using auto-mappers

[OSOK]

Greetings!

Wondering what everyone's thoughts were on auto-mapping.  This will be my second MUD, having played Wheel of Time as my first one.  I've spoken to a few people here and they don't use the auto-mapping feature.  I imagine it's got to be insanely hard to play that way, so looking for opinions on the subject. 

Basically what I'm looking for is your thoughts on if it's THAT rewarding playing without the auto-mapping feature.  I'm away of the basic maps provided on the site, so I'd use those.  My fear would be navigating around in a town and, of course, getting lost, not knowing where I am/ended up.

Couldnt find any results on this via search... my apologies if I missed some.

Thank you!

[Barsook]

Mudlet's automapper doesn't work well for ArmMUD so I don't use it.   

If you are your home town, you can use the directions command to find where you need to go to, if it's on the list of places.  Also, for the two major cities, Allanak and Tuluk, you can use the help_[city name] command.   Example, help_Allanak will give the map of Allanak.

[tortall]

Also, after only playing for a little while and getting lost... You'll quickly figure out what's where.

Never used an auto-mapper myself.

[valeria]

I've never used an automapper, but I do have a huge map I made in excel, which I find is easier to account for discrepancies in rooms (like the space difference between inside and outside of cities).  The act of actually making the map was what allowed me to remember where everything is, so I sometimes have it up in the background, but I don't really use it for much.

[Lizzie]

There are parts of the game world that aren't even auto-mappable because the rooms don't "line up" properly. I wouldn't bother with an automapper. If you really need to figure out where things are in your starting city, you can use the "directions" command now, which was just recently implemented.

For non-city or non-"directionsable" areas, you could just jot down directions yourself, or create your own map with a spreadsheet (as many people tend to do).

Like, from the green tree with the black leaf hanging off of it, to the southern gate of Steinal, it'd be 4e, 10s, e, s, 2e, down (climb check), s, w, 2u (serious climb check), enter trapdoor.

That's the kind of stuff I do. But I don't script-walk either. I type everything out.

[FantasyWriter]

You might be addicted to Arm if you can spam walk from your noble's bedroom to Red's Retreat, have all the commands entered before you leave the estate, and have fixed a sandwich, something to drink, and be sitting back down just in time to emote out your splendid entrance in all its glory.

[slvrmoontiger]

You might be addicted to Armageddon if you can spam walk from one corner of the city to the opposite corner without even looking, in the dark, with no moons, in a violent sandstorm.

All joking aside. It makes things a lot better if you don't use an automapper. If you get in trouble and need to get somewhere fast on your own and know the route you're a lot more likely to succeed on your own. Also, as has been said by a few people a lot of the rooms don't match up and makes automappers act all screwy.

[Lizzie]

You might be addicted to Armageddon if you can spam walk from one corner of the city to the opposite corner without even looking, in the dark, with no moons, in a violent sandstorm.

All joking aside. It makes things a lot better if you don't use an automapper. If you get in trouble and need to get somewhere fast on your own and know the route you're a lot more likely to succeed on your own. Also, as has been said by a few people a lot of the rooms don't match up and makes automappers act all screwy.

Not to mention that if you have to "flee" and you fail and end up fleeing in the wrong direction...your automapper COULD very well land you in a ditch. Or the silt sea. Or in a gith den. Or a sorcerer's cave. Or a soldier's axe.

And regarding that sandstorm - your automapper won't know if your character went in the wrong direction, or even in ANY direction, if you get stuck in a tremendous storm while you're moving. Sometimes - you could try moving w, w, w, w, w, and what's actually happening is, your character is moving e, n, don't go anywhere, s. It wouldn't matter what you type in, or what your auto-mover does - the game code decides where you end up, during that kind of storm.

[slvrmoontiger]

You might be addicted to Armageddon if you can spam walk from one corner of the city to the opposite corner without even looking, in the dark, with no moons, in a violent sandstorm.

All joking aside. It makes things a lot better if you don't use an automapper. If you get in trouble and need to get somewhere fast on your own and know the route you're a lot more likely to succeed on your own. Also, as has been said by a few people a lot of the rooms don't match up and makes automappers act all screwy.

Not to mention that if you have to "flee" and you fail and end up fleeing in the wrong direction...your automapper COULD very well land you in a ditch. Or the silt sea. Or in a gith den. Or a sorcerer's cave. Or a soldier's axe.

Ick never ever ever use automapper outside a city even if you do inside the city. That's just a really good way to die quickly is to use an automapper outside the city. Used to be a good way to die in one of the city's too. Old time players should know what I mean by that.

[Yasbusta]

I dunno why all these naysayers. Been playing the game longer than some of the players have been alive, I use Cmud's mapping function all the time.
Mostly so I can keep track of where my char has been and hasn't been. Most of the known is stored up in my head and after hmmm, 120 + chars I get confused sometimes
as to which char has been where, the automapper solves this problem most of the time.

That being said.

You know you are addicted to arm when you can walk from Red storm to tuluk and back, without looking at your screen.

[FreeRangeVestric]

I find the thought of an auto-mapper to be kinda lame, and a bit too 'game-y' to fit into Armageddon for me. To each their own, however.

That said, you're talking to someone who is usually lost once they get out of a certain distance from the gates of any city/town, so take what I say with massive piles of salt!! I do have fun being lost, though, and it all makes the world seem much more vast, dangerous, and interesting, to me.

Lastly and most importantly, welcome to Armageddon!

[OSOK]

Thank you all!  I'll give this a shot without the auto-mapper and see how I do.