Battle logs

[marecone]

Be sure to put in battle logs. Like, what happened and such. You could maybe link that with generals and when you click on general you could get his military record with detailed descriptions.
Civil war freaks, like me, like such things [:D]

[ravinhood]

People who want the game before 2010 don't though

[marecone]

Ok. New question: Is this already in the game?

Thank you

[ericbabe]

Each brigade has two reports, The Brigade Report, that shows changes in quality, supply, strength, etc., and the Brigade Honors, which shows a list of battles the brigade fought in, and similar.

We are considering a simple battle-history report for game battles.

Although we have biographies written for governors and legendary units, we don't have generals' biographies written... this was simply too much work for us to do while keeping in budget.  We do have some important details for each general in the spreadsheet (we generated their stats based on each general's basic resume).

We have wondered whether there'd be any interest to do brief general biographies as a fan-project, to be included in a later patch.  I didn't write any of the biographical text, and I rather enjoy popping up the text and reading about a governor or one of the legendary units.  So I personally think the game would be improved by having interesting short biographies of each of our 1,000 or so generals.  We'd have to set up a wiki or similar thing.  Another possibility would be to find a book with a short biography of every general already written and simply license some of the text.

[marecone]

Great news. About generals bios: I would be willing to help you with that once the game is out. Just contact me.
I belive that reading short bios adds much flavor to the game plus the game becomes educational for people exploring civil war.
Way to go!

[fmonster]

I too think that the bios would be a great addition. With the interest that I've seen generated by this game I could see getting a group of people together to do the research on the more obscure names. Divided up, it shouldn't be too daunting of a task. Just a thought. [:)]

Sound the Call To Arms!!!! [:D]

[ericbabe]

I talked to Gil R. and he hopes to get general biographies done for all of the generals who have 100% of showing up in the game, though there probably won't be more than 20 or so of these.

We have about 1,000 generals altogether.  If we had 20 people each volunteer to do 50 biographies each we might get it done.  Our other biographies are typically only a few sentences long, one or two sentences to give the basic facts and one or two sentences to give an interesting anecdote or unusual bit of information.  If anybody's interested, just reply on this thread.  If we get 20 interested people then I'll try to organize something.

[marecone]

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

I talked to Gil R. and he hopes to get general biographies done for all of the generals who have 100% of showing up in the game, though there probably won't be more than 20 or so of these.

We have about 1,000 generals altogether.  If we had 20 people each volunteer to do 50 biographies each we might get it done.  Our other biographies are typically only a few sentences long, one or two sentences to give the basic facts and one or two sentences to give an interesting anecdote or unusual bit of information.  If anybody's interested, just reply on this thread.  If we get 20 interested people then I'll try to organize something.

I am in. Just let me know what kind of info do you want. Born, died, quotes, battles, ranks...

[fmonster]

Count on me for 50! [:D][:D][:D]

[marecone]

I will try to recruit more people from RPG ACW forum games that I am currently playing.
Come on men! We need more!

[fmonster]

[/quote]

I am in. Just let me know what kind of info do you want. Born, died, quotes, battles, ranks...

[/quote]

Maybe College and Graduation date, prior experience, etc.....

[ericbabe]

Our spreadsheet data right now has information on whether they graduated from West Point or VMI, their graduation rank (if it was notable), whether they had foreign service, whether they were relieved of command (or resigned under pressure), and whether they received the Medal of Honor.  We should already have all this information in the right spot, but maybe people can double-check when they are researching their generals.

The other biographies are fairly light.  The purpose, really, is to give the player an emotional attachment to the pieces in the game, to explain some of their statistics, and to give a sense of the piece's history.

Here are two examples of biographies, one for a governor and another for a legendary unit:

Gov. Henry M. Rector (b. 1816, d. 1899).  In 1860, Rector was elected governor while running for a Democratic splinter faction, and he became an advocate of secession upon the concurrent election of Abraham Lincoln.  In contrast with southern states that acted with alacrity to secede, Rector’s state did not do so until after Pres. Lincoln had called for volunteers in the immediate aftermath of the assault on Fort Sumter.  The same unshakable belief in states’ rights that led Rector to become a secessionist also led him to oppose the repeated requests for Arkansas troops from the C.S.A.  The Confederacy’s response to Rector’s stance against transferring state forces to C.S.A. command was to refuse to arm troops not serving in the Confederate army.  When the Confederate general overseeing the army in Arkansas left to pursue Grant’s Army of West Tennessee, Rector threatened to secede from the Confederacy, but he quickly had to turn his attention to the approach of a Union army under Brig. Gen. Samuel Curtis, who was emboldened by the absence of a substantial opposition between his forces and Little Rock.  Rector’s flight from the capital and his opposition to placing forces under Confederate command prompted his political enemies in the legislature to reduce his term from four years to two and was a critical factor in his electoral defeat in 1862.

The Blanket Brigade.  The still-green men of the 16th Maine Infantry Regiment received the nickname of “Blanket Brigade” when they were forced to meet the autumn nighttime chill virtually unprotected because they had naively left behind their tents, knapsacks and overcoats in the expectation that they would be sent after them when they were suddenly ordered to march off on campaign.  This unit, not yet used to long marches, also gained a negative reputation for straggling as they foraged, leading one officer to complain to the regiment’s commander, “Your regiment are poor soldiers but damn good foragers!”  At the Battle of Fredericksburg, however, they also proved themselves to be good soldiers in their first combat experience, as they lost half their men in the briefly successful attempt to breach the Confederate line.

[fmonster]

GREAT STUFF!!! [&o] I know that not only will there be an attachment to these people, but there will be some players that will read these little gems of information and want to dig a little deeper into the history. How can that be a bad thing???[:)]

[marecone]

GREAT!!! [&o][&o][&o]
Will do everything that is in my power to help. Fmonster is right. I am going to dig deeper in history because of this.
Excellent!

[marecone]

Please send some examples of generals bios. So I can see what I have to include in it.
Send me a name of one general without bios so we can see how much time will I need to do it and do you like it.

Godspeed,

[ericbabe]

Gil hasn't written any of the generals' bios yet, he's still finishing up the last few governors.  I'll post one of those as soon as he's done.

The first general in our list is Abercrombie,_John_Joseph if you'd like a test case.

Abercrombie,_John_Joseph

[fmonster]

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

Gil hasn't written any of the generals' bios yet, he's still finishing up the last few governors.  I'll post one of those as soon as he's done.

The first general in our list is Abercrombie,_John_Joseph if you'd like a test case.

Abercrombie,_John_Joseph

Born March 4th, 1798 in Baltimore, Maryland. Graduated from West Point in 1822. Joined the Union Army where he was in charge of Abercrombie's Brigade and fought in the battles of Malvern Hill and Seven Pines (where he was wounded). He survived the war and died on January 3rd, 1877 in Long Island, New York.

NOTE: This was just from an initial look into Abercrombie. Depending on the depth and space provided in the game then more info could be found and displayed. Heck, we could even get into OOB if need be,...... not that it would help with the game, but just as an interesting side note.

I LOVE this stuff!!! [:D]

[Gil R.]

fmonster,

It's a good start, but we should have all of the bios in the game be of similar style. If you look at the one for the governor quoted above, you'll see that it starts with the name of the individual, and then birth and death years in parentheses. Following that, the bio is written in complete sentences, which would be ideal for the generals as well: e.g., "After graduating from West Point in 1822, Abercrombie [did whatever he did for forty years], and then joined the Union Army." Most importantly, we would want -- whenever possible -- some interesting detail, or anecdote, or quote. Mentioning Abercrombie's important battles and that he was wounded is certainly a good thing to do. Also, not all of these guys began as generals -- try to provide beginning rank and final rank. If they did anything after the war that would be especially noteworthy (e.g., becoming President) that could be worth including.

[Gil R.]

Here are a few more governor bios, which can give an idea of how generals ought to be done.


Gov. William "Extra Billy" Smith (b. 1797, d. 1887). A former governor of Virginia and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Smith served both as colonel of the 49th Virginia Infantry Regiment and a member of the Confederate House of Representatives for the first half of the war. Having distinguished himself in battle, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in early 1863, and later that year he was elected governor of Virginia once again. His nickname came from the days when he operated a private mail delivery service and milked his contracts with the U.S. Postal Service as much as he could.

Gov. Charles Clark (b. 1811, d. 1877). Clark, who joined the Democratic Party in the mid-1850's as his philosophy on secession shifted, was commissioned as a brigadier general when the Civil War began and put in command of a Mississippi brigade. He was wounded so severely at Baton Rouge in 1862 that his retreating men were unable to move him and he was taken prisoner. Never regaining full use of his legs, after his release in 1863 he resigned his commission and was elected governor in 1863, defeating incumbent Gov. John J. Pettus.

Gov. George W. Johnson (b. 1811, d. 1862). A prominent member of the state legislature, Johnson was opposed to secession, but once the Confederacy had been formed he urged Kentucky to join it. After Kentucky's neutrality ended he fled the capital, and soon thereafter he was instrumental in organizing a revolutionary, pro-Confederate government in Bowling Green, and was elected governor. He and his government were forced to leave Kentucky with the retreating forces of Gen. Albert S. Johnston in February, 1862, and he was killed during the Battle of Shiloh, in which he participated despite his age after being sworn in as a private.

Gov. Gove Saulsbury (b. 1815, d. 1881). As President of the Delaware Senate, the Democrat Saulsbury was in line to succeed Gov. William Cannon, a Republican, upon the latter's death in March, 1865. A year later he was able to be elected to the office in his own right. In 1871 he was at the center of one of the more peculiar events in American political history, when he and his brother Eli both challenged the incumbent, their notorious drunkard brother Willard, for his seat in the U.S. Senate, with Eli being elected by the legislature after Willard instructed his supporters to oppose Gove out of spite.

Gov. William Cannon (b. 1809, d. 1865). A prominent Democratic legislator, Cannon left his party in part because of dissatisfaction with its policies as the Union broke apart, and in 1862 successfully ran for governor as a Republican, but he was hamstrung by strong opposition from the Democratic legislature. He died in office on March 1, 1865.

[fmonster]

DOH! [8|] I wasn't even thinking format. I have to head out for a bit, but when I get back, I will dig into the library and see what I can whip,..... in format! [;)][:'(][:D] Also, thanks for the examples! That will help!