i) having a link to 'create forum topic' at the top of the list of recent forum updates on the right-hand side of the screen.
ii) making the links to FAQs more obvious - especially the answers to 'how do I stop someone stealing my ideas' and 'how do I get game components made'.
When I created this topic, there was a drop-down menu with the various sub-forum names on it. So if this was kept, topics could still be organised as they are now.