Okay, things seem to have stagnated a little here, so I thought we could do with a firm push and a deadline.
I've started
this thread where every team should have one person make one post containing their team roster. This will allow us to see at a glance who is committed to playing.
I propose that
any team which has not posted in this thread by 31 May 2012 (i.e. within one week)
will be assumed not to be playing. I hope everyone can agree that's a reasonable time frame. To move forward, we really need to start setting deadlines and getting firm numbers about who is playing. I hope no-one minds me taking the initiative - I just thought we could use some momentum at this point in time.
Once we firmly know the exact number of teams playing - be it 7, 8, 9 or more - this will enable us to move on with a large number of other things. For instance, we will know exactly what constitutes a majority vote in settings (e.g. with 7 teams playing a majority would be 4). We'll have enough information to pass onto a map maker so that they can start their work (information on majority preferences for map design plus, critically, the number of teams playing). We'll also have enough information, hopefully, for teams to start seriously debating their civ/leader choices. This will be a huge leap forward from the current situation where nothing much is happening.
The main things for the teams to do at the moment, then, would be:
1. Have your team captain, leader, or spokesperson post your team roster in
this thread before 31 May 2012.
2. Publish your team's settings votes
as soon as possible, if you haven't already. If you have no preferences on some or all of the issues, please say so. (
Example of what this should look like.)
In particular please pay attention to:
-
Map preferences: Needed for a map maker to be able to begin designing a map. If you don't have any preference or want it to be a surprise, say so.
-
Civ selection process: Needs careful consideration because there may be 9 or 10 teams playing, which is many more than in previous games. The teams who get 9th or 10th civ/leader pick will be at a serious disadvantage using the normal randomization system. If we instead use a "snake pick" with unrestricted leaders, then the team that (for instance) gets first choice of leader gets last choice of civ... while the team that gets one of the last leader choices gets one of the first civ choices.
3. Start considering your team's civ/leader choices. This will be related to the two major decisions highlighted above, particularly civ selection process. If we use "regular" randomized selection then each team will need to make a list of 10 (or more) civs/leaders in order of preference, and be aware that there's a possibility they may be landed with their very least desired option. If we use the "snake pick" selection then each team can make separate lists of ~10 preferred leaders and ~10 preferred civs, knowing that their choices will be balanced: if they get stuck with one of their bottom preferences on one of the lists then they'll be able to choose one of their top preferences on the other list, and vice versa.
Other things which would be useful:
- A list of all the people interested in map making. If you know of someone, or are yourself interested (bearing in mind this means that
you cannot play for one of the teams in the game), then post below. If you've already registered your interest, please post again anyway so we can get a reminder.
- A person (or several people) experienced, impartial and with a thick skin willing to admin the game setup and the game itself. Not absolutely necessary, but useful in resolving any disputes that may crop up. Often the map maker can take on or share this role if they wish. (If we don't end up with an admin we'll just have to resort to having team votes to resolve disputes, the disadvantage being that teams will not be impartial to the situations that arise.)
) to post the advertisements for the game on CFC (on the front page, and the universal announcement that appears in all forums) with imbedded links etc. Can we rely on you to do that?
