: I've come back to 'thon after a long hiatus, and completely missed the advent
: of AO. The last time I was in contact with the community was the launch of
: Rubicon, and I hit that even a year or so late. Could anyone give me a
: real layperson's low-down on how to get a map into circulation, what kinds
: of technical pitfalls I might need to look out for, and so on? At the
: moment, I'm using Forge from the open source d/l page (*offers gratitude
: for prayers answered*) but I'm a complete novice with Anvil, and some of
: the additions that have been made to the editing toolbox (e.g., Chisel)
: are as yet undiscovered territory for me.
: Advice, suggestions, ideas are welcomed and appreciated.
Most of the mappers I know go through two routes: posting it on Fileball, and cramming it down other peoples' throats by hosting netgames with the map selected.
Anvil shouldn't be necessary for simple things (like netmaps) unless you want to make people frustrated or angry. It's considerably more useful when you're designing a more involved and grandiose scenario / conversion. And Chisel is a very specific tool with a very specific set of purposes and a very limited range of uses. However, it's basically the only way to perform the tasks that it offers, so it's good to have a copy around should the need ever arise.
Other things... you might be interested in Pfhorge (which hasn't been updated in forever, what's the deal Mr. Orr?), which is a more modern mapping application, though it still has work that needs to be done on it. For the record, I prefer Forge (for the moment).
And Hastur's Guide to Mapmaking is always a good read... and someone published a Map Making Aesthetics or Guide to Mapmaking or something like that. It had a decent list of Dos-and-Don'ts.
But all in all the technical side of the process is very easy and straightforward. It's mostly the creative part that's terribly difficult.
