I will try to be brief. First up, take everything you know about mantis guidelines (one idea per post, etc) and chuck that out the window.
Why Isn't This On Mantis?
Mantis is organized around long-term management of ideas, and checking off things that are completed versus things that are not completed. In other words, it is so that we can "not forget to do things," and also so that you know the precise status of what something is (won't do it, have done it, might do it, scheduled to do it, etc). Mantis is NOT efficiently balanced around conversation, and right now conversation is the goal.
Organize topics in this subforum by subject.
Please make it clear what your post is about, and make your post about one "conversation."
1. In other words, making one topic with "my big fat list of ideas" is not any more helpful here than it is on mantis.
2. However, having a topic here that is about 20 different game mechanics and how they all interrelate and might need to be evolved together IS appropriate here, whereas that might not be on mantis. It's a judgement call on your part. Any given topic should have one overall throughline train of thought in it, and if the subject is legitimately being changed then that should be a new topic.
What sort of response can you expect from Chris and Keith?
That varies. I (Chris) am going to be the lead designer on this one, so I'll be doing by far the most responding. In the vast majority of cases, simply because of the volume of posts and the number of you versus the number of me, I won't directly respond.
I will try to read everything, though, and give some sort of passing comment if it seems like you're not sure where my head is for whatever reason. If I'm brief, it's not because I'm trying to be terse or I don't care or don't value your input: it's a simple numbers thing. I'm going to easily have a quarter-novel or so to read every day for a while from you guys, and a bunch to write myself, and actual other forms of work to get done, too. So the amount of time I can spend debating certain topics is limited in particular.
What sort of discussion is going to get the most attention first?
Core mechanics and basics of the game. Ideas for extraneous content that did not exist in the original game, or that is not in some way moderately central to the new game, are very very much low priority to me right now. Before we start getting into a bunch of strange variants and whatnot, we need to establish the baseline. In fact, I think I'll make another subforum for that to move things to just for the sake of clarity.
What is the result of discussion here?
I am going to be working on a design document that is very specific and thus also very lengthy, and you'll have access to this as I'm writing it. You'll be able to see the results of the discussion here reflected in that, and as needed I'll revise that document.
ESPECIALLY in these early days, please don't freak out about something in the design document being set in stone. Until such time as I note it as being locked down, it's very much a fluid document and will represent my current thinking pending feedback from folks here.
So if you see something insane or outlandish on there, please approach it without a bunch of fear and anger if you don't mind -- we could all do without a bunch of blood pressure spikes, and I promise I'll listen to you without you needing to get up in arms at me.
What about stuff that doesn't make it onto the design document?
That stuff is going to be considered "lost," per se. Aka, it's not going to be on the list of things to do, nor is it on the list of possible things to do in the future. Once the design document is locked down, then I'll open up mantis. Anything that you want to become "un-lost" should be logged in mantis, preferably with a link to the original topic on the forums.
The reason I'm noting that these would be considered lost is that (from past experience speaking) there will simply be too many topics here for us to be able to go through them later if we're considering things for either stretch goals or an expansion to AIW2 or whatever else.
