Organising our discussions

[Kaleb]

Ok, it's already become apparent that we need to have a clearer structure for where to have discussions about various things.

I think we need to do the followin:
1) Appoint a team 'moderator' (or a snazzier title if someone can suggest it) who is in charge of making sure people stick to proceedures and discuss things in the right place in order to avoid confusion. They will also be in charge of chairing/organising any key votes on important issues
2) Have a log thread for batches of turns (I think in the early stages batches of 10 are too short) and this is JUST for logging, no tactics
3) Tactical threads, where we discuss movements and the next tech and build choices
4) Strategic threads, where we plan city placement and longer term tech paths
5) Intel threads, where we discuss enemy plans and movements
6) Diplomacy threads, to keep a track of what has been discussed with other threads and how we plan to engage with them

 

[donsig]

I'm in the current MTDG and my team has the following main threads:

• Played turns:This has no discussion at all, just turn logs and screen shots. It is our history thread.
• Grand strategy thread: This is where we discuss how we plan to win (victory condition and what we must do to get there). Our Gameplan thread is similar.
• Preturn information: This is where we've discussed the upcoming turns. Many times when we get the save we'll open it and post screenies so we can discuss the coming turn.

It has worked well using these three threads all game long (almost two years now), though lately we've gotten away from the preturn information thread and our current turn player creates a thread for each coming turn since we are in the end game.

We have other threads as well:

• An embassy thread for each team we've met. This is where we discuss what we will tell each team. Though we have an excellent ambassador on that team we do not let him send off his own letters without prior team input and approval. If we are negotiating a treaty with a team those discussions go in the appropriate team embassy thread.
• We have a stickied thread called the Vault where we place things we want east access to (like signed treaties).
• We have a Chit Chat thread where we talk about non MTDG things. After two years together there is a certain amount of bonding. We also had our own team Diplomacy game and PBEM game.
• We've had various other threads dedicated to specific, hot topics. Examples are: city placement, how to prevent invasions, how and when to trigger our golden age, a micro management thread for our cities, military stats thread, etc.

These threads were created as the need arose. Some had limited lifespan, some were useful for a longer time. We have no rules for making threads. Anyone on the team is free to do so.

I think we'd do well to follow a similar structure. This suggestion fits well with Kaleb's ideas except that I suggest a single thread with all the turn logs rather than dividing them up into chunks. I'm not sure we need a team moderator type person but someone (Jimmy369?) has volunteered to be secretary. Perhaps he'd help us with this role if need be.

 

[Provolution]

I think we also need a comprehensive thread on comparing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threads for the five civs, us included, in the very same thread.

This allows us to see the big picture, and write more informed plans in the other threads.

 

[CommandoBob]

In my team in the Civ 3 MTDG we look like this:

Our History So Far (In-game) stickied

This thread is designed as a timeline of events of the game. As a timeline, it will serve as a place where a new person could get up to speed on what is going on in the game. It is not a place for discussion; we'll have other threads for that.

Team Information stickied

This thread is used to track the team members. It also contains the password for our team email, and will contain the save's password when it is decided.

How to Play a Turn stickied, by Empiremaker

We have only three stickied threads.

Turns 240 - 249
Turns 230 - 239
Turns 220 - 229
Turns 210 - 219
etc.

Team Babe
Team Gong
Team Saber
Team The Council

These are our main threads. We have an off-topic thread, but it just hasn't been popular, unlike KISS's off topic thread. We also have specific topic threads.

What we don't have is a dedicated plannng thread. Most of that takes place in the individual Team threads, where we discuss the communications we have had with that team. The turn log threads have been a way to communicate back and forth with the Turn Player. I use the turn log threads as a way to communicate with the team on thoughts and ideas, since those are normally related to our ingame situation at the time.

Our initial Turn Log thread covered up to Turn 40, but it was very spotty. It wasn't until I requested more information that Kunigas began putting more stuff into the logs around Turn 44. He started the 10 Turn Threads with Turn 60.

 

[donsig]

We only have two sticky threads in The Council (Team Info and The Vault). We also do alot of planning in our embassy threads. Aside from our preturn information thread (where we generally discuss moves for the coming turn) we've discussed strategy and tactics in many different treads over the course of the game. We have 88 threads in the Council forum. It's not as disorganized as you might think. We once had an exploration thread. It had over 300 posts and almost 2000 views but the last post was in June 2007. Once you get a grip on the map there's no need to talk about exploration strategies, but the thread was useful at one time. It's nice to be able to go into details about exploration planning or city placement planning and keep them together in their own threads. The Council has been good at taking these individual tactical discussions and weaving them into higher level strategic threads. So the Council has been like FREE in that we do our planning in many different threads, too. But we do have a Grand Strategy Thread where we discussed our path to victory from the start of the game. That thread has over 500 posts and almost 3000 views with the last post in Oct 2008. We've come back to that thread many times to help us regain our focus on the goal.

I have nothing against having planning threads for chunks of turns. I just think we should use our gameplan thread to keep our focus on the big picture and we should have one historical thread for play logs, screenies and game saves.

 

[Kaleb]

I have nothing against having planning threads for chunks of turns. I just think we should use our gameplan thread to keep our focus on the big picture and we should have one historical thread for play logs, screenies and game saves.

Ok, as I see it now we have a Gameplan thread, and a log thread (which is being used for turn tactics) but no dedicated turn tactics thread. Should we start one to keep things tidy?

I'm happy with the first thread being for turns 0-50

 

[Jimmy369]

I will create some threads so that we, as a team are more organized. I will create:
a) A turn log of turns 0-50. I request that the turn player for each round post at least one screenshot of the map and a log of what they did for their turn
b) A tactical thread called Turn 0-50 plans. This is for all our movement, research, and building discussions for that time.
c) I will leave the Gameplan thread for our strategy for the entire game. This is how we want to win, where to put our cities and other stuff like that.
d) A history thread stating major events in the game. I will keep this one updated for the time being.
e) Diplomacy thread. This is where we discuss our interactions with other teams. If we want more we can make one for each team.
f) A chat thread. This is where we can share our non-MTD games, talk and do whatever.
I will create these threads right now. If the team feels that we do not need them than we can get them deleted by the moderators or just not use them.

 

[CommandoBob]

I would only suggest a separate diplomacy thread for each team. Everything else looks good. (A bit different perhaps, but different is not bad, just different. )

 

[donsig]

Yeah I think we'll want separate diplomacy threads for each team. No hurry to make them though since we won't need the threads till we meet each team.

Edit: I see you've already created the threads. Nice. It would be helpful if you added a post in the diplomatic threads about which civ each team is playing.

 

[Jimmy369]

Provolution took care of it.