Too many suggestions

a) people usually know how to selectively read a forum
b) even half an idea can be a whole joke
c) it's the internet
d) it's a principle kickstarter problem: people run out of steam
first there are the good ideas
later there are the farfetched ideas (or reposts)
better they start with the good ideas, than saving the good ones for an undetermined later date

Ssh! It's a secret to everybody!

Now I'm no expert on quantum physics, but surely the many-worlds theory coupled with the essentially random nature of the quantum foam means that there is a reality in which one of those one-breasted Amazonians fires an arrow into a wormhole that ends up hitting one of the stupid-suggestion-makers right in the eye?

We can only hope.

There are a lot of suggestions but there are also a lot of knuckleheads on this forum who refuse to discuss anything outside of their tiny vision of what PA should be.

If someone has an idea that other people on this forum dislike they shoot it down generally by:

Say its a repeated topic which is essentially a meme on this forum now, and direct people to have their idea lost in the middle of other, long running and now mostly ignored conversations.

Spouting UNBALANCED! when the game isn't out nor balanced or finished.

Spouting TOO RANDUM! because oh nobody can cope with challenges or and everything has to be fair.

Oh and lo, do not ever cite your new idea as FUN or AWESOME because no you don't understand the meaning of Awesome or how it was used and you have to be directed to yet another topic to learn how your opinion needs correcting.

So I for one say to all the new newbies around here, continue in posting your suggestions and don't let people organize where your suggestion goes so those can make sure your ideas become less prominent than theirs.

There is nothing wrong with people proposing ideas. In fact I hope that they keep doing it. Its part of the democratic process and the magic of the internet.

Part of the reason people post ideas here is to have them vetted. If the idea can't take some criticism (granted, some of it goes far beyond constructive), then it isn't valid in the first place.

I don't think there are too many outlandish suggestions, I just think they've been misplaced. Many of the ideas are totally game altering, and really don't belong in the core game. This is the aforementioned "tiny vision of what PA should be". However, Uber has stated repeatedly that modding will be supported, and indeed the entire game is designed around, and will be adapted to this principal (which gives me a warm fuzzy). Indeed, many of the Alpha participants are well-respected modders, who will critique the game from that angle. It's all very encouraging.

It is my contention that these grand, possibly-game-breaking-possibly-innovative ideas shouldn't be presented as something Uber develops, but rather something that can/should be modded in. If you are really invested in your idea, then take the initiative to mod it. If the idea is worth the time and effort, then prove it (build it and they will come!).

Indeed. There are even some people who are under the impression that using a large font size, gratuitous capitals or a different colour add weight to their suggestions, instead of simply looking a bit puerile. However, I digress...

Obviously, there should be no censorship or pre-vetting of peoples suggestions. However it would be nice if some of the newer folk tried to get the lay of the land a little more before mashing a load of conflicting ideas into a shotgun, and firing at the forum to see if anything sticks. It's pretty easy to see the ideas that people have deconstructed, and put some thought into before posting, compared with the less well thought out proposals. Despite this, I do agree with the idea that "It's been discussed before" isn't always that helpful, when the discussion is a 6 month old thread with 70 pages in it. Taking the time to read a well thought out post is one thing, but wading through such a long thread is quite simply more time than some people are able to commit. This is why an executive summary of some of the key points discussed so far my be helpful, and help new forum-goers get a feel for what kind of game PA is shaping up to be.

It's not about the number of suggestions, but about the duplicate ones.

We seriously need a better search function. The integrated one is not only completely useless due to the time limit between two searches, but also because of all the limitations and bad ranking.

We really need a search engine based on a better engine like Sphinx, or if would be to much effort backporting it to the installed phpBB version:
At least remove the time limit for registered users: http://kb.siteground.com/how_to_prevent ... h_feature/ No need to treat real users the same way as bots.

PS: Sphinx also allows to search for terms like "AI" because it does not have a "3 characters and above" limit but rather uses a blacklist to exclude common pronouns and alike.

The failings of the built in search function have already been discussed in another thread...

wait a sec....

Don't know, couldn't find the other thread you are talking about