After downloading and running BatMUD Map, you are presented with a map window similar to the one pictured on the right (click to enlarge). The BatMUD Map window contains the following parts:

• Toolbar contains buttons for finding a location and a route, and a field for searching areas by name.
• At left there is a list of areas, cities and other markers.
• Three buttons and the resize grip at bottom left are unused for now - they are always disabled.
• Main part of the window contains the map. Map window is used to show areas, markers, routes and tradelanes. Tradelanes are for cosmetic purposes only - at least for now.

Next we'll see what we can do with the map.

The map can be scrolled by using the scroll bars at right and bottom edges of the window. You may also use the two-finger scroll gesture if it is available on your Mac.

The marker list at left of the map can be used to find a marker by name quickly. Markers are divided into several categories (areas, cities, guilds, player cities, secret societies and shrines) which are sorted alphabetically. When you select a marker from the list, it is highlighted with a small white square on the map and the map is scrolled so the marker is visible (if necessary).

You may also look for areas by moving the mouse pointer over the map. When the mouse is near a marker, it is marked with a small white square and name of the marker is displayed on the map. You may narrow down the areas by using the search field at the top righthand corner of the window. When you type text into the search field, list of markers is immediately filtered so only the areas that match the search criteria are shown. The search results are also highlighted on the map with a spotlight effect and names of the markers are displayed on the map.

Screenshot on the right (click to enlarge) shows map of Rothikgen when searching for "cav".

You can easily locate yourself, some other player or NPC such as Akemi on the map. Just copy the map from your MUD client to the pasteboard and click the "Find location" button in the toolbar. Be sure to copy full lines - partial lines will not be understood by BatMUD Map. If everything goes well, you will see a white pin displaying the location on the map (see attached screenshot). BatMUD Map understands output of the "map" command and the response of certain NPC's such as Akemi. It also understands text quoted to you via tell or emote.

Location search requires that you are in an unique location on the world map. If you are sitting e.g. in middle of a forest, it will be impossible to determine your location. You should move to a more feature-rich part of the map and try to find your location there.

Note: Search is usually very fast, but in certain cases it may take a surprisingly long time - be patient. Also, the maps are not necessarily entirely accurate and thus search will not work in every location.

You can remove a white pin by control-clicking on the pin and selecting "Remove Pin" from the context menu. You can also remove all white pins by control-clicking on any part of the map and selecting "Clear Found Locations" from the context menu.

BatMUD Map can find a route between two locations - either markers or found locations that have been marked by white pins. First choose your start location by clicking once on the map. A red pin appears to mark the start location. Now you can choose your goal location by clicking on the map again. A blue pin appears to mark the end location. If a route can be found between the locations, it is displayed as a white line between the red and blue pin. Example screenshot shows a route from the Furnachia ferry dock to Akemi.

In order to change the start location (red pin), click and hold mouse button down for about half a second. In order to change the goal location (blue pin), simply click on the map once. When you want to clear the route plus red and blue pins, control-click the map and choose "Clear route" from the context menu.

When a route is displayed on the map, you may click the "Apply current route" toolbar button. A sheet is displayed which shows the directions needed to move from the start location to the end location (see screenshot below). Here you have three options:

• Click the "Copy All" button in order to copy the entire route to pasteboard and close the sheet. This can be also done by pressing Enter.
• Copy only 10 commands from the route to pasteboard by clicking the "Copy Next Part" button. Click the button again to copy the next 10 commands. This button will be disabled after all commands have been copied. This button is very useful so you can copy&paste the route to mud easily in small parts. Note: you can activate this also by pressing the N key.
• Click the "Close" button in order to close the sheet without doing anything. This can be also done by pressing Escape.



Be careful if you paste the route to your MUD client. It is recommended that you paste the route in small parts so you can see that you don't go to negative EP:s. Also, if you paste a long command at once, some of the commands may disappear and you may end up in sea and drown. Again, be careful!

Q: What are the system requirements for the BatMUD Map application?

A: It has been tested to run well with 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook. It's probably going to be pretty slow with G4 based Macs.

Please send any comments and further questions to mika.ryynanen@gmail.com or to Aldien via tell/mudmail.