09-11-2001 18:31									#1
	Anyone who wants to help improving Civ3 should ready this Got spare money?

I have been a fan of Civilization for years now and I am delighted by this new offical Civ release. While the core gameplay is still here, the final version obviously needs a patch or two. Since we can not expect Firaxis to support and patch the game forever, all that we can hope is they will work hard on a couple of patches before moving on another project.
Keeping this in mind, our best choice is to ask Firaxis to fix what we define as the most important issues and to develop tools flexible enough so that we could still tweak the game once they dropped support. Think of any gaming company as a city in Civilization if it helps. It has limited resources so we have to be realistic and to prioritize our requests.

For the same reason, any request for the patch has to be doable, which means that any idea requiring a major overhaul of the game engine will me mercilessly trashed. Also, issues that can already be solved by tweaking the text files or using the editor will undergo the same treatment. Why ? Well, because not only will they beget endless discussions but also Firaxis already works on this as reported by Soren Johnson during the chat session that took place a couple of hours ago. Let's see what they have in mind first, then if we are not satisfied we will still have the ability to tweak this by ourselves.

I have seen many good ideas on the forums but it is hard to keep track of all of them so we'd better try to turn all this raw data (ideas) into a nice document that we could submit to Firaxis.

Here is an example of what could be the general plan :

I/ Gameplay issues
II/ User interface issues
III/ Technical issues (mostly bugs)
IV/ Needed tools (for editing/tweaking purposes)

Of course there will be several subparts, each one describing a problem and what the patch can do for it in a few lines. If enough people agree to join the effort, I will post a thread soon on Apolyton's Civ3-General to start collecting ideas.

If everything goes as planned, it should work like this : once the thread is initiated, anyone could start posting ideas/bug report *in the same thread*, then popular ideas will make their way on the draft and so on. The goal is not to build an exhaustive list of everyone's desire but to gather the most important ideas in a short paper (20 pages should be fine).

My job will be to organize the submitted data into something nice-looking and appealing to read. Polls should enable us to overcome the controversies that will undoubtedly rise. If my call for help is successful enough, perhaps Mark would agree to open a forum to host the polls related to the patch.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough spare time these weeks to handle the whole process. So, I need a couple of people to gather data and to start polls to decide whether a questionable request will make its way on the final paper. Timeline, yin26 and korn469 could be interested as they spoke about the patch effort in other threads but anyone motivated with free time next week will be welcome.

Thank you in advance to anyone who wanna help,

Thomas

--
Thomas Le Gallais
the lost tavern, website devoted to Sid Meier's Pirates!
<http://frigate.free.fr>

	09-11-2001 18:38									#2
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

First, I'm glad to see you stepping up to try to be so productive. My hope is that Firaxis sees Civ3 as a work in progress and that public opinion (focussed and reasoned) could provide some real insight.

I will step in as needed and as my schedule allows. Let me get a feel first for what direction it takes, o.k.?

	09-11-2001 19:15									#3
	Remove this text

Well here's what I want to see:
Editor enhancements -
Ability to set a base hp on units that is applied before experience hp. Ie base hp = 0 to 5 (all would default to 0). A unit with 0 hp base would have 2 conscript...5 elite as now. A unit with 5 base would be 7 conscript...12 elite. I think that and A/D values is all thats really needed to make a better combat system. As they've already said you can simulate firepower with higher attack values. Its hard to make up for the hp though.

Ability to flag a unit to not heal in the field. For example a battleship shouldn't repair itself unless its at port. Unless its very superficial damage at least

Ability to set heal rate for barracks to something other than 100% in one turn.

Ability to set any units bombardment/bombing mission to be lethal or non-lethal.

No wrap maps and starting locations, though those have been mentioned 1000 times by now ;P

Gameplay -
Map option to make culture borders solid lines so they show up better in jungles.

	09-11-2001 19:32									#4
	Increase the size of your Attachments

TLG,

Me thinks you have a good plan. (Or is it just that any plan strikes me as better than the chaos going on now?) Setting up a forum just for this sounds like a good idea as well.

As far as the poll concept goes, what might be useful is for a form to put into a database the main points/ideas/reports into a standard managable format. The form could lay out option boxes for the major areas (i.e. Bug/GamePlay/UI/Etc) and then allow selections and comment entries. When ready it will give the possibility of building a report that will peg the most often found key words, etc so we don't have wade through massive amounts of rants to find the important issues.

Good plan, cudos.

	09-11-2001 21:23									#5
	Suffering from ads?

Sorry, I think I misread what your trying to do as taking suggestions and not an idea on how to take suggestions What I get for hastily reading a new topic in the time I have between classes Just disregard my post if it doesnt belong in this thread.

	09-11-2001 23:56									#6
	From theory to practice : the Fixareus project Increase Your PM Length

I named the project "Fixareus", hope you like it

How does it work ?
Click here to have the big picture.

Here is a preview :


People who wanna help gather the most interesting requests they found while reading Apolyton's board.Then, these requests are discussed on a mailing list (think of it as a mailbox anyone can read) and when a consensus is reached, the coordinator emails me the proposition to be added in the Fixareus project.

I posted a pre-preview of my first draft FYI. Go here : http://tlg.free.fr/fixareus/releases/Fixareus010.pdf

PS for Yin : I chose you as a coordinator because I think you would be valuable for the project but it is just an idea so far so if you disagree, it will not be a problem mate

	10-11-2001 04:40									#7
	Suffering from ads?

I'd like to help and I think it's a good idea but we've got a system that deals with bugs already so you can scrub that from what you need to do I'll be sure to post all my requests here when I get the game. 154 hours exactly until I get into town

	10-11-2001 05:43									#8
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

You are welcome Darkknight if you want to join. Once enough people jump into the boat, I will start explaining how tu use the mailing list for those who might still be scared by this two word thing

I just have played a couple of hours today and I started to write a couple of things. However I do need other people to join to decide which ideas should figure in the final paper.

BTW what is the system you talk about ? Is it the good old system of posting hundreds of threads related to the patch ?

Oh and v0.11 is available here

	10-11-2001 16:53									#9
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Check out the "Bug hunt" thread

	10-11-2001 23:10									#10
	Increase the size of your Attachments

I would like to volunteer my time, at least until my wife has our baby...then it will be late nights, I guess!

	10-11-2001 23:46									#11
	Put an end to popups!

You are welcome sachmo71
Email me at tlg@free.fr and I will send you the email to subscribe to the mailing list.

	14-11-2001 19:53									#12
	Huge waste of time- watching other units Tired of ads?

Is there any way I can option out and not spend 80% of my time watching hundreds of other nation's units walk by my borders /and then come back again- countless times- it takes forever. what a bore!!