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. To view a map's rating and to rate it, you must follow a link (its a different tab from the map preview). Please leave comments on this website (scroll to bottom of page) instead of leaving comments on the voting page. Once you follow the link it will show, at left, your ratings out of five stars (and hopefully you havent voted yet). If you click on "show results" it will show, at right, the average vote of all previous people. If you vote, this average vote, at right, will be updated. If you leave a comment on zoho, change your user name from that of the person who created the poll to your own (But I'd prefer if you voet on the dom3maps page). 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 web 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. To add a map you:
1. Go to the appropriate page to make a link to your map based on the map size. Your choices are:
2-100 provinces http://dom3maps.wikidot.com/system:newsmall
101-500 provinces http://dom3maps.wikidot.com/system:newmed
501-1000 provinces http://dom3maps.wikidot.com/system:newlarge
1001+ provinces http://dom3maps.wikidot.com/system:newxl
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and choose "Edit" (Note: You May have to be a member to do this. Becoming a member is easy, just click the top nav.)
The code will look something like this:
[[[system: sixlands | Six Lands]]]
[[[system: cavesandcorners | Caves and Corners]]]
Do not delete any of the existing code. Go to the bottom of the list, and add a line
[[[system: yourmapname | Your Map Name]]]
then click on save at the bottom. This creates a link to a page where you will post your map.
3. Click on the link you just made. You'll be told that page doesn't exist (yet). Click "create page".
I set up a template, so most of the code for your page is auto-generated. If you did nothing and saved your page would look like this:
http://dom3maps.wikidot.com/system:testmap
(Actually, you have to type something or it won't let you save.)
The template I made has obvious places where you should edit things, such as where I write "FILL IN TEXT HERE" in all caps.
Fill it in. When you are done, click save. Note, you can edit this page at later times.
You should make a new page in the appropriate maps forum for each new map. For comparison, it is ideal if every thread looks similar in format. 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).
Adding a Poll This has changed! Please note the change to private polls
[[/span]]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. Select your poll to be "private", and write only your own email address. Zoho will send you a link to the poll. Publish the link to the poll to this website. (Public polls, which I previously used, can be found by people just goofing off on Zoho, and many of the public map polls got voted on a lot by random people who never saw the maps or visited the website. The private poll is less convenient because people have to follow a link to find the rating, but it will not be contaminated. All maps posted before I made this note have had their polls fixed by me.) You can ignore all the other options, and go to the bottom and click "Submit".
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]]
General Forum Notes
For Formatting help, go to http://www.wikidot.com/doc:wiki-syntax
