AWTeen Map

Courtesy of Brant and Ptolemy

An aerial view of a section of the interactive map.

I've been away for a while and was still getting back into the swing of things earlier this month, when MM came around with that kind smile that could only mean that it was newsletter time again. Fortunately, Ptolemy was kind enough to provide me with more than enough information on his AWTeen map, which he now maintains in addition to his map of the world Mars. This map has helped countless citizens find lost buildings and find new places to visit in AWTeen.

The map is simply a large area composed of 400 pictwlk4.rwx's arranged in a 20 x 20 matrix creating a map of the world AWTeen. It is located at 1756n 1827e.

Ptolemy recently took a few minutes to explain the map to me in more detail. In his own words:

"I made the first AWTeen map in November 2001. It was a smaller version of the one today with 36 pictwlkh.rwx's in a 6x6 matrix. I didn't build it from scratch - I got the bitmap from the newsgroups.

The map is easy to use. All around the perimeter are colored flags and a key explaining what the colors represent. Red flags are must see, white are individual builds, and blue are AWTeen builds. Find the flags that interest you and click on them. They're all teleport enabled. The flags, while only displaying a small fraction of the constructs, categorize builds for easy exploration. Flags marking builds are constantly being added on request.

Also, a Xelagot bot ( Made by Alex Grigny de Castro ) called Mapper is always there to help locate your position on the map relative to the world. All you have to do is whisper "give location" and Mapper will reply with your world coords. I prefer to whisper so as not to interfere with other explorers. You can ask out loud if you want.

Making the map involved a lot of time and effort. It all starts with the Remote Administrative prop of Awteen by the Xelagot bot. Originally the bot took four days to scan the world; now it requires around eight after the recent increase in the size of the world. This is the reason why you see my +/- dates for the maps. The Dump is acquired starting at GZ, and then moving north to south in a west direction. When it reaches 3000w it starts again at 3000e, moving west to GZ. Thus, a build may be scanned on 23 May at 0n 300w but a build at 0n 1800e will be scanned on 29 May.

Next after acquiring the propdump I use Mapviewer ( Created by Andras Sarkozy ) to create the map in a bitmap format. This utility creates a colored image of either objects, builders or dates of builds. It also generates for each an Object and Citizens list if selected. Few people know that I, with the use of this utility, can find builds for them. In less than 10 minutes all your lost stuff can be found again. Note I only look for personal builds. The bitmap file, objects and builders lists, and more are available for download at http://members.shaw.ca/juergan/. Andras helped me a lot in the setting up the software by giving me pointers and the original color files to get started. Thanks again!

Step three involves putting the map online. Each image is restricted to a small file size. To keep the resolution up the Awteen.bmp is sliced up into a 400 pictwlk4.rwx 20 x 20 matrix. There were a number of reasons I picked this size. Not the least was Mr. Building Inspector. Originally there were a ton of flags everywhere for grid points. Later with the bot I removed 70% of the flags which helped in the lag department. Another reason was scale of the map to the world size itself. Each pic is exactly 200 units of distance, making it easy to figure out the placing of town flags.

With the Xelagot bot, a major hurdle was removed for exploration. Now you can stand anywhere, ask Mapper were you are, and immediately receive a response. The bots have been online 24/7 and will remain on, ever since I acquired the script that makes it all happen from Alex Grigny de Castro. I was amazed at the quick reply from Alex when I emailed him for help. Thank you Alex - the map project wouldn't be half as good without your help.

I'm working on the p3000 map now, which should be finished around 11 May 2002. This will be for the upgrade of AWTeen. This map is also in an isolated area devoid of other builds so lag is greatly decreased. It's located at 2100n 2100e. Stay tuned. Someday I hope to convince the "Bigwigs" to let my bot into the other AW public building worlds to map them as well. The current maps, however, are never finished."

Thanks to Ptolemy for providing that information! Be sure to visit his map today.

Finally, I'd like to add that AWTeen, which will soon break the 10-million object barrier, has recently been expanded to include all space out to 3000 coordinates, more than doubling the world's current size and adding 20 million additional square meters of open land. With the recent change in AW's demographics, now is the perfect time to start a new game or town in this space to meet new people. Those looking for "easily rememberable" coordinates such as 2250n 2250w will still find them available in most cases, so hurry up and start a new project today!