Speaking of Map Area Descriptions

mmonagle reported in the 5.9 thread that Verbobonc maps don't have that little descriptive line in save games that says things like 'a small village southeast of Verbobonc' for Hommlet or 'a ruined oupost east of Hommlet' for the Moathouse.

First of all, is a descriptive line really any better than just saying WHERE you are in that line? e.g., is it better to say

My Save Game
A small village southeast of Verbobonc
Todays date and time

or

My Save game
HOMMLET
Today's date and time

Seems to me that's it's far more direct to say where you are than to describe where you are for the purpose of identifying saves, which is all those lines are used for.

We can change the lines, but as near as I can tell, we can't get new maps to point to specific lines. Hence, places like Verbobonc get the 'this is the unknown place' treatment (null = get the generic line, basically), which IMO sounds really stupid and could just as well be blank or something like 'unspecified.'

What does everybody think?

 

To clarify, there are no problems with outdoor maps that appear on the world map. So if you're at Hickory or Verbobonc or Welkwood (the first map only), it will list where you are just fine. Any maps within those areas that don't appear on the world map will not, however. This includes the HB cave and crypt, all of the Verbobonc interior maps, the subsequent Welkwood Bog maps, the shopmap, and any others we've added that don't appear on the worldmap.

I don't really agree ... imo it's not much of a stretch to conclude that you're still in Verbobonc when you get to the drow tunnels, or that you're still at the Moathouse when you go into the dungeon, etc. More importantly, is anyone reading that line in the save file for RP purposes anyway? I think it's more of a utility thing - "Oh yeah, that's my save from the Moathouse."

I think Grud tells you the name of Imeryds Run.

'Uncharted area' or 'unfamiliar area' would certainly be better than 'this is the unknown area,' but since Verbo maps gets stuck with that one so often, it would be a bit weird to say you don't know where you are in Verbo. Better to be blank imo. If it's really an unknown area, no description would describe it well, and if you're in Verbo or HB or wherever, no description would at least not be silly looking.

 

I did a little investigating into that, and there is a line in MapList.mes (in modules/ToEE/rules) that says that the code 'Area: <#>' defines the map area as defined in area.mes (not gamearea.mes, which defines the worldmap areas in ToEE. Might be an Arcanum leftover.) However, none of the entries have that specific code. There are some that list the map area in the map name itself, however, such as 'map-area-6-Imeryds Run,' and Imeryds Run is indeed map area 6 in ToEE. But adding 'map-area-14-' to the Verbobonc map names did not have any effect. I also tried adding the code 'Area: <14>' and a few other variations to the Verbobonc entries in MapList.mes, again with no effect.

It may be defined in the hex file that resides in each map folder in modules/ToEE/maps/map name too, don't know. I couldn't see anything in a casual look with a hex editor, but then it's been a while since I've 'gone hexidecimal,' as Jota says, bless his heart.

 

By adding that entry to gamearea.mes and doing some fiddling with worldmap_ui in data/art/interface/worldmap, from memory, although it was actually Allyx who did that back in the day. (I fiddled some additional stuff to give WB and HB unique worldmap locations etc. since then, but they're just switch-outs with previously existing locations.)

That was all brought about by Spellslinger's .dll hacking to allow additional worldmap locations. It's possible he may have coded Verbobonc directly into the .dll at that time ... he and Allyx were working on that stuff around the same time iirc.

 

If we could associate new smaller maps with existing bigger areas, we could also control where a quest shows up in the log book.

 

Sounds promising.

Are we able to skip map numbers? I never tried that.

The worldmap locations and map numbers for HB and WB can't change, because the way we got them on the worldmap in the first place was to swap them with pre-existing worldmap locations (Temple satellite locations).

 

Spellslinger made the program to make it possible to add new locations to the world map, and wrote up a readme to accompany it (which as I recall was a rather complicated document to comprehend in itself), I used the program as per the readme files instructions, I do remember adding the description for Verbobonc and Hickory Branch, though I can't recall exactly how the description was called in the code.

I had quite a few IRC sessions with Spellslinger and Hazelnut (creator of the worldmap path program) at that time. Poor Spellslinger ended up in .DLL Hell (as he called it) quite a few more times than he would have liked, but I for one am glad he did, as we got a good result out of it IMO. Props to both those guys and their hard work