get going on mapping, and they said they're working on a mapping guide from a newbie-to-mapping's stand-point. To make our lives easier it'd be in our best interest to get a collection of mapping tools and walkthrough set up; but that's easy to say and hard to do. As time goes on we'll have more and more resources to make maps and there will be more people to explain how to do it. Right now I "think" there're only about 3 people who've done the steps for mapping start to finish.

For starters, what pretty much anyone can do to help with mapping is turn on logging, then go around the edges of a zone and its buildings hitting a /loc hotkey over and over (like every half a foot, the more often the better) then post the log file full of locs here. We have scripts to parse the locs out of the logs and programs to turn those locs into a rough outline of the zone.

Like I said before, there're several methods and processes for mapping. The way I personally go about it is as follows:
1) Turn on logging and run around the edges of the zone hitting /loc.
2) Run the log file through Tony's parsing script to strip out the loc values.
3) Import the parsed file in Excel, cut out the center column then scattergraph the data.
4) Take a picture of the graph and paste it into Photoshop over the blank map and size it to fit.
5) Make it pretty and get it loading in-game with an approximated zonerect from Tony's script.
6) Use taco-man's zonerect Calculator to refine the zonerect and a little bit of personal experience to fine-tune the values.

Quib

Wouldn't it theoretically be possible to add a user moveable object within the window that hides on any tab but Current Zone that you could use as a temporary "going here" marker?

I haven't managed to get that to work. Whenever I make a little dealie dragable (which isn't even a real word), it won't get off my mouse cursor. If someone knows how to make an icon/button/image/page object user movable within a window, please post the code. I'll work it in in some form.

Quib

It would also be nice if there are any landmark buildings(like the forest ruins) or hills that you can traverse (like oakmyst forest is) also run over to them (without /loc'ing) and /loc around them.

I was in a zone the other day and opened the map and it was the "world map"... where there' the big funky text boxes and the connected lines... erm can we turn this off? lol

Well, for starters there's a box in the upper left corner of the city maps and world map that toggles the connection overlay on and off. After I double check ger's new Qeynos connection map, I'll make an optional download where the overlays are toggled off by default.

Quib

ok, I will start with Enchanted lands and see what I can do for collecting locs for points of interest. Any suggestions for zones that need a map but don't have them already? Maybe Cazic Thule? I can get around the outside fairly well. Inside the temple will be a bit though since there is a lot of stuff that see's invis but will see what I can do.

Also, what about using maps from places like
http://www.*************** ? Could they be converted to work with this maping system and would that save time?

unfortunately, they could, if the author of that site let us, but he wont. also alot of those maps are somewhat innacurate because thye were made during the beta of the game.

1 Thing to say. Don't use that site for ours. Don't take anything from it for us. I don't wanna touch it. Do not take his POI's for us. I dont want them. Plus there are a lot of inaccuracies due to the lack of a decent checking system. The map section was made to give a better, more reliable alternative than the current map sites out there. We weren't even planning on having maps. It's just a plus since we have all the information needed anyway, might as well slap it on a map with a couple lines of code. Well more than a couple.

Anyways, back on topic...Use it for your personal use, but don't bring any part of it back to our site. Thanks for wanting to help out. Any zones you can get to that havent already been done or you dont see in the works here would be great. ANY POI's are good, just take a peek to see if theyre already there first.


:edit: I ramble too much, i know...

<-- Beats Eloa with the anti-ramble stick :P

ok. Won't touch his stuff. I think I will start with RunnyEye then. I can get around the entire map for the most part. I kind of shy away from that one being my first though because of the fact that it is a multi tier zone and I have no clue how to do that.

Tell me if this sounds good ....

I will start at zone in and hug the right wall all the way around the zone doing locs ever sec until I end up back at the entrance. Will that work?

That sounds great. Just dont forget, after you finish with the outside border, run inside and go around any large bodies of water, structures etc. That isnt a requirement, it just makes the map alot better. Thanks

POI Filter
 

I would love to see filters for the POIs such as NPC, Mob, Questy Bit (objects you receive quests from), etc. Sometimes it's a real hassle combing through the hundreds of little icons on the map looking for something specific. If I could at least narrow it down to the type of POI I'm looking for, it'd be a wondrous boon.

I second TitchTimble's idea! That would be a fantastic time saver.

One of the quests I did was for the Legendary Journeyman's Boots. I had to look through all of the icons for 20 minutes, just to find all of the update points on the map for each zone. If you could toggle Heritage quest update points, that would be a huge time saver!

The ability to toggle just Quest NPC's, Named Mobs, Locations, etc., etc., would save everyone alot of time searching through all of those icons. :)

Excellent project! Keep up the good work.

Trip

Not sure if this is possible or not but would be VERY useful, especially in larger zones with lots of dots, I think. I would like to see a search box on the map where you can type in a keyword, it could then display a list of POIs with those keywords in a list where you can select one to put up a waypoint...As I stated at the begining, I'm not sure how possible this is but I know I would personally find it quite useful in places like commonlands, antonica, TS, etc...

suggestion
 

Don't know if this has been suggested yet or not (sorry if a dupe).

When I'm in a zone, sometimes I'm looking for certain types of POIs (mobs, HQ, etc) and it is a pain to stand there in game and hover over every POI looking for these points. I'd like a dropdown box that lets me filter by POI type and hide the other POIs until I set it back to ALL.

Garni Blurfists
51 monk, Grobb
The unknown Force

I'm in TS questing Hell right now. This feature is my dream!

unfortunately there is no way to create a search box in the user interface for eq2 unless it is already put there by sony.

Okay, then my crude back-up dream would be for the lists of POI labels to be available in a text file. Then I could search it for mob types and see their associated locs. (Yes, I know the gamepressure maps have something similar to this, but their maps will probably never be as detailed as eq2interface maps!)

searching
 

Moldragor, just put a link to the eq2map search page on your desktop like I did. It comes in VERY handy while you're questing and ever since Taco added the little map that pops up when you search and open up a search result, it makes it easy to see where a POI is on the map and alt-tab back over to eq2 and see where it is on the in-game map as well.

Well, I guess this won't make much sense until the website is back up and running since we have no search right now but when it's back up, this is a great way to speed up questing!

I think you'll really like the new version of that page too. Shouldn't be too long before it's good to go. ;)

Couple ideas...
Have dropdown List that you could choose what to display. Ie: just the NPC poi's.

A list of the POI's on the current map and when one is selected an addition icon (something that would stick out) would indicate the location of the corresponding PIO icon.

Finally, a dropdown list that you could choose other maps from and view them while you not in that zone.

Needed feature
 

Since the removal of the drop-down map link lists, we need at least one new feature- on multi-page maps (like EL and Antonica), we need buttons, one on each side of the map window, to let us switch halves of the map.

Oh, I would admit that I would love a way to zoom maps up to a larger size, but that might be more work than would be worth it. I can use a screenshot and export to a paint program, as I've done for a while now.

The map-half swap is a must, though, unless you're going to bring back the drop-downs!