Mapping is the most powerfull feature of SMM and the feature, which makes SMM unique. But on the otherhand side it is the most complicated and difficult part of SMM to explain, although on an absolute scale it is not that difficult;)
Before going into all the details, I will
Please, take your time to read this manual. I strongly believe that it will pay off.
As stated before, maps are a collection of rooms. The rooms themself are conected to other rooms with exits and by using an exit you travel from one room to another. Of course rooms can be connected to rooms in other maps.
Most MUD's support the general idea of north, south, west and east. Therefore
a grid is naturally the base of a map. Of course, one could just draw
blobs as rooms, which are placed just anywhere and connect all the blobs
with eachother without caring about north, shouth, west and east.
For SMM I have choosen grids as basis's of maps.
This gives much better orientation!
So far everything sounds sensible and easy. But here comes the whole truth:
Rooms in MUD's are not rooms as we normally use to know them; instead a room can be a whole landscape (top of a mountain, part of a forest), a cave, a tunnel, a part of a road, a building or also just a normal room.
Advise: You should try to separate maps, if the sizes of the rooms
are too different: e.g.
outside of a city (rivers, mountains, swamps) - in a city (roads, buildings)
in a city (roads, buildings) - in a building (rooms).
Exits also don't need to be sensible: e.g. you could walk n-e-s-w and be somewhere totally different than you started. In such a case you need to redirect one exit and avoid so the collision of two different rooms. SMM supports redirecting.
A SMM map is collection of rooms, which are placed on a grid. The general orientation of the grid is as follows:
The SMM coordinate system is the following:
When you map, you add one room by room to the map. A room can have a maximum number of 12 exits (up to now I never reached this limit). But rooms can store and display even more information:
Very important are the backgrounds: a room only exists, if it has a background. The default background is just a dot, but you can choose backgounds from a variaty of buildings, landscapes, etc,..
Just one last remark: SMM supports and ecourage drawing of sensible maps, but the user still has a maximum degree of freedom; e.g. a southern exit leading to north and sending a movement command to east:)). You dont need to understand this right now. Just keep in mind, that you can draw any map as you like it and not as SMM forces you to draw it. SMM just gives some guidiance, so it looks/feels better/more sensible.
After all this theory we now come to the practical part.
the reason is, that you cannot draw directly on the map, but must instead build the map room by room in the zif and then add it (press accept) to the map. OK,..
The coordinates of the zoomposition are displayed at (4.4). Change the numbers at (4.4), press return and the zoom will change its positon to the new position.
Single click with the left button into the map. the zoom will follow.
Double click into the map, and the player position will follow.
single click with the right mouse button on button (4.1). Accept. you have deleted the room again.
a room only exists, if it has a BG.
you can choose another BG: click with the middle mousebutton (or hold shift and click with the right mouse button) onto the BG button. an interface will show up and you just select the now you like.
you can also choose another bg to be the default bg: first press 'set def. bg' then choose a bg.
you can also choose from other icons: middle click (or shift-right click) onto any stuff button. A interface shows up, which behaves just as the bg interface.
you can set the text attributes: middle click onto the label 'text: '. A selftexplaning interface will show up.
now you are in a room with exits south and up: right click (right click = RC) on ex(sc), RC on ex(nw), RC on ex(nw), accept. The buttons at the corners can be used for up and down commands too as you see. Of course you can also use them for northeast, etc. commands.
RC on ex(nw) and accept. the exit is deleted.
RC on ex(uo) and accept. LC on ex(uo) and you are asked, if you want to create a new map. the buttons in the center redirect on default the exit to a new map. this is useful, if you map e.g. a building with several floors,..
thats so far all the the easymans ways of mapping. You now know everything, except how to customize exits for your special needs.
click on any exitbuttons with the middle mouse button (or keep shift pressed and RC). a interface will show up:
if you cut the connection, the exit still exists but leads to nowhere. dont know if this is sensible.
keep in mind, that you always draw a line or arrow on the same map.
reson: e.g. you have maped a city in a separate map and the lands around the city in another map. cities nothern gate is at 0,20. You are now outside the city - one north of the nothern gate at position 0,1000. you want to connect to 0,20 but draw just to 0,999. maybe you also draw a city bg at 0,999.
If you can understand this, then you understood the concept! if not, you hope to understand it later, read the manual or send an email to me or better to the mailing list.
You will want to use the '#map' command in aliases or actions, so you can automap or the player position automatically follows on the maps, when you type a 'n' for north, e.g..
Please, follow this link for more information about the
#map command.