PathfinderWiki:Mapping project contribution
- This article covers adding to and updating the wiki map's contents. For information on embedding map excerpts in PathfinderWiki articles, see Help:Map. For other usage details, see Map.
There are several ways to contribute to the mapping project. All source data used to generate the map is openly available, and the mapped points for settlements and places of interest are derived from templates on the wiki that anyone with an account can edit.
Map sources
For a list of incorporated and potential sources for the project, see PathfinderWiki:Mapping project sources.
Adding and updating locations
The PathfinderWiki map supports map pins, which are specific coordinates for a single location, and map geometry, which are features that span an area (continents, islands, borders) or are depicted as a line with start and end points (rivers).
If you can find the coordinates for a location, you can add a point of interest for it to the wiki, which in turn automatically adds a pin for it on the wiki's map.
To add a pin, you need its latitude and longitude on the map of Golarion. You can find these coordinates by doing the following:
- Open https://map.pathfinderwiki.com. If you're viewing a map embedded in PathfinderWiki, click the four-arrows button at the top right of the embedded map to open that map's current view in a new browser tab.
- Locate where the pin should be positioned on the map. Zoom in as closely as possible to find the most precise coordinates.
- If using a mouse and keyboard, right-click on the point of the map for the subject's position, then select "Copy Lat/Long". This copies the coordinates, such as
22.4020887, -1.3104665, for pasting elsewhere.
The first coordinate is the latitude, and the second coordinate is the longitude. On PathfinderWiki, you can simply paste the pair of coordinates as-is into the required field. For details, see "Adding points of interest" and "Adding settlements".
Positions on the wiki, whether newly defined or updated, are incorporated into the map periodically and automatically. They do not appear on the map immediately but should within a day.
For tips on finding specific coordinate values, see the {{DisplayMap}} documentation.
Adding points of interest
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Note that some points of interest might have imprecise or conflicting positions in different published maps. For guidance on which position to use, refer to the canon policy, ask in the #golarion-mapping channel on our Discord server, or leave a message on User talk:Virenerus or User talk:Oznogon. |
To make a non-settlement point of interestâfor example, a geographic feature, monument, or uninhabited ruinâvisible on the interactive map, use the {{DisplayMap}} template and include the create parameter, which triggers the map to create a pin at the template's given latlong coordinates.
The create parameter's value determines the type of pin shown, and a list of common values is provided in the {{DisplayMap}} documentation. If in doubt, use other; it can always be updated later.
For example:
{{DisplayMap |latlong=44.5705897,-27.4613769 |zoom=7 |create=monastery |align=right}}
is the {{DisplayMap}} used on Windsong Abbey, and create=monastery results in the pin being shown on the map:
When copying coordinates from the map, you can paste the value directly into the latlong parameter.
Locations might also use the {{Location}} infobox. To add such a location to the map, use the {{DisplayMap}} template in the {{Location}} template's regionmap parameter and include the create parameter and a type value for it in the {{DisplayMap}} template.
The article name is used by default for the name shown with the point of interest. To specify different textâfor example, if the article title contains a parenthetical disambiguationâprovide it in {{DisplayMap}} as the value of the name parameter.
Adding settlements
The {{City}} infobox has its own latlong parameter, and providing coordinates there will add the settlement to the map. The settlement's size and capital details from the template are also automatically incorporated in the pin's presentation on the map.
By default, providing only a latlong parameter and value in {{City}} also adds a map to the infobox centered on those coordinates at zoom level 7. You can adjust the zoom level by setting the template's mapzoom parameter.
Ruins and other special pins
You can optionally add a {{DisplayMap}} template to the regionmap parameter to have finer control over the displayed map. In certain uncommon circumstances, such as a city template for a settlement that is now in ruins, you can also set the regionmap instead of the latlong parameter to have more control over how the settlement's map pin is created.
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|
Do not simultaneously set both the latlong City template parameter and the create {{DisplayMap}} parameter. This creates multiple pins for the settlement, which can cause either pin to become difficult to select on the map. |
Disabling the region map
To disable the City template's automatic region map, add the regionmap parameter but do not set a value; leave it empty. The automatic region map will not appear in the infobox. This can be useful for city-states where the {{Nation}} infobox is listed first.
Example
For example, the pin for Absalom is added to the map by setting these parameters in its {{City}} template:
{{City
...
| name = Absalom
...
| latlong = 30.8886260,-0.2343082
| mapzoom = 10
| capital = yes
...
}}
This also results in the map being shown of that location at zoom level 10, thanks to the mapzoom parameter:
If Absalom is destroyed in some future work, the city's map pin could be re-cast as a ruined settlement by omitting the latlong and using the regionmap parameter:
{{City
...
| name = Absalom
...
| latlong =
| regionmap = {{DisplayMap |latlong=30.8886260,-0.2343082 |zoom=12 |create=city-ruins}}
| capital = yes
...
}}
Adding locations or settlements without articles
You can add pins to the map for locations that do not have a corresponding article on this wiki by including them as described on PathfinderWiki:Map Locations Without Articles.
Updating existing locations
You can change the coordinates for points of interest and settlements when new or more detailed maps become available. Positions on the wiki are incorporated into the map periodically and automatically. New and changed pins do not appear on the map immediately, but they should within a day.
If you update the latlong coordinates of a pin, remember to also update the coordinates on any manually defined regionmap templates on other articles that refer to that location.
Adding and updating geometry
Landmasses, bodies of water, rivers, forests, mountains, swamps, buildings, political borders, settlement details, and other geometric features are defined as geographic information system (GIS) data and rendered periodically. This data is stored in the pf-wikis/mapping-data GitHub repository, which uses Kart, a tool designed to help collaboratively update the data.
Unlike points of interest and settlements, geometry cannot be edited on the wiki. Modifying such features requires knowledge of GIS data-editing tools, such as QGIS. A QGIS project file, tile renderer and compiler, and map frontend are stored and developed separately, in the pf-wikis/mapping GitHub repository.
The learning curve for such tools can be steep if you don't have prior experience with them. For advice, or to raise an issue with the map and request a change from map maintainers, visit the #golarion-mapping channel in Discord, leave a message on User talk:Oznogon, or file an issue on the pf-wikis/mapping-data GitHub repository.
Rivers
Special consideration must be given to the endpoints of rivers. The rendered map interprets a free-floating endpoint on land as a spring and draws it as a point that widens to the river's defined width. Points that are perfectly shared with other rivers are interpreted as river forks. Points that are in a lake or the open sea are interpreted as estuaries. To best render the estuary, place the final point of the river's line clearly within the body of water.
Labeling features
Map features can be labeled by using either the label parameter in the feature's polygon, or by manually defining a polygon for a label on the labels layer.
The label parameter accepts three formats of label:
- A simple string, such as
Smuggler's Shiv. - A comma-separated list enclosed in square brackets, such as
["West Fang", "Dahak's Fang", "Dahak's Teeth"], for features that are themselves part of one or more other features. - A JSON object, such as
{"label": "The Cradle", "id": "cradle_vudra"}, for uncommon situations where multiple features have the same name and must be distinguished from one another.
JSON objects can also be included in lists.
Both methods enable use of the by name parameter in the wiki's {{DisplayMap}} template to automatically set the displayed map's coordinates and zoom level to encompass the feature's extents.
For example, {{DisplayMap|by name=Isle of Kortos}} automatically encompasses the Isle of Kortos without the need to set coordinates, and automatically adjusts if the corresponding polygons are ever moved or resized:
Important QGIS plugins
- Makes qgs files more stable for git
- Freehand raster georeferencer
- Search Layers plugin (optional; to quickly locate features by name across layers)
- Kart (optional; to view diffs of changes)
- Topology Checker (included in qgis)
Mapping guidelines
Handling ambiguous and abstract maps
The Mapping project tries to maintain consistency with canon works on the positions and scale of locations and geographical features. Fidelity with every published map isn't possible, however, due to inconsistencies in published maps' positions and scales.
Almost all published maps serve a narrative or mechanical gameplay function first and foremost, and are not designed to be geographically consistent. All maps employ various levels of abstraction in their depiction of features, particularly mountains, forests, and cities.
For example, some maps depict mountains as if they were taken via aerial photography with relatively realistic features and extents, while others depict them as clusters of triangles that resemble artistic depictions of individual mountains. Some maps depict individual trees in forests or buildings in cities at unrealistic scales, while others depict realistic details with considerable precision.
Some maps lack scale bars, and several depict large areas or polar regions with only a linear scale bar instead of latitude and longitude lines, making measuring distances between features with precision or consistently georeferencing them to the world map difficult (and in some cases impossible). Other maps appear in multiple products with inconsistent scale bars, or depict major features with inconsistent positions or sizes.
Map pins of locations in abstract maps are often placed by their relative position to significant geographical features rather than precise measurement, even when their maps have inconsistent scale bars or none at all. A few map pins' locations are further informed by descriptions of the distances between them in the text of a work, or by more detailed maps of a settlement, and might not align with any published map as a result. For example, a settlement whose pin is depicted as hundreds of miles from a river on a regional map might be moved to be adjacent to a river if a textual description or map of the settlement depicts it as being located on the riverbank.
The Mapping project attempts to depict Golarion in a manner consistent with the least abstract elements of any given map or text, such as shorelines, bodies of water, and river paths, but it cannot always establish realistic scales or shapes for features like structures, river widths, forest and swamp extents, and specific mountains. Many placements are therefore the result of compromises to maintain consistency in relative positions between locations.
To raise an issue with the position, size, or relative location of a feature, open a discussion on its Talk page or raise it in the #golarion-mapping channel of the PathfinderWiki Discord server.
Resolving conflicts
When positions and scales conflict, the Mapping project adheres to the same canon policy as the wiki whenever possible, with one notable exception: the Lost Omens World Guide's world map of Golarion is considered the highest-tier and baseline source for the position, relative sizes, and general shape of continents, large landmasses, and major features.
More specific and newer sources might adjust the positions or provide different scales for regions or nations, but these differences should not result in changes that result in a world map with significant differences from the World Guide map.
Note conflicts between published maps in the map's caption or infobox's footnote as is relevant, and link to Conflicts pages
Additionally, positions and distances might conflict between published maps and descriptions of those locations in text. The text of works is generally considered more authoritative.
Typos
Typos on published official maps are sadly a fact of life. If the location has an article on PathfinderWiki, align the map location's name to the article's name.
If possible, find out which spelling is the correct one and use it in both the article and map. If a correct spelling can't be clearly identified, prefer Pathfinder Second Edition spellings in text over the spelling used on maps, which can be more prone to these types of errors, and over First Edition spellings, which are older.
Unreliable maps
Some published maps might not be reliable sources for the mapping project due to production errors, inconsistencies, or irreconcilable conflicts. See Project:Mapping project sources for details.