Better™️ Cartography Table

Valheim mod that allows precise control over sharing pins via cartography tables. Supports private pins, public pins, and guild pins.

Video showcase

(Click on items to show details)

Features

• Pins are private by default, and can be individually shared on a public cartography table.
  • You can now safely go ham and pin all those nice berries / copper veins / whatever floats your boat, without worrying about cluttering another player's map.
• When multiple players are interacting with the same cartography table, changes are reflected in real time for all of them.
  • This allows collaborating over the map in real time, especially useful when planning the next expedition.
• Cartography tables can be public (default) or restricted to a guild (if Guilds is installed).
  • For when you want to share super secret guild hideouts with your mates. Not that it ever happens. Definitely don't look for super secret guild hideouts on your servers. Nope...

But why?

The vanilla cartography table is quirky and often leads to frustration on multiplayer servers: it only stores the pins of the last player that wrote to the table, completely replacing what was previously recorded.

This often results in situations where shared pins seem to disappear / reappear constantly when multiple players interact with the table on a regular basis (and it also never updates cross off status...).

On top of that, since the cartography table is "all or nothing" both ways, some players might refrain from interacting with the table (e.g. when someone is meticulously pinning all berries / copper veins / etc., or when they do not want to share some super secret pins they would prefer to keep private).

Vanilla cartography tables, but Better™️

The goal is to stick close to the vanilla experience and keep cartography tables relevant. We are not bypassing cartography tables: sharing map data (both pins and exploration) still requires players to interact with the same cartography table on a regular basis to synchronize progress.

How it works:

• When interacting with a cartography table:
  • Synchronize map exploration (same as vanilla).
  • Retrieve table pins currently stored on the table.
  • Open the map:
    • Private pins can be interacted with, and can additionally be stored on the table, becoming table pins (either public or guild pins, depending on the table mode).
    • Table pins can be interacted with, and can additionally be unstored from the table, becoming private pins. If multiple players are currently interacting with the same cartography table, changes to table pins are reflected in real time for all of them.
• When opening the map without interacting with a cartography table:
  • Private pins can be interacted with.
  • Public or guild pins previously retrieved from a cartography table can be displayed / hidden, but cannot be interacted with.

Table pins are stored in a custom ZDO key under the cartography table's ZNetView's ZDO, thus there is no risk if a client without the mod installed interacts with a modded table. However vanilla clients will not be able to use a modded table: they cannot retrieve table pins, cannot store table pins, and cannot even use the table to store vanilla shared pins (because these get overwritten by design when a modded client interacts with a modded table).

Install

This is a client-side mod, it does not need to be installed on the server.

It is not required for all clients on the server to install the mod, however vanilla clients without the mod will not have access to any shared pins. This is kinda pointless so of course it's better if all clients install it 😅

Thunderstore (recommended)

• [Prerequisite] Install r2modman.
• Click Install with Mod Manager from the mod page.
• [Optional] Install Guilds for guild support.

Manually (not recommended)

• [Prerequisite] Install BepInExPack Valheim.
• Create a new directory nbusseneau-Better_Cartography_Table in your BepInEx/plugins/ directory.
• Download nbusseneau-Better_Cartography_Table-0.1.1.zip.
• Extract the archive.
• Move all files to your BepInEx/plugins/nbusseneau-Better_Cartography_Table directory. It should look like this:

  BepInEx/
  └── plugins/
      └── nbusseneau-Better_Cartography_Table
          ├── BetterCartographyTable.dll
          ├── CHANGELOG.md
          ├── icon.png
          ├── manifest.json
          └── README.md
  

• [Optional] Install Guilds for guild support.

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

Unreleased

0.6.0 - 2024-10-31

Changed

• Support for 0.219.13 (The Bog Witch).
• Update Jotunn to 2.21.2.

0.5.12 - 2024-07-19

Fixed

• Fix public and guild pins being loaded from player save file multiple times due to respawns (for real this time 🤞).

0.5.11 - 2024-07-19

Fixed

• Fix public and guild pins not being loaded from player save (duh).

0.5.10 - 2024-07-19

Changed

• Local instances of a table pin are now removed when syncing with a table (e.g. a known boss pin was shared to the table).

Fixed

• Fix guild tables not being accessible on after logging out / logging back in.
• Fix public and guild pins being loaded from player save file multiple times due to respawns.
• Fix incompatibility with Server devcommands's NoMap modifier override.
• Fix removal warning popup displaying when trying to repair a table.
• Fix table map being stuck open if another player destroys the table while it is open.

0.5.9 - 2024-06-24

Changed

• Clarifications around server-side enforcement in README.
• Recolored icon text outline.

0.5.8 - 2024-06-21

Fixed

• Fix repeating ward flash when hovering a table protected by a ward.

0.5.7 - 2024-06-16

Added

• Add warning popup when trying to destroy a table storing pins with the Hammer.

0.5.6 - 2024-06-14

Added

• Replace Hugin cartography table tutorial vanilla text to be consistent with the mod's functionality.

Changed

• Display cartography modifier key hint using actual Valheim key strings instead of raw key code.

0.5.5 - 2024-06-08

Changed

• Remove microfreeze when opening / closing tables by greatly improving map exploration sharing handling.

0.5.4 - 2024-06-08

Changed

• Add further compatibility for sharing private pins manually added by other mods.

0.5.3 - 2024-06-08

Fixed

• Fix NullReferenceException errors due to keyhints UI update running when it should not.

0.5.2 - 2024-06-08

Fixed

• Fix NullReferenceException errors due to table distance check running when it should not.

0.5.1 - 2024-06-07

Changed

• Include missing Ashlands update tag for Thunderstore package.

0.5.0 - 2024-06-03

Added

• Add config toggle for map exploration sharing.

0.4.3 - 2024-06-01

Changed

• Document how to add new translations in the README.

0.4.2 - 2024-05-30

Fixed

• Fix warnings Failed to find rpc method due to RPC methods not being registered immediately.
• Fix NullReferenceException errors due to Minimap toggles not being fully initialized.
• Fix shared map exploration toggle label not being replaced from its vanilla defaults.
• Fix toggles visibility on game load.

0.4.1 - 2024-05-29

Changed

• Improve README.

0.4.0 - 2024-05-29

Added

• Automatically close map when moving too far away from the cartography table.

Changed

• Support for 0.218.15 (Ashlands).
• Improve compatibility with others mods that also interact with pins.
• Forbid changing table sharing mode if any pins are stored on the table (instead of allowing it with a warning).
• Switch to Jotunn for localization handling, instead of standalone LocalizationManager.

Fixed

• Fix public player positions not always updating / displaying when more than 2 players are connected at once.
• Fix pins toggles positioning so they are always properly ordered without gaps.

0.3.0 - 2024-04-12

Added

• Support for NoMap world modifier: interacting with a cartography table will display the map.
• Enforce mod to be installed on all clients if installed on the server (Jotunn version check).

Changed

• Updated for Valheim 0.217.46.

Fixed

• Fix NullReferenceException errors if shift-clicking a pin on the map without interacting with a cartography table.

0.2.0 - 2024-02-25

Added

• Add limited one-way compatibility for public pins sharing from modded clients to vanilla non-modded clients.

Fixed

• Fix shared pins disappearing if a cartography table is in use while a save occurs.
• Fix NullReferenceException errors if hovering a cartography table while the game is shutting down.

0.1.1 - 2024-02-18

Fixed

• Restrict map interactions to sharable pin types.
• Remove debug logging.
• Fix pin type filter toggling flooding logs with NullReferenceException errors.

0.1.0 - 2024-02-12

Added

• Initial release.