Author Topic: Statement on Map Claims  (Read 1581 times)

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Offline Achkaerin

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Statement on Map Claims
« on: January 02, 2020, 01:37:48 PM »
The following is an official statement from the Cartographer:

Without mentioning names in the last few days a particular issue has cropped up with regards to map claims - specifically we have people seeking to claim territory that is a fair distance away from their 'main' territory. Such claims do slow down the map update process because not only do I have to check all the claimed territories are valid but I also have to in the case of the territory (or territories) that are at a distance conduct an additional process, my intention with this statement is to explain this additional process.

As always lets start with the RP Rules:

Quote
(10) The cartographer may reject a map claim if:
(a) A member does not, at the time of the map update, fulfil the requirements;
(b) It ‘double parks’, meaning that it fills a position that makes it difficult for other members to reasonable claim around it;
(c) The claimed territories are unreasonably separated so as to be unrealistic to form a single state;
It violates the roleplay rules; or

(d) It coincides with portions of the map already occupied.

I've highlighted 10(c) because that's the key reason in this context. What it means is that when I process a map claim I look at where the territories are in relation to each other, usually they are all grouped together and bordering each other (i.e how Seaforth is on the map) that is a reasonable claim. We've had instances in the past where nations have claimed territory on the east coast of Alba Karinya and the west coast of the Illumic peninsula (Seaforth area) and that's a reasonable claim because the distance is not unreasonable.

Where it gets unreasonable is when great amounts of distance get thrown into the mix, if you claim a group of territories which are located together and then one that is on the other side of Mundus geographically speaking then that claim WILL be provisionally be marked as rejected. This is because under rule 10(c) they are unreasonably separated in terms of distance, however what happens next is that I talk to you before I finalize that decision, simply put I ask the following questions:

1) What is the IC backstory/plan?

In simple terms you need to be able to tell me why the distant territory is part of your nation (if an initial claim), if expanding a claim after some RP time then you need to explain how this territory is going to become part of your nation - so for example conquest, old colony voting by referendum etc. It's not a difficult question to answer but I do expect a credible answer that is reasoned out. I also encourage people when doing this to factor in a historic link between the nation and the distant territory.

2) Why does it have to be that specific territory?

This is more of an OOC question but I ask it because it's proven effective in dealing with this issue before. In short you need to tell me why the distant territory has to be where it is. Or to put it another way "Why does it have to be territory X when the backstory could also apply to territory A?" I ask this question because I'm trying to keep the distance between map plots occupied by the same nation as minimal as possible because (and I hope this is understandable) what I don't want is a situation where so called "Scattered" claims become the norm, split claims such as these are the exceptions to the norm they should not become the norm.

Let me give you an example - Awhaele is under my primary nation claim, it's a territory expansion. I picked R20 as the territory claim which makes it a split claim with distance, however the backstory (as found in the reference note) explains why it is where it is - the history of Awhaele involves not just Achkaerin but Vaguzia as well so what was needed was a territory that both Achkaerin and Vaguzia could have access to historically, both states have a strong maritime history so R20 made sense.

A final word of practical advice if doing this by means of expansion do be aware of regional history in the area you are expanding to because you may find that you inadvertently create a few problems.

In summary if you are going to expand to or even make a split claim then please ask yourself both of the above questions when doing so and be ready to tell me what the answers are because if you can't answer them then your map claim will be rejected as per RP rule 10(c).