Hello and welcome to this demonstration of the dclient
minimap!  We've blown up the map real big so
we can get a good look at it.

There is a green square in the center of the
not-so-mini-map with a black diamond in its center.  The
square represents a room, and the diamond represents your
character's location.  The color of the room indicates what
terrain it is.  Light green is indicative of a FIELD
terrain.  The room is surrounded by black.  Even though there
are more rooms out there, they won't appear on the map until
you have explored them.

Each direction on the map...up, right, down, and left...represents
a cardinal direction in the game.  Up is north, right is east, down
is south, and left is west.  You'll see solid lines on the left, top
and bottom of the square.  This means that is no exit to the west,
north or south, but there is to the east.  You can click on
available exits in the minimap in order to move your character in
that direction.  Unavailable directions will be grayed out, and
you'll get a message like this if you try to go that
direction.  Let's go ahead and go east.

See the diamond travel to your character's new location.  You'll see
that this room is dark yellow, which indicates a DESERT
terrain.  You can see the room we were previously in to
the left.  There are barriers to the north and south, so we can
either go back west or go east.  Let's press on eastward.

This next room is a medium green, indicating LIGHT FOREST
terrain.  You can go back the way you came or to the upper
right, which is northeast.  You'll see a black "v" shape
in the center of the room.  This indicates that there is an
exit in the down direction.  We'll go ahead and hit the
down button in order to go down.

This new room is a dark gray color, which means that it is
UNDERGROUND.  There are no exits except for the carot or
upside-down "v" symbol, which indicates an up direction exit.  The
up button will bring us back up, and we'll go ahead and proceed
northeast.

This room is purple, which the color of TUNDRA terrain.  Once
we go west, you'll see the beginning of a thick brown line.  This
line represents a road.  Roads go between important locations
in the game, usually between cities or towns.  They are also
usually safe and free from enemies.  Let's go.

A white colored room is an ICE terrain.  You can see that the
road from earlier goes through this room.  The green forest room
is just south of here, but the thick white line between this room
and that one means that there is no connection between them.  You
see that I just bounce right off if I try to go south.  We're going
to go west again.

This light gray room is MOUNTAIN terrain.  Once we go west, you'll
see a line going through the room that isn't as thick and dark
as the in the previous two rooms.  This lighter brown line
indicates that the road has turned into a trail.  Trails are
far more common and widespread throughout the landscape of
Alter Aeon.  Sometimes they go between villages, but just as
often they lead to dungeons or other landmarks.

Before we move on, I'd like to show you a little trick.  You
can see by the lack of any barrier to the west that there is
an exit in that direction, so there is at least one room or
more to the west.  During the daytime, you can scan in order
to see all of nearby rooms within line-of-sight.  Just type in
the scan command or use the '5' on the number pad, and, lo
and behold, there's another room to the west!  Let's head
over there now.

Grayish green means that it is a HILLS terrain, and you can
see that the trail ends in this room.  We can go back or
head north.  Let's see what is north.

Notice that as we travel north, a white outline flickers through
the map.  This indicates a change in room size. Most outdoor
rooms like the hills, mountains, forest and other rooms we've
visited are big rooms that represent large tracts of
wilderness.  However, this room is brown and is therefore
a TOWN terrain room.  City, town and building rooms are usually
small rooms, representing a fraction of the space of
big rooms.  The difference between big and small rooms isn't
too significant, except that it takes more movement to
travel through big rooms than small ones.  You'll see that the
big rooms beyond the immediate vicinity no longer appear on
the minimap.

Let's examine this room some more.  At the top of the room
in the north direction, there is a partial barrier.  You can see
a break in the wall.  This means that there is a size restriction
in that direction.  Sometimes buildings, tunnels or other areas
are a particular height or width, and only characters of certain
sizes will fit, but, for the most part, your character can go most
places without having to worry about how tall you are.

We'll go ahead and go north again to the next room.  It is a
light gray, so this is the common BUILDING terrain.  There is a barrier
with a break in it to the south like the previous room had to
the north.  You can see another partial barrier to the north with
a thin brown line in the break.  This line represents a door.  Right
now, the door is closed.  The game won't let my character go in
that direction yet.  I have to open the door first, so I'll
do that.

With the door open, I can head north into the next room.  There is a
special star-shaped icon in this room.  I'll head back south so you
can see it better.  This special symbol means that this room is a
waypoint.  If you pray here, you'll be able to recall to this site
from now on, like so.

Let's move back south to this HILLS terrain room.  Notice that when I
return to the large rooms, the map flashes and the small rooms beyond
the immediate vicinity disappear from view.  You'll see that the FIELD
terrain room we started in is directly south, but there is a barrier
in that direction and no immediately discernable exit.  However,
in the game there exists hidden exits, and there is one in this
room.  Players with the search skill can use it to discover these
hidden exits.  Let's try it now...and there it is: a hidden exit
to the south!  Once found, you are able to use a hidden exit.  I'll
go south now to show you one last thing.

Back in the room we started in, you'll notice that there still
isn't any way to return north.  I'll tell you now no amount of
searching will find a way back either because the exit was one-way
only.  Although few and far between, you will occasionally encounter
one-way exits like this and should be prepared.

That concludes this minimap tutorial.  Don't forget to visit the
website to keep up on recent changes, and happy mudding!