EG (Encyclopedia Galactica)(long post!)

Okay people..

Two points:

I think where ever is chosen to host should have Server Side Includes
and
CGI access.  In this way, we could hope to cut down some of the work by
automating it.

Secondly..

What we need to really kick start this thing is suggestions for MAJOR
SUBJECT HEADINGS.  These would be the main headings people would read on
the
front page of the EG.  Some people have thrown up examples already; here
are
mine (by no means an exhaustive listing) - and please bear in mind these
are
coming off the top of my head:

Foreword - Hopefully by J.Tuffley <grin>
Introduction - What is EG?
The Universe As We Know It
    - Overview of the political states
    - Overview of aliens
    - Overview of technology
    - Overview of travel
    - Overview of military deployments
History
    - Timeline
    - Major events detailed (possible fiction)
The State Of Play (collected & collated from info already available)
    - Major States
    - Minor States
    - Independants/notables
    - Major, minor and notable worlds
    - Maps
Use Of Weapons (this is where it gets really detailed)
    - The Modern Infantry: weapons, armour, skills, training,
Organisations
    - The Modern Knights: (AFVs people!) as above
    - Angels in the Dark: (Ships - including pics!)
    - Tables of Organisation (fleets, armies, whatever)
    - Wars
    (as someone pointed out, this shouldn't be just regurgitating what
has
already been written ie stats, but should be written in the style of an
encyclopedia)
Our Neighbours
    - Alien races
Hitchiker's Guide
    (This is where is written irreverant essays on the universe, perhaps
as
fiction, perhaps from the viewpoint of a hitcher travelling through
space.)
Reports
    - Fiction
References
    - Links, essentially. This I firmly believe should become the
DEFINITIVE
links collection for GZG stuff. Of course that could become a lot of
link
chasing, but perhaps it could be run as a database - people add their
own
data, and change it as necessary (the CGI is out there and free!). This
could end up with lots of crap, but that's what an editor is for.. :)

As I said, these are off the top of my head, but I think they cover just
about everything.

Now everybody, let's take a DEEP BREATH and pause for a moment. This is
a
BIG PROJECT. This is a project that could get people PISSED (mad) at
each
other ("Why isn't my essay included?" "Hey, my ship design isn't in
there!"
"I refuse to let you people tell me what to do - I'll do my OWN!") It
could
easily fall down in a heap.

Also... think about what we're getting into here. We're not just
generating
stats for ships/tanks/infantry whatever. We're going well beyond the
game.
We're creating/adding to a universe. This stuff, as is, really wont help
with the game - so the old rule of "it's just a game!" may not apply.
And
it's going to be lots of ideas cobbled together - hopefully with some
consistency (once again - an editor) and it's going to be UNOFFICIAL,
which
means at any point our friend Jon (nice Jon, friendly Jon) could SHUT IT
DOWN and take all the material away.

We're all fired up now, all excited... but where will we be in six
months,
when we're caught up in the details.

Let me relate a story:

A group of friends and I got inspired to start designing a game. This
was
going to be what we called the Ultimate Game. It was going to be
playable on
the Internet. It was going to have multiple levels of interaction
(strategic, tactical, role playing). In other words, it was going to
kick
ass. We had the expertise (a collection of programmers, web designers,
game
players/designers) and the drive. We talked for hours about how it would
work. Then we got buried in the details - LOST in the details. We didn't
start by defining what we wanted, how we wanted it - we started
designing
ships, and interfaces, and drawing icons. Eventually the project shut
down.

We knew where we wanted to go, we just didn't know how to get there, and
we
took the wrong bus.

Let's not take the wrong bus on this one. Instead, let's have a team of
drivers and a group of people who hire their own damn bus and have a map
:)

Even if the project eventually dies away to just a few dedicated people
-
the material slows down, but what is there is a proud achievement.

Let's start with the line drawing, the map, the broad strokes - and
let's
fill in the details a little later. Hopefully, they'll mostly take care
of
themselves.

Jeremy Sadler - jsadler@earthling.net
http://www.nemesis.com.au/~fastjax
Unofficial Stargrunt II Web Site http://stargrunt.virtualave.net
Frontier.Online http://frontieronline.virtualave.net