I'm new to MUDs and have just brought my character to the stage where he won't get beaten to a pulp by the first creature he encounters...

I'd like to start a discussion of the various methods that players use to map out the worlds they play, so that I can make an informed decision on how to approach navigating a sparkly new world.

What are the predominant methods used? I imagine a lot of players rely on mental maps as they play, but surely most people use maps at some stage...

Do players carefully map as they go along, or is it more efficient and enjoyable to play an area out, and then return to map it later?

I'd greatly appreciate any input.


Nearly'

Graph Paper does work well - and you can also opt to use colored pencils(or hi-lighter if you're just that edgy :o) to signify special rooms - you can create a key/etc/etc. Another option is just to Letter-code each room, then add a "Letter Key", but I prefer numbering the rooms and using color for the key.

I also suggest larger square graph paper as opposed to smaller square graph paper.

I also use a new page of paper for the same area any time you go in an "up", "down", or special direction(I.E. "stairs", "cave", "ship", etc), then putting them in a logical order and stapling them in the upper lefthand corner.

It's all about how OCD you are willing to get. : ) I'm OCD about mapping, but I don't always map on the first go around, unless I know it will help me figure my way out through a maze, or some other quirky part of an area. Then, I map the other stuff in large bunches when I don't feel like crawling, bashing, or anything doing else that's boring and makes me want to slit my wrists.

It's all up to you, though.

The other common method, if your client supports it, would be to use your clients mapping system. Zmud has a decent automapper, though you may have to manually adjust it for some area's.

You can also make *very* slick maps, using MS Excel, and it's 'comment' ability. This gives many color coding techniques (borders, filled boxes, text)  and also the flexibility of the keyboard for dimension..." ] " works great for "up and down". Excel also lets you move large 'chunks' at a time, when area begins to overlap. This method is *highly* OCD, but you get some *incredible* maps out of it.

If you can find it, isometric graph paper is great for doing a very 3d maps (such as a building with multiple floors).

When I map, I use MS Paint and create a grid.  Then, I slowly color in the grid to denote room types as well as barriers, adding the features by hand, pixel-by-pixel in many cases.  Then, I add more details (again, quite often pixel-by-pixel) like door indicators, fountains, etc. as well as a key.  It takes time, and the maps below each took anywhere from ten to eighty hours each to complete.  But, as I play a medieval-themed RPI MUD, the old-world craftsman approach (even if using modern tech, the parallel of a medieval world on a modern machine is there) seems fitting.

The results:





Take care,

Jason

Isometric graph paper:

With hindsight, it makes sense that people who enjoy playing text based games would also enjoy a pen and paper approach to mapping them. I think that Jason makes a great point - you can take real pride in a "hand crafted" map, and I suppose it adds to the experience of exploration.

In my experience the mapping facilities of MUD clients are often fiddly, and there is inevitably some awkward procedure for performing unsual edits that are quickly and simply implemented using a pencil and eraser! I suppose that if you learned the quirks of one particular "mapper" little intervention would be needed for the automatic generation of maps, but personally I'd rather be able to traipse about the MUD without worrying about things like "if I go down these stairs, what point am I on in the level below?". If only someone could write a mapper with an "autofudge" facility...

I have written a simple PERL script to convert "n, 2 w, s" style paths to ASCII HTML maps, with hyperlinks to move up/down levels, but it seems like the more I look at it, the more complicated it is to cover all the "corner cases" and force an inherently random navigation system onto a grid. Upon reflection, maybe it's better that way - surely it's more interesting to play areas with tunnels, pits, scalable walls,  magic portals and other navigational chicanery than to trudge around a simple grid...

I guess I'll stick to the time honoured pen and paper approach...

Thanks for the opinions and advice!


Nearly'

I have been looking for suitable mapping tools for quiet a while but didn't find them. I need a mapping tool that can map in 10 directions (n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw, up and down).
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance

Now that's a Map!


Nearly'

Thanks! I will point her to this thread so that she can bask in the compliments. She's awesome at maps I have to say.


--matt

I am an avid zMud mapper user. The mapper program is pretty sketchy at time, but over the years I've learned how to tame it to do what I want using a combination of experimentation, persistence, and voodoo.

I like how it gives me a visual representation of where I am, and I'm honestly lost without it as a player. As a developer its not so serious, I don't need as quick a reaction time as you often do whilst playing.

-H

Just a tip, since you're a newbie, to map mazes you can never seem to get out of and which have weird exits going onto other rooms, and where rooms look identical, use coins. ie in room 1 drop 1 coin, in room 2 drop 2 coins etc, that way you know which room is which and where it connects to.

And yes, Zmud makes very pretty maps, we've had them up on our site for several years: ie see

Thanks for the tip nass!

If I'm ever involved in developing a MUD, maybe I'll implement a "drop breadcrumb" command for newbies...


Nearly'

Personally I prefer it when the mud has built-in maps that you can call on with the command MAP. One of the muds I play on, 4 Dimensions,  has this feature, and it's really helpful.

The maps you get are particularly large and detailed when the zone is a 'wilderness grid', where you get an 11x11 room map, with yourself in the centre. But the ordinary zones generate maps too, although you can only look 2 rooms in each direction in those.

They also have lots of maps on their website. These look like 'real' maps, very pretty and accurate, even though I hear they are made with just the simple tool Paint.

Here's a link to a mapper that is posted in Lusternia's forums. Seems pretty nice.

We did, and found people are wild about it. It's actually in as a trainable skill.

Aegora -- (sorry for the delay in replying, ack) but yeah, i just put a hyphen ( -) through one of the squares to show e/w exits, and use the pipe key ( | ) or whatever you call that, for n/s, and a bracket ( [ ) for u/d. It doesn't LOOK as hella cool as either a Paint map or that *really* amazing example from Iron Realms, but I love Excel b/c I can put comments in for funky syntax. And, to give credit where it's due, I didn't come up w/ that technique, my accountant husband did. :> Go figure.

It seems like the most common method of creating maps is simple paper and pencil ( and eraser! ) , which might later be transferred to a more funky digital medium.

I still wonder though, how people incorporate mapping into their playing style. Is it a case of playing out an area and then getting the map down on paper as the mental map begins to fade? Do people go on "exploration runs"? Or is it more common for players to map as they play normally?


Nearly'

Re: Mapping Techniques
 

Hey Hugh! (Couldn't resists the alliteration...)

Mapping is an interesting and vital mud topic indeed. First what I did on the first mud I played (GateWay) was to map it all out on graph paper. Automapping was then ('92) at best a far off fantasy. There's never been any need to digitize it as the graph paper and perhaps my neat nature make them look great as is. Anyways multiple windows were also a far off nightmare back in those good old days so a separate paper is much better.

Now as to how to incorporate it into play. Super question and one I've considered myself. As best as I can recall my method was to initially flounder about as a newbie, sometimes dragged along by more experienced players, until I felt the need to actually turn the mental map into a physical one. That is what I did on GateWay. On Allandria, RockyMUD and Might and Magic however I never turned my mental maps into paper ones. In spite of which I could still find my way around RockyMUD now. I think that is due to the way areas were set up though. GateWay has a full 3-D landscape that simply is impossible to keep in one's head thus forcing me to graph it out while Rocky had more of a tree system. One road out each gate and side roads branching off to each area. Very easy to memorize since you're always either following a path/chain of rooms with the occasional fork. MUME on the other hand also has a full 3-D landscape (Middle Earth) but I have not mapped it due to the nature of play there. Mobiles that hunt and worse still areas where PK is likely make it close to impossible to find the calm and time to actually map as one explores.

One piece of advice I think I can pass on though is that generally you should explore a area first without mapping it. You need to get a feel for it and you also may need to watch out for traps and aggressive monsters (or in some cases players). Furthermore you also need to have a rough idea of how large area is so you can allocate sufficient space on the paper for it. Sometimes too areas are not very graph friendly because rooms might overlap if you leave no spaces between rooms. Best to find out in advance if you can (as usual) save space and put all rooms adjacent or if you are going to be forced to double space them.

That said... once your character is high level you can map as you go I find. (Oh look something started chewing on my leg while I was drawing in this room... how cute... Whack! ;-> )