View Single Post
  #71  
Unread 01-10-2006, 10:56 AM
Kallah's Avatar
Kallah Kallah is offline
A Brown Bear
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Server: Unkown
Posts: 10
Default

Note: I just realized most of the posts in here are months old. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot.
Greetings,

First off I want to say that without EQ2Map I could get lost in a brown paper bag. Just ask any unfortunate group mates who’ve followed me in zones where the maps are still being made! Thank you all for the countless hours you poured into this project: not only in creating it, but in keeping it updated and constantly adding new features!

Speaking of new features, that’s what I wanted to suggest. Since I couldn’t code my way out of the same paper bag I’ve been known to get lost in, I have no idea how feasible any of these are:

1) Splitting the Quest POIs into two different flavors: Quest Starters & Quest Updates?

Since the description of the POIs in question (at least on the Add a POI and Correct a POI pages) is “An object activated for use in a quest, preferably only ones that start quest” it makes me wonder if many of the POIs flagged this way are “wrong.” While I suspect that the original intention was for only/mostly quest starters, there’s now hundreds if not thousands of updating POIs in this category that update rather than start quests. While the really easy thing to do would be to change the description (hehe) I think it would be really helpful to split them into two different colored POIs: on some maps there’s just so many of the same type, it all kinda blurs together into a mess.

2) Color-Based Identification for POIs in Clusters?

I love the color based system for sorting POIs, and one of my greatest troubles is when a map has many clusters on it - I lose the ability to quickly narrow down the many POIs to the type I’m looking for. Is there any way you could color part of the text (either the name, the UID number, the abbreviation, or anything really) of each part of a cluster in order to link it to its original type? Or maybe even stick a bolded, larger-font-sized * at the end of the name in the color of the POI type, so it kinda looks like a mini POI dot? Pretty much anything that would allow someone to hover over a Cluster and quickly see what flavors of POIs are in there based on color would be great. Maybe I’m just lazy. =)

3) An Examples / Standards List for POIs and Their Applications?

First and foremost I know that (nearly, if not all of) the POIs are submitted by the thousands of EQ2 players who enjoy and use the mod - so no matter what you do, there’s always going to be discrepancies in how things are used. My first point about the Quest POIs is a great example of folks applying their own ideas/meaning to a given POI type. However, I’ve noticed that some things can vary greatly from one map to another (zone ins to houses / small instances come to mind right away) which makes it difficult to pick them out on each map. Example:

In Maj’Dul, about half of the player housing zone-ins use the small yellow “zone” icon, and the other half use the blue “location” dot. In South Qeynos, they all use the blue dot. In some of the newbie villages, it uses the “zone” icon again. Which is the correct icon to use for a player house zone-in?

Perhaps you could have a little link next to the icon type selection on the edit / submit pages (similar to the ones here in the forums, next to the formatting options) that says “What do POI types mean?” or “How to pick a POI type” which leads to a page with the examples?

4) A Way to Comment / Correct Clusters or and the POIs in Them?

A while back I posted a list of clusters that had something wrong with them - the current correcting system wouldn’t let me make change. One of the fantastic coder-y-people said they were able to figure out what was going wrong, and they were working on it. I’m not sure if that solution would allow folks to correct / comments on the POIs within the clusters - but it would be great if you could! Sooo many clusters I’m itchen’ to correct. =)

5) Formatting for POI Display Text?

I know that this would be really, really low priority if its even possibly, but I’ve noticed that some basic formatting would go a long way in making certain POIs more readable. Just being able to enter line breaks would be great. I know some POIs have them breaks in the description but I have no idea why they do and others don’t - even when I’ve submitted them both ways! Also, certain characters don’t seem to show up, such as question marks and quotation marks (both in comments and in the in-game POIs). Is the ability to add bold (perhaps for POI names), italics, color, etc beyond the scope of the XML for the maps?

Again, I have no idea what can and can’t be done, so sorry if there’s an obvious “NO!” to any or all of these. I know none of my suggestions are game-breaking or earth-shaking, but sometimes it’s the little things that make life easier - even with an already awesome mod!
Reply With Quote