And after that, I can like, use them in a game with my friends?

And how can I even contact Oli, too? Me dumb sorryo

I don't think that you can create a variant straight out of your hat on this website, but you can certainly turn in your variant to the moderators via the Variant Development Thread.

Welcome to the site, Evariate! :)

The variant creation guide that Yoshimon linked to, is indeed written by me and should cover the basics of variant creation. After that, you can indeed play the variant with your friends. And not only you and your friends could play the variant then; we would all be able to, and we will if we like it! :)

You are not dumb for not knowing how to contact Oli; I was purposefully vague about that in the guide. Oli is the site admin, but also a user, and you can search for him under Help => Find a user. But I would not worry about contacting Oli until after you have created the map(s) and are at a stage where you are ready for Oli to give you access to DevTools.

Sky_Hopper is wrong; that is not how things work. The Variant Development Thread he spoke about can be used to ask the vDip community for feedback on your variants, though. You can find the thread if you scroll a bit through the forum.

Please let us know if you have any more questions. If there is anything unclear in my guide, I'd certainly like to know.

Lastly, I would recommend to not underestimate the time investment in creating a variant. You will probably need quite some time to balance your variant (you can ask us for feedback on balance of your variant in the Variant Creation Thread if you would like that) and if you want your variant to look nice, you will likely spend quite some time on drawing, too.

So, if I create a variant which features a fictional world, with fictional countries and such, but it has no "context"... Would it be accepted?
Don't get me wrong I am dying to play diplomacy on fictional maps, and no site but this seems to feature the POSSIBILITY of custom, new and b e a u t i f u l variants.
Thanccs.

Also, is it normal that the button "download as zip" doesn't really work? It just downloads a zip file with all the folders empty as me stomach

I am curious. Do you mean based upon fiction, like Lord of the Rings? Or completely made up from scratch? Sail Ho! would be an example of the latter.

There are a number of fantasy variants on this site, if you want to make a fictitious map then there is nothing stopping you except the time needed to draw it up and colourise it ready for the devtools to code it as a playable variant on the site.

I would avoid making variants on LoTR, GoT, StarWars or StarTrek as there are potential legal issues around using those IPs and most likely won't be hosted on this site.

Nah mates, it is original. I'm just not understanding why in the heccin the zip file does not download thingies

I don't know about that, but there is no need to download anything as a zip file. I presume you are looking on https://vdiplomacy.net/dev.php?variantID=1&tab=Files&variantID=1 ? You can just click on the files themselves.

"The smallmap file is just the small map of the Classic variant, but with a few modifications. Firstly, all land and coastal territories have a uniquely different color. That is because the computer uses this file to determine which pixel belongs to which territory. For example, you can see that the island of Cyprus is colored exactly the same as the province of Smyrna. This is how the computer knows to paint Cyprus in the color of whatever country occupies Smyrna. Secondly, all the names and supply center symbols are missing on the smallmap file. However, the smallmapnames file fits perfectly on top of the smallmap file and contains all names and supply center symbols."

I didn't quite understand this. Actually, I didn't quite understand IN GENERAL how colouring works?

Oh ok no I understand it now

How could I have worded it better?

I don't think it's a case of "word it better", but a case of "hey I have English as Second Language! I can't read."

Will a minimal difference (like, if one colour is 200/200/200, the other being 201/200/200 will be enough for the program to understand they are different provinces?)
Because... *too many provinces*

I am not a native English speaker, as well. :) I use English daily, though.

Such a minimal difference will indeed be sufficient for the program to consider them to be different provinces.

And if they are black, it'd be read as "unconquerable" and "unmovable to", innit?
Also, well, your English is perfect. My English speaking quality is going downhill lately.

Thank you.

You can use any color you like for "unconquerable" territory, since unconquerable territories aren't considered territories. In a much later process, you will define all territories using map coordinates. The pixels that have the same color as the pixel of the coordinate defining a certain territory will be considered as being part of that same territory. In the game, the color of these pixels will be determined by who occupies the territory they belong to. You just never officially define any "unconquerable" territory to exist, and their color will always stay the way you colored them in your file.

This is for example the case for the boxes in the lower left and upper right corner of https://vdiplomacy.net/variants.php?variantID=44. They are never defined to be part of a territory.

By the way, you made me quite curious on what you are planning to do. :-)

https://imgur.com/a/y22jYVD
Here. This is what I'm making. (I did not put the supply centers on the same layer as the map, I just flattened the image to upload it so you could see.) I'm still struggling to find a perfect supply center/province/country ratio

Is it just me, or does the northwestern part of the map look suspiciously like Alaska, Canada, and Greenland?

Oh wow, the quality of that really went downhill.
Also, true, Sky. The person who made the map (a frend of mine) actually named the big island as "not Greenland"

Is the small island colored yellow near not Greenland colored correctly?

The yellow? Yes. It is actually a Territory called Cheeseworld. Long history.
The green is also colored correctly because it actually is part of that province

"Will a minimal difference (like, if one colour is 200/200/200, the other being 201/200/200 will be enough for the program to understand they are different provinces?)
Because... *too many provinces*"
The provinces definitely don't have to be different colors unless each of them is a player.

I will follow the development of the map with interest.

You don't know what you are talking about, Sky_Hopper.

It'S getinmg much more complicated with 200+ different territories.

In the top-middle of the map, there is a purple and black island in the middle of a sea space. Are the black spaces intended to be impassible? If so, most designers try to avoid having a space that touches only one other space. A unit there would be impossible to dislodge.

Another thing most designers avoid is having spaces that touch zero supply centers. Such spaces are generally considered irrelevant, and will hardly ever be used in a game.