standard "new game" template

[militarist]

It would be good if someone more experienced proposed, and we all used a standard "new game" template. Partially, people use more or less the same points - mods, map, era, etc. But it would be really good to have all the list of rules (or at least maximal). For example - diplomacy can be described by the list of events which will be treated in game like act of war, or like something, giving moral permission to naigbours to ignore NAP with such player (casting AC, etc).

I don't know if there is a reason to regulate such sensitive thing as diplomacy, and it will defenitely not needed for more experienced players (the more experienced player is, the more flexibility and less rules he wants, it's obvious). But for newbie players the strictier the template, the easier to get into community and predict reaction of other players on something he does, not relying on some "unwritten rules" which are very individual.

[pyg]

I don't think everyone wants to do it the same. Many games feature some things in common, but the admin often is hosting the game because they want to play with certain map/setting/mods. Many games are played with CBM, HoF-15, renaming on, and non-binding diplomacy though.

[Calahan]

Probably the only standard template for games should be a template for the information that should always be displayed when a game is in the recruiting stage. For example

General Stuff

- Name of the game.
- PBEM or server game
- Era
- Number of players
- Map
- Mods
- Rules (banned exploits etc)
- How nations are assigned. (First come first serve. Random)
- Policy regarding diplomacy (binding, binding only if agreements made public, Machiavellian, no diplomacy)
- Policy regarding trading (No trading, no trading commanders, only item trades)
- Restrictions/Allowances (no Ashdod. Experienced players only. New players only. Mod nations welcome)
- Hosting schedule (24h for first 20 turns, then 48h until turn 50 etc)

Game Settings
- Indy level
- Research Level
- HoF 10 or 15
- Magic Site setting
- Gold/resource/supply/events settings.
- Score Graphs on/off
- Victory Conditions

I'm sure I've missed a few things, but generally this is the sort of template of info that should be available for every new game. (although a lot of new games often have a lot of the above info missing)

[Gandalf Parker]

That has come up before. Im all for it.
In particular I think that alot of the mid-game arguments would not be as time consuming if there were some standard templates to refer to "rules set #4 with these changes". It would save the person creating the game from having to remember everything to mention at the beginning, and skip all of the "everyone knows" or "its usually taken for granted" arguments.

The last time this came up, to my poor memory, was here...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43866