Community/ CT website

[TheBug]

I think last Thursday nights CT mission(organized by Stream, Hawk, Lowtec and Slash27) besides being just plain fun highlighted something that is sorely needed by us CT folks and that is "community".

No planeset, play-balance, or map is going to achieve that.  It needs to be achieved by player and staff interaction and by just shear desire and hard work.

I think the Mission Night every Thursday night is a great idea and will very much help build a sense of community.  But I was also thinking to augment this with an "Unofficial Combat Theater Website".

Some content of the website I was thinking of would include:

A general introduction to the CT.

A description of the current setup(similar to what Arlo has).

Some history on the current setup to help "set the stage"

A meet the squads of the Combat theater page.

A weekly updated player profile, to get to know our foes.

A page for the current mission of the week, including voluntary rules(maybe will turn out to be the embryo of the Target for Tonight idea)

A page with player posted tips for flying the current planeset.

A page for player submitted setup ideas.

A calendar of upcoming event(Arlo's idea again, but squeezing it from the CT staff being the hard part)


That is just some of my ideas so far, but it is very open to any that somebody else might have.

I have no problem taking the time to setup the website, but if I do it alone it may be informative, but will most likely be rather bland.  So if anybody is interested in helping with artwork, or pretty much anything I'd appreciate it.

So what do you think?  Any advice? Ideas?  Do you think it's a complete waste of time?  Wanna help?

I'm open to any advice or critcism.  Initially I will just setup the site on my ISP but once it gets off the ground I will be willing to purchase some web hosting for it.

[o0Stream140o]

If you need web space... I can host it... I got enough...

[Arlo]

Originally posted by TheBug

A general introduction to the CT.

Tried that in several formats so far. Not much positive feedback.

A description of the current setup(similar to what Arlo has).

I've tried a more extravagant description but gave up when only 24 to 48 hours (or less) preparation time is available. I think the fanciest my site got was promoting "Second Wind."

Some history on the current setup to help "set the stage"

As above.

A meet the squads of the Combat theater page.

Can be done. Got the space. Info can be provided in a thread here. (Squad website. Screenshots. Squad history. Recent events. Glory and praise from non-squad members)

A weekly updated player profile, to get to know our foes.

Can be done. Got the space. Info can be provided in a thread here. (Pic. Bio. What they like about AHII and the CT. Heros. Hobbies.)

A page for the current mission of the week, including voluntary rules(maybe will turn out to be the embryo of the Target for Tonight idea)

Already got a page set aside. Just need the blanks filled in. If you recall, I was setting up "Target for Tonight" missions (including recon photos, mission parameters, etc.) on the website but they were pretty well ignored. I can do it again, though.

A page with player posted tips for flying the current planeset.

Can be done. Got the space.

A page for player submitted setup ideas.

I think both this forum and the CT Devgroup forums are great places for that but perhaps a "ideabook" (guestbook) can be set up.

A calendar of upcoming event(Arlo's idea again, but squeezing it from the CT staff being the hard part)

I'd like to see three setups planned and posted in advance, at least. ShruG

That is just some of my ideas so far, but it is very open to any that somebody else might have.

I have no problem taking the time to setup the website, but if I do it alone it may be informative, but will most likely be rather bland.  So if anybody is interested in helping with artwork, or pretty much anything I'd appreciate it.

If you wanna do it, I'll just ask Ronni to link the banner to your site instead and cancel my 8 bucks a month to Geocities. (Or just devote my entire webspace to VF-17 and Firefly)

[TheBug]

Originally posted by Arlo



I've tried a more extravagant description but gave up when only 24 to 48 hours (or less) preparation time is available. I think the fanciest my site got was promoting "Second Wind."



As above.

So you are saying with better CT staff planning and interaction, this would be easier?

[B17Skull12]

no a ton o books would be better for detail.


btw how about


http://www.ahcombathreatre.com?

[TheBug]

Originally posted by Arlo


I think both this forum and the CT Devgroup forums are great places for that but perhaps a "ideabook" (guestbook) can be set up.



 

The CT development group isn't open to the public and not necessarily do all players know of it or this forum.  Maybe adding a link to the unofficial website in every MoTD would be a good idea.

[TheBug]

Originally posted by o0Stream140o
If you need web space... I can host it... I got enough...

Thanks for the offer Stream.  Let me see where this goes and maybe I'll take ya up on it.

[Arlo]

Originally posted by TheBug
So you are saying with better CT staff planning and interaction, this would be easier?

I have no idea how the CT staff plans or interacts. What I'm saying is with more advanced notice I can get more elaborate.

BTW ... does something like this look remotely familiar? :

http://jollyrogers.info/Combat_Theater_TFT.html

[CurtissP-6EHawk]

I think it is a great idea. I was even hoping by Arlo posting the schedual for thursday's missions in the MA, it would help fill the arena.

[storch]

Hey Bug quit stealing my great ideas.

[Skyfoxx]

Originally posted by Arlo
I have no idea how the CT staff plans or interacts. What I'm saying is with more advanced notice I can get more elaborate.

Just some feedback here.
I figure this is one of three obstacles to overcome before getting a true TFT event up and going.

But with some modifications to the original TFT design, I don't think any of these obstacles would be a show stopper.
There is no reason we have to follow the original TFT format word for word anyway, just to get some enjoyment from the concept.

First if Arlo, TheBug (or whoever is doing the page) could just get 2 or 3 weeks advance notice from the CT staff on what setups are coming up, that would help him a great deal in keeping his page updated and I could see where players would then be in a better position to volunteer for planning missions in advance. I really don't think this is an unreasonable request considering the benefits.

The second possible obstacle would be that there is currently no way to run a log for the CT. I'm thinking that HT would have to agree to point a log parser to the CT and I'm not sure how receptive he would be to that.
Again though, we don't have to keep a log to run a fun event, as last Thursday shows. It would be very nice to have, but not an absolute neccessity.

Third would be the ability to limit lives during a 3 or 4 hour window on Thurs nights. With the current system this is not very reliable. Limiting lives might not be something we would want to do anyway in this case, but I can of course see the reasoning for it in a scored event.

Anyway, glad to see players coming together on this. I think that this can only benefit the CT community and I applaud each of your efforts.

[JoeBWan17]

Originally posted by Skyfoxx
Just some feedback here.
I figure this is one of three obstacles to overcome before getting a true TFT event up and going.

But with some modifications to the original TFT design, I don't think any of these obstacles would be a show stopper.
There is no reason we have to follow the original TFT format word for word anyway, just to get some enjoyment from the concept.

First if Arlo, TheBug (or whoever is doing the page) could just get 2 or 3 weeks advance notice from the CT staff on what setups are coming up, that would help him a great deal in keeping his page updated and I could see where players would then be in a better position to volunteer for planning missions in advance. I really don't think this is an unreasonable request considering the benefits.

The second possible obstacle would be that there is currently no way to run a log for the CT. I'm thinking that HT would have to agree to point a log parser to the CT and I'm not sure how receptive he would be to that.
Again though, we don't have to keep a log to run a fun event, as last Thursday shows. It would be very nice to have, but not an absolute neccessity.

Third would be the ability to limit lives during a 3 or 4 hour window on Thurs nights. With the current system this is not very reliable. Limiting lives might not be something we would want to do anyway in this case, but I can of course see the reasoning for it in a scored event.

Anyway, glad to see players coming together on this. I think that this can only benefit the CT community and I applaud each of your efforts.

Let me start off by saying that I truly enjoyed the event last Thursday, and would enjoy doing more like it.

However, if we limit lives and turn on logging what is really distinguishing us from a SEA event?  It seems like we stand the risk of alienating some of the CT regulars who expect the CT to act like the CT (in other words unlimited lives).   One of the nice things about the event was that anyone who didn't want to participate could continue to fly however they want in another area.  The down side is obviously that those people who don't want to participate could then attempt to ruin the others fun, but in a small community I don't see that as a huge problem.

edit: on re-read I see that you said we may not want to limit lives.  Guess that really makes my only point moot.

[storch]

Actually Joe I think that during Thursday's mission LoKee and them may have stumbled onto the mission area doing some low level runs and got severely beaten up in the process so all in all it was fine.