Posts with tag maps

After posting the World of Mapcraft site the other day, I got quite a few comments and tweets about not only World of Mapcraft itself but other, similar projects that map the World of Warcraft. Here's a rundown of some of the links I've received.

• Cal Henderson, the creator of World of Mapcraft, actually wrote a post about the project on his personal blog in which he explains where he got the idea, how he extracted the data, and how he integrated it into the Google API.
• Mapwow.com is considered by many to be the granddaddy of WoW Google maps, and it inspired Cal to create his version. But far from covering just the base maps, it has a lot of useful menu bar features that show every thing from flight path connections to resource node locations. Unfortunately, everything on it is woefully out of date, and it doesn't even have the updated Cataclysm maps. That does, however, mean that it's perfect browsing for nostalgia purposes. Want to take one last long look at the unruined version of Southshore? You can at least get a bird's-eye view.
• Wyrimaps appears to be the most developed up-to-date version of WoW Google maps I've seen yet. It includes both Cataclysm- and Wrath-era maps and has a widget for resource nodes. It also appears to have the best ability to zoom, with more zoom levels on the way.
• Marlamin.com also has its own version of the project, which includes some preliminary Pandaria maps. Probably the most intriguing addition this version offers is the possibility of adding screenshot markers. It looks that whole WoW street view feature I wished for might be a possibility after all.

As someone who's loved MMO fan cartography since the early days of EverQuest, when you had to use third-party programs and sites like EQAtlas to map zones because Sony didn't actually provide in-game maps, it's pretty exciting to see where it's going in WoW with modern technology. Thanks to everyone who commented or tweeted links.

---

Being a fantasy world set in a vaguely medieval technology level (the odd gnome or goblin invention or steam tank aside), one does not generally expect all the perks of modern life to invade the World of Warcraft. Today, that's changed a little as Google Maps comes to Azeroth. World of Mapcraft features all of the current lands of WoW (minus Pandaria) from a bird's-eye view using Google technology. You can zoom in and try to find your favorite landmark or city (I looked for the twin pillars of Feralas and the Ruins of Southshore) or finally figure just how Dun Morogh's snow transitions into the green of Wetlands. You can even take a look at your favorite raid, dungeon, or Battleground.

Alas, there's no street view, but who knows? Maybe someone out there's just crazy enough to take that task on. It's definitely a fun new way to look at the world. Check it out.

---

Jolesole of raevyn.net (coincidentally a great source for Cataclysm info) has been datamining the latest beta patch, and he's found a whole bunch of new or changed maps for zones in the new expansion. Zones include Redridge Mountains, Westfall, Vashj'ir, and more. You can check them out in our gallery below.

New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's.

Last week, we talked about how add-ons add zing to your game, and we explained how to download and install them. We hope you spent time poking around some of the major mod sites and found some things that caught your eye -- but if not, we're back to fill you in on some of different types of mods along with some of the most popular add-ons that will streamline and enhance your game experience.

What are the major kinds of add-ons?

The bulk of what most players consider to be WoW's "must-have" add-ons falls into some half a dozen loose category types.

You want Icecrown 5-man dungeon maps, you say?

You need cross-server instances as you make your way up the Citadel?

You've got it. In the gallery below we're happy to give to you the Icecrown 5-man dungeon maps, fresh off the Patch 3.3 PTR. They cover the three wings of the 5-man version. The maps for the raid are not on the PTR yet. The three wings of the 5-man are the Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection, and the Forge of Souls.

Check 'em out below.

A friendly tipster has let us know that currently on the official WoW site, the map of Azeroth is listed as "really outdated" (see screenshot above). This is the clickable map that gives information about each zone. The Outland and Northrend maps are still up, but the Azeroth map is down.

Hm...a portent of Cataclysmic events, anyone? This is an entertaining little leak from the Blizzard web team. I'm sure we'll get the full story in a few hours from our Anaheim ground team, but for now, this is a subtle hint at what might go down in the next chapter of WoW history, and where.

---

BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!

---

Creative Labs posted a teaser flash video on their Sound Blaster site today; though to what they're announcing or counting down is currently unknown, we can definitely see that it's WoW-related, given the Horde crest in the center of the screen, and the Lament of the Highborne playing in the background.

Now, normally this wouldn't be very interesting, but when brightness and contrast are adjusted on the image's background, two distinct maps appear. The first is what is clearly Azshara on the left side of the image, and the second is the peninsula of Gilneas on the right side.

So why is this interesting? Well, those are the starting zones that the leaked Cataclysm information states are for the new races coming with the expansion.

It seems that the zones are in the spotlight a bit too much for it to be a coincidence. It very well could be an announcement meant to be timed with BlizzCon, or it could just be that the maps typically surround the Maelstrom and thus their positioning makes sense with the swirling Maelstrom graphic in the center.

We'll see what Creative has to say when the teaser ticks down some more!

We've heard this argument before, and every time Blizzard makes a change to help players complete quests more quickly, it comes up again. And with the recent announcement that Blizzard will actually be adding quest targets to the ingame maps (again replicating another function of the popular Questhelper addon), players have again brought up the old argument: is the game too dumbed-down? Originally, when the game began (though I don't know anyone that didn't still use Wowhead to find quest coordinates even back then), you were sent "east" to find a tiny little brown backpack to click on, and in the next patch, not only will you see that brown backpack sparkling with flares as you get close, but you'll have it marked on your map the entire time.

Larisa waxes nostalgic over at the Pink Pigtail Inn, and says that this is just farther down a sliding slope that leads to a ravine where we all just have two spells and need to kill three boars to level to 100. Kinless Chronicles straight out says "Patch 3.2 will play for you" with some funny tongue-in-cheek analysis. But since I do it so much anyway, I'll play the Devil's advocate here: let's face it, we all used the addons and coordinates while leveling up alts, if not even while leveling mains. It's easy to be nostalgic, but I never did like hunting around for that little pixel of brown you had to click on to finish a quest, and if you really do want to stumble around in the dark the old way, just don't look at your map and/or close the minimap down. I've recently played two other console games, Fable 2 and Dead Space, that also offer glowing line navigation straight to your quest targets, and I did feel a sense of exploration in both -- if I wanted to wander off the path, I was welcome to (and usually rewarded for it), while if I just wanted to get to where I was going, I could do that, too.

Although this comes a little late for a few players, not everybody is raiding Ulduar yet, and those that are haven't necessarily cleared it. To help appease your curiosity about what creatures lurk within the latest raid, or if you simply want to know a bit about the background of the guys that have been handing you purples recently, check out Blizzard's latest web feature, the Bosstiary.

It's an interactive map of Ulduar (same graphics as the in-game map), and if you click on any of the boss icons, it pops up a little paragraph about the boss. For instance, did you know that Auriaya is Ulduar's archivist? Makes sense - librarians love cats. Also, apparently Kologarn was created by Ignis. I guess Iggy must have been a big Monty Python fan.

I think this is a neat way to learn a little more about the story behind the bosses. I hope they continue doing this for raids to come.

Haven't loaded up the PTR and gone to check out Ulduar for yourself yet? The good news is you've got lots of ways to see it online -- in map form. Reader Evan B sent us the version in the picture to the right (click it for the full version, and it's big) -- he cut and pasted together the in-game map screenshots to make up a to-scale version of what the instance looks like. Our friend Stompalina also has a version, cut together from what looks like the minimap ingame, so you can get a little clearer idea of what the textures look like in each section of the instance.

And StratFu sent us an interactive map of the Titan city, with hover-over tooltips on each boss and click-through information for what we'll face inside. Strategies are still being fleshed out completely (and remember, this is the PTR, so everything is subject to change). But if you're looking for as much info as possible on what's waiting for you inside the brand new raid of Ulduar in patch 3.1, there's lots of places for you to find it.

We're reported on the new in-game dungeon maps that Blizzard has implemented before, and we've got the Ulduar maps for you tonight. These are coming fresh off the latest Patch 3.1 PTR build (#9637 for those keeping track).

Click below through our gallery to see them all.

The map seems to indicate there are five floor to Ulduar. There is also a mini-map overview that was complied a few days ago you can also check out.

Boss testing is commencing tonight, and we should have some more information and impressions up for you by tomorrow morning. We're also on the PTR now checking out other reported changes, we'll let you know what we dig up!

Full gallery of Ulduar maps after the jump!

Stompalina over at Rawrbitchrawr pointed us in the direction of a map of Ulduar that was meticulously pieced together by a guild mate. The map contains major spoilers, so do not click on the links if you want everything to be a surprise. The map contains a list of all the possible bosses, including those that haven't been announced yet.

The map also reveals a possible progression through the dungeon, which should be indicative of the relative difficulty of the bosses as players head towards the final boss. It's a rather interesting map, if you're willing to see spoilers. The map is spawling and looks massive. Head on over for a peek at the big dungeon of Patch 3.1. Have I said it was filled with spoilers yet? Well, it's filled with spoilers!

MMO Champion has posted all of the in-game maps for the new Northrend dungeons. We'd heard a while back that they'd be added in, and though there was no mention of them in the 3.1 patch notes, sure enough, they're out on the PTR.

They obviously use the same style as all of the other in-game maps, with labels of each area and concept art of the dungeon itself behind each layout. But here's something we didn't expect: each map has a skull placed where the bosses are, so with just a glance at the map you can see where the big bad guys are found. Right now, obviously, we know where they all are, but that will be interesting when maps of future instances become available.

And right now, on the world map, areas get drawn in as you discover them, but we'd guess that these maps will be opened up as soon as you enter the instance (you don't discover parts of an instance, you discover the whole thing). It'll be interesting to see, next time we explore some new instanced content, just how these maps can affect gameplay.

---

Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.

In about nine short hours, we'll all be storming the (figurative) gates of Northrend, in one of two zones: Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord (I'll be Fjording first, in case you were wondering). The zones are pretty large, but fortunately, they're replete with flight paths. And one of the questions I can promise you are going to see for the first week or so in /1 is: "Where is the FP?" But you, gentle reader, will not be asking this question, because I'm going to tell you where all the flight paths are (Horde-side friends, your version of this post is coming soon).

First off, you'll need to know how to get to Northrend in the first place. Fortunately, we've got your back. And once you do get there, you may want to shuttle from one starting zone to the other. Turtle boats to the rescue!

Now once you've picked a zone, how do you get around within it? Note that there will be zone-specific information and maps after the cut; if you don't want to see anything about Northrend before you go there, don't click.

Old news if you paid attention to our liveblog of the PvP panel at BlizzCon (or if you read through Zach's great analysis of the news we got there), but Blizzard is adding two new Arena spaces to the game, and they've created an official page to show off the new designs and mechanics in each.

The Ring of Valor is a new space in Orgrimmar -- it features an elevator that rises up to a starting position that leaves players in close proximity, and then there is a set of fire obstacles and two moving pillars that can be used to as many tactical advantages that you can come up with. The other space, the Dalaran Sewers, also mixes in a few line-of-sight tricks, including a periodic waterfall that blocks LoS and a raised platform in the middle that can only be reached via two sets of stairs on diagonal sides.

Personally, I think the new mechanics are exciting, but then again I've played maybe four Arena matches in my life -- word I'm getting from most of the Arena players I know is that these changes add a little too much RNG to the maps (considering the all the obstacles are timed, they're not really random, but that's just what I think). What say you, Arena players?