Guide to archaeology using SAL

The interface:

To show the interface, type /sal

The main window have three buttons, they are from left to right:

Add marker line

This will add a line to your hud.
If right clicked you will toggle the colors of a line.

Clear line

This will clear all lines.
If right clicked it will clear the last placed line.

Config

This will open the config window.

To open this help again click the help icon,
to close the window and HUD click the close button in the corner.

The HUD:

The HUD is what will help you find your fragments. Think of it as an overlay map of the digsite where north/south is up/down and east/west is right/left.

In the middle of the screen is a small arrow, this marks your location and points to the direction you are currently facing. Here the lines/arcs you add a will show and hopfully point to the location of the fragment.

Small shovels marks the locations where you previously found a fragment. This is a good spot to dig again!

The outline of the digsite is also marked with a red/gray border line. You cannot survey outside this line.

The surveying:

1) Fly to a digsite

2) Use your survey ability

3) Face the same way that the tripod is facing

4) Add a marker line using the button.

5) Move closer to where you think the fragment is located

6) Repeat from step 2

The configuration:

Open the configuration window using the button to the right.

Settings are stored on a character base so you can differ your settings for each of your toons.

The settings are:

* Auto clear when fragment is looted

When this is enabled all lines will be cleared when you loot a
fragment you have just found

* Auto show when survey

This will open SAL when you do a survey

* Hide SAL when in combat

Enabling this will cause the hud to hide when you enter combat.
It will reappear again when you exit.

* Track fragment location when looted

You can disable this to turn off location tracking of fragments
you loot

* Show known fragment locations

Shows found fragment locations on the HUD with small shovels

* Show digsite borders

Does just what it says

* Show arcs

Un tick this to only have the bare marker lines

* Enable sounds

Disable/enable sounds from SAL

* Arc opacity

Justify the opacity (see thru) of arcs on marker lines.

The export:

If you have found a lot of fragment locations and want to share this with a friend you can do this with the export function.

To do this, first of all both you and the recipient must have release 8 or later else nothing will happen. After that follow the steps bellow:

1) Open the coniguration window

2) Press the "Export" button

3) Here you will see some statistics on how many maps you have been to, how many locations you have found and how many fragments you have dug up.

4) Enter the name of the player you want to export to and press "OK"

5) The recipient will now get a question to accept the incomming data

6) When your friend accepts the transfer will begin, depending on the amount of data you have it will take some seconds.

7) If you want your friends data he must repeat the procedure on his side.

The slash commands:

If you for some reason don't like the buttons on the main window or want to create a macro using sal funcionality you can use any of the following commands:

/sal |cFFFFFFFF- Toggles the visibility of the HUD

/sal show |cFFFFFFFF- Show the HUD

/sal hide |cFFFFFFFF- Hides the HUD

/sal a |cFFFFFFFF- Add a multicolored marker line

/sal clear |cFFFFFFFF- Removes all marker lines

/sal measure |cFFFFFFFF- Do your own measurement of the current map.

The tips:

In all honesty I'm not all that into archaeology. But I've discovered some tips that you might find helpful:

* Standing on the tripod increases your accuracy when adding a line.

* If you want to triangulate, never survey directly on an existing green line, it won't add any more info.

* If yellow, start by digging in the center of the arc and get a heading, then move halfway to the edge.

* The digsite border is a great way to limit your search field.

* Install GatherMate2 and GatherMate2Data for a bunch of predefined fragment locations.

* Share your fragment locations with a friend.

* The distance indicator is quite accurate, your aim is not.

* There is an option to hide the HUD when you enter combat.

Have fun and happy digging!