I won't say a huge decline. Yeah we have few maps actually in the melting pot but you should consider 2 aspects:
- Is there a real recent reduction of people who is drawing maps? Actually if I have to think about this, I can only find 2 names: natty dread and DiM. Both were prolific mapmakers, but apart them I see the same old faces around here, and maybe some new
- It's July, during summer there's always less activity, at least in the foundry. The sky is blue and the sun shine, lot of people prefer to spend time on less sweat or open air activities than PS on summer.
Finally...I don't know if a reduction of maps is a real problem. First and foremost it's normal that with 200+ it's harder to find a good idea, and thank to God, it seems people is no more posting here stupid ideas like a piano keyboard, molecules or things like that! Secondly, I've always been in favour to have less maps going into the foundry process. We can give more attention to them, focus more on some aspects and ensure a better result...so if you ask to me....I would like to have just 5 maps in the earlier stage all time!