Metaverse Council Suggestion Box

FYI, I'm working on the Altmeta today. If things work out the way I hope, it'll be a lot more efficient than it was from a database usage standpoint, so it should be easier to add more different sorting/ranking options and have it generate them on-the-fly.

Awesome thanks for the update Kryo!!

Remember, all members view points will be taken into acound, so contribute at will. Also, remember to keep it simple and well be sure to answere all your questions

If things work out the way I hope, it'll be a lot more efficient than it was from a database usage standpoint

You are indeed the man. Thanks for your support. Now if we can just figure out what we want.   

Time to start the debate.. eh Mumble   

Please feel free to suggest anything that doesn't involve the word "stick".

Oh, we want to learn how to defend ourselves against pointed sticks, do we?

And now for something more like a real entry. I'd like to reiterate one suggestion (Mumble's, I believe) that stands out from the previous threads that got this one started. It seems to me to be a straightforward reorganization of the existing data which, if implemented, could be completed quickly to show early tangible results (I think this is very important at this point) of our organization.

Basically, it involves taking the existing Metaverse data and displaying it in different categories in the AltMeta. Instead of the top 50 scores, break up the high scores into three brackets based on galaxy size (a tiny/small bracket, med/lg, and huge/gig) and another set of four brackets based on victory type (military, influence, etc.). Display ten characters in each list, with a link to a full page of scores based on that bracket; maybe add a separate tab for empire scores.

Without going any further than this for a first step, I think we would be off to a good start in making the (Alt)Metaverse a more friendly place for all players who don't wish to play GSMC (Gigantic Suicidal Military Conquest) games.

I think what brackets and divisions there will be should be decided by the Council, but the ones you suggested are probably what it will end up being.

Kryo,heres another small question. Are new medals hard to incorporate?

Kryo,heres another small question. Are new medals hard to incorporate?

It's something we could look into, if the optimizations go well. Note that if you wanted to show them off, you'd have to manually paste an image link or whatever it is into your posts to show them here. The medals functionality on this forum is only for the real meta.

Okay thats cool(hope it works), well ill see how the Council is faring in the Core, well get back to you.

Oh, we want to learn how to defend ourselves against pointed sticks, do we?

The stick I was talking about was not neccessaily pointed. Pointed would just make it even more uncomfortable.    But seriously folks.

Absoulutey the brackets idea is probably one of the first ones we want to implement, however we still have some housekeeping to do at the core. Things like where we set up the polls that will show our votes and getting all the reps together for the first time. Actually Marshall you should check out the digs at the Core, you're all set up. I also have some voting procedural issues we need to decide that you need to provide input to.

Anyway back to the brackets. There's a couple of ways to do this. One is to guess what division of brackets would be most beneficial. The second is to take a poll here on the GC2 forums about what kind of metaverse games people would like to play. The third is to analyze the AltMeta submission data to see the statistics of the kind of games people actually submit. I think both 2 and 3 are necessary to do. I'll get started on # 2 by starting a thread that asks that question. As far as the statistics that may take a little bit longer.

Seems that this thread does not come up if I enter the forums through the everything link on the main page. Kind of strange, since other threads in this category come up fine. I hope this isn't limiting exposure.


Edit: just realized this is stickied in the meta category, meaning it doesn't come up when going to everything. So you have to come to the meta category to see it. Still a little limiting.

As for looking into statistics i suggest we take some 'volunteers' from the Council.

Edit: just realized this is stickied in the meta category, meaning it doesn't come up when going to everything. So you have to come to the meta category to see it. Still a little limiting.

The Off Topic thread isn't visible through the Everything link either and sometimes it seems that that's one of the most popular forums. The best way to really see everything is to click on the Forums link on the home page and then click on the More Recent Posts link at the bottom of the page. This truly shows everything. The one downside is you can't create a new thread from their but of course you can reply to threads your viewing.

BTW guys the point of this thread is for people to post suggestions not for general Metaverse Council conversation. I'm going to open up another (non sticky) thread like a thread that all the empires use. We don't need to be totally religious about it, but we should move most of this over to the new thread.

Just a general status report of the Metaverse Council. So far our progress has been glacial. However, appearances can be deceiving because we're actually discussing a number of issues at the same time. Most of these are procedural but specific and detailed ideas about how to set up metaverse "brackets" are currently being discussed.

These ideas will definitely be discussed in detail here in these forums, but we want to flesh out these ideas before exposing them to the light of day.

Beyond this, there are a few other things we have in mind to provide realistic benefit to the average metaverse player. However, at some point soon we may very well run out of good ideas. Please feel free to post any ideas that you may have regarding metaverse improvements/changes that you would like to see.

Obviously the more realistic these ideas the better chance they have of being implemented, but don't let reality get in the way of an otherwise good idea. Someone's harebrained scheme is someone else's gem of an idea.

This might be a tad OT, but I'd like to suggest making registration at the Core easier.

I wear glasses, but my scrip is current. Still, I could not make the 'bot-guard believe I was human no matter how faithfully I thought I reproduced the strings.

I also think it might make the site more inviting if you split registration into two phases so that a new user could focus on required fields before having to bother with the full range of account settings.

I'll forward your input to the management at the Core. It's been awhile since I registered and I don't remember what was involved. Also there's been a recent software upgrade that may have affected how this works. You can skip the full account settings because you can always go back and "Edit Profile". However, it's not always obvious what's essential to take care of and what's not. In any case you made it so it couldn't be all that bad.

As the Pakistani HP tech support people keep telling me "We're so sorry for the inconvenience".

Is there a place where non members of the Council can see the progresses?  

You don't need to be a member of the Metaverse Council to see what's going on. Just check in the Metaverse forum at The Galactic Core. You don't even have to register at the Core to read what's going on, however if you wish to add your own comments you need to register which only requires an email address. We certainly encourage any and all to make your opinions known.

Also we're working on a Metaverse Council Blog as well as intending to continue with various posts here in these forums. I've been disappointed in how little progress it appears to most folks that we've been making, but I assure you that the Council has been hard at work with the mundane tasks of getting organized and we'll soon be able to demonstrate some actual progress in achieving our goals.

Please excuse my idiocy, but I'm just starting to read up on the alt metaverse and am not quite sure I understand what direction you're going. I'd like to post this on the MEtaverse section of the guide I wrote... but I should have a clue before I did that - hehe.
Is there a quick way to bring me up to speed? Mumble, when you said I've been disappointed in how little progress it appears to most folks that we've been making, but I assure you that the Council has been hard at work with the mundane tasks what are you referring to? Is this all geared towards the alternate Metaverse, or the whole Galactic Core site?

Thanks

Right now and for at least the immediate future we're concentrating on the AltMeta because it's something that's within our power to change. Ideally and eventually we would probably like to see some of the things we've proposed be incorporated into the "real" metaverse as well. We figure that showing by example is the best idea. If what we come up with is a good idea and is popular, I'm sure Stardock is a lot more likely to look favorably on it then if we're just spouting off a bunch of hare-brained, half thought out ideas from the peanut gallery.

Please stop by the Metaverse forum at the Core to see what we've been up to.

jpinard - I believe you will find that this is geared toward the altmeta and the official meta too. I believe the idea is to bring more awareness to the GCII player of the benefits that the metaverse provides by creating incentives through medals / rankings and the like whick are more 'realistic' than the official meta scores .Another aim may be to bring attention to the Empires and the merits of joining one ,and indeed promoting the smaller empires.
I hope I have answered some of your questions. I am sure Mumble will be along soon to clarify anything I may have missrepresented   






edit; You must have got there as I was typing Mumble. Good to see you   

Wow, all of this sounds excellent. I would so love to see more development in the official Metaverse. Taking the Metaverse map and wrapping it around an animated 3d globe would be pretty cool too (and have a lot more than 10 empires on it).

Please, please don't be offended as I know it's not my place to critique but as a newbie to your site, I honestly think it's almost overwhelming. When the page opens up there are so many text links between the top and stickies it's hard to know where to start. In fact, I posted in this thread before registering there because I wasn't quite sure what/where to do or go.

If you've seen my guide, then you know I have the same issues, but I do try and think about how it'd be easiet to use for the new visitor. I think you should merge the Global Annoucement, Announcement, Web Links, & Sticky sections all into one. Because, between those and all the text links up top you can't even see the start for the daily forum threads and it takes several scrolls of the mousewheel to get to active posts.

As another aside (as a new visitor) I thought most of the text links up top were actually cross-link advertising... since so many sites have lottery, casino, quiz ads etc. Also, for smeone who doesn't take the time to look carefully further dwon, at first glance it looks like the forum is dead. A lot of people (like me) are fast skimmers and automatically look at the date/# of posts (sad I know)... and sometiems use that as criteria on whether to register and spend more time.

And once again, I offer my humblest apologies if you didn't want/need advice. I just figured since I worked on the part of the game and still was a bit overwhelmed at the site... others might be too.

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I am assuming that you're talking about the Core and I can see how it can appear that way at first glance (or even 2nd and 3rd). I'm just a member there but I'll be sure to pass along your comments to the management there. The intent is that unregistered folks can read all the public forums but not post. Registered folks are free (and encouraged) to post to any public forum. I know that for example in the Metaverse forum that most of the posts are from Metaverse Council (MVC) members and the general public might look at that and be inhibited from contributing. That is not the case. We do want input from all about anything that interests them. Why we have the bulk of our discussions there versus here is mainly because most of what’s been discussed have been mundane issues about how MVC business is conducted. Most of this is extremely boring. I would encourage everyone to not be put off by what can admittedly be confusing. The Core has been around for quite sometime but has recently been going through a tremendous growth spurt. All I can say is that it’s worth the time it takes to poke around a bit and figure out what’s going on, and please don’t be shy, feel free to chime in on any topic that interests you.

The MVC is currently working on three major tasks that should be of interest to the average metaverse player. Again we’re keeping the preliminary discussions at the Core simply so that we can come to agreement about what it is that we’re recommending. However, anything of significance will be thoroughly discussed here before implementation. I don’t really want to steal the thunder of more “official” announcements to come about these issues, but to quickly summarize we’re coming up with a plan to institute brackets in the AltMeta so that people can compete more fairly with people that play similar type games. We’re also conducting an email outreach program to make contact with metaverse players that have become isolated from other players, in some cases even players within the same empire. We’re also working on a Metaverse Blog that will be the “official” mechanism for the MVC to make announcements and for folks to get a summary of what’s going on in the MVC without having to wade through twenty mostly boring threads. Actually this Metaverse Blog will not be limited to just MVC related concerns but will address all things metaverse as well as GalCiv2 topics not even related to the Metaverse.

I do appreciate your input particularly when it's so obviously intended to be constructive. For now we’re staying away from trying to make any changes to the “official” metaverse for a couple of reasons. Although Stardock has often demonstrated the willingness to consider player requested changes, it’s not something that you can depend on. Even if they decide to implement some player requested change, the timeframe and details of the change are not something that there’s much player control over. Finally, you do need to realize that such requests are effectively asking Stardock to spend time and resources for free, that’s not really a fair thing to ask of them.

Our point of making changes to the AltMeta is that, as a player sponsored site, it’s something that we *can* change ourselves. Also, if we can implement the things we want *and* it’s apparent that these changes are something that the general GalCiv2 community appreciate, then we feel Stardock is far more likely to consider their implementation. Finally, the Metaverse Council (MVC) as an entity has yet to actually accomplish anything, why should Stardock consider the suggestions of a random group of a few players. If the Metaverse Council (MVC) is successful in demonstrating that it can accomplish something positive *and* speak for a wide range of players, then again, Stardock is far more likely to consider our requests. In any case we feel that it’s in everyone’s best interest to wait until the MVC has “proven” themselves before trying to suggest changes to the “official” metaverse.

Jpinard i thank you for your observations. Now and again it takes an outside opinion on the site to make us look at things again. Some of your points are quite true and i have taken steps to alter the way the cores topics are displayed. As of now you should all see the treads are now returned back to a singular look with only the announcements easily defined. The text links at the top of the Core will also be getting looked at in the next day or so.

Thanks once again for your input

Drengin
(The Galactic Core webmaster)

Its nice to see a few new faces in this thread.

By the way, everyone is welcome to state their opinion here or at the Core. Nothing would be thought of as a critique as long as its put in a friendly maner.

A small suggestion: maybe in future the MCV will ask to Stardock to make some changes to the Metaverse, so it could be useful show that MVC is supported not only by few but by many letting all the people post a brief comment in an apposite post; I know that is too soon, but make such a post now will give time to all players to read it (there are people out there that may not check so often internet).

I just hope you can understand what I mean