6.35 The Wilderness Map

(See also: HELP MAPS, HELP SPECIAL MAPS)

What is the wilderness and/or the wilderness map? How do you deal with it?
Read on.


Commands
--------
ENTER WILDERNESS
LEAVE WILDERNESS
CONFIG MAPSHOW NONE
   - Don't show any maps when moving.
CONFIG MAPSHOW LOCAL
   - Show local out of wilderness map when moving.
CONFIG MAPSHOW WILDERNESS
   - Show wilderness map when moving.
CONFIG MAPSHOW ALL
   - Show both maps when moving.
LOOK


Getting in and Out of the Wilderness
------------------------------------
When you are at a location where you can enter or leave the wilderness, you
will see "You may enter the wilderness map from here" or "You may type LEAVE
WILDERNESS to leave the wilderness here."

To enter, type ENTER WILDERNESS. To leave, type LEAVE WILDERNESS.


What is the Wilderness
----------------------
The wilderness map is millions of rooms all densely connected. That means that
every room has a connection to the north, northeast, east, southeast, south,
southwest, west, and northwest, though some directions may sometimes be blocked
by high mountains or other factors.


On the Map
----------
While on the map, you can see an ansi-coloured 2-dimensional display of your
location. Every time you move, the part of the map you can see will be
displayed (depending on your setting for CONFIG MAPSHOW ON|OFF.

The "@" character represents your current location.

Your range of vision will depend on a number of factors, such as whether you're
flying, your environment (forest, mountains, etc), and the time of day.


The Wilderness Map and how it Correlates with the Main Map
----------------------------------------------------------
While in the wilderness, you can move through areas that also exist on the main
map. Even though the wilderness map appears to be similar to the main map, it
is not identical.

Example: you could be at "North of New Thera" on the wilderness map and not see
the people who are at North of New Thera on the main map.


Moving between the Wilderness Map and the Main Map
--------------------------------------------------
A "?" room on the wilderness map is a place where you can LEAVE WILDERNESS and
return to the main map.


Differences on the Map
------------------------
Things act a bit differently on the Wilderness Map:

 - If you drop items in the map room and wait more than a couple minutes to
   come back, the items will most likely not be there anymore.

 - Certain things simply do not work on the map. These include, for instance,
   weather and plants. Groves can be established safely there and will
   remain permanent.

 - Any area or continent-limited ranged abilities (ie almost all of them) will
   work differently. Instead of working within pre-defined areas, they have
   ranges. For instance, instead of working in the Western Ithmia (assuming
   you were standing there), it might have a range of 50-100 rooms away.

 - Explorer rank is unaffected by the wilderness map.

 - When you type SURVEY, you might notice an extra line or two telling you
   what approximate direction certain well-known places are from you. This is
   to assist you in case you get lost. Note, this is a low level skill in
   the survival skill. Type AB SURVIVAL to see if you have this command.


Why do we have the Map?
-----------------------
This answer is quite simple: so that we can create a true sense of distance.
There are literally millions of rooms on the overhead map. Creating that many
rooms using traditional methods would both require a fairly ludicrous amount of
memory, and an even more ludicrous amount of work. So this is a compromise.
With it, we can have a huge world.

The wilderness map does not mean that we will stop development of normal areas.
What it does mean is that we won't spend time making big empty areas like the
Dardanic Grasslands between other areas. So for instance, if we wanted to
implement an area far north of even the Northreach forest, we would not have to
create all the totally empty tundra areas in between. We would just make the
'destination' area and attach it to the wilderness map in the appropriate spot.
Perhaps you'd start your journey in your home city, enter the wilderness map,
trek to the area you wish to adventure in, enter it, and adventure away.


Where can I enter the Map?
--------------------------
Here is a partial list of places to enter and exit the wilderness Map:

Village Square in New Thera
Entrance to Tomacula
Bridge to Delos
Entrance to Shastaan
Western entrance to Jaru
Outside the entrance to Moghedu
Partway along the Cyrene highway
A few in the Northreach Forest
A few in the Dardanic Grasslands
Polyargos, by the ferryman
Ulangi, by the ferryman
Outside the entrance to Eleusis
At the junction of the western, eastern, and northern ithmian forests
Entrance to Dun Valley
Outside of El'Jazira
The Aalen forest
Junction of the North Road and Road of Eternity


(See also: HELP MAPS, HELP SPECIAL MAPS)