We now have some concrete things that are being worked on, and that will be coded as far as general model mechanics soon. F. Smith's plan for coding is to work on the population model first, followed by the ecology model. So I would like everyone to take a look at those models in that order, and give any comments you have in the relevant threads. What we especially need to hear is: Do you think the models are at the proper level of detail to use with the core game, as much as possible do you think they will be fun, are there any issues in terms of complexity or interfaces that you think haven't been discussed properly, etc? So please go over to the Population & Demographics model, and after you've thought about that to the web page for the Ecology Model. Your comments on the ecology model should go in the Ecology etc. thread. (Richard, is this the right place?)

Since these are fairly recent decisions, Richard may not have had a chance yet to propose any model changes he has been thinking of... So, Richard, if this announcement is premature for ecology or whatever, Please just let me know below when you get the chance.

Another issue we can talk about in this thread is what happens next after population and ecology. F. Smith, in another thread, proposed econ as the next thing to work on. Although I would love to have econ working as quickly as possible, I personally think it would be better to finish off the government/social/riots area at the demo 5 level first. My reasons for this is that they are a good chunk of the way there in code using the new architecture, and if they were just a little further along, people will be able to actually start really playtesting those models fairly soon. At least that is my call on the issue. It doesn't address the code architecture reasons why F. Smith might have preferred to do econ first. What does everyone think?

But, the input will probably be needed to guide v.3 so critique v.2 and all of the posts after that. It's not very organized and it is missing sonme things but it does give the flavor.

I won't say anything about the Ecology model given Rich's comments.

What next? I guess F_Smith's top priority is to create the data structure. That means, set the classes, hierarchy, etc but it's not a priority to develop the procedures (equations). It makes sense to me, at least.

If I'm right and we are only coding structure, then I'd say there's no problem going with the econ model if F_Smith thinks that's the best next step. As for social/govt/riots, I'd say the data structure is pretty much there already for social and govt. Maybe govt still is missing some structures. I don't know. About the riots model, I posted a while ago some thoughts on how to code it, so if econ won't be next, riots can.

Actually, I think it is very reasonable. Many economic inputs like resources and food all depend on the land. So to give the economy model a good foundation, you need to have this in place. And to make the rest of the game, you need the economy in place.

Also, it seems to be a code architecture issue. Defining the structure of the mapsquare code at this time is very important, and the ecology characteristcs are an integral pert of the mapsquare OO modeling.