A few questions about running a NES

[justokre]

I've been pondering running an NES again.

The biggest problem I ran into was players playing. They didn't send in orders.
What's the best way to notify them? Ask them to turn on email notifications regarding the thread?

Has anyone come up with a good way to keep stats (especially military numbers) hidden, or at least not an exact number? Instead of every play seeing that Syria has 13000 infantry and 5000 cav, maybe a number on a scale of 1-10?

Do you think players would enjoy spoken updates via podcast?

 

[Terrance888]

1) Engagement. Lots of reminders.

Thankfully, most of the lilly-livered ones have left. You'll only have scarred veterans (at Thlayli's hand) around here. /jk

2) I knew someone who emailed everyone stats every turn. With the new conversation tools, that might not actually be bad.

If you mean, keep the stat numbers hidden from the players, you can always go olde skool NES and use qualitatives like "Small - Medium - Large - Yuge". Or just number that are veiled - one of my planned NESes used "MP" or "Military Points". 1 EP = 1 MP. Which the players can then specify if they want quality, quantity, or capabilities from their investments.

3) Depends on the theme of the game, it could work really well. It's definitely a gimmick, and I'd probably want a transcript to review events of the update.

However, because us survivors are hardcore, we'll appreciate quality. /notjk

EDIT: Also, join #nes! It's an IRC with the server: warrensofthought.com channel: #nes. You can connect to it with mibbit or another IRC thingy.

 

[justokre]

1) Engagement. Lots of reminders.

Thankfully, most of the lilly-livered ones have left. You'll only have scarred veterans (at Thlayli's hand) around here. /jk

I'd love to automate this. Updating is enough work as it is!

2) I knew someone who emailed everyone stats every turn. With the new conversation tools, that might not actually be bad.

If you mean, keep the stat numbers hidden from the players, you can always go olde skool NES and use qualitatives like "Small - Medium - Large - Yuge". Or just number that are veiled - one of my planned NESes used "MP" or "Military Points". 1 EP = 1 MP. Which the players can then specify if they want quality, quantity, or capabilities from their investments.

Definitely something to consider... I'm leaning a couple descriptive words describing relative size and quality: Large, highly disciplined.

3) Depends on the theme of the game, it could work really well. It's definitely a gimmick, and I'd probably want a transcript to review events of the update.

However, because us survivors are hardcore, we'll appreciate quality. /notjk

I can understand wanting a transcript. I may just have some bulleted talking points for the recording, and release those with the audio. I feel like that may save some time or effort. And at this point, I think the NES community would be happy with any NES that actually goes anywhere. All I see is a bunch of games that didn't go anywhere.

 

[Terrance888]

For "transcript", a bullet note of sections and timestamps would be alright I guess.

 

[ork75]

I think what I did/am doing for ONES stats works very well: single word descriptors followed by a more detailed explanation.

 

[justokre]

I think what I did/am doing for ONES stats works very well: single word descriptors followed by a more detailed explanation.

Ah, I see that the stats after the update were different than the stat examples in your first posts in ONESI. I do like the combo of population, economy, and military. Does it get confusing to remember aspects of the culture or religion?

 

[ork75]

Ah, I see that the stats after the update were different than the stat examples in your first posts in ONESI. I do like the combo of population, economy, and military. Does it get confusing to remember aspects of the culture or religion?

The stats in the example posts were/are what I want to work towards, but I think that the stats that I adopted actually work better. This is especially true in the case of the multiple-century updates which, so far, have dominated ONES.

Cultural details aren't hard to remember for me at least. Also, many players have large cultural compendium documents outside the thread, which I can refer to.

 

[Terrance888]

Also, if things get out of hand, you can always make a wiki. Those were all the rage near the end of the last Era of NESing.

 

[justokre]

Oh yeah? Was there a preferred site/method? I feel uncomfortable unless I can download a nice neat offline version.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Regarding wikis, I think it depends a lot on the playerbase- it's really useful when a NES gets huge, but if the NES is fairly young and has a single digit playercount, I'm not sure that it's critical.

 

[justokre]

That's a fair assumption. I wouldn't consider it before three updates, unless details got wayyyy out of hand.

The NES may never come to fruition, but I've attached my WIP map for those interested. Fantasy, low magic, a few other races, only humans are playable.

 

[Thlayli]

Nice looking map, Justo.

 

[justokre]

Thanks. I've been redetailing it. Then I need to add the rest of the rivers, mountains, then biomes, then flesh out the races.

 

[hydralisk98]

Hello there, I would like to start in NES-ish games (playing or modding, whichever), how do I?

 

[Thlayli]

Currently the only active NES in this forum is MigrationNES. Depending on your idea you could discuss it here or in our IRC. IOT forum is another place where similar games are being hosted.

If you'd like to play, MigrationNES is open to all comers. Just pick a group in an obscure corner of the world and do something with it, preferably based on their previous history somewhat.

 

[hydralisk98]

I would surely like to give MigrationNES a try.

 

[Gelion]

Do you think players would enjoy spoken updates via podcast?

You sir, are a genius! Twitch!

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Incidentally MigratioNES will be picking up again when my thesis is submitted.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

I would surely like to give MigrationNES a try.

Post something then!

 

[justokre]

You sir, are a genius! Twitch!

I think it could be fun. I'm still just slowly working on the map tho.