Mapmaker's Guide to the Foundry - in progress

[oaktown]

THE MAPMAKER'S GUIDE

This map guide is still a work in progress; some parts are very incomplete, and some chapters are not yet fit for publicaiton. Contributions have been made by yeti_c, Gimil, Oaktown, wcaclimbing, MrBenn, IanCanton, WidowMakers, RjBeals, taCkTiX, cairnswk, and of course AndyDufresne and lack himself.

Part 1: Foundry Process and Infrastructure
Hi, and welcome to the foundry! Whether or not you intend to creat a map of your own, we hope you keep returning, as public input is what keeps the foundry running. Each map exists in its own development thread, where mapmakers receive input from the rest of the community, helping them balance the gameplay and improve the graphics. The maps progress from one forum to the next, receiving "stamps" from the Foundry Mods and Foundry Assistants as the maps meet certain criteria.
[spoiler=What are the different Foundry forums for]Map Ideas/Suggestions
The Map Ideas/Suggestions forum is a place to discuss possible maps, or to develop your own idea before posting a draft.

Recycling Bin
Looking for more map ideas? Check out the Recycling Bin and see if anyone has worked on your idea before.

Drafting Room
Every map starts in the Drafting Room. This is where a mapmaker posts the first visual implementation of a map, and gameplay is developed into something playable. Many drafts never reach the next stage, but when a map seems as if it's going somewhere, and meets certain requirements, it will be stickied. Once a map advances beyond a rough draft and graphics work has begun plus the map meets another set of requirements, it receives the Draft Stamp.

Main Foundry
When a map receives the Draft Stamp, its thread is moved out of the Drafting Room into the main Map Foundry. Here, gameplay and graphics complete most of their development. Mapmakers continue to respond to public feedback, and eventually they receive the Gameplay Stamp and the Graphics Stamp. Once both these stamps have been received, and most problems have been resolved, a map will receive the Final Forge Stamp, and be moved to the Final Forge.

Final Forge
In the Final Forge, the map is completely polished. This is the place for final nitpicks and minor changes, to ensure maps of the finest quality. Also, this is where the mapmakers must provide the XML code to accompany the map's picture. This is what makes the map work when it is finally implemented into the site! When the XML is provided, and if it is free of problems, it will receive the XML Stamp. Once the map has this stamp, and all the nitpicking has come to an end, the map is finally finished. It will soon be Quenched, meaning that it is ready to be uploaded to the site.

***Note*** Any errors found during the map’s live play on the site must be attended to promptly or else the map will be taken down until said errors are fixed.

Foundry Discussion
Finally, there's the Foundry Discussion forum. You can read the Foundry Newsletter, discuss map theory, or exchange tips about the process. It is pretty much a place for any foundry banter that isn't a map in development.[/spoiler]

The rules of map making
Before starting your own map it is recommend that you read and understand the following rules to ensure that the process is as enjoyable and efficient as possible for you and the community at large.
[spoiler=General Rules]1. A map should be ‘inherently unique either in gameplay, location, or theme’.
2. Gameplay features must be compatible with the game engines currently usable XML.
3. A maps content must be the original work of the cartographer unless consent to use copyrighted works is gained. This is your responsibility.
4. All sound advice must be followed unless a logical rebuttal by the cartographer or another member of the community is provided.
5. To proceed through the foundry the community must show a reasonable amount of interest towards a map.
6. Host the image using Photobucket.com, imageshack.us, or something similar. The type of image file must be PNG, GIF, or JPEG.
7. For a map to be used for live play the cartographer must agree to the Conquer Club copyright agreement*.
8. All maps should be posted using [bigimg] tags instead of the standard [img] tags when posting map drafts.
9. A map must work within the following map size restrictions:

1. SMALL MAP: WIDTH up to 630 px; HEIGHT 600 px
2. LARGE MAP: WIDTH up to 840 px ; HEIGHT 800 px.
3. SIZE DIFFERENTIAL: A large map must be noticably larger than their small map; 9% larger is required but 33.3% (1/3rd) is recommended.
4. NOTE: Mapmakers are encouraged to make their large maps smaller than the maximum size limits when possible to eliminate scrolling to attack/read the sidebar info.

[/spoiler][spoiler=Title Requirements]1. The page with the latest development of production. (I.E. ‘Update – Pg 3')
2. No use of [brackets]: use (parentheses), --dashes--, or “quotes” instead.
3. For every stamp you receive the appropriate tag should be included in the title. [I, Gp, Gr, X]

D = Draft
Gp = Gameplay
Gr = Graphics
X = XML

[/spoiler][spoiler=Information Requirements on the first post of a maps thread]
1. Map developers
2. The number of territories currently on the map
3. The number of continents. (If this makes sense for your map)
4. Descriptions of any unique features or areas.
[/spoiler]

Some good foundry conduct
We know everyone has there own way of doing things. Below is just our advice to you on good foundry conduct when it comes to posting map updates or posting feedback to a map you have interest in.
[spoiler=Good conduct when posting a map update]To those of you who make maps, we know you all have different ways of doing it but here are the basics we feel are needed when posting map updates to help make your development thread as easy to understand and follow as possible.:

1. Post image links in [bigimg] tags.
2. List what you have changed for this update.
3. List what is on your TODO list
3. List points that you feel need attention for discussion.

These basic points will give a community member the information they need to best give feedback on your map. Also remeber when posting updates to keep your first post and title up to date with the changes.[/spoiler][spoiler=Good conduct when posting feedback on a map]If you have a map your interested in and you intend to give it feedback, proably the best way to help the map maker when you post each piece of feedback is to remember the following three points:

1.State what your concerns are.
2.State why you find these points concerns.
3.State what you believe is a good or possible solution to your concerns.

The closer to these three basic points you follow, the better received your feedback will generally be.[/spoiler]

Map making medals and our copyright agreement
For each map that travel through the map foundry process they are two map making medals up for grabs for the maps main developers.

Despite two medals being up for grabs one person must take responsibility for map image ownership and agree to the copyright agreement below.
[spoiler=copyright agreement]The author retains copyright on their work, and gives Conquer Club permission to use the imagery free of charge, for as long as Conquer Club sees fit on the Conquer Club website. Conquer Club cannot sell, lease, or lend the right to use the images to anyone else. The author swears that their map is their own work, or a legal derivative work and by submitting it, do hereby claim all responsibility for that being true.[/spoiler]

[oaktown]

Part 2: Making Your First Map
You've been playing games at Conquer Club for a few weeks, and you've begun to notice that each map has the creator's signature. You ask yourself, "Who are these people? And why do they get to make maps for this site?"

Well, these people are ConquerClub users like yourself, and their maps are on the site because they took their work through a rather extensive Foundry Process. It is a step-by-step process in which the basic idea, the mechanics, and the final look of a map are closely scrutinized and ultimately given stamps of approval. It is also a collaborative process in which the mapmaker seeks feedback from the CC community, receives support and criticism from players and mapmakers who have been through the process, and makes a series changes to the look and play of the map.

What You Will Need Before You Begin
Before you even think about making a map, you'll need the basic building blocks.
[spoiler=What you need before you can begin]For starters, you'll need an idea. Come up with something that hasn't been done before, or put an original and interesting spin on an old idea. Your map should be unique in gameplay, theme, or geographic location.

Next you'll need some graphics software and decent understanding of how to use it. Photoshop, Fireworks, and GIMP are the most commonly used platforms by CC mapmakers (though some swear by other programs). Each are good choices because they are layer-based applications, which means that when you alter one element of your image you aren't altering everything else below it, so it is infinitely easier to make the hundreds of updates and changes that will be required. But these programs aren't easy to use - at first you will be taking advantage of only a fraction of their capabilities, and long-time users are still learning new tips and tricks (see chapter 3: how to develop your graphics).

Finally, you'll need a good attitude. A collaborative process such as this means hundreds of other users may be watching your progress along the way, and like everything else in life everybody has an opinion. For the most part the Foundry is a pretty supportive place, but even the best map won't come out of the gates perfect. You can expect plenty of feedback regarding the territory locations, bonuses, and your ability to make a pretty image. Be prepared to swallow your pride a few times and redo things you thought were right. Friendly banter, a smiley or two, and some humility will get you a long way in the Foundry.

Before you embark on this journey, here's a friendly warning: your first map is going to require a lot of work, will receive a lot of criticism, and will take a really long time. ConquerClub maps tend to be more complex and detailed than those at other sites, and while we pride ourselves in our quality many first-time mapmakers are overwhelmed by the expectations. It is quite possible that your first draft - or even your second or third drafts - won't be very good, and many mapmakers don't have the patience to see their map through the weeks and months that it can take to go through the process. But your map has a strong chance of making it through the process if you respect and understand the process.

So you've got all of those things? Great. Now it is time to start your new map.[/spoiler]

Getting That First Map Started
So you've got the basics, time to really dive in.
[spoiler=Your first draft]All map projects have to start with an image, and now that you've got yourself some image software and you've played around with it a bit you're probably anxious to make your first map. Your initial draft doesn't have to be spectacular, and as this is your first draft it probably won't be, but it should give the rest of the community a basic understanding of what you're trying to do. Your first draft should at least include the following:

• Territories: the building blocks of any map. They might be countries in a continent, islands in an archipelago, planets in a solar system, or in the case of the New Zealand map we will keep it small and use the 16 recognized regions.
• Bonus Regions: groups of territories that give the player a bonus when held. Most maps will have have bonus regions, and in the case of our New Zealand map we could use subdivisions of the North and South Islands. It should be noted that bonus regions don't have to be made up of a contiguous group of territories - a bonus region could be comprised of the four largest cities in New Zealand, one of which might be all the way across the map from the rest. Be creative about how you assign bonuses, but be prepared to explain and defend your decisions. And remember - we all know that this is your first draft, so they don't have to perfect; just give us a sense of what you have in mind.
• Titles: give your territories names so that the community can talk about it.

[/spoiler][spoiler=Creating a thread]The first place you want to visit is the subforum called The Drafting Room. In this subforum you will find three things:
1) a Map Ideas subforum of possible maps that users would like to see made, though they may not have the time/skills to do it themselves,
2) a Recycling Bin subforum of map projects that were begun in the past but have either been put on "vacation" by the mapmaker, or abandoned completely, and
3) a slew of new map threads that could, one day, make it to live play.

If you're curious about the first two, you can read all about them in the appropriate subforums, but since you are a new mapmaker it's this third area that you need to pay attention to. Each map has it's own thread which was begun and is regularly updated by the mapmaker. To get started you'll want to make a new thread yourself, and to do so you will need a few things:

• A working title for your map, which will also be the title of your thread. If you're making a map of New Zealand, for example, the title can be as simple as "New Zealand" or something more complex like "New Zealand: From the Shafts of Strife and War!" Simple is nice, but so is catchy - try to strike a happy medium; we'll call our map "New Zealand: Strife and War" because we like the nod to the national anthem and we think people like maps about war. And you should know that as you work on your map you will occasionally be adding notes to the title, so if you name your map "New Zealand: you know, the place they filmed those Lord of the Rings movies," you will surely run into trouble down the road.

• A brief description of what you are doing, and why you are doing it. Tell us why there should be a map of New Zealand, and why we might eventually want to play it.

• An initial image. Otherwise your map idea is little more than that - an idea - and your thread will be moved into the Map Ideas subforum.

• A description of any gameplay features that are out of the ordinary; for your "New Zealand: Strife and War" map, perhaps you foresee isolated territories that lose an army every turn, impassable mountain ranges, and a victory condition where in the player who controls all of the port cities wins. Down the road you'll be putting all of these on your map visually, but for now give us as much as you can on the image and tell us where you plan on taking.

There will eventually be more that you'll need to include in your first post, but that's enough to get your map started.[/spoiler]

First Draft Posted; Now What?
You've got an image posted, so you're done, right? Not quite...
[spoiler=getting Feedback]Now you face your first test. Folks are going to see your new topic, take a look at your first draft, and respond. The initial responses that you receive are going to be a pretty good indicator of the future popularity of your map idea, because for those first few days you're going to see posts that fall into three categories:

Category 1. "Not a bad idea. Give it a shot. " Your map could go either way depending on your commitment and skills. Do good work and you'll have yourself a solid map.

Category 2. "Agh, my eyes! " A lot of these and it might be time to rethink your map idea.

Category 3. "Wow, fantastic idea. New Zealand is so beautiful and diverse that you'll have a lot to work with graphically. Consider having killer neutrals as a result of Maori tribal unrest in some areas. " You've already got fans, advice, and you may have help.

Just as important as making your map is the art of responding to community feedback. We mentioned at the top of this topic that you need a good attitude to make a map, and here is where it will first come into play. For starters, you don't need to respond to each and every post made - this will just clutter up your post and it will give the impression that you are doing all of the posting in your own thread. When a visitor says "Not a bad idea," you can probably let that one go, because any response isn't going to add anything to the discussion. And the guy that said "My eyes!" is probably just trying to provoke you - don't let him turn your map thread into a flame war.

But that Category 3 post will require a response, because in addition to being encouraging it also included a suggestion that you may or may not want to implement. Any post that includes constructive criticism or a specific suggestion should receive a response, either to affirm that you think it is a good idea or to explain why you think the idea doesn't work for your map. If you don't get into the habit of responding to criticism or suggestions the community will begin to suspect that you are ignoring feedback, and support for your map will gradually dry up. Here's the wrong way to respond to that Category 3 post:

This is my map, dillweed. If I wanted to include killer neutrals I would have done so to begin with.

Uh huh. Now, here's the correct way to respond:

Thanks for the comment. I, too, think New Zealand is amazing - I lived there until I was 12 and I have fabulous memories of the place, and if you have any suggestions for graphics I can include please let me know. As for the killer neutrals, I'm not a fan of what they do to gameplay. Maybe we can find another way to include the Maori in this map.

And just like that you've got a new friend who is now looking through his photo gallery for those pictures he took in New Zealand last summer. Free images!

And you'll be needing those free images, because so far all you have are some territory lines with titles. That "my eyes" guy had a point, your map doesn't look like much yet. It will help your cause if at this point you begin thinking about the presentation. Since we're doing a map about New Zealand, you'll want to come up with some images or graphic elements that somehow take the viewer to the South Pacific. Keep in mind, however, that any image that you use in your map must be royalty-free and in the public domain. This means that the image is not the copyrighted material of somebody else; for example, an artist's original work or a photographer's photograph is protected by copyright laws. Old maps and images may be old enough to be public domain, but the scans or reproductions that you are using may not be. So you can certainly include a photo of Auckland in your NZ map, but before you can use the photo of the Auckland that you found on somebody's website you will have to secure their permission. And for any images that you do use, you should note the source of that image in your thread.[/spoiler][spoiler=The All-Important Second Draft]Alright, time to make another draft. Add some graphics, move some territory borders, play around with the colors a bit. Add a texture to the ocean to set it apart from the land. And when you post the new draft you'll want to post it twice in your map thread: once as a new post, with a brief description of what you've changed/added, and once in the first post. The first post should always include the most recent version of the map, because that is where most visitors are going to go first when they open your thread. When you post a new version you will also announce the page number of the update in your thread title so your regular fans will know to check in... something like this:

New Zealand: Strife and War - update on page 2

OK, you're moving along! You've gotten some feedback, made a few new drafts, and you're starting to create a look for the map with color and texture and graphical elements. Your map has now caught the attention of the Ideas Cartography Assistant (C.A.), an experienced CC mapmaker and member of the Foundry community who has volunteered his/her time to help new project along. The Ideas C.A. takes a look at your map, notices that you've been listening to feedback and posting updates, and determines that your project has the potential to meet the basic requirements of a CC map. Your map is now recognized as an Advanced Idea, and it has been "stickied" so that it floats to the top of the Map Ideas forum.

Congratulations, you've just crossed the first hurdle... six or seven more to go![/spoiler]

[oaktown]

Part 3: Developing Gameplay
Once your map has moved from the Drafting Room to the Foundry's Main Floor, it will begin receiving a lot more attention and more feedback. Most of the feedback you receive can be put into two general categories: Gameplay or Graphics. In both areas your map must meet the formal and informal standards of the Foundry, and as it does so you will be receiving stamps for each. As the Gameplay stamp is usually handed out first, this is where we'll start.

To begin with, what is "gameplay?" Gameplay is anything that affects how a game on your map might progress. Many of the factors you'll need to consider when designing your map should be fairly obvious to CC players - bonuses, victory conditions, territories that start the game neutral, etc. - but there are a number of factors that may not be so obvious, such as making sure army counts won't interfere with other elements of you map, and making the map accessible to players who may be color-blind.

[spoiler=gameplay terms]You'll need to know some basic gameplay terms before you can move along too far with your map.

• Territory: a single space that may attack or be attacked; depending on the scale of your map, this could be a country, state, neighborhood, etc.
• Bonus Region: a group of territories that, when held entirely by one players, gives a bonus army/armies to that player at the beginning of her turn. It is also possible to code a region so that you only have to hold a specific number of territories within it to receive the bonus.
• Territorial Bonus: a bonus army/armies given to the player that controls a single territory; the bonus may be a Direct Deployment bonus, which means that the army/armies are automatically put on that territory, or they may be included in the armies the player receives at the beginning of her turn.
• Starting Value: the number of armies that a particular territory opens the game with. The default is three, but as the mapmaker you can control this for each and every territory on your map.
• Starting Neutrals: territories that are coded to begin the game as neutral, or not belonging to a player. As the mapmaker you may set the starting value of neutrals.
• Bombardment: a style of attack in which the attacking player may knock an opposing player out of a territory, but not actually move in to take over. When bombarded, a territory reverts back to a neutral value of one.
• Victory Condition or Objective: a territory or combination of territories which, when conquered and held by a single player, result in the player winning the game. The territory/ies must conquered by one player and held at the beginning of that player's subsequent turn.
• Killer neutrals: territories that, when conquered, revert back to neutral territories at the beginning of the conquering player's turn.
• Territorial decay: when a territory is set up to reduce the number of occupying armies each turn; e.g. you conquer a territory and move in six armies, and at the start of your next turn that six is reduced to five.
• Starting Locations: territories that are pre-determined to go to specific players.

There are other terms that you will run into in the Foundry, but these are some of the basics and should be more than enough to get you going on your first map. The simpler you keep your first effort the more likely you'll see it through the Foundry.[/spoiler]

Balanced Gameplay
Basically this means that a map should be fair for all players. We've all been in games where one player got a lucky drop and began the game with all of Australia, and while you can't account for luck you take into consideration whether or not your map will be prone to advantageous starts, or will quickly become lop-sided affairs. When developing your gameplay consider the following:
[spoiler=balanced gameplay basics]Reasonable bonus structure. Bonuses should make sense given the size/style of the map, and be based on a consistent formula.
Game type flexibility. The map should support various game types and not be designed with specific/limited game settings in mind (standard, assassin, fog of war, 2-8 players, etc.).
Player-friendliness. Any information you need to know to play a map should be easy to gather by looking at the map itself. The legend should be clear and concise, and the map free of unnecessary rules.
Open-play. There should be many ways a game might progress on a map, and multiple roads to victory. Such features as unpassable borders should enhance, not limit, gameplay, and every effort should be made to limit the number of dead ends and bottlenecks in a map, unless they are justified by the desired play of the map. The map should be fun to play, not frustrating.
Function trumps form. The style of the graphics should not detract from ease of play: borders should be clear, titles and numbers easy to read, colors easy to distinguish, etc.[/spoiler][spoiler=what to avoid]Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. There are some gameplay mistakes that have already been made, so we suggest you watch out for the following as you put your map together:

• Bonuses for single territories. Let's say you've got 32 territories on the map of New Zealand you're creating, and you want to give a +1 for holding Wellington. Keep in mind that somebody is going to start with that territory, and if that player goes first they start the game with four armies to everybody else's three. Game is already in that player's favor. You can combat this by making Wellington a neutral starting territory, sonobody starts with it.
• Dead ends. One way attack routes can be fun, but there has to be a way out. Nobody wants to find they've moved a stack of 20 armies onto a space from which they can never leave. Remember: if you can't attack out, you can't fortify out either.
• A # of starting territories divisible by 12 (or 15, or 18). Twelve is the magic number; when I start the game with twelve territories I get four armies on my first turn; if I take just one of yours, you only start with three, and you have to take two of my territories to knock me down below twelve territories. Advantage: first player.

[/spoiler]

[oaktown]

Part 4: Developing Graphics

under construction

[oaktown]

This is the original XML Tutorial posted originally by lack, but expanded upon by yeti_c.

Part 5: XML Tutorial

Pretty graphics are not enough to make a successful map. You also need to think up good gameplay rules and write them down in an XML file. This tutorial will explain how to do that. Don't worry, you don't need any technical skills or special software. Just pay attention and fire up your favourite text editor, such as notepad.

[spoiler=tags]XML is made up of tags. Tags let the game engine know which information means what. Tags are surrounded with <angled brackets> and come in pairs – one for <opening> and one for </closing>. For example, this is how you specify the name of a country with tags:

Code: Select all

<name>Western United States</name>

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=The header]First of all, your XML file must begin with this on the first line:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>

Don't worry about understanding it – it's a special tag that tells the game engine that this is an XML file.

Next you need a map tag which will contain everything else.

Code: Select all

<map></map>

Inside the map tag we need tags for the map title, the width and height of the small map image (in pixels starting from the top left corner), the width and height of the large map image, and the file type of the images (usually jpg). Your XML should now look like this:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<map>
   <title>Classic</title>
   <smallwidth>600</smallwidth>
   <smallheight>325</smallheight>
   <largewidth>800</largewidth>
   <largeheight>433</largeheight>
   <filetype>jpg</filetype>
</map>

It is customary to indent tags when they are nested inside other tags and put one tag on each line. This isn't necessary but makes your XML easier to read.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Territories]Next we specify the territories on your map. Inside the map tag, after the header information, include one pair of <territory> tags for each territory. For each territory you'll also need to specify <name>, <borders> and <coordinates>. Borders is a list of <border> tags containing exact names of other territories that this one is adjacent to. Coordinates is a list of the X and Y coordinates (in pixels) where the armies should be printed on the small and large maps. So a basic territory looks like this:

Code: Select all

<territory>
   <name>Alberta</name>
   <borders>
      <border>Alaska</border>
      <border>Northwest Territory</border>
      <border>Ontario</border>
      <border>Western United States</border>
   </borders>
   <coordinates>
      <smallx>90</smallx>
      <smally>90</smally>
      <largex>120</largex>
      <largey>111</largey>
   </coordinates>
</territory>

To define one way borders, like Inner Mongolia -> Mongolia, only list the territory that can be attacked as a border of the territory that cannot be attacked.

Code: Select all

<territory>
<name>Inner Mongolia</name>
<borders>
<border>Mongolia</border>
</borders>
</territory>

You can also add some optional tags to a territory. If you want a bonus to be added to that territory each round, add a <bonus> tag. If you want the territory to be initialized with a certain number of neutral armies, add a <neutral> tag. The Neutral tag should come after the <coordinates> tag for the XML validator to check it correctly. This XML will make Alberta start off with 10 neutrals but you'll get a territorial bonus of 3 if you conquer and hold it:

Code: Select all

<territory>
   <name>Alberta</name>
   <borders>
      <border>Alaska</border>
      <border>Northwest Territory</border>
      <border>Ontario</border>
      <border>Western United States</border>
   </borders>
   <coordinates>
      <smallx>90</smallx>
      <smally>90</smally>
      <largex>120</largex>
      <largey>111</largey>
   </coordinates>
   <neutral>10</neutral>
   <bonus>3</bonus>
</territory>

If you want you can make these neutrals come back after someone takes the territory. We call these killer neutrals. To make Alberta a killer neutral so that it goes back to being 10 after someone takes it you just change the tag like so:

Code: Select all

<territory>
   <name>Alberta</name>
   <borders>
      <border>Alaska</border>
      <border>Northwest Territory</border>
      <border>Ontario</border>
      <border>Western United States</border>
   </borders>
   <coordinates>
      <smallx>90</smallx>
      <smally>90</smally>
      <largex>120</largex>
      <largey>111</largey>
   </coordinates>
   <neutral killer="yes">10</neutral>
   <bonus>3</bonus>
</territory>

(Of course in this example - the bonus will never be given)

To mimic long-range warfare, you can additionally give a territory a <bombardments> tag. Bombardments is a list of <bombardment> tags containing exact names of other territories that this one can attack. Bombardments differ from borders in that you cannot fortify to bombardments, and a successful attack leaves 1 neutral army in the opposing territory. For example, imagine that Great Britain had inter-continental ballistic missiles pointed at Australia:

Code: Select all

<territory>
   <name>Great Britain</name>
   <borders>
      <border>Iceland</border>
      <border>Scandinavia</border>
      <border>Northern Europe</border>
      <border>Western Europe</border>
   </borders>
   <bombardments>
      <bombardment>Indonesia</bombardment>
      <bombardment>New Guinea</bombardment>
      <bombardment>Western Australia</bombardment>
      <bombardment>Eastern Australia</bombardment>
   </bombardments>
   <coordinates>
      <smallx>267</smallx>
      <smally>84</smally>
      <largex>356</largex>
      <largey>104</largey>
   </coordinates>
</territory>

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Bonus regions]Next we must specify the bonus regions, or continents on your map. Inside the map tag, after the territories, include one pair of <continent> tags for each continent. For each continent you'll also need to specify <name>, <bonus> and <components>. Components is a list of <territory> and <continent> tags containing exact names of territories and continents making up the continent. Usually you won't have continents inside continents so a basic continent looks like this:

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<continent>
   <name>Oceania</name>
   <bonus>2</bonus>
   <components>
      <territory>Indonesia</territory>
      <territory>New Guinea</territory>
      <territory>Western Australia</territory>
      <territory>Eastern Australia</territory>
   </components>
</continent>

These tags are mandatory, but you can add some optional tags to a continent. If you want the bonus to apply for partially held continents, throw in a <required> tag with the minimum number of components a player is required to hold to trigger the bonus. Furthermore, you can make one continent exclude others when a player holds them all by including <overrides> tags. Confused? Let's say you wanted to give 1 army for holding half of Oceania and 2 for the whole thing. Just having the following would give total of 3 armies when all of Oceania is held:

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<continent>
   <name>Oceania</name>
   <bonus>2</bonus>
   <components>
      <territory>Indonesia</territory>
      <territory>New Guinea</territory>
      <territory>Western Australia</territory>
      <territory>Eastern Australia</territory>
   </components>
</continent>
<continent>
   <name>Half of Oceania</name>
   <bonus>1</bonus>
   <components>
      <territory>Indonesia</territory>
      <territory>New Guinea</territory>
      <territory>Western Australia</territory>
      <territory>Eastern Australia</territory>
   </components>
   <required>2</required>
</continent>

We don't want the Half of Oceania to apply when the whole thing is held. So let's make Oceania override Half of Oceania:

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<continent>
   <name>Oceania</name>
   <bonus>2</bonus>
   <components>
      <territory>Indonesia</territory>
      <territory>New Guinea</territory>
      <territory>Western Australia</territory>
      <territory>Eastern Australia</territory>
   </components>
   <overrides>
      <override>Half of Oceania</override>
   </overrides>
</continent>
<continent>
   <name>Half of Oceania</name>
   <bonus>1</bonus>
   <components>
      <territory>Indonesia</territory>
      <territory>New Guinea</territory>
      <territory>Western Australia</territory>
      <territory>Eastern Australia</territory>
   </components>
   <required>2</required>
</continent>

A continent can have more than one pair of <override> tags inside <overrides>. You can achieve complex continent behaviours with creative use of overrides.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Objectives]Optionally, you can specify winning conditions for your map. An objective is a set of territories and/or continents that when held will give the player an early victory. A map can have several objectives and a held objective ends the game in both Assassin and Terminator games. In the case of a Terminator game points would be earned from all opponents who haven't been terminated. Suppose an objective is to hold both Asia and Alaska. The XML would look like this:

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<objective>
   <name>Alaska & Asia</name>
   <components>
      <territory>Ural</territory>
      <territory>Afghanistan</territory>
      <territory>Kamchatka</territory>
      <territory>Siam</territory>
      <territory>Irkutsk</territory>
      <territory>Yakutsk</territory>
      <territory>Japan</territory>
      <territory>Mongolia</territory>
      <territory>China</territory>
      <territory>India</territory>
      <territory>Siberia</territory>
      <territory>Alaska</territory>
   </components>
</objective>

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Putting it all together]Your final XML file should look something like this:

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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<map>
   <title>Classic</title>
   <smallwidth>600</smallwidth>
   <smallheight>325</smallheight>
   <largewidth>800</largewidth>
   <largeheight>433</largeheight>
   <filetype>jpg</filetype>
   <objectives/>
   <continents/>
   <territories/>
</map>

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Random Notes]

• Continent and territory bonuses can be negative.
• When multiple continents have the same name, the related log entries will be merged into one entry.
• Order is very important in xml, please follow the order in the last code snippet.

[/spoiler]

It's time to learn some new toys.

So you've played with the basic XML map options and now you are bored? Well we've added some new toys. 2 of which I hid up in the original tutorial. The more complex ones I'm going to explain below.

[spoiler=start positions]Lets say we found that whenever someone starts with Asia they win. This isn't true and nearly impossible but just go with it. We want to make that impossible to do. One way we could do this is using the new start position tool. Start positions are contained in a tag called <positions> which contains multiple <position> tags. These position tags can contain one or more <territory> tags, like so:

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<positions>
   <position>
      <territory>Ural</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Afghanistan</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Middle East</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Siberia</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Irkutsk</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Yakutsk</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Kamchatka</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Mongolia</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Japan</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>China</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>India</territory>
   </position>
   <position>
      <territory>Siam</territory>
   </position>
</positions>

So in the above example we have 12 start positions. When the game begins these start positions will be split up amongst the players. If there is a remainder, the territories of those start positions are dealt out as normal territories.

Lets say now that we discovered that Middle East isn't a viable start position unless they have 5 armies and that Kamchatka is overpowered and needs to have 2. We can do that!

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   ...
   <position>
      <territory start="5">Middle East</territory>
   </position>
   ...
   <position>
      <territory start="2">Kamchatka</territory>
   </position>
   ...

I'm sure you can think of better ways to use this new code then that example. [/spoiler]
[spoiler=reinforcement adjustment]As I'm sure all of you know, typically you get reinforcements every turn based on how many territories you own. You always get a minimum of 3 but you start to get more once you hit 12 for every 3. Now we have access to this and can change it to suit our needs. This is what Classic looks like in this xml by default:

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<minreinforcement>3</minreinforcement>
<reinforcements>
   <reinforcement>
      <lower>1</lower>
      <upper>42</upper>
      <divisor>3</divisor>
   </reinforcement>
</reinforcements>

Lets say we want to change it so you are only guaranteed 2. Then for the first 12 territories you gain 1 for every 2 you own. After that we want to make it so that you gain 1 for every 6. Now we can! It sounds complex but the code is easy:

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<minreinforcement>2</minreinforcement>
<reinforcements>
   <reinforcement>
      <lower>1</lower>
      <upper>12</upper>
      <divisor>2</divisor>
   </reinforcement>
   <reinforcement>
      <lower>13</lower>
      <upper>42</upper>
      <divisor>6</divisor>
   </reinforcement>
</reinforcements>

The minimum reinforcement must be a number greater than zero.

I hope you understood and enjoyed this explanation of the new xml. The other features hidden in the first tutorial that I added are killer neutrals, and continents inside continents. So read up on them in the previous tutorial and you'll know it all![/spoiler]
[spoiler=correct order]

• I can't stress enough how important order is, if you have a complete xml with all the toys the tags must be in the this order:

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<map>
  <size etc/>
  <minreinforcement/>
  <reinforcements/>
  <positions/>
  <objectives/>
  <continents/>
  <territories/>
</map>

• Also important is that if you put continents inside of continents you must but the inner continent by itself before the continent(s) you put it inside.

[/spoiler]