Fanatica university?

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

Call it one idea in a series of whakey idea's of mine to get an advantage over other teams.Demo games often have a small share of very talented civ players ,however very few of their knowledge actually get's spread among their felow citizin's unless they have a very influential position where they can propagate their point of view ,most of the times however then leading a flock that has few understanding of the cunning of the particular leader.

Like how DZ tried to groom a successor ,it became all to obvious to me how few of the valuable experience learned by such posittioned players as DZ actually get's spread among the rest of the players ,there is IMO a lack of communication and classification of valuable knowledge how to play democracy games.There is a lack of a medium providing such possibilety's.

The Fanatican university would be a place where people can post tactic's and strategy's ,on domestic ,diplomatic ,millitarian or other matters.
It would be a liberary of various 3rd party lessons written on any subject in one of the category.

As for ex. an article written for the domestic section of the library by any player on dense city building could include a screenshot of the specific strategy at work and a discription of it ,explaining the characteristics of it and the optimal circumstances to use it.
Another ex. ,an article written in the millitary section on something you could call for ex. armour assault doctrine would discribe by screenshot and discription how to best use armour in attacking an enemy civ ,thing's like formation and order of battle included.

The Strategy's and tactic's written in each section of the library could be used as refference for certain short term decissions in game.However the ultimate idea would be to use the the knowledge base of the library to educate and improve various skill's of Fanatica citizin's to their interrests ,the university could hold exams and players could receive degree's on certain level's wich could improve their chances in running for certain possitions.

I am almost certain that an extreme management of such a idea would grant us quite a big edge over other team's ,however although i have had this idea for a long time ,i kinda doubt that there is enough forum interrest to make such an idea work.Not that there would be that much work though to make a basic level of it work ,we all know some basic strategy's on either diplomacy ,millitary ,domestic matters ,scientific matters ,cultural matters ...
I would motivate the people there to post their tactics in a nice description ,any tactic will do ,the more written by various people the bigger the knowledge base.

 

[Emp.Napoleon]

I fully suport this. This is a very good idea for the same reason Duck said. Nice Idea.

 

[Ankka]

Good idea, but how would it be done and upkept?

 

[akots]

Idea is excellent.

There are many posts in the main forum, including War Academy and Strategy Articles. However, some issues specific to multiplayer games and to our particular situation might be discussed in this thread. As well as democracy game pecularities.

Also, since the search is disabled at the moment, these articles are difficult to find and therefore collection of appropriate links can be very helpful.

 

[Cheetah]

I was wondering if this idea wasn't a bit redundant with all the articles in the rest of the forum. But akots had some good points there. I support this idea, but we would need someone to administer this University.

 

[Ankka]

Now all we need is someone who has the energy to find those links.

 

[akots]

@The Duck: Well, you started, may be you can volunteer to upkeep the place. I'd also like to partcipate.

Another good option is discussion of some issues in chat. We can call it a seminar.

Third good issue may be a Succession game as Maya against the AI.

Fourth issue can be a multiplayer Internet game organized between our citizens. Or even national championship of our country. It might be more interesting than RPG or boat race.

 

[Emp.Napoleon]

...It might be more interesting than RPG or boat race.

Nothing can be funner than a boat race.

 

[akots]

Nothing can be funner than a boat race.

I'm not saying it would be more fun. But it might be more ... entertaining. Boat race is too peaceful for my taste. Some blood must be shed to stimulate the senses.

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

About the upkeep of the place ,i wouldn't volunteer for it since im not the most responsible upkeeper ,neither would i organize it as 1 position ,as it would be quite tedious and as such no fun anymore.

Like a university ,we want to keep information and lecture's in groups.Rather than having one overseeing administrator ,i would rather have a number of professors and an (ellected among professors) overseeing rector.The professor's should be volunteers or attracted players who excel in a certain field.A professor in war matters or more if more people want to volunteer ,one in diplomacy matters ,etc...
In an innitial fase it would be best to attract professor's with knowledge of matters to build up the knowledge base.Each professor should create additional pieces to the knowledge base if needed ,in the case of the first proffesor that will be some work ,and then build courses upon the knowledge to teach people volunteering for a education or presented an education.
The knowledge base should be kept in one long thread by a Librarian.The Librarian would be the only one granted to post in the library thread so that he can easily manage the information.(he can put for ex. 20 posts of himself under eachother and use them as placeholders for information in sections)
This way it's easy for the professor to make a link to the relevant information on the library thread.
The professors could add new information to the knowledge base or library by pm'ing the information the the Librarian or put it in a sepperate thread ,or by giving a link to the specific information he want added.(like that post in that thread)

In practice this means that the upkeep is held in 1 thread (the University's library) maintained by one person being the librarian (he can edit the thread in every way he wants since he's the only one allowed to post there)
The professor's should determine the layout of their section's information since they will have to use it for the courses.
For the professor it only mean's that he has to give his students the orders to learn the information put in the knowledge base section by section ,additionally holding field courses and exams.In addition the professor is responsible of increasing his knowledge base and appointing his best student to new professor.
The rector is supervising head ,can sack professor's if needed ,decide's on the standards of the exams and the appointment of new professor's brought forward.

This way ,it's can be pretty efficiant and fun from an RPG point of view ,while the librarian though has the most boring chore (except that afcourse the man will outsmart us all in a matter of a year)

Well maybe i can try to be Librarian ,just need a number of professor wannabee's to dump onfo on me to organize.

 

[akots]

It all sounds good and well-thought through but is a bit too complicated IMO. Since you are the Librarian, you can organize the staff positions, however, better keep in mind that there are not that many people around to fill them all.

I also suggest that University or Academy would host a number of other events.

I would suggest the following quick questionnnaire for our citizens and it might be a good idea to answer these questions for all of them. Before doing some project of this magnitude, it is good to know what our citizens want. Then, we can focus the efforts in these directions.

1) Did you ever play a single-player game with Civilization 3 Conquests?

2) Did you ever play a single-player game with Civilization 3 vanilla or Play the World?

3) What is you comfortable level of play? (From Chieftain to Sid)

4) What is the maximal difficulty level of play you ever tried and won? (From Chieftain to Sid)

5) Did you ever play a multiplayer game? If yes, did you ever play PBEM?

6) Did you ever play Succession game? If yes, what was the maximal difficulty level of play?

7) Do you want to learn something new about the game in general and mutiplayer in particular? If yes, what would you like to learn:
a) Basic principles of the game.
b) Useful military strategies.
c) Useful builder strategies.
d) Management of productivity.
e) Management of science and trade.
f) Tips and tricks.
g) Early expansion tips.
h) Multiplayer strategies.
j) Other points of interest (please explain).
k) All of the above.

8) How would you like to learn?
a) Reading recommended articles in War Academy, Strategy and Tips Forum, Strategy Articles Forum, or on other web sites.
b) Posts by experienced players on the required topic of interest here in the University.
c) Random discussion here in the University between a few experienced playes and other citizens on a particular subject.
d) Seminars in chat room.
e) Succession game training-type.
f) Multiplayer on-line game with subsequent discussion.
g) All of the above.

9) Would you volunteer as a Professor? If yes, what is your stong point of expertise?

10) How actively are you going to participate in the University-based events?
a) Every day.
b) Every week.
c) Every month.
d) When time permits.

11) How do you see the University idea functioning? May be something can be added or something removed? What is your vision of the project? Do you expect the University to increase your single- and multiplayer strength of play?

12) Anything else I forgot? It might be a good idea to start a new thread with this quick questionnnaire.

 

[akots]

I'll start answering for myself:

1. yes
2. yes
3. Deity
4. Sid
5. yes and yes
6. yes, Deity
7. yes, k
8. yes, g
9. yes. Single-player and certain multiplayer strategies, initial expansion, many aspects of the game.
10. b or d
11. not applicable to me or the Duck. We need other people to contribute to the idea.

 

[Hygro]

1. yes
2. yes
3. demi-god
4. demi-god
5. yes and yes
6. not really
7. yes, k (but not severely, because I have good grasp on it all)
8. yes, all, but some a lot more than others. (I especially like the idea of playing online, not as keen on succession games)
9. No, but I'll chime into the debates
10. d, because I'm not supposed to be at CFC at all since I'm grounded.
11, 12) Dunno

 

[Matrix]

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Emperor (Though I honestly think I can beat Demi-god, with my recent experience from a succession game. I just haven't had the chance to try it.)
4) Emperor
5) Yes, yes
6) Yes: Demi-god. We won.
7)
a) Familiar
b) Familiar
c) Learned a lot since last SG!
d) Familiar
e) Familiar
f) Learned a lot since last SG!
g) Familiar
h) This multi-site demogame is very different from others, since it's with a lot of players who all play very thoughtful. Mind this.
j) Not that I know.
8) I don't.
9) No. We have enough articles at CFC.
10) Not.
11) I don't think it'll be useful. We will learn much more from debates. If someone is right he should be able to convince others. I want everyone to have an open mind here and be willing to change his opinion. Then we'll see along the road who is smarter here. I know I usually have a strong opinion here, but even Donovan Zoi and I found each other (more or less).

I appreciate DoF's attempt here, but if you want to learn from others - we have enough articles at CFC. And really, experience outweighs pure knowledge of this game by far. This would cost us much effort and only do us little good. I think.

 

[Ankka]

1) yes

2) yes

3) Emperor

4) sid, but it was the WW2 in the Pacific- conquest as China

5) I have played in some pbem's.

6) I play a lot of SG's, highest level so far is Deity

7)
a) familiar
b) don't know about this...
c) I think they're familiar
d) familiar
e) familiar
f) not sure here...
g) not sure what you mean..
h) not so familiar

8)
a) not really
b) could be
c) this sounds also good
e) not really...
f) maybe

9) I don't think I'm that experienced with anything...

10)
a) maybe
b) at least
c) sure
d) this also

11) I think it's a good idea, and if someone handles the main things it will work well.