Dude, where's my car?

[powderhound522]

So, I dropped all of my stuff on the local map when I unexpectedly encountered an Njerp. And after I killed him, I took off without picking it back up. I didn't even realize what I'd done until I went to a village to trade. 

Any tips for finding it? I've tried looking again in the general area where it happened, but I can't remember exactly where it was. I know if I could zoom in on the right tile from the wilderness map I'd be right next to his body and my stuff, but after 2 game days I still haven't managed it.

[Privateer]

The logs will provide the location of such "incidents"
Though how to decipher it I'll leave to someone who knows.

GL

[Plotinus]

look for a file msglog.txt in your character directory. search it from the bottom up for "njerpez" to find the last one you encountered. You'll see a line like this:

(000000):h1hl:[@@]{025E00AC}     | the Njerpez warrior sighs once, then stays laying dead still.


025E means how far east you are from the left of the map. bigger numbers are more east, smaller are less east.
00AC means how far south you are from the north of the map. So this character of mine is in Seal tribe territory, very far north and fairly west.

Go to near where you think it was, doesn't matter if it's exact or not. Then drop something or pick something up or drink something so that it generates a message in the logs, and reopen the file and look at the last line. something like:

(3C5A98):j1hc:[:]{026200A0}      | You drop the branch.

So you horizontally you are at 262  and need to get to 25E so you need to go four squares west.
vertically you are at A0 and you need to get to AC so you need to go 12 squares south.

If you lose count or if you get it confused which one is horizontal and which is vertical (I'm only 80% sure i remembered the order right), just drop another branch and compare with your target.

you can find a calculator online that does hexadecimal with a search engine.

[PALU]

Another thing that can confuse you is that you're not always zooming in back to the location you zoomed out from.
- If you happened to be at row and/or column 0 when you zoomed out UrW will zoom you back in at the center of the tile (a bug fixed in the next release, unless it's already fixed in the current one).
- If you encounter something and get zoomed in automatically, you're not zoomed in to where you zoomed out.

[Saiko Kila]

In cases like this I always check the log to determine the location on global map, like mentioned. Then there is usually need to comb the whole area, 64x64 local tiles (that's over 1.6 hectare, quite a lot if it's a forest).

The best course of action is to prevent it, by dropping everything not needed on the zoomed-out map after spotting the enemy but before stepping on their tile. This also prevents them from picking up your items. Of course, it's only possible if you spot them in advance.

Personally I also use another trick - I modified graphics for arrows, javelins and spears to have a box of magenta colour. It may look ugly if there is a lot of arrows in one place, but it helps finding items in forest. I'm losing no more than 20% of shot arrows thanks to this. But I also use it as a marker for dropped items (and tanning skins in a village, felled animals when fighting a pack of them etc.), by dropping a single arrow (or broken arrow) over the stack.

[Privateer]

Nowadays you could always set a marker on the map as soon as you drop everything, I don't think markers use a turn

[Saiko Kila]

There are no markers on local map, and this is a problem when dropping items when zoomed-in. When marking something I use description like "skin in eastern most kota". But how to describe location in a forest? So local marker (high visibility item) is a thing.

[Privateer]

There are no markers on local map, and this is a problem when dropping items when zoomed-in. When marking something I use description like "skin in eastern most kota". But how to describe location in a forest? So local marker (high visibility item) is a thing.

 True, but if you can find the world tile, you should be able to find the local map spot.. or you don't deserve your stuff.

[powderhound522]

I usually make a marker when I drop things - it's very useful indeed.

And if I don't, I usually remember to pick up my stuff after I'm done fighting.

And if I don't, I usually realize PDQ that I forgot my stuff, so I can fairly easily get back to it by checking 3 or 4 tiles.

But this time I didn't do any of those things. Good to know there's a way to home in on it again. That character's dead of starvation following a bandit attack, but I'll keep it in mind for next time.

[Saiko Kila]

There are no markers on local map, and this is a problem when dropping items when zoomed-in. When marking something I use description like "skin in eastern most kota". But how to describe location in a forest? So local marker (high visibility item) is a thing.

 True, but if you can find the world tile, you should be able to find the local map spot.. or you don't deserve your stuff.

I always find an item when dropped accidentally. But for dropped on purpose it is much faster and quicker to use marker-item, because I do it regularly. It's just a matter of saving time.