How does DPJudge's DPMapit! feature work?

I'm currently GMing a game of Diplomacy at a small social forum I
visit. Every player is completely new to Diplomacy (making me the
"expert," with no online and only three FtF games under my belt). As
such, I wanted to keep players away from the computerized judges. so
instead I had planned to use DPMapit! to generate maps for my hand-
adjudicated decisions.

The only problem is that I can't get the darned thing to work.

Every time I attempt to generate a map, the link to the map ends up
broken. I assume this is due to my clumsy syntax errors (indeed, a
map does appear when I leave the box empty, though I suspect this is a
special case.) I've attempted to read through the DPJudge
documentation, but I can't seem to puzzle out what, exactly, is
necessary for instructions for DPMapit! and what isn't.

If anyone could point me to an example of legitimate instructions that
would lead to getting a map out of DPMapit, then I'd be eternally
grateful.

(Or would it be a better idea to register a real game on DPJudge, sign
up seven fake players and feed the orders I receive through them?)

-Nathaniel Rook

On Jan 10, 2:29 pm, Medi.... DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
> If anyone could point me to an example of legitimate instructions that
> would lead to getting a map out of DPMapit, then I'd be eternally
> grateful.

Writing DPMapIt files by hand is tough. But you can use any of the
results files from any of the games listings - public or private.

Here's a quick guide to the syntax, though. It's case insensitive, and
always spell out "Army" and "Fleet" (in some places, just an "A" or an
"F" will do, but not in others). You can use territory abbreviations.
Make sure any punctuation is reproduced exactly - particularly periods
at the end of the sentence. Only the words in uppercase need changes:

NATION means a country.
SEASON means spring, fall, or winter.
YEAR means a year number (like 1900).
GAMENAME is the name of the game.
TIMESTAMP is the first letter of the season (s, f, w) followed by the
year, followed by the first letter of the phase (m, r, a)
UNIT means "Army" or "Fleet"
TERRITORY means a territory - full name or abbreviation.
ETC means "etc."

Comments of my own are in parentheses

Here's the file:

Starting position for SEASON of YEAR. (GAMENAME.TIMESTAMP)

NATION: UNIT TERRITORY.
etc

Ownership of supply centers.

NATION: TERRITORY, TERRITORY, TERRITORY, ETC.

(Ownership sections are usually placed after retreats of each Fall. It
doesn't actually matter - they apply from that point on.)

Movement results for SEASON of YEAR. (GAMENAME.TIMESTAMP)

NATION: UNIT TERRITORY -> TERRITORY.
NATION: UNIT TERRITORY Support UNIT TERRITORY.
NATION: UNIT TERRITORY Support UNIT TERRITORY -> TERRITORY.
NATION: UNIT TERRITORY Convoy UNIT TERRITORY -> TERRITORY.
NATION: UNIT TERRITORY Hold.
ETC

(Also, any order can be followed by an annotation (*like this*). This
causes the move to fail, and adds the text to the orders list. Common
annotations are (*bounce*) for when a move fails, (*dislodged*) for
when a unit is dislodged, (*void*) for a support is invalid because
the unit made an order other than the one specified for supports, and
(*no convoy*) for when a fleet fails to convoy an army. You can also
(*combine,multiple,annotations*))

End of orders.

Retreat results for SEASON of YEAR. (GAMENAME.TIMESTAMP)

NATION: UNIT TERRITORY Disbands.
NATION: UNIT TERRITORY -> TERRITORY.
ETC

End of orders.

Adjustment results for SEASON of YEAR. (GAMENAME.TIMESTAMP)

NATION: Builds a(n) UNIT in TERRITORY.
NATION: Removes the UNIT in TERRITORY.

End of orders.


Hope it helps!