Mapping 101 (mapping tips and tricks)

 

Why Map?

Why should you map, and more importantly, why should you map using Portal©'s Cartographer?  There are some really good reasons, including:

 

·      You know your way around the place now, but you won't always remember how to get around so easily.  A map makes it easier to come back after a hiatus

·      In big areas, there's almost no way you can learn the place by heart, and a map keeps you from getting lost

·      Portal© maps can be printed out, which makes them just as useful as maps made some other way

·      Portal© maps can be used to sprint from place to place once they're finished, making for really easy travel

·      Portal© maps can create traveling aliases or macros with a few simple mouse clicks, so you don't even have to have the maps open

 

Setting Up the Charting Parameters

Before you start charting, make sure the set up of the cartographer's charting parameters is correct.  Look at the room you're in.  How are the exits set up?  Most of the time, it will be something like "(s, n, w)" in brief and "There are three obvious exits: south, north, west"  Also, try going in a direction that doesn't exist, and see what message you get (e.g. "You cannot go north.").

 

Type Ctrl+Shift+G to bring up the cartographer and the Setup button (it's on the top bar with the colorful geometric shapes).  Now, in the failures section, put in part of the string you get when you can't go in a certain direction, such as "You cannot go" (note that there is no period).  In the exit stubs section, put in "({@})" in the first line and "obvious exi*: {@}" in the second.  Use the * to account for “obvious exits: “ and “obvious exit: “ (for one exit).  As the Exit Stub List Separation Character, use a single comma.

 

How Do You Map?

Mapping with Portal© is a piece of cake.  Let's consider an area which looks like this:

 

1

 \

  2 - 3         4

  |   |        /

  5 - 6 - 7 - 8

  |   |       |

  9 - 10- 11- 12

          |

  13- 14  15  16- 17

    \ |   |   |   |

      18  19  20- 21

      | /   \ |

      22      23

 

Now, assume room 1 is the entrance to the area.  How do we do the mapping thing?

 

On the cartographer, using the file menu, create a new map level---let's call it TEST.

 

Now, look on the cartographer top toolbar again and you'll see a sextant symbol on the second line of buttons (if you don’t know what a sextant is, it’s the yellow mechanical-compass-looking thing).  Ordinarily, you would click it.  Select the map TEST and go ahead and let it use 0,0 as the starting coordinates.  In this case, though, since you're not really in the area we showed up above, don't do anything.  Just follow along with me, perhaps trying out some of the stuff to see what happens.

 

Now, I'm assuming you're in room 1.  Type se or hit the 3 key on your keypad to move southeast.  When you do, the cartographer brings up a screen.  Normally you can just hit enter and go on about your business.  We'll talk about when you might want to change some stuff in just a minute...

 

The cartographer will wait for a few seconds before actually adding the room.  During that time, the black square in the top toolbar will turn red and begin to count down.  The small display to the left of the counter it will show the "exit stubs" or half-links to the other rooms (in our example, it would show lines pointing northwest, east, and south).  If you don't feel like waiting the full timer delay, you can hit the enter key and force the addition of  the room to the map.

 

There is an exception to the five second rule-if you used the “Complete Chart When Exit Stubs Grabbed” in the charter set up options, as soon as you enter the room it will add the room to the map.  This is good if you have a fast link and don’t feel like waiting every time you enter a new room.

 

Want to see what you've done so far?  You'll see two boxes joined by a diagonal line, and the lower box will have two half lines going east and south.  The half-lines are exit stubs, showing you where you haven't been yet.  The full lines are links between rooms.  There will also be a big green X on the lower of the two rooms, which shows your current location.

 

That's really all there is to it.  All you have to do in our example is go through each room's exit, step by step, and the cartographer will take care of the rest.

 

Prettying up Your Map

Let's say that room 15 in our example has a door that has to be opened before you can get to room 19.  If you were in room 15 and wanted the Charter to know about the door, you'd hit the 2 key on your keypad or type s or south just like you ordinarily would.  However, now's when we get to play with some of the other fields in the window that comes up after you try to move while charting.

 

See that field marked "Pre-action" in the upper right?  This is where you'd stick in "open door" so that the cartographer knows there's a door there.  If you're the kind who likes to shut doors behind you, you could put "close door" in the post action field.  So what, you might ask, does this do?  Well, now when you make aliases/macros or use the map to sprint, Portal© knows to stick in the command "open door" before trying to move out of room 15 and into room 19.  Pretty neat, eh?

 

That's just the beginning of Portal©'s tricks, though.  Let's say that room 16 has a trap which drops you down two levels into a place full of aggressive monsters.  Let's say further that room 17 has a set of stairs down, and room 13 has a set of stairs up, room 14 has a pub, and room 21 has a shop.  You can make note of all these things on your map without a whole lot of trouble.

 

Go to the cartographer and look at your completed map.  Right click on the room that represents room 16, and it brings up a mini-menu.  Pick the Room Properties menu item.  We'll be spending some time here, since it allows a lot of map customization.

 

Room 16 is the one with the trap/false floor.  We probably want to do two things to this map room: fix it so that we can see, at a glance, that there's a trap there, and fix it so that Portal© itself doesn't sprint through the room or use it for macros without warning.  This is actually pretty easy to do: we can use the tag T for trap, which will cause a T to show up inside the room box.  There's something else we can do as well, but before you hit save, let's take care of the alias/sprint issue.  In the warning field, type something like "The false floor here drops you two levels down."

 

So, what has this done?  If you hit save, you'll see that the room now has a T in it.  The warning's effects are more subtle, but basically if you try to sprint, if the path leads through the room, the sprint will stop before you get there and tell you the warning.

 

There's another way you can make this room stand out, too.  Look at the cartographer's right panel, where you can see a row of colors.  Let's say you want the trap room to stand out even more, like maybe in red.  That's easy enough to do; right click the red box to make your foreground room turn red.  You could also hit the asterisk button, though that would obscure the T by putting an asterisk in the room.  At any rate, when you have the room parameters set to your satisfaction, just click on the Save button.  The room will then be updated to the way you’ve set it.

 

Identifying the shop and pub can be done the same way as identifying the trap room.  You could use tags, S and P, to indicate shops and pubs, but you could do anything else you wanted to as well.  One really nifty thing is the label part of the room properties dialog box.  You could enter shop and pub for the respective rooms and the labels "shop" and "pub" would appear under the proper rooms on the map.

 

On the rooms with up and down exits, I usually use the up arrow and down arrow inside the box for the room, which is an easily visible means of identifying the rooms, but again, you could do whatever works best for you.

 

Sprinting and Aliases

Okay, we have a nice pretty map.  How do we use it?  Let's say you're in room one and you want to get to the stairs down in room 17.  Right click on room 1, and set it as the current location.  That moves the big green X to room one...Now click the button to the right of the sextant to turn on "following" mode.  This is used when you want the cartographer to "follow" you as you move around.

 

Now, right click on the destination room, in this case room 17.  You can choose one of two options.  You can either sprint directly to the room using the right-click menu, or you can choose to create a macro or alias.  It's pretty self-explanatory when you try it.

 

Pretty simple huh?  It makes life a lot easier if you take the time to map.

 

Multilevel Maps (Up/Down directions)

PortalÓ can also do maps with multiple levels; you don’t have to keep each level on its own map.  The trick lies in selecting a new spot on the map so that the new level won’t overlap with the old.  The procedure is simple enough; the up or down exits will bring up the room dialog box, as will any movement.  However, the cartographer will not automatically know where to place the new room.  You’ll have to show it where to put it using the dialog box in the section in the lower right corner called “Add/Update DESTINATION Room.”  For the X, Y coordinates, simple select a value that will offset the next floor far enough that it won’t overlap.  A link in the form of a long line will join the two levels, and PortalÓ will be able to do sprinting and macros using the up and down exits just like it can on any ordinary map.

 

Advanced Mapping Techniques

Let's say you don't want to see the cartographer's messages.  There's a way to disable them by unchecking the appropriate menu item in the cartographer's charting menu.  The failure counter will still work, as will the exit stubs, but you won't see any of the messages.

 

Well, you say, what if I want to just move along without bothering with the dialog box when I move?  Check the speed-charting menu item in the same menu and the cartographer will just use the default possibilities.

 

Finally, check out the free-charting option.  This will eliminate failure counters.  You lose the exit stubs, but it's a super fast way to chart if you already know the area well.  This is great to use offline as well.

 

Conclusion

You can probably see that Portal©’s cartographer has many features that will make your MUD life much simpler.  Once you've used it a bit, you’ll find even more hidden surprises and shortcuts that make cartography a breeze.