Help Contents:
  1. What the terminal does
  2. Using the terminal
    1. Main terminal controls
    2. The Map
      1. Heads Up Display
      2. Map Key
    3. Right Panel
      1. Information Panel
      2. Layers
      3. Jump List
  3. Development Kit
    1. Debug screen
    2. Location Data Structure
    3. Layers

For credits see about

1. What the terminal does The terminal combines maps and information about Hardwar's game world, Titan. There are three main ways to use the terminal:
  1. Move around the map, clicking on buildings to gain information on them.
  2. Jump to a specific named location, to see where it is, and gain additional information on it.
  3. Show layers, which are collections of buildings/locations and links between them.

2. Using the terminal The terminal screen is divided into three sections:
  1. Left: Main terminal controls
  2. Centre: The map
  3. Right: Information panel, layer list and jump list

2.1 Main terminal controls
----- show debugging information (a semi-hidden feature)
----- toggle the HUD on/off
----- toggle geography on/off
----- toggle terminal on/off
----- (if you want a change from Hardwar)
----- about and credits, or clear an information window if one is being displayed
----- show this help file
----- show quick-start welcome screen

The state of the HUD will be recorded (if your browser allows cookies) for future sessions.

The terminal can be turned off without having to reload the page. Turning the terminal off will free up system resources, and may be useful if you are alt-tabbing to and from the game.

2.2 The Map The first map to be displayed is a map of Titan. You can zoom into individual craters or caves by clicking with the mouse on a crater.

Once in a crater you can click on individual buildings and tunnel mouths. To return to Titan, click on the area outside of the crater. You can also jump directly to neighbouring craters by clicking on the part of the appropriate tunnel close to the edge of the map.

To clear selected locations, use the jump list.

The HUD will provide addition information about the location under the mouse. HUD information is also displayed in statusbar at the bottom.

Water the contours can be toggled on/off.

2.2.1 Heads Up Display The HUD is very processor hungry. If you are using a slow machine and/or are running Mozilla/Netscape using the HUD may make the terminal run very slowly. If this occurs you should turn the HUD off.

All the HUD's information is also displayed in the status bar at the bottom.

The numbers in the top left of the HUD give you an X,Y grid reference. Primarily, this looks good, but it will be useful if you are trying to add new locations.

When you move the HUD over a location (a crater, building or tunnel mouth), the HUD's centre will flash and the name of the location will appear in the lower part of the HUD. If the location is a crater, click with the mouse to go there.

If the location is a building or tunnel mouth, clicking will display information about that location in the information panel. Clicking also adds two figures to the top right of the HUD.

The first figure is the angle from the last selected building's hangar doors to the current mouse position. The second figure is the distance between those points.

2.2.2 Map Key
.Crater
.Crater wall or terrain contour
.Water
.Low building - close to ground level
.Medium building
.High building - close to stall level
----Elevated walkway or monorail


2.3 Right Panel The right hand panel is made up of an information panel, layer list and jump list.

2.3.1 Information Panel The information panel displays a summary of information about the location(s) or layer currently selected. 'More information' links provide further information. Most of these links open webpages, which should open as a new window. Some open within the terminal itself.

In some cases, pictures are available by clicking the 'show picture' link.

2.3.2 Layers Layers are pre-programmed sets of similar data. For example, 'taxi firms' shows the location of all taxi/cab firms in Titan. The layer's legend will be displayed in the information panel.

Some layers also include lines linking points. These lines are only shown when viewing the whole of Titan.

You can jump into and out of craters, or click on individual buildings without removing the layer.

To apply a layer, select it from the list. If it is already selected, click 'show layer'. Applying a layer removes any existing layer or locations you have selected.

If you loss the layer's legend, you can get it back by clicking 'show layer'.

To remove a layer, either apply another layer, or click the 'clear' just above the layer list.

2.3.3 Jump List This allows you to quickly find a location you know the name of. Unlike clicking on the map, which shows all hangars in the same building, the jump list shows only the location you want.

Once selected, the HUD features and location information should become active.

To remove a selected location, click the 'clear' just above the 'jump to' list.

3. Development Kit This section contains some notes for anyone hoping to make changes to the terminal's code. It is not recommended that anyone else read this section. This section assumes a reasonable knowledge of java. Most of the comments refer to main.html and dmap.js.

It is strongly recommended that changes are suggested to me for actual inclusion in a future version of the terminal. This section is given as a guide to the way the terminal handles data (and so how changes may need to be suggested), a reminder to me, and a fall-back should I disappear.

3.1 Debug screen The debug screen can be activated by hitting the screw in the top-left corner. The information is a snap-shot. The debug screen will not update if you change your location on the map. If you do this, you will need to hit the screw again to bring up the refreshed debug screen. The exception is the current vcs and hist array listings, which are real-time.

3.2 Location Data Structure Each location has a unique number, lid. The position in the array 'lid' is the lid number for a given location. The lid of the last selected point location is variable 'mylocation'. The lid of the current crater is variable 'craternow'. These is shown on the debug screen. Remember that if you click a building on a map and two or more hangars are displayed, only the final one in the list carries the value mylocation. In order to extract details for buildings further up the list, use the jump-to list.

Areas on the imagemaps are assigned hotspot numbers. The last selected hotspot is variable 'myhot'. This is shown on the debug screen. Each hotspot contains one or more lids. Each lid can only be assigned to one hotspot. Hotspot data is stored with by the lidhot array.

Array lidhot contains additional numeric information about each lid. The array takes the form:
X,y grid locations are the same as those displayed within the terminal on the HUD. If more precision is required, temporarily remove the Math.round statements from within the initial declaration of xyx and xyy in function mousehasmoved(e).

Each lid can have any number of data items attached to it. Data items are listed in array d. Array d takes the form:
Array dlink is a lookup table, taking the form:
Each lid may have any number of entries, including 0. The entries are processed in the order that they appear in dlink. A space is automatically added after every entry when the information is processed. It is therefore possible to form up several sentences. When a new paragraph is required, use d[0] (BR BR). Be careful when adjusting descriptions in d - it is very common for the same description to be used for several lids. If you only want to change the description for one lid, you may need to create a new value of d for the purpose.

New lids will need to be added to array laysort if they are to be displayed in the jump-list. Laysort lists lids in the desired order in the list (alphabetical).

The actual changes are best done using the master database.

3.3 Layers Layers are made up using two arrays, lay and laylink. Array lay takes the form:
The array laylink takes the form:
Each layer my contain zero or more lids. There is a finite limit to lids in a layer (this is shown in the debug screen). Each layer lid may be shown in one of a number of available colours - the available colours are shown at the top of the debug screen, along with the appropriate number. NOTE that the first 3 values (0-2) are not designed for use with layers. These will work, but allow layer selections to be confused with onclick or jump-to sections, and if over used will make rendering on certain browsers/machines very slow (Mozilla, for example dislikes a dozen animated gifs flashing away on top of an already very complex set of images and layers).

If further colours are to be added, the colour value needed to be added to the array colours, and a new image needs to be made called i/radarn.gif, where n is the position in the colours array.

If you need to troubleshoot a layer, you may like to use the vcs array in the debug screen. The vcs array contains current information for all of the cosmetic items on the map. Cosmetic items are those that are created and destroyed for layers and onclick/jump-to displays. Each pair of two numbers refers a set of cosmetic items. The first number is the lid, the second is the colour type.