Find a Drain Guide: Part II:

Posted: February 28, 2007
Author: Joe

This is the follow up article of Find a Drain Guide. One resource has been brought to my attention by a good friend. There is another map resource online, through MSN's live search. Surprisingly, the "bird's eye view" feature is really effective at finding new unexplored drains. The way it works is, it gives a more isometric view of the landscape, so if there's any drains on one side of a riverbank, it will stick out like a sore thumb.

Here is a unexplored system via Google Maps:


The same drains via MSN Live:


As you can see, MSN Live search is much better in some cases. However, it's not flawless because the river does twist and turn, so the view can be useless. Sometimes the view isn't much different than Google Maps. You can see an example here:

Here is a Leviathan system via Google Maps:


The same drain via MSN Live:


There is one very nice feature for MSN Live search I haven't mentioned. At ANY location, you can right-click and add a "Push pin". You can title it, give it a description and other things. Then you can save all of your push pins in a collection to share with fellow drainers. I discovered about 10 new systems in almost no time, save the collection and sent them to Dave all under an hour.

Additional to the push pin feature, there is the ability to rotate the view in north, south, east and west. Here is a look at the Temples of Syrinx from 4 different views:


The only flaw so far with the system that I have found is that you need a MSN passport or whatever. That just means you need a hotmail account. Other than that, the system is pretty much perfect for finding drains. You might still want to use Google Maps to try and confirm a drain. Good luck to finding new drains!