How to change the way one of my forums works?

[Rho'd Berth]

Hello,

I want to change the functionality of only one of our forums.
What I need to do is the following:
- rate a thread from the forum-view
- put the body-text of the first post of any thread in the forum-view
- limit the number of characters for the first post of the thread
- remove the link to open a thread from the forum view
- change the rate-images from 5 stars to 2 thumbs up, 1 thumb up, neutral, 1 thumb down, 2 thumbs down
- sort the threads based on it's rating (can be done already in the admincp), add a link to show the newest threads.

All in all: I want to create a simple rating system.
If anybody can help me here, either by giving me some hints on how to do it or by directing me to a mod who does this (or maybe even wants to do it for me), that would be great!

I get the idea that it doesn't have to be that difficult, but I simply am totally new to this.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

[Disasterpiece]

Is it enough to create a sub-template, removing all elements you don't need and assigning this specific sub-template to the specific forum?