Today's tip:

How to add commands to your compass

A lot of people want a 'specific' compass, since 'that compass can do....', which is nonsense, since ALL compasses essentially do the same thing and are all based on Bedicus' original work, the 'Bedican Compass', enhanced with Myrmex' GPS. The 'Zakimus Compass - Island Guide Version'  for instance, that Zakimus so proudly announces as 'special', is pretty much created by adding your own commands within the XML.
With the following instructions, you can pretty much 'personalize' your own compass and add anything you would want.

Open an explorer window and go to the folder:

C:\Makena\There\ThereClient\Resources\compass

Depending on what compass you are using, you are looking for 1 of these files:
bedican.xml
phantium.xml
zakimus.xml


Open it in Notepad or another text-editor. (I myself use the free program Open XML Editor)
 
Now, to add a command, add the following (I have colorcoded it, so it's easier to follow):

<com>
<type>web</type>
<trigger>invites</trigger>	- this is obviously what 'triggers' the command, so in this case /invites causes the command to be executed.
<return>Checking my schedule</return>	- this is the text that is shown to all others in your vicinity, preceeded by a [Auto-Reply]:
<do>
<url>http://webapps.prod.there.com/eventmgmt/myevents?show=attend</url>	- this is the actual result of the command: a browser will be opened with this url.
</do>
</com>

Make sure you add this part after a previous </com> tag. XML is pretty strict when it comes to guidelines. One thing is that tags MUST be closed. So a <tag>, must somewhere be followed by a </tag>
To make your own commands, simply copy a block from <com> to </com> (like the example block above) and paste it after a previous </com> tag, then alter the texts in trigger, return and url.

Zakimus' compass has this totally useless command called /shoes, that makes you bend over, wave at your shoes and go: Hello shoes!

This can be recreated in any compass, simply by doing:

<com>

<trigger>shoes</trigger>

<return>'bow' wave' Hello Shoes!</return>

</com>

Note: There will be a [Auto-Reply:] or [BrB] tag preceeding this particular command, since Zakimus did it in Flash, and we are doing it in the XML.

(extra tip: if you are tired of the stupid 'ping' response that some of these compasses have, you CAN switch it off by default):

Find the following line in the file: <ping>1</ping> (it is one of the first ones)
Change the 1 to a 0 and once you reload your compass, people can't ping you anymore.

<NOTE> In the Phantium compass you can use /RC in-world to reload the configuration. For the others, as far as I know, you'd have to relog.