Constructive commentary for Poly

[fed1943]

Well, I'm at WPC and here at Poly and CFC too.

I come here to read almost every day.

I don't post because I have nothing to say.

Civ5 strategy? It looks it was already discovered...Let's hope future patches
change this.

If a demo game is setted here I would be happy to jump in.

[Tuberski]

Frankly, at the times of Civ 2 and 3, poly looked as big as cfc. It started dropping behind with Civ 4, in part because mod support and forums were just better at cfc. Thunderfall would help you host your mods, advertise them, etc. without your asking anything while 'poly didn't do squat. Then there was the weplayciv split, and the result is the community has shrunk a lot. Add to that the fact that CtP2 is getting old and it had brought a lot of players here but no longer does, and you'll get reasons why CFC gets more people.
The questionable quality of Civ V certainly doesn't help. Not that it's a bad game, but it doesn't seem as good as Civ 4 or 2 to many people.

I am thinking of buying CtP2 from gog.com. But I won'y play V for a long while, if ever.

ACK!

[fani]

Not playing because his system cannot handle it. Plus real life...

Same here.

I would like to see a Vel's strategy guide for CIV5. Preferrably after it evolves into a great game.
Btw it may seem like a trivial reason but i like the looks of this forum better than fanatics so i am staying

[Zoetstofzoetje]

the increasing fragmentation of the player community across forums certainly doesn't help anyone

[Martin Gühmann]

Maybe you did follow up on Civ news, but I just couldn't find it. When you're on a random forum page, you don't see any news, like you did on the old forum. The only way to find news was by checking if anyone posted a thread on it

That problem would be easy to solve, just enable the side bar everywhere in the forum so that the news are present everywhere. Probably we should also increase the width of the forum on the expense of the background image, but I think content is more important than such a background image.

-Martin

[Robert]

We had the sidebar everywhere but people complained about it, so it was removed
It still is in the main-forum page, so assume that everybody visits it there, everybody should be able to read the latest news.
In very ancient Apolyton we had a drop-down box with the news, I always used that myself. It was lost with the transfer to vB3.

Regarding strategy, the AU needs to be improved, the 'main' forum should be able to handle normal strategy threads, then the articles should be indeed a sub forum.
But like Ming says, right now strategy posts can fit very well right here.

[Jaybe]

It still is in the main-forum page, so assume that everybody visits it there, everybody should be able to read the latest news.

Since I have just the civ5: general forum bookmarked, I hadn't been to the main-forum page until I read this. I had checked the Spotlight occasionally, though.

Considering that the 5:general forum is the only 5 forum with any posts later than October, I suppose I'll just stick with it.

[Martin Gühmann]

We had the sidebar everywhere but people complained about it, so it was removed

Where there any specific complaints, like it eats to much of the forum width, or was this moving twitter stuff annoying, or was it to big in general?

I think those things can be fixed.

It still is in the main-forum page, so assume that everybody visits it there, everybody should be able to read the latest news.

Don't assume anything, especially if the people are used for years not to visit the main page.

In very ancient Apolyton we had a drop-down box with the news, I always used that myself. It was lost with the transfer to vB3.

It could have been restored very easily, in vB3 with old news system. Anyway we have a new content management system. And so far what I have seen is that you would need some considerable time to add a drop down news menu to the navbar.

-Martin

[Robert]

Where there any specific complaints, like it eats to much of the forum width, or was this moving twitter stuff annoying, or was it to big in general?

I think those things can be fixed.

It was about forum-width being taken away.
The twitter feeds weren't very popular either.

It is also possible to have the sidebar in every forum, but not in the threads.

Don't assume anything, especially if the people are used for years not to visit the main page.

Well, with 'main page' I meant forum main page, not spotlight. (apolyton main page).
I myself never visited the old-Apolyton mainpage either
Right now I always go to apolyton.net b/c it gives me a good overview of what's happening.
On my cellphone I go to the forums immediately, but then I doubt that I'd like a sidebar....

It could have been restored very easily, in vB3 with old news system. Anyway we have a new content management system. And so far what I have seen is that you would need some considerable time to add a drop down news menu to the navbar.

Maybe a widget could be made.
But then again, the sidebar just in the forums may be a good option as well.

[Ming]

No matter what you decide... just make sure people have the option to NOT see it if they don't want to.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

i think you're centred too much on technology. the main problem seems to be that the membership has not rejuvenated. in other words, new players were attracted more to other forums rather than this one.

i'm good at pointing at the problem, but don't have a clear solution. part of it may be in google ranking, and support for new players. obviously, a collective will have to provide this. it's a chicken and egg discussion which grows worse as time flows by.

[Martin Gühmann]

It was about forum-width being taken away.

And why don't we just add forum width? We still have some space left on the left and the right. And in case of doubt we can also reduce the width of the navbar.

The twitter feeds weren't very popular either.

Well, what is so helpful about a moving thingy that speaks everything else than English at an English internet site. Maybe the official civ twitter is of more use. But if we remove the twitters than we could give spotlight more room and add a site map.

On my cellphone I go to the forums immediately, but then I doubt that I'd like a sidebar....

Don't you have means to test Apolyton, to figure this out.

Maybe a widget could be made.
But then again, the sidebar just in the forums may be a good option as well.

So something that goes below the navbar?

No matter what you decide... just make sure people have the option to NOT see it if they don't want to.

Well, the idea was that you can't ignore our content so easily.

-Martin

[OneFootInTheGrave]

the forum is dead, there is not enough energy in the old users to make "Civ V sucks" threads anymore

[Zoetstofzoetje]

can somebody please rename you to TwoFeetUnder?

[Crossfire]

I think the problem with the forums is the game. Nobody likes it and nobody cares to work on new strategies. Without that input, what's the point?

To fix the game I really think they need to rethink the graphics and what tiles offer. It just feel like I am too far away from the map and it doesn't matter where I settle. Once I do settle it doesn't matter what tiles I upgrade (mostly). I just don't CARE. But if it did matter then I would want to be able to regen the map. And it doesn't matter who your neighbors are anymore, I just know you are going to war at some point. I remember how it would change my build if Monty or Shaka was next to me, now it doesn't, they are all nuts. I also think happiness is really too hard for many people to manage and is just one more reason to just spam more tiny cities.

So, fix the game and the forums would take care of themselves.