Mapping Out by Aylee Sedai

Awesome tool, looking forward to the next version(s). I have a suggestion though. Well, I had more than one but at the moment I can only remember one of them. It would be pretty helpful if you are able to interact with the map portion of the program, being able to resize or, more importantly, zoom in and out for a more fuller look at the region. The icons should increase in size as you zoom out so you can still use it without having to zoom back in.

As I think of other ideas I will post them, hopefully you will like some of them and include them in an update. Keep up the good work!

very very nice utility, I'm looking forward to see some updates on it!

Heretic Fire
Thank you very much for this hint. I'll fix it in the next update. If you don't want to wait till my next release, you can fix it by yourself. Open the "Elitelist.txt" file in the "Campaign.03.Nightfall" campaign directory. Search for "avatar of dwaynia" and replace it with "avatar of dwayna". Reload MappingOut and you will find it updated. Be carefull not to change the tabulation into the file. Each field must be separated by a TABULATION.

Bithor the Dog
Thank you for this correction. Even again I will fix it up!!

Kaolla
Well, This is a more complex matter. I didn't think about zoom when I started thinking about MappingOut. but I never thought it would have grown so much! At first I decided to keep the image size as small as possible, to avoid great occupation of memory and allow a fast download from internet. So images are smaller than actual ones. Zooming in would create an image strecth, not very nice to see. But zooming out, well... I will work on it!


I am very very very happy for all your suggestions, so please keep on giving me a feedbak on all the bugs, errors or new ideas you can figure out. Someone asked me where to write all these things. Well, here is a good place, in this forum.
Even better would be my own forum!
http://laruotadeltempo.forumfree.net...tpost#lastpost
The first posts are in italian, but last posts are written in english!

This is probably one of the best tools I've seen. Just before I log into the game I fire up your tool (that could be taken the wrong way but please don't). Have a virtual pat on the back from me. Thank you very much.

I noticed the absence of a guide leads to use MappingOut not at his "best". While you're waiting for a guide (someone has to write it down... oh no, that is me! ), here's 3 hints:
- left click the map and hold on to move the map
- right click on a marker and hold on to show the object stats
- double click on a elite location (coloured square marker) to open the list of your own character and mark that elite as captured by one out of them.

well, I have to admit that this is not a "opera omnia", but it's better than nothing at all

firefoxx666,
Yep, I see. I wll make it possible to see greens on the map, without showing also the elite skills. It has been a choice to make things easier... FOR ME ghghgh. But, since this tool is to be used by more gamers than I thought, I will fix this inconsistency as soon as possible!
Thanks!

Aylee Sedai,

As someone who works with programmers on a daily basis that get paid for their work... If you are any indication about the responsiveness to pay ratio of programmers, we shouldn't pay our programmers. Maybe they will become more productive and more polite on an empty wallet.

Keep up the good work. It is much appreciated by the community.

thanks for this, and sedai, is you name perhaps from the wheel of time?? oh and I wont mess w/ the progam because I will most likely mess it up....

EDIT: uh-oh! the new skill update by A-net will make you have to do tons more work...

Titan Chrae,
thanks for your words. When I do something, I try to do it for the best. Unfortunately often my best is not THE best ... But I'm working on it ghghghgh

heretic fire,
As you noticed, my character name comes out from the Wheel Of Time! As soon as I develop the new MappingOut update, I will include some general information and curiosity (about program name, my characters and my guild... just a few lines, not more. don't be scared!!)
Yeah, I read the new balancing updates. But I'm not sure if they're permanent or just a test for this weekend!

FOR EVERYONE:
I've already done some updates to the program, but I'd like to complete the internet update feature, before posting last upgrade (Don't think I'm lazy. I'm really working on them!!! )

As nice as you were for releasing this super wicked awesome program for everyone's general use, you just go on and take your time with that update. Don't rush on our accounts. I know I've been waiting nearly 2 years for something like this to come along, I think we can all afford to wait a while longer.

P.S. Thank you for this program. It is, without a doubt, the best GW companion program EVER!

A very nice program. I and my overused wikipedia shortcut button thank you.

Wonderful job on this program! You really took a lot of time designing this and adding all the info you have crammed in here. All item info, collectors, every skill location, and for every campaign. Again, wonderful job, easy to use interface and all the info you could ever need, along with complete maps. Big fan here (if you can't tell). I'm currently in an AP comp Science class as 2nd year java and i can really appreciate the time you've put into this. Keep up the great work, may the light shine favorably upon you,
Jay Lanzafane

This is great tool, thank you for it!

One question tho is there not a way when u input ur chars to be able to save them when u close program? everytime i save a chars eltes skills that i have gotten and then close the program I lose all the data for it and must redo it again. not a big deal but was wondering if this was what u were intending or is it a bug or am i missing somthing?

Thanx

tarmongaidon,
first of all... great nick name!!! ghgh

About the problem you're getting, well, it's quite unusual.
I tried both two methods to mark an elite as captured, and I don't have any problems.
The two methods:
1) From the characters window, opened by clicking on the 'Character' button at the right-bottom of menu window
2) double clicking on a elite skill marker on the map, and pressing the 'Mark' button.

If I close the program and reload it, all my characters have their own elite skills captured.
If you continue having this problem, please try to delete the entire PERSONAL folder in your MappingOut folder, and insert again your character.
I'm really sorry, but I can't realize what the problem could be. No other user is having a problem like that

In the next update I will include an email address, so that anyone will be able to send me some more informations (for example, the 'Personal' folder). So I will have the possibilty to perform a more accurate analysis.

thanx for the quick reply I tried what ya told me and it still didn't save, so I deleted the exe file and downloaded it again and still got the same results just can't save my files. Oh wells still a awesome resource for guild wars.

absolutetly great utility.

its helped me a lot 150 elites, 50 of which capped in the last to days of using the program. keep up the good work.

only thing i would criticise is the few number of spelling mistakes which i will let u know of when i get home.

Thanks man!

Looks like a great utility.

Suggestion: expand what you can keep track of. While it would be great to be able to log which missions have been completed at some point, I was specifically thinking of the treasures in Elona. I keep a log of those just like I do elites while hitting them for my characters, so I think it would go along well. And I believe GuildWiki has map locations for all of them.

Figured it out Aylee Sedai, I realized what i was doing wrong, Guess i was tired last night.

Thanx again for the help.

RodyPA,
I'm finishing an upgrade, including the automatic internet update feature. After thi release, I will add an option, which allow to add notes on the map. This is the first aid to help (most of all to help ME) remembering treasures location. But also adding a specific section for treasure could be an amazing idea.
Thank you for your hit, I will think about it!

tarmongaidon,
I'm happy you solved the problem, what can I say? Well, "late night is against clear mind" ghghgh (I wish this translation means something... I'm not really sure of it!)

FOR ALL,
I'm nearly done with the next update. Some of your suggestions will be included. Thank you all, my friends, my leaders, my kings... (better if I stop watching "The Lord of the Rings"...)

This is a great job indeed, Aylee. As a programmer I can really appreciate the high quality work you've done with it. And as a GW fan I am on the 7th heaven with joy . I am also very curious to what degree will this tool grow (I do hope it will become ultimately popular). Keep the good work.

P.S. By the way, just from curiosity I wanted to ask you (if I may of course) on what platform and language did you create this wonderful program?

Belleal,
argh! I've to answer to this embarassing question. Actually, It's not the question, but the answer which embarasses me. As I said in the "Info", I developed MappingOut using.... Microsoft Visual Basic 6. I know, not a wise choice. But managing graphics on VC++ would have made me waste a lot of time ... In my defense, I can tell you I used a river of API function, so VB helped me to easly design windows and manage events.
I didn't think this program would have grown so much. And actually If I had started writing it in VC, I would have saved a lots of time! But now, It's too late. I can't rewrite it from the beginning, unless ARENANET decides to pay me for it uhauhauhauhauha

Yea, I saw the Info right after I wrote this post . No need to feel embarrassed though. Actually VB is the favorite programming language of Bill Gates And I think it's actually a good idea to use it for small projects like this one. VC++ is my favorite but sometimes I feel like deleting it and kicking the CD out of the window. Nevertheless, keep on with the great job.

Great program, thanks a lot.

Hi Aylee Sedai,

This is the best GW program I have seen, this is my new GuildWiki companion. It's a great , and VB does well for these projects.

I have a few additions, that I feel would make things easier for me.

1. When you hover over a square, the information pop-up of the skill etc is automatic.
2. How many collectors items are needed.
3. The Bonus from the nightfall rez shrines.

ps. If you need any help with the information collection and input in the program, then please PM me.

pps. BRILLIANT.. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT....

Aylee Sedai, thanks!
Great tool! Well thought out and easy to use.
I want to know if you plan on adding something like a primary mission list so we could check off our protector titles.
Great job!

Oh. My. God. Possibly the greatest thing EVER made for Guild Wars. Aylee, you are my god. This is so awesome!

udoh,
thanks for your suggestions! I already added them in "To Do notes". Except for "How many collectors items are needed"... It's in the "Errors notes" . I have that information stored, but I forgot to show it! Next release will include it.
Thank you again

dr1zz one,
quite interesting! I added this to my todos, too!
Thanks for all

Great program! But i found a bug. When you untick Elites, collectors and greens, you cant re tick greens anymore! The only way to get it back is to tick elites then greens... hope that makes sense

Wow, Aylee, this is one AMAZING program!

A guildie posted it on our forums and now a lot of members in my guild are using it. We absolutely love it.

If there is anything that I could do to help out feel free to send me a PM =) Keep up the great work!

Nice program, i'll be using it a bit

to bad i already memorized most bosses, but it will come in handy for collecter stuff :P

Edit: typo..

Came up with a couple random ideas to throw at you for your tool. You may or may not know about Buried Treasures in Nightfall, but there consists of something like 13 chests that appear within Nightfall only that people can open once per character to get a gold item and around 2k! Anyways, I already have every spot memorized but if you added icons into the NF regions and added it to the key, every player with this tool could benefit from this free loot.


In all honesty, I never use the skill capturing side-along in you tool or GWFreaks tool. It would take too much time for me to go through each of my characters and check which of my characters have and haven't captured each skill. However I have a couple ideas how this might be improved but I will not mention anything this time because I don't know if you've already done it, what you've already made up, etc. I will wait until next time (that's right, you won't be rid of me and my ideas after this post )


Pretty unimportant, but since you have the locations of all the greens listed, or at least many of them, perhaps there could be some way to display what the weapon appears like as well? I was thinking that allowing a person to edit what information is displayed on the tooltips for the icons in the tool would be useful, so if people are only looking for greens, such as for this weekend, they don't have to look at all of the skill information, and could see what green item they're looking at actually looks like.


Another random idea would be to include region area for the zones. I have no idea where you'd put this and this is probably more work for you than you'd like to do. It could display the enemies of the area, maybe what skills they use, etc. I got a friend to join Guild Wars and she is so new, it's sad. The Termites that use Frenzy even own her. Okay, maybe not that bad but she asked me if there was anything to use to read up on her foes rather than wiki'ing it or finding out what the enemies used on her own.


Hope that was enough stuff for you to wrap that beautiful mind of yours around. I will keep the slew of random suggestions up if you'd like, and if you would like any help of any sort, I am more than willing since I have free time. Just throw me an email at [email protected] or lemme know on this thread what you need and I will see what I can do. Viva la Mapping Out~!

Kaolla,
wow! Pretty a lots of info. Thank you for all your ideas. I'm quite done with next update. It contains some corrections pointed out by Guru Users (thank to all ) and the automatic internet update feature. So, nothing revolutionary.
After finishing this, I will add the possibility to add your own notes in the program. I think lots of problem could be solved with a note. But if something is usefull for most users, I will add it separately.
However, first It will come the notes! Then, whatever we need.

PS: actually I wasted lots of my time (and my guilder's one) to develop and design the "INFO". I know, It's useless... But, you'll see, they've became GORGEOUS. I love it, more than I like the program itself. I spend minutes over minutes just looking at it and thinking: "oh my god, how wonderful is it?" ghghgh

This program is fantastic! I'm using the character feature to track the elites for my skill hunter title, and its saved me alot of work. One question - I haven't tried it yet, but does it work on Linux? If no, is there a linux version available/in the works?

Fallen Hunter,
sorry, but MappingOut does not work on Linux. It has been developed using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. I haven't plannet any platform convertion, at least, not right now.
Really sorry for that

Oh well, never mind. I can't get linux to work anyway lol

It's still a fanastic tool, i use it constantly.

I did find a small error. The elite you've got listed for Scourgewind, Elder Guardian, monk boss in Silent Surf, should be Signet of Judgment. You've got Shield of Judgment, which is a Prophecies only skill.

skyoone,
I thank you for your advice. I already fixed it up and it will be ok in next version.
Thank you again and... keep finding errors out

You've created an excellent tool here, but I see one problem, I don't know if others are seeing this but here goes.

I have just downloaded and installed your program (which means it is current). I am in the process of adding my characters and selecting which skills they have, and I notice that when I select a skill in any column (filtered by class or not), other then the first column, the column with the skill selected scrolls to the left, highlights the skill, does not select the check box, and all the check boxes for that column disappear.

I can still select the skill, it just takes a second selection. I just thought you would like to know.

I'm using this in XP Pro, just in case you need to know.

---

You also have a misspelling, you have Avatar of Dwania, and from what I see in game it is Avatar of Dwayna

Yuh uh!
At least I released MappingOut v1.8!!!

Something of your suggestions have been added. Probably Guru hasn't uploaded it yet, but you can find it on my guild forum:
http://laruotadeltempo.forumfree.net

Sure, It will be full of new errors, but I trust your capability of finding them out!

New one looks good. I just downloaded v1.8. Only thing i would mention to others is that to move your characters from a different version to v1.8 just copy the text files in the "Personal" folder from the older version into the new version.


Only thing thats more of an aesthetic than anything is when you are modifing or making a new character, when you go to select a skill thats not in the column to the immeadiate left on the screen, the page will shift over but it shifts too far and the check boxes disappear. Havent found any errors yet though.

Nice work.