I think the most important improvement that could be made on this site at this time is the import and export of map data in a standard format.  I am cross posting this in the wargear and warfish forums, because I think it would be in the best interests of both sites, to put aside any differences and come to an agreement on a format that both can support.    Allowing easy import and export of user data will force the sites to compete on quality, but will give both an edge over other sites. This page explains why google doesn't attempt to trap users data, and I think similar arguments could be made for warfish/wargear: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/not-trapping-users-data-good/.


In addition to allowing mapmakers better ownership of their creations, allowing import and export would allow for much easier creation of maps.  Adding/modifying borders/continents could be as easy as cut&paste or search&replace.  Mapmakers with the ability could write simple scripts to do things like "hordify" certain areas, align countries, verify borders, calculate map statistics, generate borders for geometric maps, etc.  Once written, these scripts would likely be available to all map makers (much like IRoll11s excellent scripts)

IMO, XML or JSON would work well for this standard map data.  Maybe something like:

<map version="0.1">
<rules>
<fortifies>3</fortifies>
<abandon>true</abandon>
</rules>


<countries>
<country name="Western U.S." xpos="120" ypos="200" capital="false" />
<country name="Eastern U.S." xpos="150" ypos="200" ' capital="false" />
</continents>

<borders>
<border from="Western U.S." to="Eastern U.S." attackModifier="+1" type="normal">
</borders>

<continents>
<continent value="5">
<country>Western U.S.</country>
<country>Eastern U.S.</country>
</continent>
</continents>


</map>

Obviously warfish & wargear already have different sets of map making features, so it might take a bit of work to get an XML DTD (or JSON equivalent) that can encapsulate everything.  But even if an agreement can't be made on compatible formats, it would still be worthwhile for either site to implement import/export because of the additional map making abilities.

Incorporating a standard import/export function is clearly in the best interests of the mapmakers and users, but I think less obviously that it is also in the best interests of the sites.  For warfish there is the opportunity to continue to have access to the future maps of the many great mapmakers who have left for wargear.  For wargear there is the opportunity to more quickly have access to the great repository of existing warfish maps.  It would not only be a great feature for map makers, but it would show a commitment from the sites towards future development, because it would represent a commitment to compete on quality and not by locking user data up.  As a map maker, not having my hard work locked away in a proprietary way is worth quite a bit to me.  If one site were to implement this, but not the other, then this will be the major factor influencing which site I spend most of my time developing for.




This is a question for IRoll11s or someone with similar knowledge - I see that the warfish mapmaker greasemonkey extension has a import/export feature for borders.  Would it be possible to modify this to include all/most of the map data, so that even if this is not implemented by the site owners, one of the users could hack it on via greasemonkey?

THIS SITE IS NOT IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THAT OTHER SITE AND SOON, VERY SOON, WE WILL ALL FORGET ABOUT THAT OTHER SITE!

I'm not putting my differences behind me. Let's let this site run for a while. It's been around under a year and is already out of beta!!!!!!!

P.S. Fish live in their own filth and don't even know it......true story!

Great idea ozyman. Riskyback = Douchebag

Thanks Jigen.  

THIS SITE IS NOT IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THAT OTHER SITE

Ok Risky, you keep telling yourself that.

Hi ozyman - importing and exporting data from the board designer is actually already on the todo list as it will be useful for designers to edit board data (e.g. Territory positions) offline. Landgrab and warfish both use an open published API to communicate with the game engine which can be used to access board data in XML format, WarGear also allows this the only difference being the api hasn't been published as i've not had time yet.

So the potential is there for inter site cooperation, whether this will happen or not is another matter :)

Thanks Tom. I have high hopes for Wargear. I bought a premium membership just to support your effort.

Much appreciated thanks :)