VOLUNTEERS WANTED... for Generals' Biographies

[captskillet]

His contributions to the overall war effort were way out of proportion to the size of his command (and others like him such as Morgan and Mosby). Grant, Sherman, etc. were constantly having to shift forces to secure supply routes etc. because of his actions, based on that alone he would qualify as one of the best commanders of the War......as for his disdain of higher command maybe he realized (unlike Hood) that he wasn't cut out for the job?!?!?!?!?!

[Murat]

[:D] Well he was certainly the best at what he did. Morgan (and Mosby, although not quite as well as Morgan) were really guerrilla units. Stuart and Hampton were a bit more "traditional" cavalry uses. Forrest and Jackson were the first truly mobile assault units, I think in the world. I know Stuart fans (and Hampton, we love Wade in SC) will argue that they were mobile but they were still acting in conjunction with the Army of Northern Virginia, where Forrest and Jackson has individual campaigns structured solely around their commands.

[marecone]

Nice talk we have about Forrest. [8D]
There is something nobody can deny:
He was for sure the bravest general in the American Civil War.

General Dick Taylor has well said: "I doubt if any commander, since the days of lion hearted Richard, has killed as many enemies with his own hand as Forrest." This exposed him also to constant danger, and he had twenty seven horses killed and wounded under him in battle and was twice severely wounded himself.

27 horses!!! Man, I own 11 horses and I call myself a rancher and he had 27 horses killed and wounded under him!!!
[&o][&o][&o]

[Gil R.]

Okay, I'm back from GenCon, and have time to parcel out generals. Right now, I know of only marecone, diesel7013, murat, and fmonster expressing interest in writing generals' biographies. Is there anyone else?

As previously stated (but it's been a while), for starters I am hoping to assign the most important generals' bios, and these would appear in the game's initial release. Once that's taken care of (or perhaps once the game is released), there would be the second wave of the remaining 985 or so generals.

I should also restate that I reserve the right to rewrite or change a biography as much as needed (or, worst-case scenario, reject it outright) -- after all, I have no way of judging in advance the quality of anyone's writing, so I can't guarantee that what is submitted will be included essentially unchanged. Basically, if something is good enough to make it into the game, it will make it in. (I say this, of course, to minimize potential hard feelings if things don't work out.)

So, last chance to volunteer to write up Lee, Grant, Sherman, and such star players in Forge of Freedom...

[marecone]

Welcome back boys.

Give us some news. How was it? Screenshots? Visitors? Feedback?
I am hungry for fresh info [;)]

[Gil R.]

No new screenshots just yet, but trust me, as new graphics get implemented we'll definitely be posting more. Right now, there are still a few too many "Crown of Glory" filler graphics present.

As for GenCon, it went quite well. We demonstrated our beta version to several dozen people, and received favorable reactions, as well as some very useful feedback. Sadly, none of them were visitors to this forum... [&:]

[marecone]

As I said Gil, I wanted to visit it but 10 hours of flight with Al quaida in England and 1000 or so of $ for the ticket... Well, I like ACW but not so much [:D]

[marecone]

Ok, bios question.
What about quotes? Do we post it in text or below the main body? I belive that we should shorten general info like born, died and such and increse info about a generals with quotes and some special events from their military career. I belive it will make bios more interesting.

Just a suggestion

[Gil R.]

You are absolutely right that quotes (along with anecdotes) are the sort of thing to make the bios interesting. But, since we are very limited in terms of space there wouldn't be room for more than, say, two significant quotes.

With that said, we are collecting good, mood-setting ACW flavor quotes for the game's opening screen. (Those of you who have played "Crown of Glory" have seen that we randomly select one of Napoleon's maxims for the loading screen. For "Forge of Freedom" we're instead using such quotes from a very broad range of sources, including politicians, generals, soldiers, poets, etc.) If you happen upon an especially good quote that's too long to fit in the bio please pass it along to me and I might use it there if I think it's suitable.

[jimwinsor]

I think it would be most helpful when writing bios to focus heavily on their actual civil war generalship.  Famous quotes, Mexican War service history, etc. are nice but one purpose of these bios may be to help players make game play decisions.
 
Hor example, a bio that tells how a general led the cavalry to take a hill at such and such a battle tells the player "Aha! This guy should be a good cavalry commander!"  And so forth.
 
Telling about how a general finished 8th in his class at West Point and minored in Spanish Lit. would be less helpful to players, IMO.

[Gil R.]

Jimwinsor is right. When I parcel out the generals I'll also provide the ratings we currently have for generals in terms of leadership, initiative, etc., which should help make the bios useful as well as interesting.

[marecone]

Nice. I agree too.
One more thing Gil. When you get first few bios it would be nice if you would post the best one on the forum so we all can see how we should modify ours.

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Gil R.
Jimwinsor is right. When I parcel out the generals I'll also provide the ratings we currently have for generals in terms of leadership, initiative, etc., which should help make the bios useful as well as interesting.

I have a couple of articles to go through before I've finished tweaking the generals' stats ... however, I'm sure this is an area in which we'll receive much feedback.

[marecone]

Gil,

Please tell us how much space do we have for bios. You said 2000 ?!? Is it 20 rows times 100 spaces? It is hard with these well know generals. 2000 spaces is not enough for these great men.

Godspeed,

[marecone]

I just wanted to say that it is real fun doing those bios. Educational too. I have learned much about american heroes in ACW.
I don't know if game development team needs more volunteers but as for my self I find rewards great. Fun, educational and plus I will get my name in the game. [:D]
So, join in and help us out.

Godspeed,

[DanielAnsell]

I'd like to help with this

danielcansell@comcast.net

[ross_ntu]

I know I'm new but if you're prepared to accept a Brit's help I would love to do a few.

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: ross_ntu

I know I'm new but if you're prepared to accept a Brit's help I would love to do a few.

Sure, welcome aboard. We're not yet ready to begin dividing up the generals, but I hope that we will be soon.

[Greyshaft]

Happy to give a hand.

I just finished writing up 50+ bios of 500 words each for all of the generals for World in Flames so doing a couple of Civil War Generals should be easy [:)]

I'm happy to volunteer the template I used if it's of any use. I expect that the submissions will be tweaked by one of the developers but it'll be be easier if all of the info is laid out the same by the volunteers.

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: Greyshaft

Happy to give a hand.

I just finished writing up 50+ bios of 500 words each for all of the generals for World in Flames so doing a couple of Civil War Generals should be easy [:)]

I'm happy to volunteer the template I used if it's of any use. I expect that the submissions will be tweaked by one of the developers but it'll be be easier if all of the info is laid out the same by the volunteers.

Really! It would be good to have an old pro helping out. We're still not at the point of getting this project going, but should be soon. (We're right at a crucial point in beta-testing and programming now, and that's taking up all of our time.)

Incidentally, if anyone tried to e-mail me through the forum instead of using a private message and never heard back there's a reason -- it turns out that I never updated the e-mail account on file with the in my user profile, so those messages went to a defunct account. So, I apologize if it seemed I was ignoring your message, and hope you'll try to contact me again.