How to make a map handbook

[gimil]

OFFICIAL how to make a map

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.

**Notes: Up to 2 cartographers may receive a medal for working on a map, but 1 person must have "assigned ownership" of the map, per the Copyright Agreement (located at the bottom of this page).**

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 recieve the appropriate tag should be included in the title. [D, Gp, Gr, X]

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

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

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.

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How a Map Progresses Through the Foundry

Drafting Room
All maps start life in the foundry as an draft in the "Drafting Room" sub forum. Here maps must gain their drafting stamp before being moved into full production in the main foundry.

Main Foundry
Here is where the bulk of a maps development takes place. Gameplay and graphics will undergo discussion at this point to ensure that:
• Gameplay is balanced
  
• Graphics are of a suitable foundry standard.
Final Forge
To reach final forge you must aquire two further stamps in the main foundry for gameplay and graphics. Once your map has these stamps it will be stickied to the main foundry to under go review by the cartoes to ensure there is enought support for a map to go to the next level. Both large and small maps must be present before the final forge stamp can be given to a map.

Once moved to the final forge sub forum a maps XML should go under development (although there's nothing stopping a cartographer starting their XML earlier in the process) and nit picking of the map will be begin.

Quenching
After a map receives it stamp for XML and all nit picking discussion has been concluded the foundry foreman will stamp the map as quenched to complete the process.

Congratulations! You have just complete your map, enjoy!

***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.

***Link to old 'How maps progress through the Foundry' topic***

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*The 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.

[Coleman]

The draft stamps is required for a map thread to be moved from the drafting room forum to the main foundry. To earn this stamp you must meet the following conditions:

1)The map, first and foremost, must have some sort of clear plan of how production will go

2) Have a playable image. If we quenched it people should be able to play on it. This should included the following:

• Territory names
• Working legends
• Speculative Bonuses
• Tentative Border Divisions

3) The working image needs to be beyond rough draft state. This means that you must provide the following:

• A working image done in some kind of graphic software. Pencil drawn images and images done on paint will not be accpected.
• Two quality updates must be provided.

4) Have honest and interested discussion. Not just you and three friends.

[oaktown]

For your map to meet gameplay expectations you will need to incorporate the following elements of a successful map:

Balanced play. It should be unlikely that one or more players can start the game with a major advantage as a result of the initial drop or getting the first turn.
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 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 should be free of unnecessary or cumbersome rules.
Open-play. There should be many ways a game might progress on a map, and many 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.

The first post of your thread (important): it is unlikely that the person responsible for stamping your map will be able to follow every post of your map thread. Therefor, everything one needs to know about the play of a map should be made clear by simply by reading the first post. If there are play features that are not spelled out on the map itself, such as the location and value of starting neutrals, please note this in the first post. Do not include every old version of the map in the first post, as this makes the post slow and difficult to navigate on smaller displays; links to old versions will suffice. Consider this a requirement for receiving my stamp of approval.

[gimil]

To earn your graphics stamp you must comply to the following conditions:

1) Image must present itself as clear and legible.
2) Both large and small maps athetics must be to a presentable foundry standard and must also satisfy the community at large.
3) Cartographers must, where possible, reduce any disadvantage that can be caused to a colorblind individual.
4) All map makers are expected to take all graphical comments into consideration and must either accepted them or give sound reasoning as to why not to take paticular advice.

[AndyDufresne]

This stamp means you are in the Home-Stretch! To earn this stamp your map must have first received the Map Ideas stamp, the Game Play stamp, and the Graphics stamp. Once you have addressed nearly all the major suggestions and concerns, and the Foundry Process starts to wind down, your map will be moved from the Main Foundry Forum to the Final Forge Sub-Forum.

[Coleman]

1) It must provide what one would expect from looking at the map.
2) An xml expert must look at it for one to two hours, for quality assurance purposes.
3) It should utilize the latest xml to maximum efficiency. (clicky)
4) It should pass the XML Checker Program

[AndyDufresne]

This is the final stamp of the Foundry Process. To receive this stamp (assuming you have earned all previous others) you must obtain the XML stamp during the Final Forge period. In addition to the XML stamp, the map critiquing and nit-picking must have come to a proper and sufficient end.