A Word about the Maps in the Archive

[Morg]

Unfortunately not all of the maps in the archives have been retained. There are a few reasons for this which I'll get into below.

First however, I have gone through the archives and with each variant the availability of the maps is labeled right after the title. This should help guide those who are unfamiliar with the PbFDip forum or PbFD archives to be able to have an easier time finding what they are looking for. For some of the variants unfortunately all maps have been lost. For others the maps have been lost on some games, but are present for others. For some variants the final map is all that remains. Some variants are far luckier and all the maps remain.

There are a few reasons that many of the maps have been lost and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a perfect way to store them that ensures that they will keep.
1. Right about April 17th 2013 the PlayDip community switched server providers. The transition did not go as smoothly as hoped and many of the maps that were stored onsite were lost during the transition. This hit the PbFDip archives hard and just about everything prior to that date has been lost.
2. Prior to that server switch the biggest reason maps were lost was that they were stored on an offsite photo-hosting service. Often these maps would get lost as either the GM posting the maps lost service, the GM posting them deleted them, the service purged old maps, or the service stopped providing service. Of the maps that were shown this way about 2/3rds of them have been lost. Some of the ones that predate the server switch listed above do still have the maps available however, but they are few.
3. Some of the variants were played as Fog of War, with the maps being PM'ed out rather than posted. While we currently insist that in Fof of War games the final map be posted after the game has ended this wasn't always the case and many of these were lost.

The PbFDip community is an engine of creativity. There are always new creations being made and played here. The biggest loss with missing maps is that some of these creations were truly one of a kind and with the maps lost, it is doubtful that the games will ever come back to life

Currently there is a mix of how GMs will post the maps. Some of the more complicated and/or detailed maps continue to be provided through photo-hosting services, however I think more GMs work to keep the map file sizes within limits and post directly to the site. Both ways have their merits and faults. Prior to the loss in 2013 posting maps to the forum was a surefire way to make them keep. Now it's almost as sure.

Hopefully the current method of listing map availability helps you navigate the forum and hopefully our collection will continue to expand as the PbFDip community grows and more maps get played.