Lets make a new Map Making Guide

Frostion

I was thinking, now that the old Sourceforge website is being replaced by this new forum, that we should try to make a new and updated Map Making Guide for future and current map makers to use.

Among the old website’s thousands of posts, I think there is a lot of Map Making info worth saving. As I understand, if we want to “salvage” any nice and useful Map Making instructions, tips, guides etc. from the old website, it will have to be done manually, copy/paste style. But maybe we could use these circumstances constructively.

I would like to propose making a sticky post called “Map Making Guide” here under Map Making. Hopefully it could be a joint effort between several volunteers. The full post could aim to guide any new potential map maker though the steps of mapmaking, from the basics to the more advanced stuff. It should of course be organized with a “table of contents”, sections and subsections. Luckily we have a good solid foundation to start with. These guides by Veqryn:
http://tripleamaps.sourceforge.net/old/doc/map_and_map_skin_making_overview.html
http://tripleamaps.sourceforge.net/old/doc/How to create custom games.html

These guides' two texts are old, for TripleA v1.6.1.3, but most of the content could just be reviewed, checked for outdated content, and used in the new guide. I don’t think the best approach would be to copy and paste the old guide 1:1. I think it would be more fruitful to make a new guide, starting out with defining the “table of contents” and then write/rewrite text a little piece at a time.

• First thoughts about the idea?
• Any aspects that should be considered?
• Are anyone interested in helping out?
• What would the smartest approach to constructing this guide be? A google doc? An admin-only controlled post here at the forum? Maybe we could define the “table of contents” first, and then people could submit texts?

Zim Xero

I think the best way to do this is to make a wiki entry. This way it can be modified, sorted and arranged, and branched out easily over time. Accompany it with a "Flagged" post here with a summary of getting started, with the link, and then Q&A and feedback. Volunteers can assign themselves to various content in the forum in order to more efficiently transfer data or create sections.

beelee

@Frostion @Zim-Xero
These are excellent ideas. I'm going back to work soon and won't have much pc access and frankly, don't think I understand how the xml works well enough to be of much help.

Idk how wikis really work that well either, but I know Roger Cooper has one that lists all or most of the properties. I don't have his link handy but I'll track it down. Here it is:

link text

prastle

I think rogers link is listed on home page let me know if i posted wrong link

beelee

@prastle
yea I think he has multiple ones. That one lists all the games and links to other stuff, but not to this one,or at least I couldn't find it. You have to dl some stuff and I didn't explore that far.

Black_Elk

I think it would be nice to have. This kind of info is always relevant, and can be hard to hunt down sometimes. Also there's always new stuff cropping up in the map features, so even an old dog who's been around for a while can still learn the latest tricks.

prastle

WOW! @beelee I have never even seen that link. Great Stuff!

theredbaron

@Frostion Are you still thinking along these lines? I would be amicable to helping out on such a project, especially with the technical details of formatting it and making it easy to read and use once the information has been complied.

I had floated this idea once before, but without collaborators or time, it sunk pretty quickly. Here is a tidbit of those past ideas: https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea-game.github.io/issues/38

There is certainly a lot of content that such a guide could have, but I think opening it up to the community would both increase our range and be a learning process for us all. I'd love to work with you to kickstart a project like this. Maybe PM me if you want to discuss a bit.

ghost created this issue in triplea-game/triplea-game.github.io

closed Add List of Strategy Wargame Mechanics for Map makers #38

beelee

@theredbaron
H yea ! would be nice to see a triplea all-star team take this on ! Unfortunately I'm not smart enough to be of much use.

But would be cool to see happen : )

Zim Xero

@beelee

The basics (in a guide or guides) can always be improved. I'm for this but not willling to take on the enormous task.

The thing I think is even more important is problem and coding Q & A . There are a lot of posts with dozens of replies that result in the initial question being answered. This is the kind of stuff that it will hurt to lose... but actually be an advantage to capture in one location.

redrum

@theredbaron So I actually think the part that needs documented better is the "process" and what tools people use today. While documenting the different mechanics and the POS 2 XML would be useful, I think we really need to evaluate map making process as a whole before sinking lots of time into something like that.

I'd really like to vastly improve the map making tools but currently don't even have a good feel for how folks actually create maps.