On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Carlo Mocci wrote:
> So my question is: has anyone implemented something like this, or even
> thought of a way to do it ? I'm thinking about this issue from one month
> now, and I'm ready to start the coding.
> But if anyone has ideas to give, these will be helpful.
Yeah, I did this a loooooooong time ago and it's come up here on the list
a few times since then, so you might find a good description of it in
archives. It's not publicly available, but it's a real simple setup.
> For now, my decision is to use prototypes for room description, in the way
> we don't use too much memory. But other ideas ?
Why bother with room descriptions if you're doing an overhead map? Just
allocate a grid for the map, and build a smaller grid for the player based
on what they can see. WIth a function-based display, you can do neat
stuff like varying the size of the seen grid based on visibilty. My
system showed a 3x3 grid in dark colors at night, and a 5x5 grid in bright
colors during the day.
> And what about the file format in which to store maps ? Just plain ASCII ?
> How to link zones and mobs to the map (I want a populated wilderness, not
> an empty one).
I went with a binary format for space savings. Each grid entry was a room
vnum. The corresponding rooms have no description but were used for room
title (In the Desert, etc), and sector types. Two people could be in
desert sectors on opposite sides of the map and actually be in the same
room, but the CAN_SEE macros and such had a check for grid locaitons.
You follow the the part about each grid entry being a room vnum, right?
Well, if you're in the map and move into a sector with a room vnum not in
the "map zone" (all my map rooms were zone 300), you left the overhead map
and were placed in that room. Entering the map just required a movement
check for attempts to move into a map room. You'll also need to add some
new imm commands to goto specific map locaitons, etc.
> BTW I've checked the mailing list archives, but I cannot find anything
> (under map and wilderness).
They're in their somewhere. Even if I haven't posted a more detailed
description, I know it's been discussed before. If you've got more
specific questions about it I'll be happy to answer. I think the mud I
wrote this for is still up, but I don't know the address (can't remember
the name, for that matter). For all I know, they may not use it now, or
it may have been improved beyond recognition. Maybe someone on the list
knows what I'm babbling about :)
> PPS The list server at http://post.queensu.ca/~listserv/wwwarch/circle.html
> isn't working....
I'm not qualified to field that problem.
Sam
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