XCAS research topic

[Ion Mage]

Ok, i have been noticing that we have not been voting for technology for a while (barring last sunday, we voted then, but only THREE of us were there), and i thought that requiring attendance to vote is just not needed.

 

So, i have created this topic (which would be begging to be pinned if we could change polls, can we? If so, pin, please) for people to vote out of sim.

 

First, heres a few reason we need this topic;

 

1) Not all people make it to the end of the sim to vote (case in point, last sunday, with only me, loonie, and CZ surviving to the end), regardless of attendance. Though im all for people attending to the end of the sim, it shoudln't be a requirement for people to not have a life. Especially if the sim lasts longer than 1.5 hours (Last sunday went WAY beyond that, no one should be punished for that one).

 

2) It shows that people are still interested in the sim, even if they cannot make it to the sims, and dont have the time to roleplay either.

 

3) In case people forget to vote completely, especially if its the GM that forgets, everyone will remember when they see this topic, and get the chance to vote right then and there.

 

4) It will accelerate the tech tree, at least IMO, primarily due to point 3

 

 

Reasons we dont need this:

 

1) It lowers the penalty for dropping out early, but as i said, we shouldn't punish people for this, especially if it was due to a faulty connection or something. I personally think people would be pushed away if they got the idea that they cant play this game and have a life at the same time, which is very well possible

 

2) Ermmm.... well... im certain someone will get a 2 in here.

 

 

Ok, please vote. and argue if you think this is a bad idea (i think its good, but otherwise why would i make this topic?)

 

 

UPDATE WITHOUT EDIT: Can't have more than ten choices! We'll just have to type our tech votes in replies. Oh well, now we have a poll on whether we should do this or not.

[Loonie]

Though im all for people attending to the end of the sim, it shoudln't be a requirement for people to not have a life.

 

Is sacrificing 1.5-2 or maybe 3-4 hours weekly for this thing not having a life? If that is so then, heh, I must say it's interesting on how people view this thing. :dontgetit:

 

It shows that people are still interested in the sim, even if they cannot make it to the sims, and dont have the time to roleplay either.

 

In that instance we can make XCAS a sim with plenty of interested players, but alas no one has time to attend sims. But okay, I understand you didn't want to mean it like THAT.

 

It will accelerate the tech tree, at least IMO, primarily due to point 3

 

You know, Mouse has a good point of keeping the research tree nice and progressing, not accelerating out of control. The first time that happened it forced him to destroy the Patton, because the tech tree got so out of control and advanced all to quickly. So advancement of the tech tree isn't all that important.

 

At this very moment I am in limbo as to how much of my energy I would devote to XCAS. It will be enough to keep the thing going, but certainly not spectacular. The only thing that can make it spectacular is if there are enough active people that show up regularly. Until that happens XCAS will definately not reach its full potential.

 

But by all means. We can have this thing if you want, though I don't know how many people will vote on it. It shouldn't really be a poll because of the 10 votes limit. Instead people just write 1) Project X 2) Project Y 3) Project Z and that's it. At friday evening the votes stop being recieved and that's all there is to it. So yeah, I'd be up for it.

[Ion Mage]

Well, when i said that thing about 'sacrificing real life' i was thinking about timing. You see, down here in eastern coast america, I sim at 2 PM! Now, this only happens on saturdays and sundays (with saturdays being optional), but the thing is, those are the prime days when someone is going to go out and relax, chill with his friends, etc.

 

Im exempt from this, i dont go out on sunday, and on saturday i dont go out til' 6 PM. But there are others whom wouldnt want to suffer the following situation;

 

Friend: hey, wanna chill this saturday/sunday?

 

Simmer: Sorry, im already scheduled to play a chat-room based game around that time.

 

So its not how much time is used up, but timing. But most of you are europeans (hence the x-com.CO.UK think), so its not much of a problem for you. But still, think about us americans! (and dont turn this into a discussion about which country is better, we cant control where our country is located, nor how far the earth has rotated, and neither can you, nor anyone else)

 

As for the tech tree going wildly out of control, im not saying we should do that. its just that we NEED the acceleration, as its been a long time since we last completed a project, and weve got a whiles to go before we've finished (not that im saying we should hurry to that point ). Bascially, what im saying is that the current tree is too slow, this will only remedy that. We can suspend research somehow (science team in med bay?) if things go out of control, heck if it means blowng up the patton again, or even NAO, do it! it'll make things interesting again, the lack of twists these days is killing interest i believe. I remember being completely piqued in interest when we captured the kabron pirates, and let down when they just dissappeared off the radar (though i guess they arent coming back until we do some of the right research, so i can understand that, just making a point). But thats a different point completely.

 

And i already mentioned that if people wanna vote, they gotta do it by posting due to vote choice limit.

[Loonie]

Okay okay! I get your point about the time. And I agree it is a valid one.

 

In any case I don't see why we're arguing. I already approved the thing so... After tommorrow we're going to create one such post. Chill man, chill.

[Ion Mage]

Ok, now, then. Since we've agreed, hows this for a format?

 

Bascially, we create the topic, and then everyone votes. When the next week arrives, rather than make a new one, we'll not clutter the whole board with topics, but rather, edit them again and again.

 

That is, when the new week arrives, me, or whoever the topic creator is, edits it, and removes the old voting stats, and adds the new one. And everyone then proceeds to vote. Just like the topic start, though, those votes are edited instead. In the topic itself we should have this part in big red letters, or something. if anyone fails to give votes without addign a second post, uh, maybe his vote is nullified for the week, and his message removed? (this is open to debate).

 

The reason that voters are to edit their' votes instead of making new posts is because i want to see a pinned topic that doesnt span 50000000 pages (thats an overstatemtn, but you get what i mean), and also make it easy for you (loonie) to find out the votes (you can just look at the 'edited on whenever' part to find out if the vote came before or after the new post)

 

Or something like that, unless you got a better idea than mine.

 

Edit: Oops! Forgot the prposed format! It starts after the line

 

 

===================================================

 

 

XCAS research topic. This topic is where we insert our votes. Enter in your 3 votes... blah blah blah (voting instructions here, and the rules, such as the edit, not overpost rule. This part is obviously not edited out when new week rolls around)

 

CURRENT RESEARCH (AKA last weeks winners)

 

Project name, class, difficulty, and progress:

 

Laser weaponry Technology, weaponry, Hard*** , 65%

Small Launcher, Alien Weaponry, Medium **, 70%

Remotely Controlled Tank Chassis, Mobile Armor, Medium **, 40%

 

 

 

AVAILABLE PROJECTS:

 

Project name, class, difficulty, and progress:

 

(List available techs, we got too many to list at the moment over just an example, but it follows a similar format as above, only using the other list )

 

 

 

PEOPLE WHOM HAVE VOTED THIS WEEK:

 

(List people whom have voted this week)

 

 

====================================================

 

 

ok, so i got a bit lazy doing that, but its just an example. Heck, if it gets too cumbersome, instead of listing all the techs, we can just give a link to XCAS research page

 

And people can get a 'Last updated on;' indicator easily; its included with each update!

 

Any constructive criticism is welcome.

[Ghost]

Obviously the Netherlands is the best country there is, but I will not start with this pointless discussion of course

 

As for the voting idea: I like it, good idea to have people vote on the boards. If anything it might boost forum activity too Which is a good thing yes

[Ego Terrorist]

I agree (Not with Ghosts assertion of Netherlands being the best place ) So are we going to have a simple poll? With a list of research projects or are we going to have to write up our vote? Because if we do the latter then it's open to anyone that traverses the forums of XTC as opposed to those of XCAS, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing?!

[Loonie]

Okay. Next week I will post a topic here in which each week people will give away their votes for the available research topics. I will say how many open slots there are and will collect the votes on friday night which will be written up in the same manner as they were written at the end of Sunday's sims (Project X = 4 points, Project Y = 2 points, Project Z = 1 point). This means that at the end of Sunday's sim you can give away your vote if you wish too, but it won't be necessary as it was before. That is all