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EQ2 Cartographer
UI Addon for eq2 Maps or most any UI that displays TXT Maps /Building Maps/ Working on New In Progress maps or simply adding icons to curent maps for custom layers.... IE Harvests for tradeskillers.
Helps Even runs the Eq2maps builders and an addon uploader .... akin to Everquest Maps which Has an Easy built in map Editor , Granted it's not as nice as Eq2 maps layout but people could colaberate in making new map or maps , in an Easy to use Everquest 1 Inspired Cartography Tool UI and as the maps thus if Beta or new zones can be rappidly Improved if not "Offically" Relesed Yet by eq2maps team ... and or "Braindead-ly" simple to use maps maker front end for everyone else no complicated social macors just toggel a line color n walk like eq1 , in eq2 ... stop change color , not a prolem. taking curent maps IE Kylong plains the fishing hols are practily VERBATUM spawns , simpply add a fishing hole Icon on map, wala. in a few mins the update will sync on back end client , n done. eq2maps could have a list of know harveting locations , and show landmarks and harvest nodes.... A Gathering Obsession....1-2 a million.... Ughhh. the txt maps can then be synced down to many whom are Interested in making /Improving maps... and or updates to maps can be uploaded to server ie harvesting spots if ever eq2 maps features a harvesting filter sheat.... New maps faster , eassier for team to get new maps and could take from the best of serveral player maps and combine them into one really good map. |
Do you have any idea what goes into making maps? Or what went into making the map updater?
I'm just wondering why you want to see a standard changed all of a sudden? This to me sounds like a lot of wishful dreaming without any idea how much time would be required for such a thing. Let alone it took some time for SoE to even make the custom maps usable by eq2 that are done by eq2maps, I think they finally added it in about 3 or 4 years after game release might of been sooner or later but I know it took a lot of work |
Eq1 Cartographer...
best of all Any eq1 Players would feal at home makin maps
 Eq1 maps interface , Clicking the Sextant in corner Brings up map drawin ui.... wala Ye OLDEN Simple and it works , eq2maps has its make a social tutorial some get it some dont.... , any how one could do much the same and make it paifully simple and or less cubersome for Everyone.... line start , line stop .... just to emulate out the /em line ..... etc. or improve the map making back ends.... |
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Really look into whats involved in the eq2maps and the eq1 maps. Eq1 maps were and still are to my knowledge nothing but a bunch of lines which rarely showed as nice as the eq2 maps do. The map drawing of eq1 is built into that game. This site nor the authors of eq2maps don't work for SoE and they have no way to add that into eq2maps as you're asking that would be on SoE's part and SoE went with a completly different approach in maps. |
EQ2 Cartographer
a txt map ie a work in progress map .... note cards batch POI's for ppl on the run.... take notes on beta or existing maps , eq1 the map tool is a tad too simplistic for eq2 but in its simplicity and use would be easy to emulate.... just send the /em start blckline to log etc.... as well if not as savy as the devs , the devs get a test map, to muddedl with , and can clean up , eq1 maps have dozens of programs to parse them , perhaps even inkscape, ...... or a DLL could be made...... Ideas .... rushing forth... I just see many ways perhaps Eq2 could get an easy EQ2 Cartographer tool and in many years the raw power it could have.... and gone would be the hard days of making maps for eq2 ... I just see a possibly hear and atm its a royal Bit...#$% to make maps I've tried a few times... In Ye olden EQ its too easy.... eq2 not so easy IT administrator , ..... Inefficiency, Problem , how can it be solved ..... ( ERROR EQ2 making maps can be teddious difficult even for skilled ppl let alone players with more modest skills.... this sucks.... fix it.... hmmmm ) but alas I can't program all that much.... I'm tossing ideas out because I can envision a day were eq2 has a really spectacular tool for taking down poi's quickly , easily and if a new zone is out , making a quick and dirty map to submit to devs and map editors and a map making team.... Optimizing server clusters, routers switches VPN , and programming that , Linux tuning , MS Servers Active Directory, that's my craft... Programming in Perl java my dyslexic ass , has little , less its a template set of scripts.... I just See EQ2 Cartographer sensibilities as being a stellar add on to eq2 maps... and the tunnel vision of 3 years forward.... just the dev work I have some idea of what.... it'd take, however it gets done I just see a far easier way than the current cumbersome tools by themselves are, an gui inside eq2 that pulls them in painlessly , nice.... I get that making maps in eq2 is currently not a easy task , but i could be far easier..... than currently it is... I have tried to make some of my own eq2 maps it is painless under eq1 but eq2 Frustrating ..... :mad: hopefully me tossing out the idea of it may spark some useful discussions on putting a package together that acts as a Front end to the tools used by eq2maps makers , in a nice gui xml for in game map making with easier to use controls...... I just note the Ye olden Eq1 maps Cartographer tool is easy for starters.... 2) its an interface that could easily be copied so thus a good many ppl are already familiar with it... perhaps easily emulated on who knows.... I just see a day were a new zone hits it could be far less painful that it is to make mpas for.... Perhaps others might have useful ideas towards a map building Front end etc... I see sensibilities even within the current means of making maps .... after all Linux has many GUI utilities , that use older command-line tools . that being said , an XML GUI for even the most novice of eq2 player... to mark up some maps... work within convention for now , or if some likes ideas and they wish to take them and run with them for this grander idea cool... I just think their is a better way to do eq2 maps making that is easier... since I cant do it propose it , I build networks , keep computers running , IT security.... but programming much isnt my skill or a strength... ITs an Idea none the less would find useful built none the less how and if is up to eq2interface .... community I just see features bells whistles that could be added..... as time goes on... |
Take a look at the EQ2MAP Map Making Tutorial. The suggested way of making a starter (line-only) map is essentially what you're talking about... you use a small number of chat macros to tell the lines to start/stop and to add the vertexes. It's then parsed in a separate program to make the SVG file for Inkscape.
As for all the rest... we neither have the ability in the in-game UI do to on-the-fly updating and saving like that nor would it be worth the effort at this point in time. We can't make EQ2's UI act like EQ1's hard-coded mapping system. Plus, at this point SOE is providing the vast majority of the maps (even instance maps) meaning there's very little mapping left to be done anyway. |
Back in the day when SOE was active here I made an app for mapping out zones that worked just like the EQ mapper you just had to collect loc and it was not a ingame window. But then SOE quit being involved in the UI community and I quit developing it.
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Pity
Yah i've seen the maps tutorial
though doable it's still a bit#$% for the average Joe Smoe user. only reason I suggested a pop in ui for eq2 maps as a cartography tool was to emulate and show the lines as walked, erase fu@#$% lines etc. make a txt map (beta/alpha proof rough map) and submit it to server. people could revise it or clean it up. for show the rough map similar to Ye olde eq (least while working on it in the raw) then make a quality final map. (by the maps dev team from the raw data files gathered. on the server) by people whom know better. however I suppose it would have to have a java or other scripting lua/python back end making it a Bitch to code. or to tie into current modules available for it. most of the maps I've tried to make lately from the prestige housing don't work so great. or i miss spots lines etc... most maps on eq1 can be snapped from the zone files..... pity one cant do just that pop out the zones to maps. worth asking anyhow |
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