Was checking the forums for a mapper today, since I want to use one to help me track what I've explored (if it ain't drawn, I haven't been there) or simply use one to make exploration a little easier (maybe one that can mark where I've been already). Went over to the Mush forums and played a little with the plugin that was mentioned in another thread. Nifty, those mini windows!

Now someone linked a full xml database for Achaea in the Mush thread, and with simply replacing the domain I dug up the same for Lusternia here. Now I don't know if that is still under development and just hidden due to that, or if I simply didn't know about the right way to get there. If it wasn't supposed to be found then I'm sorry, but that was really just too easy >_>

Anyhow, to import the database you will need the little plugin here and type "create map database" and then load the xml database from your harddisk.

To make sure you don't run into errors first off you need the latest version of Mush, not the stable, but one of the development versions. Please follow the backup instructions. Once updated go into the global preferences -> Lua and change on the first two lines "false" to "true". If you use Treant one will already be set to true, so just leave it like that.

Holy :cencor: that XML-file looks hot! Already got ideas spinning in my head as to how I can use it... *drool*

EDIT: A minor shame it only uses the internal area coords though, although that can (hopefully) be fixed by a simple offset.

I'm already sorta using it, but it's not 100% complete or accurate. I'm not sure how frequently it gets updated, it's missing terrain types, and the special exits are pretty useless the way they're encoded there.

Having all the X,Y,Z coordinates is awesome, though! I had to adapt Nick's script a little to display the rooms and exit lines properly using the available coordinates, so my map window looks more like what you'd expect.

Looking forward to seeing the Treant plugin. I do like the way the ingame ascii map deals with dense areas (doubling the line length instead of overlap) a lot better. But heh, this is a step up from nothing, so good enough for now.

Man if you draw out the maps to navigate, that's dedication. I'm impressed. Back when I was a noob I'd just walk til I got lost then teleport nexus until I learned my way around.

It'll be months before I've had the chance to port my existing map functionality to the new miniwindow system, so don't hold your breath.

In the meantime, I may be convinced to just share the small changes I've made to Nick's code for the X,Y,Z coordinates.

Name your price

I've posted to Nick a few ideas about things that the mapper is going to need, but the most important one, if we're going to use that XML, is a way to keep separate the stuff we imported from our own additions. Right now the mapper will happily walk you through hostile places like the Blasted Lands or Glomdoring if they're the shorter paths, and it doesn't include manses (and if you go map them, next time you import the XML you'll lose them all). I think a future version of the mapper will let us import the XML but keep things we've added. Hopefully it'll also support special exits (like "touch chimes" or "transverse prime"), and setting costs on rooms and exits to make the router route you around dangerous or slow spots. But it's looking very promising even without that.

Mudlets Mapper uses the xml (well, it's what originally the xml was made for in the first place). Can get a demo of it here: http://forums.mudlet.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1412

3D makes navigating certain things like Avechnas Peak and Hallifax so much nicer.