Idea Map

From NS community wiki

This page is designed as an objective, and collaborative organizational tool for the plethora of information in the Ideas & Suggestions forum section of the Natural Selection forums.

Every entry can (optionally) summarize the topics it links to, and provide a brief abstract of the flow of discussion, or at least, of the major points and their conclusions. This will allow at-a-glance understanding without having to navigate through literally thousands of (or perhaps more) words, which is not feasible for the development team.

Every entry made toward this tool's ends should have the following properties:

1. Naming convention of Idea_*

2. More is better.

3. Link structure creates a map.

4. Organization only (no content).

So for example, if three topics exist that you can reasonably link to the topic of "NS2 Engine", create the entry "Idea_Game_Engine" or "Idea_NS2_Engine" and summarize the points made on the variety of views. If a similar topic exists, append to it (rather than deleting portions of it and rewriting the topic). This is what is meant by "More is better."

Within that example, the created (or modified) topic should contain a link to this page at the top, and should link to *all* relevant I&S forum topics at the bottom of the page. This arrangement is wholly arbitrary, and any way of differentiating between the two link sections (the reference link to this page, and the links to the forum topics) can be indicated however you see fit - I would just prefer a consistent format for readability, and so am suggesting one toward that end. This is what is meant by "Link structure creates a map."

Third, make sure to only make note of existing topics and data. If you want to comment on the article, click on the *discussion* tab. This is what is meant by "Organization only."

In terms of the actual article: Highlighting is encouraged, but commentary should be kept elsewhere, because if this system becomes a flow of ideas, as I'm sure you can see, its entire purpose is defeated.

If you'd like to discuss this organizational system, feel free to use the discussion tab of this page, to PM me on the forums, or to suggest something about this map in the I&S section.

Note: This section can incorporate any ideas from the original NS, or the NS2 forums. It is geared toward NS2 in terms of what it will be used for, since that will be more useful to the development team. With that said, if a stray idea slipped by that you think is worth outlining and highlighting here, please by all means, make note of it so that it might be incorporated in the new game.

Finally, to anyone interested in making this project a success - thank you, and good luck.