Forming a "Maps Team"
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I'd like to discuss & recruit volunteers for a permanent 'maps team'. Ideally we'd get at least 3-5 people to help out here. Please reply to this thread if interested and we'll keep the conversation rolling.
The "maps team" will help with running and managing maps:
- help with the map onboarding process. Answer any questions and generally respond to any requests to add a new map and get those maps added.
- review new maps to ensure they follow the map guidelines and policy. Basically check the content, make sure there are no hate symbols and there are no logos on the map and (as best as possible) that the map is not substantially similar to any existing copyrighted product.
- rate maps, give new and old maps an official 1 to 5 TripleA star rating on how good they are
- curate the existing maps. Identify maps that are broken and should be removed from the download listing. Try to fix any problems with existing maps that are not otherwise owned and maintained (which is the majority of maps)
- track down map owners and identify abandoned maps.
- coordinate and respond to updates to existing maps. For example, if someone wants to replace the images on a map, help them do so and merge their PR to do so.
- coordinate on any map error reports and ensure they are addressed. Either help fix XML, or if the problem is a game engine bug ensure that the maintainers are aware of the issue. In essence help ensure that we do not have a map bug report getting lost.
- general map maintenance and generally help out managing and maintaining the maps
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@LaFayette i'm in but i'm not sure how valuable i will be never really made a map of my own.
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Don't doubt yourself this early @ubernaut ! A person does not need much map making experience (it helps), but there are plenty of things to do that do not involved diving into the XML.
There will be training before the first day on the job
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We are getting lots of issues reporting on missing images. Almost all of those issues are because the map is actually missing the images. Would the map team help with managing those issues?
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I had been kind of trying to do map stuff, but I am easily distracted with other projects, and just playing the game. This issue has a few PRs that can probably be merged into their maps.
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/8245
I didn't have permission for some of them (which was kind of weird), and a few were mine so i feel like someone else should merge them. And a few i am not sure how to test currently.closed Map Pull Requests #8245
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I am interested in helping out. I have an extensive collection of scenarios on my site [Axis & Allies Wiki](https://axisandallies.fandom.com/wiki/Scenario_List. Some of these are not of sufficient quality to be in the repository.
I know of 1 broken scenario in the repository, NewWorldOrder1915Lebowski. Global 40 House Rules and Global1940 House Rules are duplicates.
I am reluctant to rate scenarios. Opinions will vary depending on what you want from a scenario.
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@RogerCooper you'd be a really perfect addition : )
The rating is still just an idea to help categorize games and replace the 'best' 'good' 'experimental' categories. Regardless, there would be plenty to do and the help is really needed and welcome.
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@Trevan said in Forming a "Maps Team":
We are getting lots of issues reporting on missing images. Almost all of those issues are because the map is actually missing the images. Would the map team help with managing those issues?
Do all the older ( pre git ) maps have a repo ? I know some do and my guess is probably that they all do.
So if one was to go through the issues, pick one that has missing image, clone that repo and add the image if necessary, make sure it works, and then self assign that issue and do a PR, would that work ?
Try for the best image one can get, within reason, but even a generic one would prevent the error.
I wouldn't want to be part of anything formal, but if the above would work, I could try and knock some out.
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You don't even need to clone the repo to update an image. You can just add an image to the units folder, and it will make a commit and a PR. At least i am 90% sure of that.
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The local clone has the benefit that if you do it in the 'downloadMaps' folder then you won't need to do any unzip work to test out the map with new images. Whatever is easiest really, both methods would work.
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Here is broken game. Under Red Sun Over China, the warlords_ffa.xml does not work. I am not sure what the issue is, it seems be not reading polygons.txt, but everything looks correct.
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How I exactly can I fix a map in the repository so it will update properly? The Battle for Arda Master contains an erroneous file called tagx.xml. Deleting that file fixes the map.
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Good question @RogerCooper , we need to define our SOPs.
Where to track problems
First question, where do we track outstanding map problems? Do we create a forum category or do we use issues? If issues, which queue do we use? If forum category, how will we tell what is still an outstanding problem?
If using an issues queue, we can create a repository in the triplea-maps org that would have an issue queue, this would give us a clean list. If using forums, we'd have to decide how we can determine what is open vs closed and otherwise would likely create a category to track it.
How to Fix problems
Fundamentally this will be creating a PR in the corresponding map repository and then either asking someone else to double check it and/or just merging the PR yourself.
How and where to document Map Team SOP and "how to join"
There likely should certainly be a pinned post in forums informing users of the maps team and where to go for more resources.
Documenting the Map Team SOP would be good in a README like file. Forums has been historically very bad for documentation, so either we add a page to website or if we are using an issues queue then we can use that same repository.
Next Steps
- (on me) add members to the 'map-admin' team, that will give everyone write access to the maps
- (for this group) consider, discuss and decide on the questions raised above
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@ubernaut do you have an account on github, if so, what is your login name?
@RogerCooper , same, is your github account name also RogerCooper?
@ff03k64 you are already added, IIRC your github account name is Charlie. Please let me know if otherwise.
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@LaFayette Yes my github account is RogerCooper as well.
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@LaFayette mine is 'doctored'
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I made a project on the TripleA-maps github homepage (is that the right name for it). I figure that might be easier to keep track of PRs and issues if we can use it correctly (i am sure i haven't gotten it to it's full potential).
At the very least, if we make a PR or issue, it can be put in that project. And then maybe taken out of the main TripleA-game issues page? -
Map-admin team invites sent to @RogerCooper and @ubernaut . That provides write access to the map repositories.
@ff03k64 , could you provide a link to that project?
PRs are going to have to live in the same repository as the map that is being updated, there is no way around that. Though, having such a project for a single queue of all issues across maps, and dedicated to just map issues I think will be helpful. I also think it will be helpful to keep that out of the triplea-game issues queue which is very noisy with all sorts of game crashes and other topics.
Whether to use forums or an issue queue for task tracking, I certainly think we should use an issue queue for it. It allows us to (self) assign issues to those actively working on them and close the items that have been completed. Thus if we can keep the queue empty, we'll know we are on top of everything.
For intra-team communication, we can again use an issue queue for that as well or forums. This will be items like:
- requests to join the team
- questions on SOP, how to fix things, how to be a map-admin
- questions on how to solve items, whether an item is a problem, etc..
I don't have a strong opinion on whether communication should live in forum or also in an issue queue, there are pros and cons to both. One is useful to consolidate more activity to one place, while forums has a broader audience and forum is exactly meant for discussion threads.
My emphasis initially will be on how we get the team set up, define our operating procedures, how we operate as a team. The goal will be to establish a framework for how the team will operate, and then under that (evolving) framework we'll be able to make good progress to fix and improve maps.
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@LaFayette hey i just got two emails stating that I'm subscribed to over 130 maps and that I will be notified of each of their updates. it seems the only way to turn those notifications off is either individually or by removing myself from the project i definitely don't want 130 subscriptions.
