Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

How would YOU like the Coaster Games section to be

A

Anonymous

Guest
I have noticed that questions and requests have started to bleed over to the project threads, some people complain at that and say that something has to be done about it. So here I am.

I started a thread in Team Talk about this and asking if they had any ideas on how to solve this, and it was decided to start a topic here so that everyone can give their input on how we should create an uniform coaster games section that is easy to use and works well.

So what are your thought on how to make the perfect coaster games section?
 
It's a difficult one to solve, if we really need to keep general game discussion and projects separate, whilst also separating the various games. That's really difficult to do without either masses of individual forums or resorting to sub-forums. Either way, it feels like a horribly inelegant kludge - you either get a complex system, or a games category that's twice the size of the next biggest category.

Perhaps it would be possible to have one forum per game, and limit projects to two sticky "in progress" and "completed" threads. Otherwise, if you're using sub-forums, there are a couple of options:
  • Have a forum for each game, and have a project sub-forum in each.
  • Have a forum for each game. Put all projects in a separate 'projects' forum, containing sub-forums for each game.
I hope that vaguely makes sense.

I think this forum may be based on phpBB 2 though, which means sub-forums won't be available without a mod. That could be a problem.
 
^ Yeah you have to make it as easy without clutter the whole boards with forums.

A version of what you described above would to bundle all games together and then only have 3 forums:

  • A discussion part including: questions, requests, news, competitions, etc. with a designated help thread for each game.
  • A designated under construction forum, where you create a thread for each project where you can get feedback (advise, help on developing or beta-tests) for your project. But this would require everyone to properly label what kind of game each project is.
  • And last a Forum where you post your project when it's done and where you get feedback on your released project.
 
I hated the idea of mixing the games up at first, but I'm slowly coming round to the idea...

People may actually start to look at other projects, rather than just the games they play. It's a bit like if we'd originally had UK coasters, US Coasters and European coasters. People would just sit in their own country area, not experiencing everything else.

By mixing the games into the same place - people may actually have a look at some of the other awesome work which is gonig on out there.

Or t may end up such a huge and cluttered mess it's not possible to manage :)
 
furie said:
Or t may end up such a huge and cluttered mess it's not possible to manage :)
Click to expand...
It could also be a complete pain to read if you're only interested in one or two of the games. For instance, I'm not an RCT1 or 2 player, so I'm not going to read threads about RCT1 or 2.

If everything gets dumped into one forum, you can guarantee that people won't bother to post the game name in the thread titles, so people like me will have to open each thread to determine whether or not it's relevant. That would probably make me less likely to read the gaming forums, not more. Unless of course you make a new rule that people must prefix the topic titles with [RCT 3] or [NL], in which case you'll probably spend half your life shouting at users who ignore the rules.

The more I think about this, the more I think there should be a forum for each game, each containing a project sub-forum. There is a sub-forum mod for phpBB 2, and sub-forums are natively supported by phpBB 3 (and most other forums such as VBulletin) if the forums are ever upgraded in the future.

Edit: I suppose you could have a dedicated forum for each game and then one combined forum for projects. That could actually work quite well, as long as people are posting the game name in the thread title, and like you say, might encourage people to look at ALL projects. That would be OK with me, as other game-specific discussion would still be kept separate.
 
furie said:
Or it may end up such a huge and cluttered mess it's not possible to manage :)
Click to expand...
As an example on this, go and take a look on the TPR games section they have everything merged into on forum (including the fun forum), and when you are used to it it's not much of a problem, but i think there might be more project going on here so it will be more threads going on, that's why I had a that kind of division.

And as you said about neglecting the other forums, yeah that is what I usually do now, but on TPR I also take a look at the RCT ones, and it's actually pretty nice to see.

MouseAT said:
If everything gets dumped into one forum, you can guarantee that people won't bother to post the game name in the thread titles, so people like me will have to open each thread to determine whether or not it's relevant. That would probably make me less likely to read the gaming forums, not more. Unless of course you make a new rule that people must prefix the topic titles with [RCT 3] or [NL], in which case you'll probably spend half your life shouting at users who ignore the rules.
Click to expand...
True, but then you will see other stuff, it might give you some ideas for your own projects. But yeah some kind of tag or what ever to the heading would be good.
I still rather see a bunch of projects in a thread without tags, then having to sort through a lot of irrelevant questions/requests that doesn't belong in a projects forum.

It's just a case of getting used to it.
 
BUMP.

We really need to start and sort this thing, and make it more clear for new people so there is no confusion on where to post what.
I also think that the NL "under construction" topic is starting to get out of hand, with less updates and feedback and more bashing. It's really tiring and anoying. :(
 
^ Let me know how you'd like that handled. I've noticed that too.

Personally, I think there's few enough projects there that it would be fine to just have a separate topic for each track, construction to completion.
 
^Do you think it would be a better idea to start a new "Under Construction" topic and lay down some ground rules.

If they are broken then we could take some sort of action. I see this to be the only way to stop the topic turning into the "Xpress Ownage Topic".
 
How to handle the questions/requests etc. is quite easy, just make it more clear what goes where.
But if it's only need some new names to the existing topics or if it requires a complete redesign of the coaster section like the one I have suggested: Here, is another question. Simplicity is key for this.

How to stop the bashing going on, I have no idea.
But if we had separate topics for each project, then it would be easier to control and you have the option to lock it if it gets way out of hand, or something.
Btw. How many bans have you issued after the warnings about them?
 
^Yes, but imagine how many different topics there would need to be. There's a suprising number of of projects going on at once.
 
I haven't issued anything more then 24 hour bans for things. Usually little infighting is something that's not particularly bannable, but just something that needs a warning. Of course, I can start being a little harder on things if it comes to that.

Perhaps we need to move the various help topic stickies to their respective forums and just leave CG for general topics that aren't covered in those help topics, things that don't fit, or just other games.
 
Is it possible to have, i.e. a topic in the NL forum that, when you click on it, redirects you to a topic in CG?. Like a house with several doors? A stickied help topic in each of the forums in the Games section, that all redirects to CG would do the job. That way, noobs could at least place their questions in the right place.
 
^That could work. We could ahve a general NL, RCT3 help topic, which just redirects to the CG section. The risk with that is that the "noobs" would get lost,a nd wonder where their post is.

Mind you with careful wording it could work...

I'll have a think...
 
Hixee: The amount of topics you get from the different projects wouldn't be to bad. Especially if you separate the under construction ones with the ready projects.
Another good thing with having separate topics is that you don't have to sift through a 200+ pages topic just to find some earlier pictures of a project.

You just need to get used to it, and then it will work a treat.
 
^Yes, I supose it's because the system would be new and I wouldn't be used to it.

In hindsight I think it could work. It could need careful moderation so it doesn't get out of hand, but I think it would work...
 
Right, I'm in a tidying mood, so I'm going to pounce on this now and start sorting!

This is NOT set in stone, so feedback on the changes is welcome and things CAN change.

Help topics will be based in the respective areas - with a 'shadow' link in CG.

No Limits Under Construction will be locked - each project gets it's own topic.

NO BASHING WILL BE ALLOWED - Zero tolerance rule!

A few other things here and there I'm sure. :)

Let's see how it goes...
 
^ If you by doing this more or less moves all discussion about each games to their respective forum, then it might be time to loose the "Projects" in the end of their names.

You might also want to put "requests" on the title of the help topics?
 
loefet said:
^ If you by doing this more or less moves all discussion about each games to their respective forum, then it might be time to loose the "Projects" in the end of their names.
Click to expand...

That's next on my list! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top