Overview of Cartographer Routes
by Amanda Miller 
Jan 17th 2008 at 3:34PM
Now, The Khorium Toolbox has written up an in-depth, step-by-step guide to Cartographer Routes, an addon that let's you track your gathering nodes and map out a farming route that's comprehensive and efficient. While this addon was featured in a recent Insider Trader column, I believe the guide deserves its own spotlight.
As the author of AddOn Spotlight: For the Timid, I was skeptical once I saw the screenshots provided. It looked complicated, and impossible to set up. Fortunately, this guide will walk you through what to download, where to get it, and how to install it.
The guide also helps you configure the addon so that in the end, you will have a map complete with farming route to optimize your farming time. It also walks you through the mechanics of gas cloud tracking and harvesting.
This is a great guide, not only for engineers, but for any gathering profession. Even if you are weary of complicated addons that take time and know-how to set up, this guide will walk you straight through it.
What addons have you been using for your gathering and farming exploits?
Filed under: Herbalism, Guides, Jewelcrafting, Add-Ons, How-tos, Items, Engineering, Mining, Fishing, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ashwin Jan 28th 2008 7:03PM
^^^I think WoW insider needs to comment on the the opinion of the poster above, OFC the poster may just be lying so that other people don't use it.
bnorman Jan 17th 2008 4:11PM
I used to use Gatherer, but this is far superior.
Gessilea Jan 17th 2008 3:50PM
I'll have to check this out when I get home. I installed this the last time you wrote about it, thinking it would be awesome for my two skinners, two herbers and one miner, but for the life of me I can't get it to work.
Smurk Jan 17th 2008 3:52PM
So it's basically like botting except you get to turn auto run on and off. Fun.
I would hope other people have thought of using this addon to circle the nodes and gank people.
Spoony Jan 17th 2008 4:15PM
it's not botting since you're still the one controlling everything it just gives you driving directions to optimize your otherwise random flying pattern.
Smurk Jan 17th 2008 4:27PM
"it's not botting since you're still the one controlling everything"
That's my point. People complain about Blizzard making the game too easy, meanwhile installing addons to tell them where every quest objective is. And this one draws a line for you to follow around the map - what an awesomely fun activity.
PeeWee Jan 17th 2008 5:07PM
@Smurk.
Then don't friggin' use it. No one's forcing you to.
theRaptor Jan 17th 2008 9:46PM
Did you ever think that people who complain about the game being too "easy" aren't the same as the market for this addon? I know idiots on the Internet like to generalise that people who do X all have the same opinion, and then try to generate flame wars by saying "but you people said X and now you want Z, make up your mind".
P.S. If you are farming nodes YOU ARE DOING THIS ALREADY. Node maps have been around for years, all this does is make it dynamic and bring it in game. The fact that mining nodes spawn in not only predictable places, but in fixed patterns takes any kind of challenge or fun out of the activity, even if you don't use addons to track them.
Akio Jan 17th 2008 4:11PM
I actually prefer Gatherer rather than Cartographer for gathering professions. It lets you pick up other guildies/group members current locations without needing to share like Cartographer had to do originally.
Aaron Jan 17th 2008 4:11PM
Shame cartographer is somewhat buggy, like trying to click orgrimmar from the kalimdor map goes to thousand needles instead (wtf?)
Bycrom Jan 17th 2008 4:26PM
I fail to see the connection. All this mod does is give you an efficient path for hitting potential node spawns. Any person who herbs/mines with any frequency would already be doing that in his/her head at the very least.
As for using Routes as a means to find PvP action, for most nodes in most zones, you're talking about several dozen potential spawn points. You'd just as likely encounter another player by flying randomly around the zone as trying to predict between what spawn points you might find some herbalist/miner. You'd have better luck further ahead by camping a quest node or summoning stone.
Basic Jan 17th 2008 7:58PM
The point of cartographer_routes is to find the shortest circuit which covers all nodes. Thus you will make the most efficient use of your time.
Waluigi Jan 17th 2008 5:01PM
I love this add-on, because it involves math. And math is awesome.
Johnson Mitchells Jan 17th 2008 6:07PM
I'm glad you acknowledge that this mod is basically an exploit, Amanda!
IMO it's nothing more than cheating, but each to their own you guys ;)
Basic Jan 17th 2008 8:00PM
I think you missed the context of her use of the word "exploits"...
tayr Jan 17th 2008 6:20PM
I don't really think it's cheating - it makes efficient use of your time. You could just as easily get a piece of paper, draw a map of Outlands on it, mark every node that you find when you're randomly flying over a zone, work out the distance between them, and then run a shortest-path algorithm over them..
..or get a computer to do it.
Note that it doesn't make nodes actually SPAWN for you, so on a busy server it's likely that you could fly a whole route and not find a single spawn.
Septih Jan 17th 2008 7:56PM
mmm traveling salesmen algorithm, how i loathe thee
Basic Jan 17th 2008 8:28PM
Here's one for all of the "mods are cheating" posters.
Devil's advocate: playing with pets is cheating because even tho it's part of the game it lets some players do things that players who don't choose to play that way cannot.
Smurk Jan 18th 2008 10:43AM
Nowhere did I say addons like this constitute cheating. I do think that this sort brings you as close as (humanly) possible, which makes me think that many people don't bot only because it's against the Terms of Use.
Wo while these aren't cheats, I am curious about where people personally draw the line in terms of how much dull or "inefficient" content they are willing to compensate for with hand-holding programs. Does anything go, as long as you're physically at your keyboard?
LostOne Jan 18th 2008 11:20AM
If you download the gatherer wowhead database (from gatherer.com on the downloads page), you don't even need your party/guild to share, you have all the known nodes there, you just have to open the menu for it in game and import the database, it takes about a minute to populate your gatherer nodes with the ones from wowhead.