Original Url: http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/Continent-floors-map-floors-default-floors

StevenL.3761:

I don’t really understand the concept of map floors. I know that:

  • A continent has a collection of floors
  • A continent has a collection of maps
  • A map has a collection of floors
  • A map has a default floor
  • A map has a collection of points of interest
  • A point of interest is located on a floor

The documentation is not very clear on how all of these relate to each other. Can someone explain?

Dr Ishmael.9685:

Floors are used to determine what maps/sectors/points to display on the in-game map. A floor is basically an abstract plane along the x/y axes at a specific coordinate on the z-axis. Your character’s position on the z-axis determines which floor you are currently on, and that determines what is shown when you open the map. There is a floor-selection control in the bottom right of the map that lets you display floors other than the one you’re on. The effect is really obvious in Rata Sum and The Grove – the base map texture is different for each floor, and the points not on the displayed floor get faded out.

A map’s default_floor (and a point’s floor) is the floor on which it should be shown in full opacity. A map’s floors define when it should be shown at all – this is why story instances share floors with the standard PvE maps, but dungeons and other non-standard maps each get their own floors (and why the continent of Tyria has 64 floors).

StevenL.3761:

Thank you. But now I have a different issue. Some maps have floors that do not exist in the map_floor service.

Example: A Society Function (story instance). This map has 2 floors.

I would expect to find this map in the output for floors 1 and 2 of map_floor.json .

The trouble is that floor 2 doesn’t have an entry for map_id 80 at all.

What’s going on here?

StevenL.3761:

Okay, I think I get it now. The map has 2 floors, but only floor 1 is unique to that particular instance (map_id 80).

map 80 floor 1: http://pastebin.com/7npdP0rK

So because floor 2 is not unique for map_id 80, it is substituted with floor 2 of the map with the exact same coordinates. In this case Divinity’s Reach (map_id 18).

map 18 floor 2: http://pastebin.com/L8rtaiug

What’s interesting/confusing though is that floor 2 defines parts of the maps that also appear on floor 1.

map 18 floor 1: http://pastebin.com/ysnDenPc

Diff: http://www.diffchecker.com/edwngyb0

So I guess that’s the mechanism that allows different maps to have the same map elements… still confusing.

Dr Ishmael.9685:

Just found an old post from Cliff about this:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/Possible-map-floor-API-bug/first#post2417992