I think most of our mappers are mid-level, like 20 to 35 and we're hitting the upper limits on zones we can safely map. Heck, I don't even have access to any of the mid-level playgrounds yet (EL, Zek, etc.).
Any help from people higher level would be most appreciated. Hm, where to start...
There's a map creation tutorial at
http://maps.eq2interface.com/index.php?ID=createmap, it's a little old but is a good read so you have some idea of what's involved.
The steps I follow when mapping are:
1) Turn logging on. Using a /loc hotkey, hug the edges/walls of a zone while spamming the hotkey.
2) Use
http://www.eq2interface.com/download...fo.php?id=3453 to parse the log file.
3) Open the parsed log file in Microsoft Excel, delete the center column of numbers, and scattergraph the X/Y values.
4) Take a screenshot of the scattergraph and overlay it on the blank map DDS file. Add a fill color, texture it, and add a drop shadow.
5) Start with the approximate zonerect generated by Tony's script and, using personal experience and in-game fine tuning, adjust it for accuracy.
Quib