Civ 3 Demogame Website

[FionnMcCumhall]

Newbies your wish is about to come true. But for it to come true truly i need input. So i ask the question.

What do you want from your DG3 website?

here is a look at the main menu navigation, not much will change from that. check it out

There wont be much programming going into this site as all we need to do is inform users about the game.

Things needed are maps, chat logs/summeries from the past 3 terms, and anything else you guys can think of.

Main page links to the othe demogames as well:

http://demogame.civfanatics.net

 

[Octavian X]

Off that main demogame page, I can tell you one thing is wrong right away: Your Civ2 Demogame is incorrect. The links are for the Civ2 demogame 2, though the third Civ2 DG is now in progress.

This is the current Civ2 DG.

 

[deshelbr]

I put a pretty sweet little map of the Quirnial Province in the Term - 4 Quirnial thread.

Also, does all the bright read and green mean that this page will be up and running by xmas?

 

[FionnMcCumhall]

Oct: Thats why there is a thread in the civ 2 demogame section. I need input from them. I also used the current link provided when i was messing with the main page, i knew it was to the wrong game

deshelbr: no the bright red and green doesnt mean it will be finished by xmas . I could change the main text color to more of a gold look. The red is for the civ we are currently playing as, i figured we could change the colors to match the civ we play as in each demogame ie: romans (DG3) are red, persian (DG1) was that greenish color (i think), and Germany (DG2) was blue.

 

[Plexus]

This looks very promising, Fionn. I like the direction this is going, and I do not have any thing to suggest. Keep up the good work.

 

[Donovan Zoi]

This is a great idea, Fionn. However, many of those things can be done here and frankly, we are having a hard time finding volunteers for those. I would like to see if we can get main page exposure going, and if that recruiting process proves successful your website could be a great addition.

I am curious what everyone else thinks about this idea. I like it, I just think we have some serious issues to address in these forums first.

 

[Falcon02]

Fionn looking at the screenshot of what you have thus far, I must say it looks very good.

Though I'm not sure what features we need to have and how to have 'em till you have the site up.

ie. my suggestion might be to make sure you have the current government officials listed in a clear manner, but that seems a rather logical object of the "Government" Catagory.


Though you might want a site explaining the laws, (both the full version and slightly abridged, to make it easier for newbies).

 

[zorven]

FionnMcCumhall

I applaud you for trying to improve this Democracy Game.

Is the main purpose of the site to introduce the game to new players?

Are you currently working on the content of the page(s), or are you looking for help?

The general layout looks good to me, so I am not sure what to suggest. (However, I am not a fan of the title of the page, it reminds me of an old horror film).

 

[FionnMcCumhall]

Ive been working on this for the past week. The main purpose of the site is to introduce the game to new players as well as try to get some of our old ones back as well.

I have two ideas for the government menu. I could do drop downs or create an image similar to the one in the Whos who around here thread with each position going to their respective position. Then we would post pages on each department listing the terms and those who served before them and links to either their respective threads, or former pages.

With the maps that i plan to collect on provinces, they will become image maps and when someone click on a city it takes them to their respective page or thread. Mayors will be responsible to submit city information to me, including stories akin to the ones Cyc wrote for Gorina. (gives mayors something else to do). Governors shall do the same for their province.

The about section of this site will feature a FAQ, a brief description of the game, and i seem to stall out there.

On the main home page, will be current year of the game, current term, welcome message, mini-map that leads to the current in-game map and a small section called Newbie Central that provides a hotlist of where to go first when checking out the game. Plus anything else we can figure out. Also a in-game summery of the previous turn.

History, well gee i wonder . this will provide links to the previous games threads in the archives and short summeries about the game. And quite possibly if we can post the chat logs for each term and game there as long, but that im not sure of cuz that seems like a big, long tedious task.

The Forums button just provide links to the main forum, and their respective sub-sections.

The last 3: Staff, Updates and Contact are self explanatory

I hope these ideas get the creative juices flowing. Ill need some staff to be involved in map making, (hence my cartography office) retriving information needed for the website and if anyone here has Dreamweaver MX will be helping me upload pages/updates

 

[zorven]

I have two ideas for the government menu. I could do drop downs or create an image similar to the one in the Whos who around here thread with each position going to their respective position. Then we would post pages on each department listing the terms and those who served before them and links to either their respective threads, or former pages.

I think you should just start out with that image you were talking about that links to each current department thread. After the site is up and running, you/we can look for ways to make improvements.

With the maps that i plan to collect on provinces, they will become image maps and when someone click on a city it takes them to their respective page or thread. Mayors will be responsible to submit city information to me, including stories akin to the ones Cyc wrote for Gorina. (gives mayors something else to do). Governors shall do the same for their province.

I see that as a lot of work that would be very difficult to maintain. Why not just have current maps (Empire, province, world) and then maybe have an organized list with links to the respective province and city threads?

The about section of this site will feature a FAQ, a brief description of the game, and i seem to stall out there.

On the main home page, will be current year of the game, current term, welcome message, mini-map that leads to the current in-game map and a small section called Newbie Central that provides a hotlist of where to go first when checking out the game. Plus anything else we can figure out. Also a in-game summery of the previous turn.

Sounds good.

History, well gee i wonder . this will provide links to the previous games threads in the archives and short summeries about the game. And quite possibly if we can post the chat logs for each term and game there as long, but that im not sure of cuz that seems like a big, long tedious task.

I am not sure chat logs would be of value to new players.

The Forums button just provide links to the main forum, and their respective sub-sections.

The last 3: Staff, Updates and Contact are self explanatory

Sounds good.

 

[FionnMcCumhall]

I see that as a lot of work that would be very difficult to maintain. Why not just have current maps (Empire, province, world) and then maybe have an organized list with links to the respective province and city threads?

Are you saying its too much work as a mayor or too much work for one person in general. Each province map will be updated at the start of the new term. We shall need at least links to each province and since each province should have a map of its own or at least a city listing and who is mayor and what not its a good idea. Newbies can then look (if loking for mayorship) and choose which city they would love to be mayor of and contact their respective governor

 

[zorven]

@ FionnMcCumhall

I was kind of thinking for both. The active mayors and governors are already updating their respective threads and this would just add one more "work load". My concern is that the governors, mayors, and website admin have too much work and then nothing gets done. Maybe I just worry too much

 

[DaveShack]

Fionn,

I think having a demogame site is a great idea! Linking the demogame homepage to the government threads is a good way to put a face on the game without making people scroll through the forum to find it all. It would also be a good idea to link from the navigation area of the CivFanatics homepage, in the same way that GOTM has a link.

 

[FionnMcCumhall]

ill get that if we keep the site updated on a regular basis, if we need to add anything regarding cgi or php i can ask for a sub domain like gotm has

 

[deshelbr]

Originally posted by FionnMcCumhall
I hope these ideas get the creative juices flowing. Ill need some staff to be involved in map making, (hence my cartography office) retriving information needed for the website and if anyone here has Dreamweaver MX will be helping me upload pages/updates

Hey Fionn, I don't have Dreamweaver MX, but when utilizing normal image files (i.e. jpg) I would be interested in assisting in the maintenance of some of the artwork. Right now (for the Quirnial Map and Government Advert) I just have <img src> tags pointing to an FTP site. I have them as photoshop files on my computer, after I edit the artwork I drop it to JPG, and then I overwrite the file in the ftp server.

If we all could come to an agreement on some of the design, we could have a process where the map/linking over an image stays the same, but I could constantly update some pieces of artwork underneath to reflect what is happening in the game. Anyway, I am interested in helping however I can to get more people into this game.

To me it sounds like what you immediately want art-wise is a medium sized map of all of Fantica, with clearly defined provinces, a map for each province with clearly marked cities, and then something like the Government Advert.

???

 

[FionnMcCumhall]

Exactly my man exactly, The only issue i had with the Goverment image was it should have a complete image of the palace.

 

[deshelbr]

Do you mean that I was covering too much of it up? Or do you mean that the palace wasn't completed?

 

[FionnMcCumhall]

no the whole palace image should be complete, looking like it would if the palace is finished

 

[Donovan Zoi]

Why is that, Fionn? The Palace progress is somewhat indicative of our nation's progress and should be reflected as such. I think that the palace pic should be updated each term along wth the leader pics.

After checking out the GOTM webpage, I am warming up to this idea. We will have to make sure we dedicate ourselves to it entirely if it is to work. Fionn, are you sure you are ready for this? Because it seems to me that its success will lie primarily on your shoulders, at least in the beginning.

 

[Octavian X]

I'd be willing to help out if necesary, Fionn. Perhaps I could put together a tad more concise Civ2 DG page, as well as an MSDG page.