Creative Student Productions

CSPmap News Archive

(2007-05-20) Further Additions to The Making of the CSPmap

Thanks go out to Bart for giving me the correct path for the shadow files, I've updated that now. I've also added quite a bit of material to the different sections.

Also, I've added a "Contact Me" menu item at the left so people can send me an email via an online form if they'd like to reach me.

(2007-04-11) Thank You!

A big thank-you goes out to Treeslayer for his generous contribution!

(2007-04-06) Additions to The Making of the CSPmap

I've made some additions to the page outlining how the CSPmap was made.

(2007-03-28) The Making of the CSPmap

I've started working on documenting the process taken to create the CSPmap. So far, I have the first section written, but I've tried to include links in all the sections to the components that are needed for creating the map. Please let me know if I miss explaining something!

(2006-12-17) Open Source!

I don't have the time any more to keep the CSPmap up to date, so I'm releasing it to the public. You can download the source photoshop file from my other server, but remember that this is the same one that's constantly running out of bandwidth. Feel free to use and abuse the file, but I would appreciate some credit for all the work I've done.

There is more source information I'd like to post for people to use, but I'll have to post it as I have the time. The other stuff is the C source for compiling the map, instructions on how I got the full terrain maps, the zone information XML file, and the source files for compiling the multi-lingual helpfiles. Keep an eye on this page for these things to be posted. ;)

(2006-09-05) Spammers in the Forums

Well, I had hoped I could leave the guest posting option on, but I've had to shut it off due to spammers posting garbage. Anyone can still sign up for an account, though, and it only takes a few seconds.

(2006-06-18) CSPmap 1.20 DNW-addon fixed

Exxie pointed out a small error with the DNW-addon which prevented the map from functioning. Basically, I missed manually editing a section of the CSPmap-dnw,txt. You can easily fix your copy without re-downloading the add-on by reading Exxie's thread in the forums. It's as simple as double-clicking the CSPmap-dnw.txt file and editing the appropriate line.

However, for future downloaders, I have fixed that line and appended "fixed" to the installer file name and the zip file name.

(2006-06-16) CSPmap 1.20 with "dimension" info!

I was planning on holding on to this latest version for a little while in case new things popped up that needed to be added to the map, but it didn't take too long before they patched AO and altered some aspects of the map. This latest version includes the new feature of being able to select which dimension you're playing on from the map list menu. If you select "CSPmap v1.20 - RK2 Rimor" from the map list, you'll see the regular CSPmap v1.20 with the active LCA's marked normally and the locked LCA's marked with a grey "X".

Since the German "dimension", Die Neue Welt, has such a large difference from Atlantean and Rimor, I've had to make the DNW version as an add-on to reduce the main file size. (This is mostly due to the fact that there aren't that many players on DNW and adding this to the main files would increase the map size by an additional 5mb.)

(2006-06-01) 16.2.7 Patch! Doh!

So, shortly after releasing the v1.0 CSPmap, a new version of Anarchy Online was released with some changes that effected some aspects of the map. So, thankfully I was able to make a 600kb patch file so people who did download the v1.0 will be able to patch their copy to v1.01 with a relatively small download.

(2006-05-26) CSPmap v1.0 Released!

Well, it's finally here... CSPmap v1.0!

(2006-05-23) Hungarian Mirror AlienAngels Added

Siaynoque has provided bandwidth for the CSPmap from a server in Hungary. Thank you!

(2006-05-13) Polish Helpfiles

Dziureq has kindly submitted a Polish translation file for the helpfiles and I have compiled them and placed them up for download. As none of the information has changed, I used the same release date as the other helpfiles.

(2006-05-10) Donations

I've had some people mention that they would like to make donations for all the hard work I've put into this map. I never created the map with the intention of making any money from it, but I will certianly appreciate any support sent.

I have it set up so donators can leave a comment. I may set up a page with a list of donators, amounts, and comments, but this depends on the response I get.

(2006-04-14) Multilingual Helpfiles!

After a lot of work, I have finished a BETA version of the help files. Thanks to help from Misat0, chdoula, Nukdookum, and Mitamina the helpfiles are also available in Deutch (German), Français (French), Italiano (Italian), and Norsk (Norwegian) respectively.

For compatibility, the English version of the helpfiles use the same file names as the earlier versions (so, no need to change any in-game macros) and the new language files are named in the format "info-name-XX.html" where "XX" is the two letter code of the language used. The reason for this is so that you may have more than one copy of the helpfiles installed at a time and they won't interact with each other.

An installer program may be made in the future, but I felt it better to make this version available in a simple RAR file because it greatly reduces the file size. Additionally, copying the files to the appropriate directory is the simplest part of installing these files as you also have to know how to access them via the chat interface in-game.

(2006-03-26) New Mirror Provided by Bjorn Michelsen

Yes, yes.. the CSPmap bandwidth overfloweth.. ^_^ Thank you Bjorn Michelsen! Now I never have to worry about anyone going without.

(2006-03-01) New Mirror Provided by Elements of Destruction

Yet another generous person has offered some space and bandwidth to mirror the CSPmap. This time the server is in Norway (NO), so that may help with faster downloads for those on the other side of the "pond". Thank you Elements of Destruction for your help!

(2006-03-01) All New Terrain

I have been working on replacing all of the terrain from the original Huge Map with an updated terrain. The terrain is also placed more accurately, though at the expense of the zones not lining up visually. (Hey... that's how they placed them) Please submit your comments on the new additions in the forums.

The next version will probably be done on or near the first of April.

(2006-02-01) New Version Released!

I wanted to release a new version for the beginning of the new year and here it is. There are many changes made in this version and they're listed below in the Version History. The two major additions to the large version is that notum fields have been added in all areas but 6 and many more unique non-player characters (NPCs) have been added to the map.

Due to popular demand, I have changed the small map back to the old version, but in an updated form. The wompah details are current as well as the small wompah map.

(2006-01-25) New Mirror Provided by Vhab

Another person has graciously offered some space and bandwidth to help get the latest versions of the CSPmap out to you! Some of you may know Vhab as he's fairly active in the AO development community and is currently maintaining and running Helpbot.

(2006-01-22) helpfiles done!

All of the city controllers have been listed in the helpfiles and all the mistakes that I knew about have been corrected! I'm sure more mistakes will crop up, but I will have to rely on you guys to notify me when you find them.

(2006-01-04) New Mirror from Incognitus

Matalok has graciously provided some space on the Incognitus web server to act as a mirror of the CSPmap files. While the group seems to be based in the UK, their webserver is in the US. However, be sure to download the patches instead of the whole map if you have an old version so we can keep bandwidth usage to a minimum. We are guests, after all. ^_^

(2005-12-24) Patches!

Alright... I've finally completed some map patches, so those with the map already can download much less and hopefully save bandwidth for other users. Kallipar's UK mirror will have the lastest map and all the patches. BTW, without Kallipar's support, I wouldn't be able to get this map out to any one, thanks again Kallipar!

Additionally, I've removed the "mirrors" that had versions that were over 2 months old. That old version installed into another directory, so I couldn't easily produce a patch to upgrade from it to the latest CSPmap.

(2005-12-22) Zone Borders, Zoom, and Patches

After much head-to-wall contacts, I have decided to not fool with the zone border too much. There are numerous spots where the zones overlap and zone borders are not perfectly staight. So, I will try to make the current zone borders more accurate, but it will be impossible to make them completely accurate. In cases where the zone borders are fairly close to being together, I will draw an estimated average. Some mountain areas you can't fly over (ie make for a border), but I won't bother tracing them as hard borders. For the few cases where there is an enormous overlap of zones, I will put the zone border along one of the zones so that the items that are in the overlap are attributed to the correct zone. (for example, there are 2 dynacamps in the south western part of Aegean that are in a zone that also exists in Stret West Bank. As the dynacamps exist in Aegean and not Stret West, I will put the Aegean border down.

As for fixing the zoom feature in the map, I can't seem to find any way to work around the bug in the game's code. The zoom feature appears to work fine for the maps that come with AO because they're relatively small and the scale between the two sizes isn't very much. If anyone is able to come up with a solution to this problem, though, I will implement it.

For the next version, I will hopefully be able to complete a patch executable so that you can get the latest version by downloading only a fraction of the data. I was going to do it for the version I put out today, but I figured it best not to wait any longer. ;) I will still include the full map for download so people who do not have the map yet can get the latest copy, but hopefully the patch program will allow my web server's bandwidth to go further. However, I may have some time before the beginning of next month to complete a patch, so there may yet be a patch.

(2005-11-21) New Mirror Courtesy Kallipar

Kallipar has graciously offered some webspace on a server in the UK. Now people can finally download the latest version. ^_^

(2005-11-09) Mailing List Up!

As several people have expressed interest in mirroring the map (since I have a very limited bandwidth), I have decided to start a mailing list. The mailing list will be to notify everyone of changes to the map and when new maps are made available. It's completely maintained automatically, so anyone may subscribe and unsubcribe as they wish. So, really, this mailing list is for anyone who wants to be notified by email that a new version of the map is available.

(2005-11-03) Forums Up!

I've added forums for people to be able to communicate with me as I no longer have a paying account in AO and can't use those forums.

(2005-10-30) Seperating Map From Labels

The 2005-10-22 map was created by quickly patching errors in the Huge Map. As I'm likely not going to update this map right through the lifetime of Anarchy Online, I'm working on completely seperating the labels from the underlying terrain so that anyone will be able to pick this project up from where I leave off. Also, I don't want to continue stepping on the toes of the author of the Huge Map, so I will be renaming the map when this patching is complete. From the end-user's perspective, though, the map should look pretty much the same.