Conquer Club

Foreword
To me, Clans are what keeps me here at Conquer Club. It's that simple really, if it were just a game, I would have left a long time ago. The friendships I've developed, the excitement over something new, the challenge to be better then before.

This is what draws me into Clans.

2016 was a rough year for me, both personally, professionally, and in my volunteer activities both here and elsewhere.
I had some serious health concerns, both for me and my family. I closed a small business, and reopened another.
I struggled to find the excitement, the motivation, and the passion that drove me for so many years.

I will admit, there was a point in which I considered throwing in the towel. Let others take over, let others do the work.
Instead of striving for excellence, taking on the hardest tasks as I was accustomed to do, for the first time I considered taking the easy road. I could have easily rationalized it 100 ways. For my health, for my relationships, for my job.

Instead, I have recommitted myself to pushing myself further. Not to accept mediocrity. Good enough, is not good enough.
In light of this, I have revamped the Platoon Report format to something fresh. A reminder to myself that even little things can be made better.
This year, I will focus on being better. To make myself, better. Clans, better. We can do better, we will do better.
This year, my focus on improvements will be for you, the ones who come here and make this place great.

Thank you, because you are the ones who make me a better me.

Jason (a.k.a., IcePack)

Dedication
To those of you who participate, who get involved, to those who volunteer.
To those who help make Clans the most special place.
This is for you.

Please Click on the image below to read the newsletter
You will be taken to a google documents page



Note: If you find something of particular interest, if you have any feedback. I would love to hear what you have to say.
Any comments regarding the Platoon Report (positive, constructive criticism, or negative) are appreciated.

Terrific job Icepack

Really fun read!

I do have 1 error to point out:

Largest Margin of Victory (Win %):
1. SC (37) v KRB (4) - 90.2%
2. Sky Force (18) v Water's Fury (2) - 90%
3. TOFU (36) v SoH (5) - 87.8%
4. KNT (36) v LI (5) - 87.8%
5. THOTA (35) v DBC (5) - 87.5%

Missing FOED's win over LOTZ from just a few months ago that should be tied for #1 on this list!
http://www.conquerclub.com/public.php?m ... WarId=2305
FOED (37) v LOTZ (4) - 90.2%

JPlo64 wrote:Terrific job Icepack

Really fun read!

I do have 1 error to point out:

Largest Margin of Victory (Win %):
1. SC (37) v KRB (4) - 90.2%
2. Sky Force (18) v Water's Fury (2) - 90%
3. TOFU (36) v SoH (5) - 87.8%
4. KNT (36) v LI (5) - 87.8%
5. THOTA (35) v DBC (5) - 87.5%

Missing FOED's win over LOTZ from just a few months ago that should be tied for #1 on this list!
http://www.conquerclub.com/public.php?m ... WarId=2305
FOED (37) v LOTZ (4) - 90.2%

Much appreciated, I did check for recent results but that list in particular is difficult to check. Its been updated!

Great job and very professional looking article - it must have taken ages to create. Your effort is very much appreciated

Awesome work Ice!

- That was nice Ice! Very positive read, what we all need!

- Bravo Bravo

- God bless in 2017 everyone!

Nice work!

Good read.

Seems weird that we passed Fallen in rank. It'll either hold or not hold though.

Whilst currently reading I can see an axolotl, rhino, platypus and mink. Not sure which I am. You're forward here was quite deep and something I can relate to very well. I both like and appreciate the extra effort you've put into this to give it a more formal feel.

The rhino just left.

From a design point of view, can you use bold instead of caps if you're gonna highlight something in the text? Pages 5-6 got a bit confusing with the layout. Also, the tables and graphs for the F400 are very hard to read and have no external link to view a bigger version, if something could be done to improve that it would be helpful. I have absolutely no idea which colour ATN is on the graphs for the F400. I can see the orange on the F41 but I don't really care about that.

Again, on Pages 13-15 the layout is weird; I've never seen any kind of magazine or newspaper format stories in that way. I don't want to scroll through three pages to read one story and then scroll back up to read the rest.

As always I didn't read everything, but you did a good job here mate.

iAmCaffeine wrote:Whilst currently reading I can see an axolotl, rhino, platypus and mink. Not sure which I am. You're forward here was quite deep and something I can relate to very well. I both like and appreciate the extra effort you've put into this to give it a more formal feel.

The rhino just left.

From a design point of view, can you use bold instead of caps if you're gonna highlight something in the text? Pages 5-6 got a bit confusing with the layout. Also, the tables and graphs for the F400 are very hard to read and have no external link to view a bigger version, if something could be done to improve that it would be helpful. I have absolutely no idea which colour ATN is on the graphs for the F400. I can see the orange on the F41 but I don't really care about that.

Again, on Pages 13-15 the layout is weird; I've never seen any kind of magazine or newspaper format stories in that way. I don't want to scroll through three pages to read one story and then scroll back up to read the rest.

As always I didn't read everything, but you did a good job here mate.

Thank you for the great feedback, Caff!

I checked out Pages 5-6, I'm not sure were you are refering to about bold instead of caps (or was that two, seperate comments?).
If you can provide an example, I'll try to make it happen.

I know I got some feedback late in the game (this morning) regarding some of the layouts, this first go around I focused mainly on size of the articles, and getting them to end approximately at the appropriate location so that each section fit nicely and eliminated the most white space / having sections look normal. However, I can see your point regarding having to scroll 3 pages to read one article. Initially, my thought was for a newspaper (its been awhile, but I used to read them often) would often have an introduction on the first page (or whatever, first page of the section) and often have a italicised caption "go to page 4 for the rest of this article" type thing, so I wasn't sure that it would be a big deal. But thats page flipping, as opposed to scrolling and I agree I can try to make it more convenient. A little bit of a learning curve with the new format, and google docs. Hoping I can figure out the table of contents feature and link to the next piece or something...

Regarding F400, yeah that was the biggest struggle area for me personally. Trying to provide information, and the graphs was very difficult. Making them bigger obviously made it more legible at the cost of adding quite a few pages. However linking them was not something I considered, great suggestion for future implimentation. Thanks

Great job!

IcePack wrote:

iAmCaffeine wrote:Whilst currently reading I can see an axolotl, rhino, platypus and mink. Not sure which I am. You're forward here was quite deep and something I can relate to very well. I both like and appreciate the extra effort you've put into this to give it a more formal feel.

The rhino just left.

From a design point of view, can you use bold instead of caps if you're gonna highlight something in the text? Pages 5-6 got a bit confusing with the layout. Also, the tables and graphs for the F400 are very hard to read and have no external link to view a bigger version, if something could be done to improve that it would be helpful. I have absolutely no idea which colour ATN is on the graphs for the F400. I can see the orange on the F41 but I don't really care about that.

Again, on Pages 13-15 the layout is weird; I've never seen any kind of magazine or newspaper format stories in that way. I don't want to scroll through three pages to read one story and then scroll back up to read the rest.

As always I didn't read everything, but you did a good job here mate.

Thank you for the great feedback, Caff!

I checked out Pages 5-6, I'm not sure were you are refering to about bold instead of caps (or was that two, seperate comments?).
If you can provide an example, I'll try to make it happen.

I know I got some feedback late in the game (this morning) regarding some of the layouts, this first go around I focused mainly on size of the articles, and getting them to end approximately at the appropriate location so that each section fit nicely and eliminated the most white space / having sections look normal. However, I can see your point regarding having to scroll 3 pages to read one article. Initially, my thought was for a newspaper (its been awhile, but I used to read them often) would often have an introduction on the first page (or whatever, first page of the section) and often have a italicised caption "go to page 4 for the rest of this article" type thing, so I wasn't sure that it would be a big deal. But thats page flipping, as opposed to scrolling and I agree I can try to make it more convenient. A little bit of a learning curve with the new format, and google docs. Hoping I can figure out the table of contents feature and link to the next piece or something...

Regarding F400, yeah that was the biggest struggle area for me personally. Trying to provide information, and the graphs was very difficult. Making them bigger obviously made it more legible at the cost of adding quite a few pages. However linking them was not something I considered, great suggestion for future implimentation. Thanks

Oh nah, the caps were earlier on I think, but that's not really an issue, more just something I always notice.

Indeed newspapers and such do have like a preview to the article and then "continued on..." but that's a bit different because you then go and read the full article on a two page spread or whatever. I think you could have done the Empire story, then catnip's story, then EW's story one after the other and done a standard layout.

Honestly, I'd just use up more pages and make the graphs / tables legible. It's not like it's more blocks of text to read, just quick glances at graphs and stuff, so the extra pages don't really matter in comparison to being able to read the data.

wow - i am glad i just took an hour at work to read through the latest report. High fives all around! I particularly appreciated the 10-year stats; the OCD side of me was salivating at the thought of the hours it must have taken to put them together.

so, that last page on CR@W (great acronym AND fun to type with 2 fingers!) - i heard a soundtrack playing as i read it, but is there some kindof game really coming out of that?

cheers and adulations.

Regarding CR@W - yes the game will be released soon.
I expect a few weeks of Q&A / tweaking of rules and balancing (it's pretty difficult to get it right) before we begin, but it should be a lot of fun once we start

Rules & further info I expect out this week. Im just doing some play testing of my own / finalizing some details and getting Q&A from reviewers to clarify things at the moment.

IcePack wrote:Im just doing some play testing of my own.

i play test every day on my own ... sometimes twice.

Congrats IcePack for all your effot put into the newslettr and the clan world. The platoon report was indeed very much fun to read.

josko.ri wrote:Congrats IcePack for all your effot put into the newslettr and the clan world. The platoon report was indeed very much fun to read.

Thank you for all your effort in the article you put together!
It was probably the most interesting piece to me in this particular newsletter.
It was greatly appreciated

IcePack

Wow, this is awesome! Can't wait to read it. Looks like a lot of work and thank you IcePack and everybody else.

Thanks again everyone! I'll post the F400 on / around the 15th in the thread so you can see better versions. My apologies for the difficulty in legibiliity there.
Also, as mentioned in the Platoon Report the Clan Realms at War: the Bannermen is announced! Lots of questions coming in, and final tweaks occuring prior to start.

We have a planned Jan 29th start. I think 4th or 5th post down tells you & your clan how you can get involved / started participating. As soon as you send me that info requested, you'll get a link to your clans private map!

Thumbs up for an awesome Platoon Report, Jason ! Thanks for the effort - it's sure it is highly valued by the clan world.

I know it's buried in the back / overshadowed by the CR@W Event, but please consider participating in the CC7 Event Prediction Challenge! It only takes a minute to participate, and even if it's a guess you can win credits!

http://challonge.com/CCup7

incredible Platoon report Jason ! Thanks

If anyone has future article ideas, contests, or want to help out on a project like Josko did in this edition just contact me anytime whether you want to run it or just have the idea and want me too, go ahead and message me!

Remember we will have more activities to celebrate the 10th year of clans all year long!

This is amazing! Nice job Ice!

IcePack wrote:


Jason

Ok, that says it all.