Map: 2 New maps: Otherland and Spheres

[VALIS]

Two new maps.

The first "Universe of the Spheres" is a colored woodcut, territories are outlined in bold, paths between stars and sphere's are marked with black lines. 81 land + 0 sea

The second "Otherland", a satellite photo with territories outlined in bold. Any boarders that touch allow travel. 37 land + 6 sea

This is 5 maps in as many days.

You know, I like Dominions 3 and was really excited to be creating content for it. I made some statements when I first posted - that map creation was easy, and that I felt disappointed in the selection, so I decided to take action to correct that.

I, like many of us here, am college educated, well traveled, and well read. I *know* that it is not easy to create a map pixel by pixel. It is amazingly difficult and time consuming and after hundreds or thousands of hours it can produce a thing of beauty. (And often may never happen - I mean the thread is even titled "The map that will never be")

Of course that's completely unnecessary to create a Dominions 3 map. All you need is an image - whether that's a woodcut, a photograph of your Warhammer 40k terrain, a pencil illustration or whatever. You need to add white dots and territory names and traits, and write some text and play-test. *That* isn't difficult - and apparently isn't done. [1]

I had excitement and saw a lack and didn't just complain, but took matters into my own hands and gave these maps to the community. The response? Threats, criticisms by people who didn't even try the maps, and a long string of verbal abuse (swearing and name-calling) by one of your long time members, followed by them telling me I deserved it. And, hell, you know, I only created 5 maps. I would hate to think what I would have deserved if I *hadn't* actually produced a solution to my issue instead of just mentioning it. (There were nice and helpful people and things said - I mention those at the end :-)

I spent some time searching the boards reading about strategies and such and actually ran across several posts, where someone new to the community said something about it being insular and hostile. The next response from a regular was "Not this complaint AGAIN!"

I've gotten some advice about how to manipulate or befriend the community. That's not my goal. My goal was just to share some things I made for a game I like, and hopefully inspire someone who, up till this point, might have thought they needed to put in hundreds of hours to have a good looking and functional map.

I search semi-annually for new Dominions maps, and had never come across this board in my search. It was only once I reached the IRC channel that I learned about these resources. In my enthusiasm I decided to share. I have some web space where my software is hosted, and I think that perhaps that is a better place for me to post my maps. It seems as if it will be easier to find from Google, and truthfully, some of the hostility makes me not excited about something I really like -- Dominions 3.

Just a few final words - there *are* some really nice maps, *and* some really nice people. I know there are probably actual balance issues with my maps, and I'd really like to say thanks to the people who tried them out and gave me good advice. And some people in the IRC channel have been *very* nice, lch, and Pshawdawg in particular. I don't expect *anything* from this missive, it's just if we find the world a way we dislike, nothing will change if we don't take action. Sharing my thoughts and creating these maps are my actions.

Enjoy the maps.



[1]Of course it can be a little more difficult to produce a *good* map. As Sombre said, balancing and testing take time. :-)