Save the maps, save the world

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

I received today a disturbing letter from my friend, the cograph mapmaker :

Salutations, old friend.

I am upset. Quite upset. I like maps. Those small pieces of paper hold the wisdom of the people that explored the land before us. And it seems that no-one care about them anymore.

I visited the other day my friend Curtis the cartographer, the assistant of the mighty Benq. I admit that i hadn't visited him in a couple years, but he looked like fifty years older. He said that no-one bring him new material anymore. Granted, everyone go there and check his maps, but no-one bring him new maps.

Not that long ago we had every single place of this world mapped and cataloged. But world evolve. Some places have changed, other have been recently discovered. And no-one took the effort of mapping them.

I would fix it myself, but im stuck in that Maw place, and I wont leave it until im done with it.

I beg for your help. Make the adventurers help us in this task. Tempt them, treat them, force them, I don't care. But if we don't fix this soon, the art of mapping will be lost for good, and new generations wont have any clue about where they are, or about where to go.

Help me, old friend. You are my only hope.

Sincerely yours.
The cograph mapmaker.

I like maps myself. But above it, I like to help my friends. And I wont fail the mapmaker after all we have lived together, I remember how excited he was when he first found those snakes in the Maw.

Every Sunday, I will choose an area that needs help with map. Areas will be all range, some will require a powerful adventurer to explore, others will be part of the lands of Valkyre. You guys will have seven of your mortal days (that is, until next Saturday) to send me a map of that area. To send the maps, use that spell that you guys call email with the target isabo@slothmud.org.

Things that I will use to determine how good or bad a map is :

[*] How complete it is. You guys can know if you completely have an area with the score.
[*] How exact it is. A wrong exit here and there? Bad bad.
[*] How helpful it is. Rooms that require water breath, fly, fire rooms, surrounding areas, things that should be know ... all counts.
[*] How beauty it is. Any useless uncalled stuff will actually count negatively. Its not the same making a map beautiful (check Mercurial Woods map) than trying to be annoying (check L.A.A.A.A.M. map).

Things that every single map should have :

[*Benq Note*]
* Area Background should be transparent unless the background is a _nice_ picture (like Mercurial Woods)
* File Format should be PNG
[*/Benq Note*]

[*] Area name.
[*] Continent name.
[*] Run from the standard recall point to the entrance of the area.
[*] Any other useful run related to the area. For instance, the Castle of the Family DeGrance should contain the run to Acarni.
[*] Name of the immortal that made the area.
[*] (optional) Your own name.

I will check the received maps, discuss with other immortals, choose the one that we like more and send it to Curtis during the next week. The author of the map we choose will receive a reward, usually in those shiny pieces that you mortals call "drachma". Reward will vary, depending on how complex the area to map is and on how good the map is. I reserve the right to not reward anyone or reward several people, always depending on quality.

Mortal incarnation of divinities won't be able to take part in this adventure.

Best regards.

Pd. I had a million ideas to write down and I am prolly forgetting something, so will edit this message if I remember something important.

[Edited by Benq - Oct 11, 2010: Added in transparency comments ]

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

Lets start with something easy to see how it goes.

The area of this week (10/10/2010 - 16/10/2010) will be The Graveyard on Thordfalan.

Best regards.

[Tuck]

ok, we all are considering it as a world quest. no whines.

http://www.sleepnow.com/PicturesQuest/The-Quest.jpg

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

The map for The Graveyard on Thordfalan that I selected is the one done by the bard Luna.

Thanks everyone who sent maps for your work.

Now moving to the cold lands of Thule :

The area of this week (17/10/2010 - 23/10/2010) will be Pathways of Herbalist on Thule.

Beware, the area is split in fragments, so its easy that you miss some part. Be careful.

Best regards.

[*Breeze*]

Graveyard map for BH is posted.

Thanks Luna.

//Q

[Spink]

Nice job on the map, Luna!

I particularly like that you added the dark room comment.

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

First of all, my apologies for the late time I'm posting it. Been chating with Addiena about the recent events related to druid world and when I realized the hour, it was already very late. That girl clearly speak too much!

Either way, the map for Pathways of Herbalist on Thule that I selected is the one done by the bard Luna (yet again).

Thanks everyone who sent maps for your work.

Now moving to the lands of Niebelung :

The area of this week (24/10/2010 - 30/10/2010) will be The Mana Pools, past the Kingdom of Salamis, on Niebelung.

Beware, the area is more dangerous and harder to map than prior ones (and therefore, reward will be bigger too). Also, the "small" mob guarding the door can not like too much that people go there, so better be fast and sneaky.

Best regards.

[*Breeze*]

very nice Luna

http://www.slothmud.org/index.php?modul ... lay&id=302

Greetings, mortals.

First of all, my apologies for the late time I'm posting it. Been chating with Addiena about the recent events related to druid world and when I realized the hour, it was already very late. That girl clearly speak too much!

Either way, the map for Pathways of Herbalist on Thule that I selected is the one done by the bard Luna (yet again).

Thanks everyone who sent maps for your work.

Now moving to the lands of Niebelung :

The area of this week (24/10/2010 - 30/10/2010) will be The Mana Pools, past the Kingdom of Salamis, on Niebelung.

Beware, the area is more dangerous and harder to map than prior ones (and therefore, reward will be bigger too). Also, the "small" mob guarding the door can not like too much that people go there, so better be fast and sneaky.

Best regards.

[*Isabo*]

Greeting, mortals.

One of our master necromancers asked us for more time with the The Mana Pools map. He is working on it, but with the death related events that are happening this weekend, he has not it ready yet.

After consulting with our fellow mappers, we have decided to allow it. Just a couple things I wanna clarify :

• We allowing it because its Hallowen and stuff. For future reference, the extended time will be the exception, not the rule.
• When time comes to give rewards, we will remember who sent their map in time.

So, the new schedule :

• We will be accepting Mana Pools maps untill saturday, 06/11/2010.
• For the next week (07/11/2010 - 13/11/2010) we will be moving to the misterious jungles of the Island. The area of choice will be that pirate boat, the Argosian Wreckage.

Best regards.

[*Breeze*]

Kendermoore
Graveyard (BH)
Herbalist Pathways (AH)

are great examples of the kinds of transparency that i like in the maps (rooms are not transparent while the rest [minus major images like the Herbalist Mermaid] arent

having said that, it is not 100% mandatory, but it cant hurt to sway Curtis, the picky Cartographer.

// Benq

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

The map for The Mana Pools on Niebelung that I selected is the one done by the thief Cizin.

Thanks everyone who sent maps for your work.

Now moving to the misterious jungles of the Island :

The area of choice for this week (07/11/2010 - 13/11/2010) is be that pirate boat, the Argosian Wreckage.

Best regards.

[*Breeze*]

Posted.

http://www.slothmud.org/index.php?modul ... lay&id=348

Nice map Cizin. Even if the background isn't transparent

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

The map for The Argosian Wreckage on Island that I selected is the one done by the dark necromancer Wimpy.

Thanks everyone who sent maps for your work.

Now moving to Lyme, the home of avatars :

The "area" of this week (14/11/2010 - 20/11/2010) will be Semester, on Lyme.

However, Semester is part of The Chapel of the Lost Cross area. Benq, our designated mapper, will let us know if we can go just with Semester part or if he want full Chapel of the Lost Cross map.

Best regards.

[*Breeze*]

Great Job on Argosian Wreckage map, Wimpy!

Greetings, mortals.

The "area" of this week (14/11/2010 - 20/11/2010) will be Semester, on Lyme.

However, Semester is part of The Chapel of the Lost Cross area. Benq, our designated mapper, will let us know if we can go just with Semester part or if he want full Chapel of the Lost Cross map.

Seeing as the areas are actually part of the same, I will accept a complete map of Lost Cross/Semester
OR Semester only. HOWEVER, drachma will be awarded accordingly. I prefer a complete Lost Cross map w/ Semester outlined somehow. Maybe a 'broken line' surrounding Semester ?

Filename should be : Ly_Lost_Cross,_The.png

Amendment to Isabo's guidance on maps :: please submit along with your map, a run to where the entrance to the area you mapped is as a ton of the runs on the website are borked and need to be updated. Updated 'difficulty ratings' would be helpful also as they have been asked for by a few of our newer players.

Pardon on my incoherence at times. Been awake 20+ hours so bedtime
//Q

[*Isabo*]

Greetings, mortals.

The map for The Chapel of the Lost Cross on Lyme that I selected is the one done by the dark necromancer Wimpy.

Thanks everyone who sent maps for your work.

For last november week I wanted to ask for some Valkyre map to close the cycle. Checked them all and they seem to be correct enough. And asking about opinions noone seemed to have any problem with Valk maps, so moving on.

We trying something different next. I want you guys to make a general map of Thordfalan. Yes, of the whole continent, with relative positions between areas (not with all rooms). Something similar to what Falca did back in time, but updated. If someone dont understand what Im asking for, email me and I will explain you the idea.

• Run to every area could be useful, but not mandatory.
• Adding any kind of mark for areas that contain epics (red?) could look cute (also adding the epic name).
• Adding any kind of mark for areas that contain raids (blue?) could look cute (also adding the raid name).
• Continent credits should go to SlothMUD.
• (Optional) You can add your own credits as map maker.
• In this case, the look will be specially taken into account.

Make sure that the frontier between areas is good defined. The general idea is that, with this map, Benq will create an image map, so you can click in the areas to go into that area map. Its just a project, maybe it never end being done, but we wanna try it. If im missing any detail, Benq will post about it.

Taking in account how hard the task is (at least to make it right), we are giving you guys extra time for it. Will be accepting maps for the rest of the year, until 31/12/2010.

Best regards.

Benq Note**
If possible (not sure if it is or not, try and fit it into 705px width.
if not, try 980px
if still not, find me ingame