Here's my roughdraft for a front-page announcement of this game…

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http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c232/GeneralW/BtsMTDG_logo_sm.jpg
The Second Civ4 M.T.D.G. is about to start!


If you missed the action in the first M.T.D.G (Multi-Team Democracy Game) now's your chance to join at the start of the new one!

This time around there will be 5 teams vying for the win in Beyond the Sword played over a PitBoss server.

What is an MTDG? It's a "beyond multiplayer" experience. Not only will you be playing against other humans – you'll be playing against TEAMS of devious, honorable, innovative, emotional, warmongering, & diplomatic players. Each team has a private forum in which to plot, elect leaders, plan diplomacy, and strategize for war.

What if I don't own a copy of BtS? No problem! You don't even have to own Civ4 to join in the fun. (Though, obviously, you'll need to own BtS if you ever want to serve as turnplayer for your team).

How long will it take to play? Each team must play their turn in 24 hours or less. So there's guaranteed to be at least 1 save to play every week – though it's obviously possible that the game could move faster than that. But remember: even when there's not a save to play, there's still scheming and planning to be done with your team in the private forum.

What are the game settings? Plans are still being finalized – so join the conversation taking place right now!
We know for sure that there will be 5 teams, it'll be a simultaneous-turn PitBoss game, played in Civ4 BtS, with a 24 hour turn timer.


To learn more and sign up – visit here: <link>

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Thoughts?
Additions?
Deletions?

Maybe add a link to the video about the game that you made, and/or tell a story about the first game.

This is what I came up for a possible intor to the new game.

For a good intro to how the first [civ4] MTDG went you can have a look at this video made by the very talented General_W. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=S1D60lNiO5M He also made some other videos about incidents in the game, so have a look out for them in this thread. EEN Headline News. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193385)

We Started out with five teams. You can have a look at Team Aloha (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=185) to find out the game from there perceptive. You can also look at the other teams, Team Epsilon (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=188), Team Innovia (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=184), Team Loco (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=187), and Team Piffle (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=186).

We are a few weeks away from starting so the more people we get the more fun this game is going to be. If you happen to be person who loves playing SGOTM, then this is just an expanded version but instead of playing AI, you are playing against other humans and thus playing against a better opponent. If you play SP games, then you will get a challenge of playing other skilled players and expanding your knowledge of the game. If you play MP games then you get an expand MP game that I know you will enjoy. So what are you waiting? Have your say to make this your game.

Great suggestions!
Thanks Empiremaker and classical hero!

Here's version 2…

---------------------------



http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c232/GeneralW/BtsMTDG_logo_sm.jpg


The Second Civ4 M.T.D.G. is about to start!

If you missed the action in the first M.T.D.G (Multi-Team Democracy Game) now's your chance to join at the start of the new one!

This time around there will be 5 teams vying for the win in Civ4 - Beyond the Sword played over a PitBoss server.

F.A.Q.'s
What is an MTDG? It's a "beyond multiplayer" experience. Not only will you be playing against other humans – you'll be playing against TEAMS of devious, honorable, innovative, emotional, warmongering, & diplomatic players. Each team has a private forum in which to plot, elect leaders, plan diplomacy, and strategize for war.

What if I don't own a copy of BtS? No problem! You don't even have to own Civ4 to join in the fun. (Though, obviously, you'll need to own BtS if you ever want to serve as turnplayer for your team).

How long will it take to play? Each team must play their turn in 24 hours or less. So there's guaranteed to be at least 1 save to play every week – though it's obviously possible that the game could move faster than that. But remember: even when there's not a save to play, there's still scheming and planning to be done with your team in the private forum.

What are the game settings? Plans are still being finalized – so join the conversation taking place right now! We know for sure that there will be 5 teams, it'll be a simultaneous-turn PitBoss game, played in Civ4 BtS, with a 24 hour turn timer.

Had this been done before? Yes! There have been 2 MTDG's played with C3C, and we just finished an MTDG game in Civ4-vanilla. The 1st Civ4 MTDG took a long time to complete, but this game will be much faster, thanks to the change to a PitBoss format. You can get a flavor of the game by watching a video summary of the 1st Civ-4 MTDG on YouTube (and a whole slew of other videos) by visiting the EEN Headline News thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193385).

Am I cut out for this? If you love playing SGOTM, then this is like an expanded version where, instead of playing against an AI, you are playing against real human intelligence - and thus playing against a better opponent. If you play Single-Player games, then you will get a challenge of playing other skilled players and expanding your knowledge of the game through cooperation and competition with those players. If you play Multi-Player games then you get an expanded MP game that we know you will enjoy.


So what are you waiting for?
To learn more and sign up – visit here: <link>

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Thoughts?

I'm worried that might be getting too long.
Is there a limit on Front-page announcement size?

Yeah, that is a bit too long. You might want to have a few FAQs and then a link to a more detailed overview/introduction thread.

ok - thanks Ginger Ale.

Will we get a new BtS forum at some point? The full F.A.Q. thread should probably be there.


Here's my proposed shortened version...

---------------------------



http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c232/GeneralW/BtsMTDG_logo_sm.jpg


The Second Civ4 M.T.D.G. is about to start!

If you missed the action in the first M.T.D.G (Multi-Team Democracy Game) now's your chance to join at the start of the new one! This time around there will be 5 teams vying for the win in Civ4 - Beyond the Sword played over a PitBoss server.

What is an MTDG? It's a "beyond multiplayer" experience. No "artificial" intelligence around here! You'll be playing against whole TEAMS of devious, honorable, innovative, emotional, warmongering, & diplomatic players. Each team has a private forum in which to plot, elect leaders, plan diplomacy, and strategize for war.
You get the challenge of playing against skilled opponents on other teams… and you also get the education that comes from cooperation with skilled players on your own team.

What if I don't own a copy of BtS? No problem! You don't even have to own Civ4 to join in the fun. (Though, obviously, you'll need to own BtS if you ever want to serve as turnplayer for your team).

What are the game settings? Plans are still being finalized – so join the conversation taking place right now! We know for sure that there will be 5 teams, it'll be a sequential-turns PitBoss game, played in Civ4 BtS, with a 24 hour turn timer. [Meaning, you'll have at least 1 save to play every 5 days… with plenty of scheming and planning in your private forum in-between]

Where Can I learn More? For facts, read our new F.A.Q. thread here: <link>
For flavor, watch some videos from the last MTDG by visiting the EEN Headline News thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193385).


So what are you waiting for?
Sign up here: <link>

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Will that be short enough?
Is my Logo small enough for the main-page?
Any other thoughts on this?

I think the logo is fine. Looks good:goodjob:.

Sure, we can have TF create a brand new forum and all that.

Actually, judging on the length of images used in post announcements and the lengths of those posts, I think yours is fine. Let me know when you've finalized it...

edit: So, would you guys prefer a new forum before this announcement is posted, or not?

Yeah it would be nice to have a new forum to link to and then make the announcement.

I have to say, the General's videos about the Civ III MTDG II was what sucked me into MTDG III. It's a great advertisement, so links to those that are easily accessible would be a great way to generate interest.

Thanks A.T. :blush:
Hopefully the link to the EEN thread with all the videos in post #1 (as I have it set up now) - will be easy enough for people to get.

@Ginger_Ale - yeah, I think a new forum would be great. Chatter seems to be dying out here, I think it's probably about time to open a new forum, establish a few sticky thread (FAQ, Sign-up, etc) and then post a mainpage announcement.
That's my vote anyway.

new forum. which team am i on ;)

WAIT!

I think there's an error in G_W's announcement:
...it'll be a simultaneous-turns PitBoss game...

I thought it was sequential :hmm:

:ack: Good catch!
That was quite the typo on my part :blush:

Now fixed!
Thanks Peter. :salute:

I think we can get this sent off to a Mod and get an announcement made and get the good discussions going much faster.

I PMed Ginger Ale to ask for help getting the new forum setup.

Then we should get a sticky sign-up thread, a game info thread, FAQ thread, and the last of the necessary polls set up.

Once all the threads are in place, we can ask for the frontpage announcement.
:thumbsup:

I sent a request to TF for the forums, so he should take care of that sometime soon. After that, I can post the announcement.

[party] New forums created! Feel free to create the threads you need, and then when you guys are ready, let me know and I'll post an announcement.

PS: You might also want to PM some reminders to people who may have forgotten about this.

Nice work! Thanks Ginger_Ale (and Thunderfall!)

Wow... I feel like I've moved to a new home... I'll start work on an FAQ thread here at lunch...

Once we put the signup thing on the front page, maybe we should ask those who are excited about the game to make some comments about why they like it so much. I think hearing a lot of enthusiasm for the format will help bring people in.

I'm not talking about some theory, but why you want to play it. me, it's partly because I enjoy the multiplayer aspect and I really don't have time to dedicate to single player games and so the many people on a team allows me to participate a lot sometimes and less other times. Besides, it's just FUN - you make up silly stuff, you learn about your civ, you create a history that is more or less detailed.

I just had a second thought:

General_W (and others), I will post the entire MTDG introduction and overview, however long it is. In order to keep the post on the main page relatively short, though, I will put the core info in the first post of the news thread, and any extra info you want in a second post, so that people who follow up won't have to click through a lot of links just to read more.

Perhaps it would be best to post the announcement even for this discussion phase and get signups?

I'm not sure I follow you...

How is a second post different from the current plan for a link to the FAQ page? :dunno:

Sorry... I'm probably just being dense here.

Well, for people that read the news by going to the News Update forum and clicking on the threads, they will see all the info at once.

Even for people who read via the main page, it can't hurt to duplicate the info and spread the word.

Why I play the MTDGs:

I stumbled into the first one - on team MIA. I had been playing civ3 for many years, mostly casually. But the level of skill required to be competitive in the MTDG format was a real eye-opener. There were top tier players on all the teams, and they were incredibly helpful in explaining techniques and strategies to me. I learned more from that team than I ever did on my own. So that's the intellectual level, I suppose.

But the fact that we're a team, playing against another team of crafty and devious humans - that's the aspect that keeps me up at night mulling over developments in the game! Is our Ally about to stab us in the back? If they do, are we prepared? How on earth can we prevent the enemy from getting to the Industrial Era?? It's the human beings on the other teams that make the game addictively intricate.

Every team I've been on has also run side games. I've played 2 games of Diplomacy, watched 2 pbem games, and a couple of the more traditional group games, like Sheriff.

But, as AT mentioned, I think the part that is the most fun is crafting the civ to represent the team. The Council (civ3 MTDG 2) is a wonderful example of how rule by committee is supposed to work: The best decisions are arrived at after group discussion and refinement. Epsilon's Leader was more Monarchical, and that worked really well for that team.

Oh! I get you now.

I never do that (obviously) :blush:

But that's a great idea. Post#1 is the news thing I created. Then post #2-? are the FAQ and people posting what they love about MTDGs... maybe even answering questions of the curious that post in that thread... I love it :thumbsup:


Well, we're clearly not going to be starting the game today... maybe we could aim to have this post on the frontpage go live today? Or maybe Monday the 3rd of November?

I really enjoy the shared history, as well. We have a city named "Chamsuri's Cove" on Council Island, which is in honor of our first curragh, Chamsuri (which is a class of Korean coastal warship, if I remember correctly), which survived silly amounts of time at sea. When it went down, we had memorials and I tried to adapt The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald to it. Soon after that, the Council voted to keep me away from the keyboard...

Sure -- I think posting earlier is better, though not too early. If there's a consensus on what to post, I'm ready to post.

So, are we ready?

I don't see why not - unless we want to include a start date as part of the announcement.

We could pick Armistice Day, and start the server on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month....

Sort of odd symbolism, but what do you expect from a pacifist-builder type? :lol:

Okay, I think I will post the announcement tonight...I will probably create a sign up thread too, so that players have a place to officially organize themselves onto teams.

Thanks Ginger Ale!

(sorry I've been quiet the last couple days. Out on a business trip)

Let's get this party started! :beer: