Conquer Club

Much better; I used to lose track of where some maps were, but this looks great!

Tbh I liked the Main Foundry as the regular topics.

nice remodel simple and even more organized
Great Job

I applaud the effort to bring everything into line with other CC forums, but to my way of thinking, everything has been moved down a layer now and there is another click you have to make to get to something. More data begin transferred...more time to wait....
Hmmm. I'm not really convinced by this.
It's a shame that we cannot have 4 tabs at the top of this Main Foundry forum like there is in the Contorl panel, and when you activate one tab it displays the page for each forum. That way we could have some of the deeper forums brought up closer to the top.
Were it possible, suggestions for top tabs might be:
| Tools & Tips | Ideas | Drafts | Gameplay | Graphics | XML | Quenched | Beta | Gallery | Dead Projects | Discussion |

With this layout, maps could be also be moved between Graphics and Gameplay forums to be more specific about where they are in the stamping process.

Perhaps it could even be a layout like there is in the main site menu system.
Anyway, suggestion good or bad, that is it.

lol, when in doubt... do the Forum Shuffle!

I don't really like what you did to the main foundry. It used to be that when you would go into the foundry you would see a bunch of maps being made and even if you usually only go into the drafting room to look at your own map, you might see a title that interests you and go and check it out, but now you have to go into the sub-forum, so only people looking for things in the main foundry will see it.
That made not much sense but my point is it was better the old way.

The structural change is merely the first step along the road towards a bigger goal!

There's still some more things we're working on behind the scenes with a view to making the mapmaking process more expedient. Once there are a couple more things in place, then the new structure should make more sense... the ultimate goal is to get the good quality maps into the main foundry, and to bring more commentators and feedback into the central workshop

The other thing that I'm hoping to bring on a bit is the tutorials and guides element... I've done a quick sweep of the Foundry Discussion forum today, and picked out the most obvious topics that contained some form of tutorial/guide/advice. Out of the 14 pages I scanned through, there were only 25(ish) threads that fell under the umbrella to be moved into the new subforum (and even then I'm not sure they should all be in there). I'd love to see more useful tutorials/guides appear - and that's another part of the grand plan.

sully800 wrote:Here's the first draft that Benn has been helping me to develop.



To do:

• Increase number of territories
• Make attack routes clearer
• Does the font need to be changed?

I'm open to constructive criticism, but please realize I've tried to fit the current gameplay so it matches the theme of "Change is a foot". Therefore any drastic changes to gameplay that don't take the theme into account won't be considered for this map.

Thanks!

personally i quite like the look of this one

as Cairns points out, there are indeed more layers - subforums within subforums. But as the place continues to grow we need additional organization and specialization, so the time for this has come. Nice work.

i'm not happy with it...

i liked being able to go into the main foundry, map development or whatever it was called, and map ideas with 3 clicks of my scroll wheel... now i have to click open a window, then click something else to get to map ideas... its taking too long for me to bash someone's dumb map idea...

whitestazn88 wrote:i'm not happy with it...

i liked being able to go into the main foundry, map development or whatever it was called, and map ideas with 3 clicks of my scroll wheel... now i have to click open a window, then click something else to get to map ideas... its taking too long for me to bash someone's dumb map idea...

You can get to each forum with one click from the Forum Index (the main forum page)...

MrBenn wrote:

whitestazn88 wrote:i'm not happy with it...

i liked being able to go into the main foundry, map development or whatever it was called, and map ideas with 3 clicks of my scroll wheel... now i have to click open a window, then click something else to get to map ideas... its taking too long for me to bash someone's dumb map idea...

You can get to each forum with one click from the Forum Index (the main forum page)...

Having been a website designer myself and knowing how navigation systems work, this is actually a retrograde step.
Instead of being able to go from one forum to another, you have to continually backtrack to the Map Foundry or Forum Index to get to somewhere else.
Just because the rest of the site uses this approach doesn't mean it is actually the best or good for the site.
I still say i am not not convinced by this move, and i think that the site can do better.
Unfortunately the site would probably have to re-structure it's whole navigation to move forward again.

As well as the links on the forum index, there are forum links at the top of each forum page.

I think you just need a little longer to get used to it cairns

In other news, you may notice another change that has taken place this evening...

I've gone through and stickied all the maps that have been given their Gameplay Stamp, so that these will appear at the top of the Main Foundry. Once maps receive their Graphics Stamp, they'll be promoted to an Announcement at the very top of the page before making the transition to the Final Forge.

MrBenn wrote:As well as the links on the forum index, there are forum links at the top of each forum page.

I think you just need a little longer to get used to it cairns

Well, no MrBenn...i am used to it....but from this Forum, i can only go back to Board Index < General < Map Foundry < Foundry Tips and Discussions
I can't get to Main Foundry, Drafts, or Final Forge from the top of this page without having to go through Main Foundry which i should be able to do. That is the idea of good navigation.
I am not tramping on what you have done, i am simply syaing that i still think it can be done better.

MrBenn wrote:In other news, you may notice another change that has taken place this evening...

I've gone through and stickied all the maps that have been given their Gameplay Stamp, so that these will appear at the top of the Main Foundry. Once maps receive their Graphics Stamp, they'll be promoted to an Announcement at the very top of the page before making the transition to the Final Forge.

Now this part is nice.

MrBenn wrote:In other news, you may notice another change that has taken place this evening...

I've gone through and stickied all the maps that have been given their Gameplay Stamp, so that these will appear at the top of the Main Foundry. Once maps receive their Graphics Stamp, they'll be promoted to an Announcement at the very top of the page before making the transition to the Final Forge.

After a little bit of time looking at it.... I like the concept, but think the process should be reversed. Maps new to the Foundry working on Gameplay should be at the top as announcements and maps on there way to the Forge should be regular threads towards the bottom of the page. Maps that need the exposure and feedback should be at the top of the page. Maps that are pretty much on their way to the Forge don't need a lot of exposure, they're for the most part done, they'll receive they're final scrutiny in the Forge.

I just think over time maps that currently have been working on Gameplay are towards the bottom of the page and they're work may be stunted because of their position. I know it's just a short scroll down, but most folks don't do it, they look at what's on TOP.

I know it probably isn't feasible to put 10-15 threads in Announcements, but just look at those maps towards the bottom of the page, their production has slowed since the change, and while I know not all maps make it through the process there are maps being updated down there and they aren't being commented on.

RedBaron0 wrote:I just think over time maps that currently have been working on Gameplay are towards the bottom of the page and they're work may be stunted because of their position. I know it's just a short scroll down, but most folks don't do it, they look at what's on TOP.

On the other hand if you reverse it you might get a lot of maps grinding to a halt being bogged down in graphics-tweaking mode.

They'd still be where they currently are stickyed. But with more threads on top, they would get pushed further down... I dunno if any way will ever be perfect.

the.killing.44 wrote:Tbh I liked the Main Foundry as the regular topics.

QFT!

cairnswk wrote:

MrBenn wrote:As well as the links on the forum index, there are forum links at the top of each forum page.

I think you just need a little longer to get used to it cairns

Well, no MrBenn...i am used to it....but from this Forum, i can only go back to Board Index < General < Map Foundry < Foundry Tips and Discussions
I can't get to Main Foundry, Drafts, or Final Forge from the top of this page without having to go through Main Foundry which i should be able to do. That is the idea of good navigation.
I am not tramping on what you have done, i am simply syaing that i still think it can be done better.

I agree this is a very backwards broke down system. Surely CC can do better

Bruceswar wrote:

cairnswk wrote:

MrBenn wrote:As well as the links on the forum index, there are forum links at the top of each forum page.

I think you just need a little longer to get used to it cairns

Well, no MrBenn...i am used to it....but from this Forum, i can only go back to Board Index < General < Map Foundry < Foundry Tips and Discussions
I can't get to Main Foundry, Drafts, or Final Forge from the top of this page without having to go through Main Foundry which i should be able to do. That is the idea of good navigation.
I am not tramping on what you have done, i am simply syaing that i still think it can be done better.

I agree this is a very backwards broke down system. Surely CC can do better

Well, you got me thinking, and I figured that a system like phpBB would have to have something better, and it does, and so does CC.
Scroll to the bottom right corner of the page. There is a Jump To control with a dropdown menu which will let you get to just about any other spot in the forum with just a scroll and a click. I had never paid it much attention before, but this little item looks pretty handy.

Woah, that is really healpful.

Something's afoot...


The wind of change is beginning to blow...

MrBenn wrote:Something's afoot...

Is that a new map?

5 territories is kinda pushing it, eh?