Livingston's Guide to becoming a Grandmaster Elonian Cartographer! (No Map checks!)

would someone mind explaining how to compile a u-map, it would be greatly appreciated. I am at work now so i cant look at the forums too in depth. Pm or post here would be great, thx

@SilentVex: right after uncovering the last tiny piece of map you marked, I finally got the title. Thanks again!

I also want to thank Livingston for those guides. Without them i wouldn't even have those 99,4% i was stuck at.

@Agrim Shamash and those who are interested in learning how to stich a UMap together, here's the method I used when making mine. There may be faster/better/meh methods out there but my method works just fine. It will take you an hour or two to do the complete map.

What you need:
1. A fast system with a lot of memory. The images take a lot of memory because of their large resolution
2. Photoshop (you may use another image processor but this is what I used)

What to do:
1. Set your desktop resolution to 1024*768 or 1280*1024 (1280 will be a lot faster because it covers more area per print screen)
2. Start Guild Wars in window mode (alt+enter to switch between full and window). Stretch the lower right corner of the Guild Wars window to fill your desktop to the taskbar/bottom right corner of your desktop then stretch the UMap to fill the Guild Wars window
3. Launch Photoshop and create a new image with a resolution of 5500*4150 (Elona, it will be different for Tyria and Canta)
4. Alt+tab to your Guild Wars window and take a screenshot by pressing alt+prtscr (print screen) *Tip: start from a corner, my preference: bottom left*. The image will be copied to your clipboard but Guild Wars will also make a copy in its screens folder so make sure you delete them from time to time because they take up a lot of room
5. Alt+tab to your Photoshop window and create a new image again. Photoshop will auto import the clipboard image and auto fill in the resolution of this new image. Paste the clipboard image onto this canvas (so now you should have 2 images/canvases in your Photoshop window).
6. Assuming you are starting from the corner you will now want to trim this image because you don't want those sides showing. For the bottom left corner, you will only need to trim the top and right edge. To trim goto Image->Convas size->make sure width and height are in pixels and fill in width and height (subtract 100 from the default values). Set the anchor to bottom left by clicking the bottom left arrow.
7. Now you should have a trimed image with the top and right edges clean. Select all and copy then close the canvas without saving. Paste the image onto the 5500*4150 canvas. Move the layer to the bottom left corner so that the UMap window edges disapear and revealing just the map itself.
8. Layer->Flatten image
9. Now repeat step 4 to 8 in a clockwise or counter-clockwise manner (CCW works better for Elona IMO). *Hint: for the triming this time, you will need to trim the left, top and right edges. Only keep the edge that's going to be covered up by the canvas edge. As for the middle sections that aren't edges of the map, trim all 4 sides.* To make the joint seamless, you will need to set the blend options to difference and move the new layer so that a completely black bar covers the joint area. Switch back to normal blend.
10. Step 8 (if you don't do step 8 for every new section, you will end up with a lot of large new layers taking up A LOT of memory)

More hints: If possible, save your progress in a lossless format until you have the whole map stiched, because if you save as jpeg the drop in quality stacks every time you resave your work so the seams may not match perfectly and the older sections will look much worse compare to the new sections.

You will need at least some image editing knowledge to the do the above. Don't follow the above steps blindly, understand the concept behind it and do what works for you.

hmm... im working on this title currently but am having trouble using the layers in photoshop. windowed mode just doesnt seem to fit correctly. im currently using a widescreen monitor, if someone could post an image of their map at 1440*900 that is at or close to 100% i would greatly appreciate it! =D thanks!

ps. or if someone could help me make it so that the image doesnt fit the screen, rather it just stays at the resolution i choose that would work too =D.

I updated my map tonight. My best guess puts it around 100.5%, give or take .05%. The url is the same, but here it is again anyway.

Hellooooo

So, I haven't had the chance to play much nightfall, and there is already a very thorough map out there and linked in this thread. As such, I decided my goal would be to help out in getting the absolutely most complete resource out there for everyone's use

I compared the areas I've already mapped to those in the U-map linked in the thread as best I could (differing resolutions require artifact-inducing scaling), and here's what I found! I'm not sure who belongs to this map, who has the ability to edit and reupload it etc, but whoever you are, here you gooo

I am 100% sure of the spots on the right and left, the one in the middle was very mildly different and could have been from scaling but I didn't think so.

I didn't bother to include what my revealed version of those spots look like, but if necessary I can.

Happy mapping!

edit: I lied, edited the image to show what my spots look like. Mine are the glowing insets.

Im curious if anyone is keeping track of what % of the final 100% each area actually represents.

I am at 70.1% without scraping inside any towns yet, and without entering the "final Areas" Jokos Domain , Sulferous Wastes etc., so Im wondering what % of the final 100% those areas represent.

I have 100% of Tyria and Cantha, so far Elona *seems* to be giving up the %s easier than the two previous chapters

@ garethporlest18 & hatamoto: I'll look at those...tomorrow or the next day if someone hasn't already. I have a busy couple days here, so no promises.

@ Leighwyn: Thanks for the heads up. I'll get those and get it updated...tomorrow or the next day.

How much does the hidden area at the Chantry yield? (only accessable after game completion right?)

I've been stuck at 99.8% for a while and that's the only bit I can't get to yet and the only bit I'm assuming I need.

If it only gives 0.1 or something, God knows where the final bit is, lol!

Yeah...1 less thing to do now

I am currently working on documenting how much each area is worth to map as I go, but since I haven't had much time to play, it's going rather slowly.

And congrats to those who have gotten the title.

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Agrim: you forgot to explore the area around the statue of Kormir in Chantry of Secrets. There is still a spot missiong in the newb island (north-east corner of the Cliffs of Dohjok).

Jahjah, if you still have 0.5% to explore there is probably more than what I found (I did that quickly) but here are a few places you missed: http://athelias.biz/guildwars/jahjah.JPG

A few tips to all those who have only 0.x% left and can't find any more spots to explore: I was quite lucky with Elona and it didn't happen to me this time, but I remember how it was for Cantha and Tyria: you compare your map to 100% maps and it's as if your own map was more complete than the 100% map. At this point zoomed out maps are probably useless (if you can't find any difference), so you have to use your insight. Make a list of the areas where you could have missed something, and compare your U-map to a 100% U-map (in Elona, places like the Dynastic Tombs, the Poisonous Outcrops, this stupid mission in the newb Island you rushed, etc.), try to cross the "tunnel" portals in both ways (when there are 2 portals and some kind of uncleared tunnel between 2 areas), hug again the walls of the towns and outposts, etc. At this point, it's also a matter of luck.

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Thanks but my character has been bugged ever since reaching castellian, and I cannot enter the 'first city' area at all, mission wont be given and I can't even enter it with other party members! GRRR ANET FIX! (and yes i've submitted a bug report two days after release and have been stuck on 98.6% since!)

Narcotic Traversal FTW!

Sorry I couldn't resist

thank you sir mad
you guys rock thanks for the help i got my elonian grandmaster carographer now

@Hatamoto
Here's your map marked (I may have missed a few but let see what you have after you get the marked areas):
http://download.yousendit.com/B74F865448259F6C

thx you very much, i managed to get 99.4 without even trying. Will test these few spots.

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Leighwyn: I got them all but the top left one. I scraped that wall at least 10 times in both directions and can't get it. If someone gets that...tell me where you stood. I'll update when I'm done pvping tonight.

Ok i'm now at 97,2%. Wont ask help right now, since I dont have my 98%, but I can find my left spot easy.

Just need some advice, I need to map the entire Wurm Challenge mission, any tips on it? I can only open the first gate...

Could someone check my attached zoomed out map? I'm at 99.1% and I'm trying to figure what little edges I keep missing! :O

FYI, even though it looks like you unfogged some things on the map, I've found that you can get 0.1% for some places if you get close enough to them. For example, the northwest wall of Kamadan gave me 0.1% but it didn't unfog anything.

I'm at 99.5%, still missing a size able portion in the Mission where you kill the Drought, but I'm thinking it won't provide me enough to get 100%.

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Does anyone know how to map the Fortress of Jahai? I've tried it from the 2 explorable areas, but no luck because it's gated off. Is there a quest or whatever else that will allow you to map that are? thanks in advance

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Thank you for the zoomed out map, I was able to difference my way from 98.6% to 100%.

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