DPjudge Map File Syntax

General Directives

# comment...: Any line that has a pound sign (#) as its first non-whitespace character will be considered a comment, and ignored. Comments must span a complete line (that is, you may not add a comment to the end of a non-comment line).
USE[S] fileName...: This line causes another file to be immediately read in. This is used to share map information. For example, the britain.map file USES the standard.geography file, which contains all the geography for the standard Diplomacy map.
MAP mapName: This line is identical to USE mapName.map with the additional provision that the graphical map template (used to generate the actual visual map) will be the same as that used for the specified mapName. For example, the "fleetRome" map not only USEs the same map data (slightly altered) as the standard map, but also uses the same graphical map for display. By contrast, the "britain" and "crowded" maps may USE (that is, load and then alter) the data from the standard map file, but (due to the additional SC's that these variants use), they use different graphical map than does the standard game.

Geographic Directives

placeName = abbreviation alias...

This type of line specifies all the recognized aliases for a map location. The placeName is the long form of the map location (the form to appear in results mailings). The abbreviation is the DPjudge standard abbreviation for the place-name (the form to appear in all orders when shown to the player on his Web pages). Each alias is a single word (that is, having no embedded spaces) that is to be recognized as another name for the location in question. If you wish to specify an alias that is more than a single word in length, you must join the separate words using plus-sign characters (+). For example,
Norwegian Sea = nwg norwegian nrg norwsea norw+sea
If an alias ends with a question-mark (?), it must not contain a plus-sign, and this indicates that the alias (without the question-mark) is to be considered "ambiguous." Ambiguous aliases may not be used in games that use the NO_CHECK rule (the ambiguity will be reported to the player at the time of order-entry). For example, TYR is an ambiguous alias in the standard game map, since it is commonly used as an alias for both Tyrolia and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

terrain abbreviation [ABUTS [abut...]]

This type of line specifies the terrain type and adjacencies for the place-name whose abbreviation is given. The terrain must be either WATER, LAND, COAST, PORT, or SHUT (impassable). The only difference between PORT and COAST spaces is that fleets located in PORT spaces may convoy armies as if they were in water.

The abut locations are DPjudge standard abbreviations. This line is case-sensitive. Everything must be in upper-case except the following:

The abbreviation for any COAST location that a fleet cannot occupy must be listed entirely in lowercase. For instance, on the standard map, Spain and Bulgaria must be listed as spa and bul since fleets may only occupy either SPA/SC or SPA/NC).
In the list of adjacencies, any location to which a fleet cannot move from the location in question must be listed entirely in lowercase. For example, on the standard map, Tuscany must be listed as tus in the list of locations adjacent to VEN.
In the list of adjacencies, any LAND or COAST location to which an army cannot make a direct (non-convoyed) move from the location in question must be listed with its first character in uppercase and the remainder in lower-case. This is useful to specify offshore islands, and therefore no example on the standard map can be given. Consider, however, allowing an army to be convoyed into the Tyrrhenian Sea (call it Sicily). To implement this, the Tyrrhenian Sea would be given the terrain type PORT (to allow fleets in that space to convoy) and all land spaces adjacent to the Tyrrhenian Sea would list their adjacency to that space as Tys (rather than TYS or tys) to indicate than an army may not move directly to the space despite the fact that movement from a COAST (such as Rome) to an adjacent PORT (the Tyrrhenian) would otherwise be allowed. Convoyed movement would be allowed, though, so an order such as A Nap-ION-TYS would be perfectly valid.

If an area abuts a multi-coast province, its adjacencies must list only the coasts that are reachable, and must not list the main space itself (for example, RUM is listed as being adjacent to BUL/EC, but not to BUL itself). Additionally, the line for each coast for a province should appear in the map file before the line for the space itself.

Political Directives

powerName [(ownWord[:abbrev])] [center...]: This type of line is used to specify a power name, its "ownership word" and single-letter abbreviation (for instance, England's ownership word would be "English", and abbreviation would be "E") and all centers that serve as the home centers for the power. If the ownWord is omitted, the powerName is used for this purpose, and if the abbrev is omitted, the initial letter of the ownWord is used as the abbreviation. Multiple lines for a single powerName may be used to handle long lists of centers. This type of line sets a "current power" such that all following lines (that specify initial owned centers and units) will apply to this power (as opposed to any other) until another powerName directive is encountered.
UNOWNED [(ownWord)] [center...] -or- NEUTRAL [(ownWord)] [center...] -or- CENTERS [(ownWord)] [center...]: This line (all three forms are synonymous) is used to list all unowned supply centers. The UNOWNED power differs from others in that all centers listed as UNOWNED may be listed elsewhere without error -- they are silently moved to owned status. Additionally, any "current power" is forgotten by this line. Again, multiple lines may be used to supply a long list of unowned centers.

Military Directives

RULE rule...: Specifies a DPjudge RULE that will be in effect for all games using this map. An example of a RULE that would belong in a map file would be BUILD_ANY for a Youngstown map. This would indicate that any game using this map will allow builds in any unoccupied, owned supply center.
VICTORY centerCount...: Specifies a list of the supply center counts which will determine victory, from the first game-year forward (the final listed number is repeated for subsequent years). This line is optional; if omitted, the VICTORY criteria is set (for all game-years) to one supply center greater than half the number of centers on the map.
FLOW season:phase[,phase...] ...: This line specifies the sequence of phases through a game year. Each season must be followed by a colon and then immediately (no intervening whitespace) by one or more phase types. If more than one phase type is given, these should be separated from each other by commas (again, with no intervening whitespace). This line is optional; if not provided, the following is used:
FLOW SPRING:MOVEMENT,RETREATS FLOW FALL:MOVEMENT,RETREATS FLOW WINTER:ADJUSTMENTS
Each individual phase type must begin with a unique letter. Additionally, the phase names MOVEMENT, RETREATS, and ADJUSTMENTS are reserved (and therefore, so are the initial letters M, R, and A). (See the status file syntax list for more information on the FLOW command.)
PHASE season year phaseType: Specifies the initial game phase. This line is optional; if it is omitted, the initial game phase will be SPRING 1901 MOVEMENT.
OWNS center...: Specifies the list of centers owned by the "current power" at the beginning of the game. If not specified, the list of initially owned centers is set to the home centers that were listed for the "current power." One or more of the centers may be SC?, which allows the player to place a build on any vacant home center despite the fact the he does not own it at the start of the game.
UNITS: This line is optional. If given, all units that have been listed at initial units for the "current power" are immediately forgotten. This can be used to alter the starting position of a power from that given in a USEd file.
unit: Specifies a unit that the current power owns at the beginning of the game.