Urgent Items

[ZargonX]

With the game less than 10 days away, there are several urgent items that need to be dealt with:

1. Ratify the constitution. I think a final draft should be placed up for vote by tomorrow.
2. Appoint Pres, VP, and Ministers for the first term. Also should get this done ASAP.
3. Assign and dispatch ambassadors to other civs.
4. Create a newsletter, etc., to be dispatched to the general public. I volunteered to do this, but I need the above items finished before I can actually report anything.
5. Lay out priorities for first game turns.

As we get these items done, I'll update this list. Anyone else think of anything I'm forgetting?

edit: added item #5.

[Tiberius]

Yes: 5. outline the strategy for the first turns: build order, science, luxury, what to do with the AI if we encounter it, etc. Not as urgent as the above list, but still must be done.

[Spiffor]

1. NO
The Constitution will very probably be hard to amend. I disagree with you when you say it should be voted by tomorrow.
Since there seems to be a general consensus on the ministries, I don't think we need to vote for the whole constitution (and all its undebated points). We just elect these ministers, who act by an unofficial law" of some sort (like all ancient and medieval societies had).
The Constitution is less than urgent. We should vote for it once the debatable points have been discussed, and have been decided upon.
I remember the beginning of the Civ3 Democracy Game, when Trip rushed the constitution. The constitution was pretty correct, but had too many holes. During a whole month, the Democracy Game centred on amending the constitution, which made for a very boring game, because nobody cared about in-game decisions. These discussions were fueled by the fact the constitution was difficult to amend.
What we need during the first turns are a President, a Head Engineer, and a Master Builder. We will need a Military Architect some time later, but the true complexity of the game will begin in more than a week of playing, at the very least. We'd need a consititution by then, but not before.

2. YES. Elect the ministers for which there is a general consensus.

3. YES, absolutely

4. Good idea

5. Yes. Especially regarding the first tech we'll want to discover (I assume everybody wants bronze), and how much science rate we want (I assume we'll want 100% if it let us discover in less than 40 turns).
Most other decisions will have to be made once we know our surroundings.

[lmtoops]

I agree with all of Spiffor points.

The problems with Civ3 Dem. game with substantial. Let's iron out a good document in parrallel with the early game.

[Tiberius]

I agree, too. We need a Constitution, but not at any price. It can wait another week.

[ZargonX]

Ah, I wasn't aware there was such difficulty in the other game. In that case, yes, it does make sense to delay. I thought it would be good to have it in place before the game started, but I'm sure we're more than capable of living without it for a while.

[Kloreep]

Yes, the constitution can afford to wait a little bit. We're a small enough group I wouldn't even say we need to have any constitution, but there's no downside either.

[vondrack]

I do agree that we should wait a bit until raifying the Constitution. Let's start playing as if the latest draft was actually in effect and see how it goes. If there are no problems found within two or three weeks, we can ratify it then. If there are problems, let's incorporate the solutions into the initial version, rather than patching... errr... amending, I mean.