Subforums for Dom2: request for input

[Truper]

Now that everyone has had a chance to get used to the new subforums, I'd thought I'd get input from the community on the best structure we could have for Dom2. It seems to me that Dom2 is somewhat different from other games in its multiplayer aspect especially. Opponents wanted makes sense for other games where you can post that you're looking to play, and someone can read your post and then arrange details of a match though a pm or an email. Organizing a Dom2 game is usually somewhat more involved, to say the least

Borrowing some ideas that have already been posted, here is what I think:

The main forum should be for questions about the game, and discussions of balance or mythology, or whatever. The main point is that someone new logging in can get their questions answered without being overwhelmed by discussions of what we might call advanced topics: things like modding.

Having one subforum for multiplayer makes sense to me. A place for people to go who want to find a game or advertise a game, and then, in true Dom2 fashion, talk about it endlessly while its going on What I'm a bit unclear on here is whether it would be worth having a seperate subforum for AARs - games played usually single player as a chance to demonstrate how to play the game, or the chance for the writer to get into the role-playing aspect and tell us all a story. Games like Yarnspinners would be a bit of a gray area - even if we had a seperate AAR subforum, I'm not sure if a game like that would belong there or in the MP subforum. I lean slightly toward not needing a seperate AAR subforum, and either leaving the threads in the main forum if they're how-to-play AARs, or in the MP subforum if they're stories about MP games.

The modding subforum is, I think, a good idea. All the mod announcements and questions about modding in one place. What I want to know is if people think maps and map-making are distinct enough from modding that they would deserve a seperate subforum.

Thoughts?

[Ironhawk]

My thoughts about forums are that you should only subdivide when the traffic in the spawning forum becomes so great that valid threads are being drowned out by the common, high-traffic threads. If you subdivide before this happens you will divert traffic prematurely and cause the spawning forums (and sub forums probably too) to appear sluggish or dead.

As for the Dom2 forums in particular: IMO, while Dom2's complexity might merit multiple forums, it simply does not have the traffic to support more than a general and MP forum.

[Cainehill]

I tend to agree with Ironhawk - the general and MP division was perfect for Dominions. Having the mod forum may seem like a good idea, but imo simply buries the news about mods and information about modding, especially as there isn't enough traffic to warrant it.

If there was going to be a subforum, I think it should contain both maps and mods, so people wanting a little extra for their games have a single spot to go for it. It would also consolidate information about maps and modding, since both have certain things that can be done via them that can't be done via the other mechanism.

[sushiboat]

I agree with Ironhawk and Cainehill. There should be a general forum and a forum for specific Dom2 games that people are seeking, playing now, or have finished (AAR) -- whether the games are MP or SP. I tend not to be interested in mods and maps, but the general forum traffic is low enough that the mod/map topics are not a problem to avoid (and still find other topics) if they are clearly labeled.

By the way, since the subforums were added, refreshing has not worked properly. I used to be shown which topics had unread posts with numbers in parentheses. The numbers in parentheses are still there, but they are incorrect. They just keep getting larger despite the fact that I have already read most of the posts that were new at some point.

[Mindi]

I've talked with Johan and Kristoffer the last two days here in the states and I brought up the subforum modification in those discussions. As I told Truper when I first put in the subforum mod and made the standard subforums for all of the games, these subforums would then be re-evaulated on a game by game basis. With that in mind, as I told Kristoffer and Johan on Friday, Dominions 2 is a slightly different beast than most games when it comes to multiplayer--people don't typically post that they are looking for an opponent as much as they are looking for people to fill out a new game roster. So we will probably morph the Opponents Wanted in with the AAR forum here soon. Although the title will be different, this subforum is really no different than the seperate forum that we already had for Dom 2 Multiplayer Discussions.

However, we will not be removing the "Dom 2 Scenarios and Mods" sub-forum, regardless of how active or inactive the forum is at any particular time. That sub-forum will be standard for any game that has any sort of modability so that users can post and describe their FILES there. The point of this is so that users (especially new users) can quickly go to one subforum if they want to download a user-made map, scenario, mod, etc, without having to search through other threads to find them--this of this as a file archive/registry. The generic name we gave to that forum was 'scenarios and mods', but as I said before, now that we have finished with the subforum initial construction we are evaluating this now on a game-by-game basis, so I will change the title to include maps.

Lastly, another reason we created subforums is to correct the problem we have sometimes with massive amounts of stickies in the main game forums. The more stickies you have, the fewer new discussion threads you see before you have to scroll the page. The more stickies you have, the fewer new discussion threads will be able to fit on a page. We would like to curb this problem by moving any stickies that do not belong in the general forum, into the appropriate subforums.