h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Amy - just here to talk about the whole map-making idea in a nice forum dedicated to just that.

I was talking to Peregrin about the whole map-making idea. He said various things I can't really remember and I didn't really understand - hopefully he'll mention them again here.

<BB<

I've found you. I'll await Peregrin's advice.

Fair enough. Anyway, here's a good place for me to list all the parts of the waterworks:

A208676 - The Beach
A359525 - The Sea
A358832 - The River
A360046 - The Boat Yard
A331642 - The Fish Pond

A358814 - The Sewers

A358823 - The Swimming Pool
A358805 - The Fountain
A358841 - The Public Toilets

A358850 - The Lifeguard Hut

To describe the area, the sea would run along the south, with the beach running beside it. The river would cut across the beach on the west side, and into the sea, and would lead back away from the "town" to the country, where the fishpond would be. This is also where the waterworks is, but nearer the "town" than the pond. The boat yard would be where the river crosses the beach and into the sea, so that boats from it can easily get to both the river and the sea.
On the East side is the "town", which consists of the swimming pool, fountain and toilets, all fairly close to each other. The town is not far from the beach, and between the swimming pool and the beach is the lifeguard hut, where the lifeguards can easily get to both the pool and the beach.

Incidently, the pool is also next to the aroma cafe.

Styx's sewer outlet is between the beach and the swimming pool and must therefore be close to the lifeguard station. He then swam across the river and saw or smelled oak trees through which he went home to Lil's. Hence, Crater Labs must be over there as well. There is a bridge: EV invented it yesterday by accident (although he thought he was referring to one of Gedge's puzzles at the time).

A rough draft is available for viewing via my page.

Looks good.

Why not link it in with the whole World of H2G2 thing? No need to add ALL the pubs and clubs yet - but allow enough room to expand and it could grow into a very useful utility (create a HTML image map so users can click on a location to go there).

It does need to be rather big though - especially if all the things on the beach are included (last I looked there were various stalls, water slides, mountains, etc...)

Maybe some cunning method could be use to avoid crowding some areas - like have one main map where you can click on an area, eg. the town or the beach, and individual lists or maps for each popular area, holding all the links to the pages.

Also the starting map does not need to hold everything - add convenient north/east/south/west buttons and the possibilities are endless.

Don't you love creating a virtual world - none of this 'limitation of physical laws' nonsense to bother with!

The problem with drawing the virtual world is that it might not coincide with how people have grown accustomed to "seeing it". I think it's best left vague. The final version will probably look nothing like the one I've drawn but I wanted to check that I had understood the geography that BB had described properly.

I think the size is right for the first page of the waterworks. Any bigger and it will be too slow to load. Being long and thin it will occupy the left hand side of the page nicely with text and text links alongside it.

I agree - it is about the right size, and looks exactly as I'd hoped. As for putting more onto it - it's a case of working out exactly what there is and where it might be. I think that the Fish pond was intended by The Fish to look more like a lake, but that's a small matter...

It is only a working draft to get the basic layout sorted out. I will make the fish pond more pond-like. At the moment it looks more like a trout farm. I will make the town square more evident and put in the position of the Forum and Firkin.

There is apparently a tunnel between the Aroma Cafe and Crater Labs/ Lil's Atelier. Presumably the tunnel runs under the river. There is also a "magic wood" in front of the Aroma Cafe in which there is a kite flying area and a swimming hole. I will put a bigger bend in the river to accommodate this and invent a tributary stream into which I can put the swimming hole.

Lil's Atelier looks out one way over Moxonwood and the other way is indicated as going towards the beach but I hope it's not The Beach otherwise it can't be made to work.

I also have to indicate mountains to the north-west.

Sorry, that was me in disguise

heh heh heh, Ant Lady needs to update her user page so we can talk to her.

The magic wood is in back of the Aroma Cafe! silly ant. Not across river from labs! You read threads you see the food lady walk to cafe through the magic wood until silly customers started a fire. You don't ask anybody from cafe?
I helped them grow back the forest.
What about the crater?
I read the threads.
Map is a good idea and a bad idea.
*runs away*

Sorry about technical hitch with my page Styx. It's sorted now.

There's a problem with this map making. I'm not sure it's going to work. You see, you swam across the river and went through the oak trees to get home (presumably). So I have assumed that was Moxonwood. I agree that there is also a magic wood around the Aroma Cafe (which I have tried to indicate on the draft and will make bigger in the final thing). If I build a footbridge across the river will it all work? I haven't drawn the crater because I think it is slightly to the East of the current map. If I drew that, the coast would also have to run in a northerly direction and have a beach.

LOL! This could get confusing!!!

I think the best way around all the potential problems would be to bend reality somehow... after all you don't need to follow the laws of physics here

Very true. For example, wasn't Moxon Wood on the slopes of one of the two mountains on the beach? It all gets so complicated...

Mountains? On The Beach? Hmmm.

New idea: I make a clickable graphic that looks like one of those postcards with four views of the resort. Says "A postcard from the H2G2 Waterworks" in the middle.

Now that's a great idea, Amy
I wouldn't worry about the mountains and getting things 100% accurate, though. Afterall, this is h2g2. You draw the map, and we'll physically move the mountains and the other h2g2 terrain around after to match it.

Sounds excellent to me!

I might have a go at a 3D H2G2 world sometime. That would be fun.

I think the map idea a worthy effort, and had the idea myself quite a while back, but every time I thought on it I kept thinking of the bits I would likely get wrong or how I might offend somebody by not making them as central to the action as they thought themselves to be. Even though we all get round by wishful thinking, I share Amy's evident passion for visualisation (as you'll have noticed on your recent visit to the atelier!), and the clickable map would be a boon......

My world had a pleasant little fir-lined woodland path from the atelier, which is accessed via a side entrance to the CLI building, to the back porch of the cafe, through a part of the Magic Wood, not the same as Moxon Wood. There's no reason why your river can't flow underground in parts, is there? Natural caves evidently abut the sewer.

Also: I had plans to develop a small stable, in conjunction with Quorthon, when he gets back from Oz, and I had planned to site it on a good sized shallow stream (a slate bed, for fording easily) that DOESN'T run into current waterways but finds another way to the beach. This for health reasons. I had planned for it also to be adjacent to the Magic Wood, well inland. And then have pastureland running on inward from there. But with trails to all the woods and beach.

I guess that's when I abandoned the map idea. Peregrin may be right. No way to fold everything comfortably into one plane. I'll speak up for continuity, of course, but even that's not always easy to resolve.

The crater: didn't the UFO nearly destroy the donut stall?

You may encounter resistance, though, from people who will feel somehow controlled by the existence of this map. I don't know who that might be. I keep meeting new and feisty researchers all the time, though! I am pretty content just to map my atelier these days.

Where is this map you are making? Can we see it?

P.S. Minoova balances OK, Amy. Did you not notice the posterior portion Garius wished on her? I am probably going to send her back downstairs for a refit when I'm tired of laughing; right now she doesn't fit into small places the way a cleaning bot ought to.