Bay 12 Games Forum

My suggestion: a mix of some of these concepts.

Rule set:

• Use this forum instead of a Wiki.

• Every thread is required to have a tag leading the subject, such as:
  DAMAGE: Piercing vs blunt vs slashing
  or DAMAGE: Falling into water / magma

• All allowed tags are listed in a sticky. New tags can be proposed in the sticky.
  Adding proposed tags to the allowed list would be all the absolutely required moderator action.
  
  Everyone inventing their own tags as they go is silly because it defeats the purpose of a successful search for specific items.

• The forum description (both on the main listing and in the forum) encourages "discussion" instead of merely contributing ideas. That always gets out of hand.
  See "Stay on topic".

• Searching for existing threads on the same subject is mandatory.

• Thread necromancy is mandatory if a previous thread covers the same subject or a "sufficiently close" variation.
  (some margin for error there but this is designed as useful, not perfect)
  
  Items applying to "old versions" is a concern but if people stick to concepts and ideas, these stay valid throughout all versions of DF. Even if suggestions have already been partially implemented, there will always be parts that can be reused later.
  
  Discussions about features of the current/upcoming/whatever version... should stick to the discussion forums.

• One idea / concept / suggestion per thread.
  While it's commendable that people have often tried to summarize whole pages of  ideas, multi-topic posts are pretty useless to a developer looking for something specific.
  (It's unlikely that Toady will run out of optional wishlist items anytime soon.)
  
  And there wont be a MULTI: tag because it defeats the whole purpose of finding specific items. =)
  
  That also means: No thread drift. No chatter.
  There is no harm in discussing an idea in a chatter forum and then posting the summary here.
  
  Instead of lumping loosely related ideas into one thread it can be helpul to merely include a link to the thread containing the "related issue".

• Stay on topic.
  This should be implied by the previous post but it's a very very difficult concept for many.
  Here you can see trolls derailing a thread with off-topic posts while not even trying to enhance or improve upon the proposed feature.
  Unproductive.

• Sometimes, items will invariably touch several other items, such as weapon damage being related to materials.
  Pick tag that applies closest.
  If not possible, propose new tag and post your idea when it's been approved.
  If it can't wait a day or two, it probably was some embarrassingly harebrained scheme anyway.
  
  With the tags a limited quantity and with a descriptive subject, the thread can still be found since Toady isn't stupid, either.

• You have a good idea? Be clear and concise in the explanation. Think it through.
  That the player can understand a new feature is fine but how would the AI understand and cope with it? How does it affect the rest of the game?
  A lot of my own ideas looked good on paper until I put them in context and started considering the aftereffects.

• The locals 'round here don't seem to be an unreasonable bunch and can certainly see the value of some organisation so the system would most likely work without having an iron fisted moderator to enforce these rules.
  
  Still, it should be made very clear that failure to comply with such simple rules will get the thread deleted without any warning or notice.
  Now, whether this is actually enforced or not is probably irrelevant. Noone likes the idea of their valuable contribution being deleted just because they were too lazy to look up a proper tag. =)

Now I know that I'm sounding like some forum nazi but if your suggestions are worth being read, they should also be structured so that they can be found when needed.
Otherwise - why would you go to the trouble of posting them?

The list above is too long for "simple rules" but that's because of the reasoning and explanation. Just the rules would be very slim.

In a lot of beta forums they usually split it up into several broad categories, as CK suggested.

The ones that I recall from STO were:

Graphics & UI
Missions
Powers
Combat
General Gameplay

Powers = Skills & Stats
Missions = Jobs & Professions

and you've got a good split. It doesn't have to be strict, but mods can move threads if they feel it's necessary. The point is that a suggestion about adding double-bladed swords doesn't need to be in the same forum as one proposing that there be hidden magma deposits.

Proper use of Child Boards could simply fix this problem. Just visit http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php and you'll know what I mean. (It's a SimCity4 custom content site, and a very well made one at that). Having child boards intergrated inside the main forum index with an eternal topic and a big *** READ FORUM RULES BEFORE POSTING!!! *** title in it.

You could branch everything with this method. Just adding a seperate childs for [Core Game Mecanics Suggestions], [Variety/Flavor Suggestions] and [Main Suggestion/Concerns] would be a big step. This is all just my suggestions here, so don't jump the gun.

Core Game Mecanics could encompass child boards like:

• AI - Auto-vein Mining, Routes/Roads/Hallways, Distances and Access, Job Priorities, etc.
• Tile Value Tracking - Soil Nutrients and Fertilizers, Temperature/Seasons, Cave-ins and Pillar Support, Water/Magma/Sand Algorythms, Irrigation, etc.
• Other Value Tracking - Nutrition(Hunger) and Hydration(Thirst), Creature/Plant Health and Growth, Food Shelflife, Diseases (for creatures and plants alike), etc.
• User Setting Preferences - Uniforms, Kitchen Settings, Economic Stones Settings, Stockpile and Workshop Profiles, Embark Profiles, Save Files, etc.
• Other - FPS Optimizing, Multi-Core and 64-bit, Graphics and Utilities Support, etc.

Variety/Flavor could encompass child boards like:

• Politics - Nobles, Sects/Social Classes/Guilds, Religion, Migrants, Trading and Envoys, Mandates, Justice, etc.
• Economy - Rents, Taxes, Jobs/Pay and Coins, Entertainers, Wenches/Cooks/Service Industry, Shops, etc.
• Creatures & Plants - Megabeats, Wild/Domestic Animals, Pests, Tree-Planting, Weeds, Sugar/Flour/Spices/Herbs/Medecines/Cooking Oil, etc.
• Items - Clothes, Weapons, Armor, Instruments, Pottery, Tapisseries & Carpets, Painting, Potted Plants, Bookshelves, Mecanisms, etc.
• Workshop and Rooms - Bars, Arenas, Stadiums/Sports, Libraires/Schools, Ranches/Milking, Orchards, Oven/Backeries, Charcuteries, Windmills/Pumps/Sprinklers, etc.
• Custom Labors
• Worldgen - Aquifer Settings, Biomes, Evil/Good and Calm/Savage Settings, Custom Stone Layers/Gems/Resources, Cavern Diversity, etc.
• Other - Magic, Alchemy, etc

Main Concerns would encompass child boards regarding one subject, such as:

• Improved Farming
• Military
• Healthcare
• Other - Perceived-as-Bug, Disapointments/Whining,etc.

Within each Main Child Boards, individuals could create a new topic to talk about their whole idea (kinda like a mod suggestion) usually encompassing various subjects, just beneath the Forum Rules sticky.

A fresh start is require for this to work, but I don't think its a bad thing.

With each topic becoming more important, another child board could be added.
Most of these are interchangeable, just put the main idea in the right category and use Quotes/Links for implementation/explanation.

Hope this helps.