How the crowdmap service works

How a report becomes part of the map

Start with a baseline. Each map project has a published Mudlet map.
Report what you observe. A mapping client can submit a new room or area, a changed name, exit, door, coordinate, weight, environment, label, or room/map-data value.
Confirm independently. Identical reports are grouped. The service counts distinct reporter values, not repeated submissions from one reporter.
Choose your confidence level. The Explorer’s “Changes reported by” control selects how many independent reports a change needs before it is included in the map you view.
Maintain the baseline. A map administrator reviews pending reports when an upstream map update is available and decides which compatible reports carry forward.

For each map property, a new observation replaces that reporter's support for their previous value. Other mappers' support stays intact. Room and area creation/deletion remain independent operations. Reports are applied in the order of their newest remaining observation; a delayed retry is treated as another observation when it arrives.

What players can do

Explore the current shared map and raise the confirmation threshold when you want a more conservative view.
Use the IRE Mapping Script to download a versioned Mudlet map from the service.
Contribute observations from your own play. The IRE Mapping Script uses your in-game character name as the reporter value; do not put personal data in map changes.
Keep using the published map while administrators review changes; reports are not automatically written into the baseline file.

What changed in this map?

The service can describe the differences between your selected live map and its published baseline. These notes cover the current set of changes, rather than the difference since your last download or a history of earlier releases. Changes that cancel each other out do not appear as separate updates.

Notes match the map selection you request, including its confirmation threshold and your own reports. Clients can retrieve plain text or a Lua format for mapping-script integration. Equivalent selections reuse cached notes, so requesting the same map does not normally require another generation.

AI-written notes can make mistakes

When the operator enables AI generation, a language model turns a structured overview of map changes into a short changelog. It can miss details, mix up counts or routes, or describe a change inaccurately. Treat the notes as a reading aid and check the map or reported changes when a detail matters.

AI writes only the description. It does not choose which reports are included, edit the map, or approve baseline updates. Without AI, or when generation fails, the service provides a factual count-based description instead.

AI generation sends map-change information to OpenRouter and a model provider. Reporter identities and room/map metadata values are excluded, but room and area names and exit commands are included. Do not put personal information in map content. See the Privacy Policy for data handling details.

Connect a mapping script

A mapping script needs the project’s HTTPS address, a stable reporter pseudonym, and a confirmation threshold. Configure it against the project host, not the platform’s project-picker host. For example, if the explorer is at https://achaea.maps.example.org/, use that same origin for the following endpoints.

Download a map: GET /map?format=binary&timesSeen=2&reporter=river-scout
Check its version: GET /map/version?timesSeen=2&reporter=river-scout
Read the selected map’s changelog: GET /map/changelog?timesSeen=2&reporter=river-scout&expectedVersion=VERSION (add &format=lua for mapping-script integration)
Submit an observation: POST /change with a JSON change object including type and reporter

Use the same non-negative integer and reporter pseudonym for timesSeen and reporter when checking the version and downloading the map. 0 includes every pending report; a higher value includes only reports confirmed by that many distinct people, plus reports made with the supplied pseudonym. The response does not reveal reporter values. The response to a map download also includes an X-Map-Version header.

For changelog integration, check the version first, then request the notes and map with that value as expectedVersion and the same selection parameters. If either request returns HTTP 409, check the version again and restart the sequence. A map download does not wait for AI generation.

The IRE Mapping Script handles map retrieval and reporting for you; displaying service changelogs requires client support. Other mapping clients and adapters can use the endpoints above directly. The interactive API reference documents the accepted change shapes.

Open the API reference

Set up the IRE Mapping Script

Install or update the IRE Mapping Script, then select the live service map in Mudlet:

mconfig mapsource service
mconfig crowdmapservicesend on
mconfig gmcpmapupdates on

The service URL defaults to https://<game>.mudmaps.community, using the connected game's subdomain (for example, https://achaea.mudmaps.community). You only need mconfig crowdmapserviceurl https://your-project-host when using a different service. The script waits for the character name supplied by the game and uses it as the reporter value; there is no separate reporter setting.

mapsource: Choose game (the default), published (the established community release), or service (the live map assembled from reports).
crowdmapservicereports: Set the number of independent reports required to include another mapper's change. The default is 2; 0 includes reports immediately. Your own reports are always included. For example: mconfig crowdmapservicereports 3.
crowdmapservicesend: Send supported local map changes as reports. This is off by default; enable it with mconfig crowdmapservicesend on to help confirm changes for other players.
gmcpmapupdates: Apply safe GMCP room information to existing rooms even outside mapping mode. This is off by default; enabling it lets ordinary play contribute room updates when service sending is on.

The script checks the map version and downloads a new map when needed. Local mapping changes still work if the service cannot be reached; failed reports are retried, and the script warns before a later download could overwrite unsent edits. Private room marks and temporary exits remain local.

For map administrators

Open Review on a project host to inspect pending reports, compare an incoming upstream map, and apply the reviewed result. This final action requires a map-administrator API key and rechecks the baseline version before changing it. Review proposed changes by their effect on the map; reporter counts can inform your decision. Keeping or discarding a change applies to all current support for that change.