Category talk:Scenteral Intelligence Map

Use.

Personally as a survivor checking out trends and large scale movements this is really helpful. SOmething to do other than mrhing. You zeds liking it as well? --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 19:05, 25 April 2008 (BST)

I know of at least one horde that looks at it to figure out where the Dead are at, and get out in front of them to where there is still food to find.  Swiers 23:26, 25 April 2008 (BST)

I know its not that useful for the wandering feral, but its good for trends, i see it as a kind of weather map, watching fronts and such. Any chance of a history page? --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 08:50, 26 April 2008 (BST)

Yeah, I'd already planned to do some kind of history page. At this point, 1 week intervals make sense, as its not getting updated faster than that. I'd also like to figure out some way to "blank" map sub-images that are more than a week old. That's an easy effect to achieve (just edit the appropriate SIM:xx,yy page) but figuring out which ones are out of date is a bit of a pain.  Swiers 00:00, 27 April 2008 (BST)

There's a history page now. Scenteral Intelligence Map/History.  Swiers 22:35, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Updating

This is a great idea. What we really need is some automated updating script that people can use within their browser (also, possibly a convenient way to view it in your UD window); if it were easy enough, I think the map would kept very current, and it would be much more useful. - Grant (talk) 22:18, 25 April 2008 (BST)

What you are talking about would be an extension / DB combo almost identical to the setup used by UDbrain, only tailored for Scent Death data. That is certainly not an insurmountable technical challenge (indeed, the idea for such a project is more or less what inspired this wiki page) but its not one I'm willing or able to currently tackle. Consider this a "proof of concept and design" project for anybody who wants to do something like that. I'm not sure anybody WOULD want to do that though, as it might be seen (perhaps rightly) as cheating. The current implementation requires a very conscious effort to share information, so is less likely to amount to "distributed zerging" or using a "collaborative bot".
However, the Scentertal_Int_Map_Helper script DOES make it much less painful to update this wiki map, btw. If you use it (or even if not, and just do more than one or two updates a day) I also suggest putting a shortcut to a folder in your system tray, right next to a shortcut for your image program, and grabbing a good screen shot extension like Screengrab. (You should have something like that for PKreports anyhow.) That way you can save a cropped scent map image with one click (sing the file name supplied by the SIM_helper script) and then have all the tools and links needed to re-size and upload it immediately available for use Swiers 23:24, 25 April 2008 (BST)

The Scent Map can be produced by simply copypasting the html code for the table straight into the wiki, however it comes about abit oddly. Here is the css that formats the Scent Deat Map ingame. See: User:Thekooks/sandbox

table.nt { border:2px #000 solid; padding:0px; margin:16px; background:#000}
table.nt tr td { text-align:center; color:#000; margin:0px;
width:20px;height:20px;
padding:4px;
border:0px; spacing:0px }

I'm not sure how that could be incorpreted to format tables on the wiki. Though it could work that people merely needed to copy paste the source, into the SIM, which would be set up as a Template.--Thekooks 00:45, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Hmm - I gave it a whirl, and (formating issues aside) it seems the colors do not show up. Take a look at Scenteral Intelligence Map/html test.  Swiers 02:00, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Odd, User:Thekooks/sandbox seens to show the colours up ok.--Thekooks 11:37, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Yeah, if you try the code you used in /html_test with the right formatting the correct colours show up, it just so happens that the map you used is very dark.--Thekooks 14:23, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Hmm. OK, then it looks like a do-able alternative, although a good bit of code editing would be required. I suspect the small amount of image editing is easier for the general public to grasp... but then again, the wiki isn;t the general public, and even more so with people who might want to update this. It would also be pretty easy for me to code up a gm script that spits out "cut and paste" code. I dunno, is that worth is, compared to the present system? I can update a SIM sub-page in under 5 minutes from using scent death to finished edit. Its only the fact that I did 81 of them in 4 days and had to walk around the entire map that made it annoying...  Swiers 19:20, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Not sure, the current system is great, but I don't know if it will be kept updated.--Thekooks 19:51, 27 April 2008 (BST)\

I'm optimistic, but I think it would help a LOT if I put together a page that helped people collaborate to update it by listing where they had "sniffer alts" parked, or by allowing them to post raw screen shots / Iwitness links for other folks to final processing on. I don't see any benefit to going over to a code based method for that, and in fact it has the drawback of NOT allowing people to submit raw screenshots.  Swiers 22:34, 27 April 2008 (BST)

I'm struggling to see any deawbacks of a code based system, it would be so easy to update the map potentiolly one click using a gm script. I also feel that it would increase the amount of people updating the map as even though updating the map is not too time consuming it does require a fair amount of effort. --Thekooks 19:01, 10 May 2008 (BST)

You are right, there probably is no drawback. I assumed people are more comfortable editing screenshots than code, but that seems to not be the case. It would potentially be a LOT less work for those doing the updates if it was done by code with some automated assistance. The problem is, its a lot MORE work to set up the required code etc to make it work. The wiki probably isn't the best place to do that anyhow; as with stuff like UDbrain and DEMON, a stand alone PHP / mySQL web ap that accepts input from a GM script (and also maybe via a simple form) would likely be the better route, in terms of ease of implementation and durability and feature richness. And I just don;t have the time or skill needed to do that. Eventually I hope to (or to talk somebody else into doing it) - I mainly did this map as a test of the utility / practicality / popularity of the concept. I agree; it does take to much work to update. However, unless automated, code based updates would take as much work. I WILL look at making an extension that kicks out code we can post on the wiki, even if it is just a "stop gap measure". It would actually be an easy side-project / stepping stone for the scrip the stand-alone project would need anyhow. Hell, it wouldnt even obsolete the current maps; the pages would all occur on the SIM:xx,yy pages, and could be done on a case by case basis as part of the normal map update process.  Swiers 21:44, 10 May 2008 (BST)

Because I Hate Orphans

Here's links to all the page elements for the SIM map.

• Scenteral Intelligence Map/bottom
• Scenteral Intelligence Map/left
• Scenteral Intelligence Map/right
• Scenteral Intelligence Map/top
• Scenteral Intelligence Map/grid legend
• Project SIMPLE

--Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 20:08, 21 September 2009 (BST)