Exploring Guild Maps VIII - Circle

Notice: This is just a look at some of the guild maps that have been made for Eternal Lands. This blog provides no secrets.
The entrances to these maps and any secrets to get around them will never be posted, nor will I provide them so don't ask.

View all Guild Map exploration via the Guildmaps tag.

~o~, The Circle, is an old and still pretty kinda-active guild.

Guard Bot: No

PK: No. Entrance area is PK, as well as several PK arenas and rooms. Some rooms aren't clearly marked but you can generally tell by looking at them.



This map is huge. And I mean almost-WhiteStone huge. There is an incredible amount of area to explore, and finding every enterable room will be time-consuming.

While interesting, I think the final thought I had after fully exploring was one word: claustrophobic. Okay, "incomplete" came to mind as well.

What has been done is quite detailed for the most part, and obviously took a lot of time. It's just that there was some missing concepts that in the end made it not the most interesting of maps found so far.

The issues noted:

1- Claustrophobia - Some areas, without the minimap, are difficult to move around simply because "streets" and other open areas aren't that open. Everything feels very crowded in most places, like there was an attempt to shove everything under the sun into one place.

And when dealing with such a large map on top of that... long-term claustrophobia. Giving good spacing on a map is just as vital as anything else. Considering how few of the buildings are actually enterable, just reducing those would drastically improve the map.

2- Walking Path Bugs - There's more than a few places where you randomly fall into the ground... as well as places you should simply be able to mapwalk from one point to another are not possible.

And on a side note that goes with this, as you'll see below, it's possible to go to completely different locations where there's no standard way to enter (but it's a complete house), an area where nothing exists is actually enterable if you find the entrance (a mapmaking no-no)... these and the walking path bugs are mostly what made me think "incomplete".

3- The 20-space rule - A basic of map development is that separate places  should have at least 20 spaces between them, so you can't just tele-to-range from one to another. This map completely abandons that rule, you can tele-to-range from inside one house to another, for almost all of the "internal" areas. (You'll see below in many inner images how close other locations are.)

4- Lack of secrecy - While there are a tiny handful of "secrets", they were easily found and used. A huge map like this could have done well with many more.

5- Some things just feel wrong - Huge areas with lots of houses, but only 1-2 can actually be entered. Ships and boats aplenty, many of which you can walk onto, but none take you anywhere. While there's something to be said for doing things differently, sometimes doing what's expected is necessary to avoid confusion. Using a boat to get from one area of a map to another would have made more sense than... wait, is that a random tele pad?


Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad map. It just feels seriously overdone in some places, and not done enough in others.


At any rate, a huge map gets a huge number of screenies. So let's start looking around!


Here is where you enter. Probably the trickiest place in the map.

And if you enter the wrong way... Zomg, prison! Common to many guild maps.

The PK areas are set up well at least. Noticeably marked or in some small areas it's obvious there's possible PK there even if it doesn't directly state it. Here we have a few of the obvious arenas.


The Great Circle Summoning Hall

The Fight Training Arena

The Great Circle Battle Hall

The map has many houses. Finding the ones that you can actually enter is an annoyance but you can figure them all out eventually. (Kinda, more on that later.)
Many are "owned" with player names. Though the majority of those players are long gone. A case for most guild maps.
Strahovsky's House

Bluejay's Sanctuary

Eili's Gateway

Pause for reflection. And please, allow me to preach to the audience of none. ;-)

Such fire-and-brimstone preaching made me weary. A campfire break on the shore.

ZOMG! SCARY PATH! *runs* ... (Oh wait, I always run, heh.)

A bit more of a look at the exterior map.

More houses... Monkeyb00y's Crib

Aarwen's Nest

Exterior of a house in an area that's slightly less claustrophobic than others, though still kinda tightly done.

Nice place to take your significant other for a night under the stars ;-)

This house didn't get the memo that Xmas is over, heh.

Okay... with all the unused boats around, this only led to the question... why?

As my friends will attest, when it comes to food I'm a pig. All this... mine!

This would be where the guild meets to discuss how to properly run around in Circles. :-P

Abode of the Rising Phoenix

It's beginning to look a lot like (more) Xmas

The Circle Lodge

One of the few names I recognize as a current player... Johnelf2's Place

One of several "guest" houses

Okay, I mentioned some of the "pitfalls" and glitches of the map at the start. Here's a very good example of one. And oddly enough, it's PK here. :-O

More map glitchiness. This happens in several other locations as well.

With every exploration, I look for that sweet spot where I can sit on a throne and say... I'm King of the Map!

Chess boards like this one seem to be a common thing, having noticed them on more than a few guild maps. The only oddity here is that they're normally PK arenas. Not here though.

Oy, a maze to get completely lost in! Or not... more exterior scenery. (Walking tiles are glitchy in this area as well.)

Phew, this map is huge... time for another break.

*Intentionally runs around and tramples everything growing, just cuz I'm ebul* Or not.

Some more buildings. The Great Circle Library

Hmmm, seems someone moved out of here. An oddly empty place, considering there's a fully designed house that has no entrance (further below)

The Circle's Great Hall

Some random exterior shots

I'm in your ship, being your pirate.

Mining and manufacturing...

Um... random cave!

Another guest house

Fortunately some non-claustrophobic mapping was done around the arena.

Another meeting hall

Some more random buildings

Here we are... No entrance could be found for this one. However, you can tele-to-range into it from a nearby house since the mapmaker didn't use the 20-space rule. Once in, there's no exit so tele out as well.

A slighty-more-hidden beachfront property

Oh my... the guild that bathes together, stays together. ;-)

And another Guest House

One last random house

Finally, the "incompletes". That is, some incomplete areas that were discovered that are only accessible via tele-to-range from inside other buildings.
These three houses for example that are empty.

And this area, which apparently had some big plans but was definitely not finished, with only parts of it even being walkable.

Yup, definitely not finished. ;-)

And that's it. *phew* That one took a while, hehe.



Some final notes, should you ever discover this map yourself:
1- Many of the buildings have signs outside. Eye-ing the signs will tell you what the building is.
2- There's apparently some hunting games you can play. One is to find all the scrolls. Eye-ing the scrolls gives you the letter/number/whatever for that scroll. Gotta catch 'em all? There also seems to be a jewel hunt game as well, eye any random jewels you see lying around...