Tips for New Posters {READ BEFORE POSTING}

[Dr Rush]

Having spent several years at this point participating in various game development communities, I have decided to related some lessons I've learned that will help new users in this section hit the ground running. While nothing in this thread is mandatory, it is sound advice based on experience. 

 

Making a New Suggestion

 

Effort: Generally people will put the same amount of effort into responding as you put into the idea yourself. If you provide a considered idea in well written post, you are far more likely to get solid feedback. Conversely if you start a topic that consists of "OMG, DINOSAURS ARE COOL, lets add them!", you will likely be given some form of "No, GTFO" in response.

 

Search: Before you do anything else do a basic search for your idea. P&W has been around long enough for many ideas to have been previously discussed some to the point of being ad nuasem. Run a few basic searches of this section of the forum for key terms in your idea. Look at similar ideas & pay special attention to issues that have been brought up & try to address those in your suggestion. Do not repeat the same exact idea that we've all heard a zillion times already with no changes, just don't, it serves no purpose.

 

English: Use it, nothing turns people off a thread faster then an OP that is unreadable. Before you publish at the very least spellcheck & do a quick proofread.

 

Formatting: Highlighting, bold/underling, & sizing should be used sparingly to bring attention to important sections of text & in section headers. Tables, images, & long drawn digressions should generally be placed in a spoiler. OPs with a large amount of information should have a generalized summary at the top for those lacking in attention span.

 

Balance: Before you put something out, consider its game balance implications, both near term & in the future. If it's over-powered it becomes game breaking, if its under powered it's not worth the Devs time to add. Remember Occam's Razor, large numbers of cavets or special situation mechanics make an idea to difficult to code & cumbersome to use. Further, something requires more then one or two restrictions is generally unbalanced. Lastly, accept that some things just can't balanced.

 

Utility: For a suggestion to be worth adding it should fulfill a unique purpose that adds to the game in a meaningful way. That is not to say that small ideas are not useful, for example alliance invites are a terrific tool for alliance leaders. On the other hand, a baseball simulator is a large project that does not really effect the game in a meaningful way. Remember every minute spent coding a "Jurassic Park National Project" is a minute not spent coding Nation Perks.

 

Abuse: Assume that if something can be abused to do anything, it will be done by someone, sooner rather than later. When you suggest an idea consider possible abuses & include safeguards against those. 

 

Responding to Others

 

Legible: A response that can't be read is going to be ignored no matter how valid it's contents. Refer back to the English & Formatting sections above.

 

The Door: Discuss the content of a post not the poster. This sub-forum is meant to discuss ideas to make the game better, not slug out personal grudges. When you enter here you should be leaving personal baggage at the door. If you can not manage that leave.

 

Troll-free: This is not the place for trolling, baiting, or !@#$posting. If others are doing it ignore them, the mods will be along at some point to hand out warns.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Dr Rush

[Magicboyd25]

Good points, I agree with all of these statements. 

 

Maybe add a bit about not making the post too large or too small but keep a balance so that it is just not a huge wall of text that can make people ignore the post? I don't believe you covered this specifically so I think it would be good to edit in.

[Dr Rush]

Some idea's require a lengthy post to cover everything, others are self explanatory & require a single sentence. I don't think implying that ideas need a certain word count to be good is a trend that should be set. I did however suggest in formatting that lengthy posts come with a tl;dr summary at the top.

[Atzuya]

This should be stickied

 

Everything listed is a good point of consideration for all would-be suggesters out there, even tho I don't really agree with the OBL one. It might not add something big in the terms of nation building or politics, but like other things such as factbook, social/economic policies, GDP, currency, approval rating, it gives players a little extra something they could invest their time in to personalize and be more attached to their nation. I'd say that's a good thing.

[Dr Rush]

Sheepy pre-approved the sticky just waiting for someone with buttons to get to it.

[Jaehaerys]

Thread pinned.

[Dr Rush]

Thank you.