Publicity Stunt

[conmcb25]

Originally posted by Nuclear Master
What article do you guys want me to post about?

The one you did is great.

I would wait a few days and then do another article about how we are trying to expand AU, to help out the nOOb's and this is the thread where we are discussing it.

[Tassadar500]

*bump*


Any more thoughts on this? I want to get a planned out "thing" as soon as possible. Due to time constraints, I would prefer if someone were to write out a News Article for me to post, that is what I am supposed to do anyways

[sabrewolf]

OT: NM, please put back in you tonguey-smiley-avatar... it was a lot nicer and less offensive.

back on topic: any answer yet from markos about the civgroup?

i'm not a good writer, as i'm not native english speaker, so not me

[Tassadar500]

OT: How is it offensive?

On Topic: I have not asked him yet, so no

[Tassadar500]

I think we have two different possibilities now. Either make up some sort of strategy guide, or make mini-courses. I think the former would be less work, and all of the AU community could come together. With the mini-courses, it would take an excellent scenario creator. What are your opinions? I think we could do both

[sabrewolf]

how do you see "mini-courses"? a bit more specific... concentrate on micromanagement? show good city placement?

[Aqualung71]

I think both are good ideas. However, to best achieve the stated objective of helping out newer players, I think we need to not just do both, but combine them.

A strategy guide is great, and already exists in many different places. If it could be pulled together into something comprehensive it would be fantastic....but huge. Now, if we could split it into bite-sized chunks, with each section looking at a specific issue and designing a small scenario to illustrate the benefits from the strategy (ie, doing it this way instead of that way), then that would provide the most practical benefit.

[Stuie]

Posting here at NM's request (originally posted in the "Member Count" thread)...

It would be interesting if we could somehow come up with shorter, more focused courses. Such as providing a certain situation with the aim of achieving a certain goal. In other words, start somewhere mid-game and everyone tries to pursue a specific goal (conquer neighbor; obtain difficult resource; build specific wonder, etc.); then compare the strategies. Such mini-courses could be played in a short amount of time, but they would take a LOT more time to setup. Plus I know from watching the succession game that it's hard to pick up where someone else left off.

[Tassadar500]

Based on Aqua's idea, here is what I think. We make let's say ten courses, that are short. You must achieve a certain goal as Stuie described. Each mini-course would have an article that went with it. Preferably, we could put it on a Word file with the mini-course and the article on the same page. For the higher level players, we make a strategy guide based on Chieftans. However, it would be more about strategy and rushes, instead of an introduction. We assume that the readers already know the game.

[sabrewolf]

one thing for stuie's idea: time prebuild of GL or ToE...

another one: make an age of empires like scenario where you got the AI beelining to you (no other possibilites) and you've got so and so many turns to build up an army and defensive installations (forts, etc).

another thing could be leader generation. train people to use regulars to weaken the AI units and the elite's to go for the leaders...

[ducki]

These are good ideas for the tutorial-based suggestion, but...

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, so let me reiterate that these are good ideas for scenarios that might help people learn something.

It's just that the more we talk about it, the less I personally like the idea. In general.

That's just me though. I don't like scenarios, for one. I like to build an empire, not take over someone else's and have to follow their orders.

I never really liked AoE or WoW, either, so that could be part of my dislike.

Another part may be the sheer volume of additional work this will require, from the scenario design to the actual creation of the scenario to the documentation of the scenario. Sure, someone could play a Regent level game with frequent saves and keep a turnlog, then when a "good" learning situation crops up, reload an old save, play up to a turning point and then document, distribute, and promote that.
But it's usefulness would be limited to Regent-level players - the Monarch and above crowd would gain little from playing that out - which is not a huge issue, but an awful lot of work for a level of player that is less present here than others.
On the other hand, you could hand-craft the scenario in the editor so as to have all difficulty levels available, but that seems like even more work than trusting to serendipity. And you still don't draw in folks like me who just don't like AoE/WoW-style scenarios - take over this empire and achieve goal X.

There seems to be a good deal of support for the idea, though, so I'm likely a minority voice. Aside from the support though, there's a lot of "someone could build a scenario" and not much "I could build a scenario". Not necessarily an indictment, I did the same with my idea, just a point I noticed.

If we want more members and publicity "soon", I don't know that a series of Training Scenarios will do the trick, for my own definition of "soon".

To end on a positive note, I'll reiterate again that the scenario ideas themselves seem like good ones and if done right might be a good learning tool.

[Tassadar500]

I would certainly volunteer to make the scenarios, but I don't have Conquests, and thus I can't. Ducki, do you have any suggestions? What about the strategy guide?

[ducki]

Well, the only thing I really came up with so far was the one I posted above...

Come to think of it, maybe we don't need new games, but a new way of analyzing and showcasing what we've already got, which is some of the best strategic play I've seen. Some very esoteric, some so obvious that many don't think of it.

What we need is a Post-Game Wrap-up Show. Someone to comb through the DARs and glean the "good" stuff. Then, with links, compile a Highlights Reel with commentary of the high-points and low-points of the most recent game.

Publish this as a News Story on 'poly and publicize it. It would be news-y and pull some "late" players as well as interest folks in "what's next". It would be fun if the commentary was done in a theme, like a sportscaster or the excellent zoological storytelling seen in 501. And, it would have a very subtle draw to players that want to have some level of competition but not really the GOTM-level or HoF type of game play - folks LOVE to see their name in writing or hear it on the news or on TV. It would be subtle, but it would subconsciously say "Wouldn't you like to be featured in the next AU Post-game Wrap-up? Unless you play, you don't even have a shot, so come on, join in the fun!"

A strat guide might be good, if an already beaten path.
The scenarios are - again, to me - not necessarily a bad idea, just a lot of work to pull in an unknown number of players. I'm looking at it as a coder, I think. Amount of work vs. benefit. "Benefit" is unknown. It could flop and draw no or very few new players or it could double or triple our numbers. Risk factor = high. And, again, there seems to be a lot of support for this.

Here's a question - of those that already are members, how likely do you think scenarios would have been to pull you into AU? How many would have diligently played through them in an effort to improve your game? I'm nolt suggesting anything, I really am curious. I seem to be one of the few that didn't like the conquests.

Anyway, maybe the second posting will draw some support or criticism of the post-game highlights newsreel type wrap-up thingy I mentioned. I'm not much of a creative writer, so maybe the risk factor on my idea is just as high as the tutorial scenarios idea. I dunno. Let's hear from some of you creative writers/compilation artists out there. I know you're here, I've read your DARs and know you can weave a fun story around dry facts.

[ducki]

Hmmm....
Thinking about "creative writing", maybe we could recruit some folks from the Stories forum if noone here feels like writing a wrap-up/highlights sort of thing. It might get some traffic from the Stories forum, as writers like to be read and will advertise to their existing circles. Just another thought, if we don't have anyone that wants to write something like that.

[Tassadar500]

Why don't we use some of the best played AU courses and ask some of the people from the Stories forum to write about it?