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I always intended to revisit this idea and with the release of Campaign: Paradiso and a few interesting community projects needing support, this seems like the perfect time. So the purpose of this thread is so we can all have a say on what we would like to see for the community and then make these things happen. I'll keep this post updated with our ideas and progress, I've added a few things already so feel free to discuss them or suggest more.

Some of you will remember the original Community Growth thread and the days when we shared a sub-forum. Due to the success of that thread though I'm sure there are many new faces who won't know what I'm referring to, if that's you then you might enjoy clicking in the link above and having a read but here it is in short.

As recent as early 2012 there was almost no Infinity activity on Dakka, a couple of threads active at any time was about as good as it got. There was however quite a few people playing the game or interested in getting involved, we all felt strongly about the game and wanted to grow the interest on Dakka. We got together and asked for our own sub-forum but with almost no activity we were very reasonably declined. Undeterred, we got together and started making use of the sub-forum we had, increased the community size and organised it for ourselves. Sure enough the other systems using the forum were swamped by the activity and we were moved to our own space. Since then the community has continued to grow to the size it is today.

Anyway, enough with the history lesson...

Phase Two:
Painting Competition - Success!
- We had a very successful competition run by myself, the theme was 'Two Tickets to Paradiso'.
- Thanks to yakface for giving us the go ahead and walking me through it.
- Thanks also to our amazing sponsors, Corvus Belli, zariart and Shae-Konnit who supported us with a plethora of great prizes.

0-12 Operative Program - Success!
- This is a program similar to the Great Marine Swap but specifically for swapping Infinity miniatures painted in your army scheme.
- Thanks to Chemical Cutthroat originally suggested this thread.
- Due to his absence I have stepped in to run the thread, the next step is boosting the activity which I will do when I have more time on my hands.

Community Showcasing - Success!
- This is a brilliant and active thread with a list of Infinity related P&M Blogs, we post notices when we update our blogs to help direct traffic.
- Thanks to endtransmission who originally suggested this thread.
-Due to his absence I have stepped in to run the thread.

Community Pledging - Success!
- This is a brilliant and active thread where we pledge to paint, build or game with our Infinity miniatures.
- Thanks to Von Skyfury who pushed me to set up this thread.

Slogan, Theme and Banners - Success!
- A discussion was had about the, "It's not your list, it's you." slogan and the concensus was that it's too negative. We decided that, "It's how you play, not what you play." was a more positive representation of the Dakka community's view.
- I unknowingly started using the term 'Community' a lot around here and after running it by Alpharius I am now using it to designate the busy/important threads that I look after. It's nice that they stand out as a group now as they are traffic magnets.
- Thanks to Tunnel Rat we have an epic lineup of banners for you to use! He's put a heck of a lot of work and time into these so be sure and pass on your thanks!


Infinity Tacticas
- Thanks to Revenent Reiko for this project, he is bringing over reposting the tacticas from the Official forum.
- Progress:
Shasvastii Tactics by CDK
Bushido and Stealth: A Treatise on the Japanese Sectorial Army by Dude
Errhile's Qapu Khalqi: The Men of the Gate by Errhile
PanOceania Tactica: The War Room by Flipswitch
A Beginner's Guide to Yu Jing by No. 33
A Treatise on Warfare: Yu Jing by No. 33
A Treatise on Warfare: The Imperial Service by No. 33
Penemue's Fais Attention: Ariadna Tactica by Penemue
A Guide through Bakunin - Thoughts About Units by Picken
Caledonian Highlander Army Tactica by tesco
Shock and Awe JPs guide to the Shock Army! by jonny p
Tactica: Neoterran Capitaline Army by Tamrielo
Hassassin Bahram: Sacred Sword of Allah by Maru
Your Handbook to the Nomad Nation by MuRm
The Crooked Smile of Corregidor: Tactica by Lampyridae
Morat Guide to Supremacy by Mulciber
Tactika: Military Orders by Noirfatale

Vassal - Benched
- There's been on and off talk about using Vassal to play Infinity online but it hasn't taken off for some reason.
- This will likely be benched until someone decides to take it under their wing.
- As long as someone can put together a tutorial and work out the kinks by testing then I will happily open a thread and look after it. It probably wouldn't be hard to do.

Campaign or Event - Benched
- This was also a discussion had during the first phase but I've benched it for the time being. It's too big, too soon but I'm aiming towards it and will make a move when the time is right.


Remember: It's not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community!

The Infinity community boomed here on Dakka mostly because of the Painting Competition. Maybe we can hold another one again (and somehow tie it in with Paradiso). I just don't know how the details would be handled for that one, and who will take care of the prizes.

That's a great idea and something I was planning on adding to the OP until my phone battery died. I know how they run the competitions and would be happy to sort it out, I don't know if CB would be up for prize support again but they are pretty good with stuff like that so maybe. Let's throw the idea around a bit before approaching yakface.
A Paradiso plantlife themed model could be a fun competition to have.

Maybe dioramas to make it a bit different? A Paradiso diorama competition might be a nice thing to have. For sponsors, if anyone knows a store/webstore that sells Infinity and is willing to fork over prizes for advertising and publicity, maybe you can talk to them.

Good idea. We should ask CB first though, and Dakka has a few companies that have sponsored here in the past and which will no doubt be happy to do so again.

Dioramas are great but they would have to be greatly limited in size or people could be put off. Maybe a duel with a maximum size base or just a single model in scenic terrain but you can use a TAG size base?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay I've commenced discussions with Yak and CB about the competition. Right now I need us to define a theme for the competition, the more input the better. We can go more complex than last time but let's not kill it with rules that no one be able to follow. Paradiso should be the core of the theme I think but let's not go crazy with size, full blown dioramas will put most people off I bet. We could include an 0-12 aspect to complement Chem's program?

Arakasi and Reiko will be dropping by when they can to tell us a little more about the things they were/are working on.

I'm also considering just picking up the ball and running with it in terms of a few of the simpler suggestions above. Since I update the two stickys it'd be easy for me to take endtransmissions and Chem's threads under my wing. Anyone mind if I do this? Gives us some early success and makes space for more ideas in the OP.

I can also fix the Beginner sticky obviously, we can't have another sticky but what do you guys think about redoing the thread using the Infinity style from the rulebooks? Security clearance messages and stuff to divide it up, call it 'Do you want to know more?' and maybe move the videos to their own thread so it loads quicker.

OK so as i put at the beginning of Penemue's Ariadna Tactica thread one of the things i have noticed that is lacking in our Infinity community here on Dakka is the Tactica articles that are all over the faction specific parts of the Official Forums. They are something that i absolutely love to read through but as the Official Forum was workblocked for me (coincidentally i have now left that job and i haven't started my new one to find out if i am still workblocked ) i wasnt able to read them during the greater part of the day, so really this project started off for purely selfish reason to start with (im not going to lie here...), but as i thought more about it and saw more and more people joining Infinity on Dakka i saw the same questions being asked over and over again and decided that i would take the opportunity of me having some time to see if i get the Tacticas posted over here for Dakka to take advantage of.

In this vein i asked Penemue on the Official Forums if he could either re-post his Tactica over here, or if he would mind me doing on his behalf with full credit to him. To my delight he replied almost straight away and was more than happy for me to re-post his work over here, which i did here. This has really boosted my confidence for asking the other authors if i can do the same for their work, or if they would like to join Dakka and re-post themselves to spread the love.

My eventual aim is to have all of the Tactica articles that are found on the Official Site posted on Dakka (either posted by me or the original authors), most of these are currently stickied in each of the faction's sub forums, but some of them appear to have become unstuck so i will have to do a little searching to get them, but a general list of them:

PanOceania Tactica: The War Room by Flipswitch
Shock and Awe JPs guide to the Shock Army! by jonny p
Tactica: Neoterran Capitaline Army by Tamrielo
A Treatise on Warfare: The Imperial Service by No. 33
Bushido and Stealth: A Treatise on the Japanese Sectorial Army by Dude
A Treatise on Warfar: Yu Jing by No.33
A Beginner;s Guide to Yu Jing by No. 33
Caledonian Highlander Army Tactica by tesco
Hassassin Bahram: Sacred Sword of Allah by Maru
Bazaar Guard's Logbook - Qapu Khalqi by Errhile (less of a Tactica than the others, im not sure about this one as it isnt in the same format as the others)
Your Handbook to the Nomad Nation by MuRm
The Crooked Smile of Corregidor: Tactica by Lampyridae
A Guide through Bakunin - Thoughts about Units by Picken
Morat Guide to Supremacy by Mulciber

As im sure you can see not every single Faction/Sectorial has a Tactica available, but these are the ones that are either stickied, or i have seen a consensus within the threads that they have good ideas so these are the ones that i am aiming to get posted on Dakka.

So there is the basic premise and a few of my thoughts on the process, i have a few PMs sent and a few more being written, but real life has caught up with me at the end of this week so i haven't moved forward with it how i would like. Saying that, i should be able to get some more answers tomorrow/tonight and will update here when i get replies (and i will add links when/if threads appear as well).

Thanks for the thread and the shout out Casey, let me know if you need me to add anything...

Thanks for posting that run down. It'd be great to get these on Dakka so we can access them easily. I'll also be able to link them in the sticky so even if they fall from the front pages they can be accessed easily.

Anyone got any opinions they'd like to share on the ideas in the OP? Or have any more to add? Don't be put off posting if you're new, the chances are that you have better insight into what is needed than the rest of us.

No problem Casey ,thanks for the publicity as an update, tesco has just given his permission for me to repost the Caledonian Highlander Army Tactica over here, so i will repost that over here tomorrow.

I really like the idea of another painting competition (although i will have to be more of a spectator...) , good on you for taking the next step and organising it!

 heartserenade wrote:
, if anyone knows a store/webstore that sells Infinity and is willing to fork over prizes for advertising and publicity, maybe you can talk to them.

Well, I could certainly assist with that

Similarly, one of my pals has organised a couple of gaming groups on Facebook on which another one of my pals is trying to organise an Infinity Campaign of some sort for any players of Scotland. Dunno if such a thing would be useful to any of yous?

Reiko, that's great news! Also I must say that it was Arakasi that gave me the push to make a start and contact Yak.

Shae, that'd be sweet, I was actually trying to think of some way of bringing you into this phase. I didn't want to ask you for prize support because I know that can be a tall order for a smaller business but if you can that's great news. Could you pm me with what your able to do and we can talk shop a bit or whatever privately.
Corvus may come through with support too but that should be fine if it's the case. Anyway, we can talk about that in pm.

A campaign sounds really fun. There are only 3 Scottish players that I know of though and we are two of them.

Would an online campaign be possible? It could tie into real games or Vassal. OR, and it's a big or, would there be support for an event, which was discussed last phase but never came to fruition?

I'll add campaign to the OP.

Hmmm OK so slight snag, does anyone have (reasonably sized) Unit icons? I can copy and paste from the Devil Team Army Builder, but the icons are tiny.....if anyone has larger version that would be great...

EDIT: Saying that, i have the Ariadna icons covered....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
New Tactica is up for CHA:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/506947.page#5274184

 Revenent Reiko wrote:
Hmmm OK so slight snag, does anyone have (reasonably sized) Unit icons? I can copy and paste from the Devil Team Army Builder, but the icons are tiny.....if anyone has larger version that would be great...

EDIT: Saying that, i have the Ariadna icons covered....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
New Tactica is up for CHA:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/506947.page#5274184

http://anyplace.it/ia/ia.html

This should have good faction and unit icons.

Awesome, thanks Alkasyn those are exactly the right size!

 Casey's Law wrote:
Thanks for posting that run down. It'd be great to get these on Dakka so we can access them easily. I'll also be able to link them in the sticky so even if they fall from the front pages they can be accessed easily.

Anyone got any opinions they'd like to share on the ideas in the OP? Or have any more to add? Don't be put off posting if you're new, the chances are that you have better insight into what is needed than the rest of us.

I changed that slogan to "It's How you play, Not What you play."

Still emphasize on the player instead of your list but less negative and actually has multiple meanings. Like good sportsmanship.

Oh yeh sorry, bud. The one in the OP is my personal favourite but I should remove it now you've raised the point.

Let's discuss the best option now?
I see the problem with 'player, not the game' it's a little negative still although not combative anymore, imo. What I do like about it is it's snappy, easy to remember and doesn't take up much room.
I like the your newest option too, especially the multiple meanings. It's also very friendly which is good. I do worry that it's too long winded though, could it be shortened without killing the meaning?
Also, it'd be cool to get this on a new set of signature banners when we decide what's best. I think BlueD did the last ones...

Oh and did you ever get my email reply thanking you for those icons?

I wanted some sort of emphasis on how it's played without finger pointing. I think in banners the How and What should be bold or different colors too.


Oh ya no problem. I hope they helped.

 CDK wrote:
Welcome to the sneaky Shasvastii. I'm going to try writing a Tactica at some point for them, so keep an eye out. I'm hoping too for an Exrah sectoral at some point.

This. This is awesome. It might be an idea to tie up with Reiko.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What do you think of this:

Not what but how you play.

It's shorter but I think the message is the same. Maybe the syntax could be improved though.

It took me several times reading it to get it. It needs a comma in there somewhere lol.

Not what you buy, but how you play

Not What, but How you play.

Haha yeh that's where I put the comma originally but it didn't feel right. If you think that's where it should be too then that works for me.

Would everyone be happy with that? Does anyone have any other options they'd like to suggest?

 Casey's Law wrote:

 CDK wrote:
Welcome to the sneaky Shasvastii. I'm going to try writing a Tactica at some point for them, so keep an eye out. I'm hoping too for an Exrah sectoral at some point.

This. This is awesome. It might be an idea to tie up with Reiko.

Wait, when was this posted...

CDK i would be more than happy to lend a hand with a Shasvastii Tactica thread if you want to put one together (i can either look over other tactics threads on the Official Forums and on Dakka for tidbits, or help give you a layout to post, or proofread or...well anything you need really )

Also, No. 33 has just given permission to post his 3 Yu Jing Treatises as well, so more work for me tomorrow! (would do it tonight but im out at rehearsals most of the night again...)

*feels summoned* lol

Great job everyone on organizing all this stuff! Looks like you have a pile of motivation and talent a brewin. My notes about the bullet items...

1. Painting Competition: I though we did that just a few months back, but looking at it now that was almost half a year ago lol. David, Fer, or Carlos should be able to help you out from CB which who I'm guessing you were talking to. Let me know if you need any assistance, though I'd be careful on the diorama thing. Dioramas are usually just for advance players with money to burn on spare minis, not you average person. I'd say stick to a theme of a unit type like Heavy Infantry or Models with sniper rifles, etc.

2. Campaign or Event : This one kinda ties into #5. There is a lot of people that just wouldn't have access to the opponents needed for a non-online event. Not saying it's not possible, but it'd be pretty hard at this point in Infinity's growth.

3. Slogan and Banners: I have no issue with a slogan, just be careful on this because some people may think it's really CB's slogan.

4. Faction and Sectorial Tacticas: I've never been a big reader on these since the usefulness of a model is EXTREMELY subjective to terrain, opponent, mission, etc. I can't deny they are great for new players though to at least give them a heads up. We just have to make sure that they are getting updated.

5. Vassal: One of the Infinity forums guys was working with me on this a while back to polish the Human Sphere icons into Vassal, but I'm not sure where he left off. The last time I tried Infinity on Vassal there was a serious lack of proper maps to use. Infinity on Vassal is best when it is limited to a 2D map like a spaceship boarding action or underground caverns time match. At that point the game mechanic become flawless in terms of translation to a 2D program. If anyone needs me to DL this and schedule a time to teach or ref a match just let me know.

6. 0-12 Operative Program : I LOVE this idea and have kept an eye on the thread. Unfortunately my current project list is way to long to participate.

7. Infinity P&M Blog Links: I try to pop in on these every now and then, but sadly not as much as I would like.

Keep up the great work everyone

I was thinking of it and suggested it in a post to a new guy starting Shasvastii. I'd love to work with you on something. Though I'm a bit slow on the writing!

Haha i found it after i posted (hooray for search working these days! )....thanks though.

Yeah no problem just let me know, would love to work with you too(here or PM, either way works for me), and i doubt anyone is going to complain on slow writing mate, any writing is good writing

 BlueDagger wrote:
*feels summoned* lol

Haha, indeed you have been.

 BlueDagger wrote:
1. Painting Competition: I though we did that just a few months back, but looking at it now that was almost half a year ago lol. David, Fer, or Carlos should be able to help you out from CB which who I'm guessing you were talking to. Let me know if you need any assistance, though I'd be careful on the diorama thing. Dioramas are usually just for advance players with money to burn on spare minis, not you average person. I'd say stick to a theme of a unit type like Heavy Infantry or Models with sniper rifles, etc.

Haha, yeh it feels pretty recent! I'm a tool, I realised I hadn't actually sent the email off which explains the lack of reply from CB. It's away now so hopefully I'll be talking to one of them soon. I should be okay organising things but I'll keep you in mind. Definitely could use assisatance on nailing down the theme in this thread.
Yak agrees that we can use a more complex theme than the anything goes style of the first one but as you say, keys not make it confusing. I'd like to see Paradiso being part of it but I'm not tied to it. Unit type is a good idea, I'd love to see a TAG competition but maybe cost will deter some casual entries? Whatever the unit type I think we could add 'in the jungles of Paradiso' or something similar. I can add a blurb to the competition to quickly give a feel for what that means.

 BlueDagger wrote:
2. Campaign or Event : This one kinda ties into #5. There is a lot of people that just wouldn't have access to the opponents needed for a non-online event. Not saying it's not possible, but it'd be pretty hard at this point in Infinity's growth.

Yeh it's a problem, I would LOVE to set up an event in Glasgow but I don't know if there would be enough UK interest and too many people won't be able to find opponents for a campaign. As you say this ties into #5.

 BlueDagger wrote:
3. Slogan and Banners: I have no issue with a slogan, just be careful on this because some people may think it's really CB's slogan.

Good point! If we can limit this slogan to a new Dakka Infinity signature banner then it should hopefully be clear that it's not official. I've asked asked Silver who made the last banner to pop in and maybe work out something new. If he can't I'll maybe badger Tom or Ouze.

 BlueDagger wrote:
4. Faction and Sectorial Tacticas: I've never been a big reader on these since the usefulness of a model is EXTREMELY subjective to terrain, opponent, mission, etc. I can't deny they are great for new players though to at least give them a heads up. We just have to make sure that they are getting updated.

Yeh these probably aren't very useful for veterans gamers like yourself although I hadn't considered that. These will be great for linking in the Beginners Sticky though and for people like me who aren't as confident with their tactics.

 BlueDagger wrote:
5. Vassal: One of the Infinity forums guys was working with me on this a while back to polish the Human Sphere icons into Vassal, but I'm not sure where he left off. The last time I tried Infinity on Vassal there was a serious lack of proper maps to use. Infinity on Vassal is best when it is limited to a 2D map like a spaceship boarding action or underground caverns time match. At that point the game mechanic become flawless in terms of translation to a 2D program. If anyone needs me to DL this and schedule a time to teach or ref a match just let me know.

It'd be good to know how far that got. I found the maps very confusing but I was playing my first game ever so I really wasn't sure about how things worked in 3d nevermind 2d. If this gets pushed forward a tutorial and some downloadable maps could be of use. As you say though, the game system translates well to Vassal, I was very aware that there was no need to take shortcuts or strip anything back. Maybe you and Arakasi could work something out for this. He's going to drop in here soon I think.

 BlueDagger wrote:
6. 0-12 Operative Program : I LOVE this idea and have kept an eye on the thread. Unfortunately my current project list is way to long to participate.

Yeh this is one of the coolest things we've got going. It's a shame Chem isn't around to keep the wheels turning but I'll get it up and running tonight using the plans he laid out.

 BlueDagger wrote:
7. Infinity P&M Blog Links: I try to pop in on these every now and then, but sadly not as much as I would like.

Yeh I kind of drifted on this without any OP updates happening. Again it'd be great to see endtrans around to run it but since he isn't I'll take it on and polish it up to encourage people to use it.

I have ideas to improve the last two threads as well. Hopefully they'll be visible tonight.

Also, good work from everyone! I'll update the OP.

Wouldn't you know it! There's now a Shasvastii article by Bardelius on the Infinity forum. Though I didn't like the way he wrote it. For one, even if you don't like a particular troop you should never put it down. You should talk about how to use it, not that xxx is better than that. It was mostly comparisons than anything else. So I think I'll still write something up.

I see that isn't in Reiko's checklist. Are there more that might be missing from the list?

Also, we should bring the tacticas over unless everyone agrees that the quality is too low. Doesn't hurt to have it here even if you write your own. I can link them all in the sticky anyway.

Yes there are more that are not on my list as i saw the same things wrong with them that CDK has, there are a fair few of 'i dont like this so im not going to write about it' in some of the other Tactica/unit comparisons that i have read, hence why i havent added them

Now dont get me wrong, some of the Tactica i have listed have entries in the same category (see tesco's views on Doctors for example) but i feel the rest of the articles/threads are written in such a way as make it less of an issue. Anyone and everyone is free to disagree with me and recommend Tacticas for me to request, i am absolutely 100% OK with that, so please feel free if you see anything and would like it posted over here PM me or post in this thread and i wil add it to my request list

There are also some others that i havent added to my list because they arent comprehensive enough across the whole range of a faction (there is a CA guide that is for cheerleaders only for example)....

Gotcha, sounds good to me, keep doing what you're doing.

A thought: are there other threads from the Infinity forum that it would be good to have here?

Can I interject here about the slogan?

Having never been remotely close to winning a game. The "It's not your list, it's you" was getting me a bit down.

Now the last version I think is too short, you need to double take. The first new version "It's How you play, Not What you play." is perfect because it is a repetition, so not too long because the same words are there your brain decodes it very easily.

Just my 2¢. As a n00b.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Can I interject here about the slogan?

Having never been remotely close to winning a game. The "It's not your list, it's you" was getting me a bit down.

Now the last version I think is too short, you need to double take. The first new version "It's How you play, Not What you play." is perfect because it is a repetition, so not too long because the same words are there your brain decodes it very easily.

Just my 2¢. As a n00b.

Now where is that Like button...