Purpose
The purpose of this site is to create a simple repository where dominions 3 players can come to find good quality (rated)maps of all types.
The purpose of this map is also to create a hub for map-makers to share maps and get feedback from players and other makers.
The dominions 3 forums on shrapnel are wonderful, but I hope this organization allows for more efficient dissemination and feedback for custom maps.
In the future, this site could be extended to use for mods if desired. It could also house some very basic how-to's that often come up and get lost on the shrapnel forums such as "How Do I Make a Map?" or "What Illustrators Do People Use?"
Right now it only has maps.
Reviewing and Downloading Maps
There are a number of map threads. Each one should have a description, some ratings, and a link to the shrapnel dominions 3 forums where you can download the map. This saves us having the pay for hosting space and bandwidth. If you download a map, please come back later and rate the map - pay for what you get for free by giving feedback. Please do numerical ratings, but also leave a detailed comment. A good comment specifically explains why you gave the map the numerical score you did for each category (If you don't want to reveal what you voted, you can say what you liked about each element, and what could have been better). When you rate a map, you'll notice six categories, the first of which is "overall". This mis meant to be your overall rating of the map, which is not necessarily an average or even related to the other five maps. Maybe a map is not balanced, visually ugly, uncreative, has a bad story, etc… but for some reason is just your favorite map to play over and over again. Give it a great overall score.
To Mapmakers/Map Posters:
This forum set-up is meant to help get feedback, and collect maps. All maps should be uploaded the the shrapnel dominions 3 forum, as that saves us hosting space and bandwidth. You should make a new thread in the appropriate maps forum for each new map. For comparison, it is ideal if every thread looks similar in format. Please check out the thread marked as Sample Map Posting, which shows a smaple posting, and shows all the text/code to generate that posting. It can be used to form your own posts. You should add a Poll (DETAILS BELOW) so people can rate it. You should include some pictures, hosted elsewhere (I use imageshack.us, DETAILS BELOW). Also, include a summary of the vitals of your map, both in the thread title summary and in the header post (DETAILS BELOW).
Adding a Poll
Go to http://polls.zoho.com/
Become a member and make a poll, exactly like the other polls (same categories, in the same order).
I can not do this for you, but it is very simple to do. Click on create poll, choose the right option "Create polls to rate", enter your map title where it says "Specify a Title for your poll", and leave the next field blank. Below where it says "Add options to your poll are three fields. Click more three times to get a total of six fields, then enter the 6 categories (overall, story, balance, creativity, visual appeal, bug-free-ness) one in each field. You can ignore all the other options, and go to the bottom and click "Submit". Once a poll is made there is a link to the right of it to put that poll on a website. You will put the string they give you in some tags with this format
[[embed]]
@iframe frameborder='0' src='http://polls.zoho.com/external/YOURNAME/MAP-TITLE' width='260' height='260'></iframe@
[[/embed]]
Preview Images
To display images (that you have uploaded to imageshack.us or some other site), put the following code in your post:
[[image http://www.whereveryourimageis.com]]
Vitals Summary
At the very top of your thread, please post, in the following format:
#Players (Range, e.g. 6-10)
#Provinces (#, e.g. 200)
Balance (MP even if map is fair, MP complex if it is for multiplayer but not all starts are fair, SP if it is SP map)
Era (All, EA, MA, LA)
Preset Races (No, or list the races or limitations, e.g. Land Only)
The code to do this is:
> **#Players** 4-12
> **#Provinces** 200
> **Balance** MP Even
> **Era** All
> **Preset Races** Land Only
General Forum Notes
For Formatting help, go to http://www.wikidot.com/doc:wiki-syntax