Game discussion

[Panopticon]

I would like to play, though with my comp access being how it is dropbox might not work too well for me, on the other hand I am usually a pretty hands off player, and would not need to give very complex orders.

I would play the American Protectorate, a military dictatorship with a capitol in Colorado and controlling much of the midwestern USA.

[ardem]

If people can access the last used race when they log into the database, we should all pay attention to log back to the default Terran Federation at the end of our viewings?

Not needed as the mdb will link for you to download, it not to be saved to or changed, after you view you can delete your copy, you never be able to delete the link as it be a http link.

What happens if two people try to simultanously access the database?

As above

I do not have dropbox, but afaik you need to isntall something in order to access it?
Does dropbox provide access on the same file in their storage (e.g. multiple accesses would lead to multiple people viewing the same file) or would you download the database every time (e.g. multiple accesses are no problem beacause the file is duplicated each time)?
Can these excel documents be password protected? And how about people (like me) that do not have nor use MSOffice but Open Office (I can open .xls and .doc documents without problem, but the style information (tables, lists, graphics, etc) sometimes get screwed up and I'm unable to open or work with .docx and other special formats of MSOffice)?

Alright I will keep it simple,
- for 'ordering' players orders are separate
- those that have dropbox and wish to use that to hold there orders for me to view, then use this email address to share that folder (adam@nanosphere.com.au) and put your word or excel file there.
- those without or do not want to use dropbox then email me a word or excel document each time you submit orders, and next time you add orders add it to the file and send it to me.

And do we have any Linux or Mac users participating here? I have absolutly no clue about compatibility there.

For me viewing the file will not be a problem, I won't be editing it the reason why I prefer a file is for previous history all kept in one doc/excel, it up to you how you set it up. For me this is a way that you cannot lose emails or miss them amongst 1000 post sent to me, or counter orders from day to day.

[ardem]

I would like to play, though with my comp access being how it is dropbox might not work too well for me, on the other hand I am usually a pretty hands off player, and would not need to give very complex orders.

I would play the American Protectorate, a military dictatorship with a capitol in Colorado and controlling much of the midwestern USA.

No worries Panotpticon, as I said the extra info is mainly to help player without me screenie and type on all the small components, if your happy for me to manage the small stuff and you want to be a high level player there be no issue.

[Vynadan (OP)]

I asked the password stuff because without a regulation other players could download the orders from other factions and view them, not because I thought you'd let everyone write into the same file.

What nations will actually be present in the restart? If there's a summary of nations and territory taken I could work on a new faction for me to play

[ardem]

So far emails from the shadowveil and nzdl, I am assuming they have the same land as before.

Also email from forum entry above from panp, but I am not sure if Colorado is in the nzdl zone, I got a feeling it is. I always though Colorado was in the Rockies for some reason.

That all that is confirmed at the moment of course people with existing territory have priority over them guess I am waiting on more emails yet.

[Vynadan (OP)]

I'd have ideas for Russia, but there's Shadowveil (whom initially wanted Russia and not the area they currently hold if I remember correctly?). Then there'd be ideas for South Africa, but there's the NZDL ... xD All the countries I know something about are at least partially taken xD Gotta think of something ... ^^
I wonder whether the Mediterranean Community and Inuk will go over to the new game?

[ardem]

China is freed up, you have Australia, also you have the Antarctic, which could be a clean slate as as you can set the history of emigration to it during the war, of a mix or people or a certain type of people. A lot of africa and south america is untapped. Also all the Arab states are untapped as well.

India, Pakistan, wealth of pieces there.

[ardem]

I would like to play, though with my comp access being how it is dropbox might not work too well for me, on the other hand I am usually a pretty hands off player, and would not need to give very complex orders.

I would play the American Protectorate, a military dictatorship with a capitol in Colorado and controlling much of the midwestern USA.

I was thinking how about the confederate states as your american protectorate it make a sort of an ideal block of countries.

[Vynadan (OP)]

I've pieced together an .ods spreadsheet with the goal in mind to convey all important orders to the SM with the best organisation possible.

It consists of two simple tables with several charts inside. The palyer would simply enter his changes and paste the correct notes into the changelog. The SM would receive this document by whatever means and opens them, he scans the changelog and switches over to the next table and has all orders of the empire in detailed form and easily recognisable. I've created a small example in this screenshot:

The upper portion shows the first table, containing a (very incomplete) list of notes to simply copy and enter a location name for. The lower portion displays the actual information with the colour applied. The SM would simply do these changes and turn all text on this table black when he's done, then insert the completion dates.
My current idea was that he'd update the changelog with copies from the right side of the notes, but this isn't really necessary I think, so he would simply wipe the changelist and send it back because of the completion dates.
I could send this spreadsheet to all players by mail - This would create a standardised means by which we send our updates

The problems I see:
The only information this easily conveys are completion dates. In a text document I'd think it's hard to properly attach completion dates to all tasks without writing a wall of text or making it incomprehensible. The downside, however, is that the SM still has to send a regular update text back, as well as all officers seperately.
Furthermore, this table isn't complete yet. You could easily copy the templates for other planets, so you could manage a whole empire with this kind of thing, but it yet lacks any ship orders and writing the 'changelist' with two words more per line would obsolete the entire second table if all necessary information is given.

Without a large empire there's just no need to abstain from writing ten lines in a text document to display the same information as in these two tables. As an example, all of the above changes could be said like this:

Convert X CI to Mines on Earth at 50%
Convert X CI to CF on Earth at 50%
Rename shipyard X to Y
Upgrade shipyard X to Y tonnage / slipways
Put a geology team together for Earth
Set officer X as administrator of Earth

What are your opinions? Although I've just made it in the last 10 minutes I'm rather against it when I realised the faults. This might come in handy once we all have several colonies and a hundred ships, though.

[FGRaptor]

Yeah not sure about it, the idea of having a neatly structured document is nice, but it does seem inconvenient to be honest. It will probably be easier just to have a word document (or equivalent), writing in your orders and then sending it to the SM. He writes in the results and sends it back.

[Panopticon]

I've pieced together an .ods spreadsheet with the goal in mind to convey all important orders to the SM with the best organisation possible.

This is an excellent point, I'll go with that.

It consists of two simple tables with several charts inside. The palyer would simply enter his changes and paste the correct notes into the changelog. The SM would receive this document by whatever means and opens them, he scans the changelog and switches over to the next table and has all orders of the empire in detailed form and easily recognisable. I've created a small example in this screenshot:

The upper portion shows the first table, containing a (very incomplete) list of notes to simply copy and enter a location name for. The lower portion displays the actual information with the colour applied. The SM would simply do these changes and turn all text on this table black when he's done, then insert the completion dates.
My current idea was that he'd update the changelog with copies from the right side of the notes, but this isn't really necessary I think, so he would simply wipe the changelist and send it back because of the completion dates.
I could send this spreadsheet to all players by mail - This would create a standardised means by which we send our updates

The problems I see:
The only information this easily conveys are completion dates. In a text document I'd think it's hard to properly attach completion dates to all tasks without writing a wall of text or making it incomprehensible. The downside, however, is that the SM still has to send a regular update text back, as well as all officers seperately.
Furthermore, this table isn't complete yet. You could easily copy the templates for other planets, so you could manage a whole empire with this kind of thing, but it yet lacks any ship orders and writing the 'changelist' with two words more per line would obsolete the entire second table if all necessary information is given.

Without a large empire there's just no need to abstain from writing ten lines in a text document to display the same information as in these two tables. As an example, all of the above changes could be said like this:
What are your opinions? Although I've just made it in the last 10 minutes I'm rather against it when I realised the faults. This might come in handy once we all have several colonies and a hundred ships, though.

[ardem]

I am flexible, with how each of you wish to order your instructions, and they all can be different. My main purpose is a document which can track your history and your orders are clearly understood.

You could if you want write them as diary excepts, to perhaps be released after the game has played out. I don't mind how it is, as long as it fulfills my objectives above. I am an IT Tech so viewing of files what ever it is will not be an issue.

[Vynadan (OP)]

Ardem asked whether I could make a new map for the new game, and I have no problem with that. I'll post it in the RP subforum on his request, so I'd rather leave OOC discussions out of that topic, but I have a few questions:

- I see New Canada in the DB, but no Inuk. Should I give entire Canada to NC, or is Father Tim still interested?
- So far I do not see Panopticon's faction, so I'll wait with drawing the NZDL.
- Is it correct that there is no NDL?
- FGRaptor claimed Australia, so should I incorporate Germany into Shadowveil or is this faction more interested in Russia since Inuk doesn't seem to continue over into the new game?

=)

[ardem]

I should be starting to see your orders in the next couple of days. Well before the start date would be nice to iron out some bugs.

I received a nice format order file which was very simple in a open office document. It was like the following

- Change Shipyard name to "Fishers Yard"
- Add acrobatic team with the following
    - T Jackson, L Jackson, M Jackson, K Jackson, A Jackson
- Change industry as follows
    - 30% make 400 fishcakes
    - 70% make 800 chips
- Make John Smith in charge of colony
- Promote a Lincoln to Commander
- Change Administrator title to Friar.
- Research
       K Banger to research Mash with 5 labs
       K Banger to research Gravy queued.
       

As you can see very simple to read and do, also next time they send me that document, the information will be a page down so I can refer to it if I need too.

[ardem]

Ardem asked whether I could make a new map for the new game, and I have no problem with that. I'll post it in the RP subforum on his request, so I'd rather leave OOC discussions out of that topic, but I have a few questions:

- I see New Canada in the DB, but no Inuk. Should I give entire Canada to NC, or is Father Tim still interested?
- So far I do not see Panopticon's faction, so I'll wait with drawing the NZDL.
- Is it correct that there is no NDL?
- FGRaptor claimed Australia, so should I incorporate Germany into Shadowveil or is this faction more interested in Russia since Inuk doesn't seem to continue over into the new game?

=)

The NDL has not contacted me by email so unsure of their status
Panopticon has not contacted me from his initial thoughts so also unsure of status