reveal map spell useless ?

[Pye]

The map overwrites under OS X 10.3.9. too.

Jude

I am running 10.5.1 on an intel Mac and the map does not overwrite.

[Krafen]

Jude- I don't have my chart in front of me to tell you the exact levels, but one thing you didn't mention was that at higher levels Cartography also marks doorways and chests, and at it's highest level it also shows the location of NPCs/enemies actively in your area.

What is "it's highest level?" It would be fun to play with, but I would like to know what I am shooting for. Is there a cap on skill levels?

[Laudimir]

The map overwrites under OS X 10.3.9. too.

Jude

I am running 10.5.1 on an intel Mac and the map does not overwrite.

I am a bit skeptical of this, especially since the game appears to be coded to overwrite.

[Pye]

<shrug>

Whether you are skeptical or not doesn't change the fact that the map does not overwrite when I play the game.

I have a cartography skill of 1. When I roam the map it reveals only a grey outline. When I cast reveal map, I get a full color map. When the spell is not in use, while walking over areas previously mapped, the map remains full color.

I don't know how to be any more clear. I just finished the game so I can tell you that my experience with this unexpected behavior is fairly extensive.

Edit: There is another thread on this same topic where somebody else posted that the map does not overwrite for him either; also on a mac.

[Jude]

Maybe the Reveal Map spell works differently and doesn't overwrite but the + cartography skill items do get overwritten when you take them off?

Jude

[silverkitty]

I just did some testing on this:

it seems like it isn't overwriting because his base cartography is 1, so it doesn't draw ground, so it doesn't overwrite the colors on the ground.

if his base cartography was 3, then plain-green ground would overwrite the fancy colored ground from reveal map.

(this isn't an OS thing, I did the testing on windows and reproduced his "not overwriting" effect by setting my cart to 1)

[Pye]

The mystery is solved!

Thank you for spending some time looking into this. Much more useful than what I was doing (no it isn't/yes it is/no it isn't/yes it is).

[Krafen]

Nice sleuthing. I believe that explains what I encountered as well.

[Pye]

So the moral of the story is:

Don't level your cartography skill beyond "1" if you intend to augment it with gear or the mapmaking spell.

[Krafen]

It might be best to leave it untrained, then, I think, not even the borders would be redrawn.

It would take a lot of magic points to map everything, but it would save a lot of skill points. Maybe I will try that my next run-through. According to BasiliskWrangler, cartography benefits cap out at 17 (when you get mob tracking) so the spell can easily do it.

[Pye]

When you have a cartography skill of 0 the map completely disappears when the spell wears off.

When you have a cartography skill of 1, the map remains in full color and is not overwritten. It redraws the borders but it is not noticeable.

When you have a cartography skill of greater than 1 the map is overwritten when you move around without the spell.

It seems that the "sweet spot" is 1 point.

[sultanoswing]

You've got it, Pye!!!

I'd been wondering for weeks why initially it seemed my "Reveal Map" spell was working excellently, without any apparent overwriting, then seemed to develop 'over write' syndrome.

Of course - it's because of the exact reason you describe. I initially had one cartography (paid for after the sextant quest), then all was good until I decided that it was a pain to keep casting "Reveal Map" and started adding to cartography, causing the green overwrite. So 1 point is the sweet spot if you don't mind using "reveal map" - excellent info for my next play through!