Hi, I am The Architect.
Cheesy, i know, but I was thinking literally when i chose my nickname for this forum. A great Architect, planner and executor of projects extraordinaire. At least, so one can believe of oneself until seeing some of the fortresses (other) people have created.
Enough with the introduction. I would like to organize a contact group for Dwarf Fortress succession games. If anything of the kind already exists, please post any information you have to direct me toward it. I am willing to organize games and keep a pool of interested players on hand for any number of games and leaders. Designing your own fortress is fun and all, but having absolute control makes things a little dull to my mind. I would prefer to interact with other people and build on each other person's ideas.
***If this is too much of a readthrough for you then just post your thoughts on an organized "League" below, and having said this I expect no comments objecting to those who have not read the long list of ideas. However, if you have a new idea (beyond "yes", "no", "lovely", "i hate it") to submit please read all the posts.*** To my thinking, the perfect succession game has a minimum of 3 and maximum of 4 players. Some will disagree, and please post your own opinions. My reasoning is that two people can't mix it up enough, however creative they are, and end up getting things back too soon, allowing them to control the direction of the fort easily (exactly NOT the point of a DF succession game). Sure, it can be a hell of a lot of fun to share it with one friend, but honestly the human interaction there is very simple: either you directly cooperate or each person does his own thing. Boring? Indeed! However, with more than 4, a player's decisions begin to have less and less consequence for their own future turns, and the natural result is something along the line of Boatmurdered: absolute and glorious mayhem! Otherwise known as losing or "Fun". While Boatmurdered is tons of fun reading-wise and the reporting was really well done, it was painful to see players who couldn't construct a locked door to block smoke, or organize archers and/or towers to control elephant population, etc, alternating with players who just wanted to use their year to make a mark on "BM", frustrating the efforts of others who tried to keep it afloat. However, if debacles are your thing they'll be welcome too.
Anyway, with 3-4 players you have a huge stake in what's happening, as you yearn for your next chance to kick some more ass and show off your abilities, improving on what your friends have done and generally one-upping each other. I would love to have Boatmurdered's world generation info for such a game, if it would work with the current version
**Magma, underground river, flux, cliff, river, medium trees, and elephants on one map!**
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Alright, well there's a lovely forum here and players can post reports wherever they like. Hopefully our group could find a nice place to have a home forum tab, somewhere like the Wiki (or maybe Toady will give us one here).
If you wish to join the "League" then please post a reply saying so and include any ideas you have; they will be warmly received. Here is what I have thought of while typing this:
Newsletter type updates by request and/or subscription, or a page, with players' stats listed as follows:
Name ~Activity ~League Experience ~Ability Rating ~Personality Rating ~Availability ~Notes
Example1 Active 5 Games 4+ 4 Available known for RP
Example2 Inactive 1 Games 1 N/A Feb 2010 inventive
Example3 Active 6 Games 4 8 Available witty
This is simply information to help others pick from players they don't know. Each player would rate the others at the time of the fortress' demise or the agreed end of the game, and send a rating for:
recommend: -1, 0, +1 (did they maul your fort beyond recognition with incompetence, contribute little, or excel?)
Personality: 1-10 (how well did you like this player, apart from playing skill?)
Notes: (brief description of notable characteristics)
This survey info then would be used to calculate the attributes show in the table. Notice Ex1 has only played 4 games and received overall positive ratings in all of them, but his personality rating is low. Perhaps the players he was with didn't appreciate his Role Playing? Ex2 played one game long enough to show some skill but dropped out, and his teammates didn't feel they could rate his personality, but they left him a nice note. Ex3 has not made skill 5 in 6 games, showing perhaps a rough start, but his teammates really enjoyed his company. With a dedicated page perhaps players could leave "reviews". Whether you would care to read them or care who joins your game is your business. But if you want a rookie game, you could find rookies, if you want a "pro" game, you could have it.
Included in the Newsletter or page would be
"Example1 is looking for players for an open-ended one-year per ruler succession game, non looping"
"Example 2 is looking for 3 players for looping one-year succession game, 12 years"
etc
Current Games
Endfall
Kook, Nacker, Architect, Murder101 (full)
yr5 as of 09/22/09 (open ended)
*link to update page*
Hailnation
Goober, LosingIsFun, Kevlar, EndtimeProfessor, ... (one-year non-looping)
yr1 as of 10/01/09
*link to update page*
*apply*
Glazespray
OtherPlayer, Offal (1 needed)
has not begun
*no log available*
*apply*
etc.
Applicants would leave a note and/or contact info from the link for the game leader and/or participants via PM or email and (most likely) be accepted. We're all very accepting people.
I think with an organized system like this, playing DF succession any way you want would be a breeze! With a short program to handle mathematics and another to format output and the page/Newsletter, it would be largely hands-off.
need any help tell me what I can do.