The New Hydaelyn Role-Players!

[Kylin]

 

Itâs finally here~. The new site design is officially live with all its fancy goodness. More minor alterations (in coding and images) will continue to be made over time through ninja edits and the like. But for now, take a gander at the new shiny look! Be sure to refresh your browser a couple times for all of the graphical elements to reload properly. You may have to refresh multiple times on different pages for a short time until your browser fully updates cookies. I apologize for the delay and for how long the site was down today. There are some things I'm still tweaking as I write this (such as the linkshell section colors, sticky updates, etc).

 

:tonberry: Domain name and web space has been renewed for another year!

 

:tonberry: The forum color scheme and overall appearance has seen a drastic overhaul. Please refresh your browser in any circumstance that something seems âoff.â If refreshing doesnât fix it, please report it. More than one refresh may be needed in some areas. For your reference, the site /should/ look like the below images (save for some minor tweaks since these are pics of the test forum) so long as your Internet browsers are up-to-date.

 

Depending on feedback, tweaks may still be made. For instance, the use of two different borders depending on the page (brown borders for posts and content, and green/beige for tables) may be changed to only one type of border if people feel the use of both is out of place.

 

Forum main page:

[spoil][/spoil]

 

Post page:

[spoil][/spoil]

 

Control panel:

[spoil][/spoil]

 

:tonberry: New buttons have been added for new topics, replying, etc. In addition, numerous icons throughout the forum have been changed/updated. These may require refreshing the page to load properly.

 

:tonberry: Forum categories can now be collapsed/expanded upon a single click. When logged in, these settings will be saved no matter what computer/ISP address you log in from.

 

:tonberry: Zam tooltip support has been added. Simply add a link to an item in the Zam database and hovering over it will allow for the item to pop up on your screen. It should be noted that Yellow Gremlin tooltip support is also still usable.

 

:tonberry: Hovering over links (image links included) have a much more visible effect now, including rainbow colors (for text) and slight movement (text and images). The sole exception for this are the banner images, which will remain in a static position.

 

:tonberry: New navigation buttons have been added, along with fancy hover effects!

 

:tonberry: Certain navigational items have been relocated for better visibility, such as searching active/unread posts, marking forums read, etc.

 

:tonberry: The following users have been given moderator status: Rain, Sha.

 

:tonberry: A recent events block has been added to the sidebar. As such, events will no longer display at the top of the forums. At this point in time, the calendar block on the main page differs from the one on the forum index due to coding complexities. The calendar on the home page is NOT in sync with the actual calendar itself and can only be edited by administration. However, I will keep it updated as soon as a new event is posted until it can be synced with the calendar itself. The recent events block on the forum index is in sync and will appear as normal when any user adds an event.

 

:tonberry: The signature box in the user profile page has been merged into another box for a cleaner look. As a similar move, the "image description" box in the gallery's view image page has been merged with the "image details" box for a cleaner look.

 

:tonberry: Users will now have an âonlineâ icon show up when they are currently online. The icon can be found in the userâs posts, profile page, and in their private messages.

 

:tonberry: The Users box has been merged into the Statistics box at the bottom of the forums.

 

:tonberry: A âLikeâ mod has been added. You must be logged in to use it. You can find the like button in the row along with the âquoteâ post button, etc. I will hopefully ninja edit the icon in the near future to make it stand out more. Likes given and received will display in the following areas: User profile, post sidebar under the avatar, and under signatures if that particular post was liked.

 

:tonberry: The current time (as recognized by the forum OR your user account) is now situated in the footer of the forums. In addition, the default date/time format for the forums has changed to: Abbreviated month Day Year, Time. You can change this in the user control panel to your own preference if it's not to your liking

 

:tonberry: The Classifieds section has seen a slight overhaul in order to better match the rest of the site in terms of widget locations.

 

:tonberry: The âauthorâ column has been removed from the topics list page and is now fused with the post title/time/date.

 

:tonberry: PayPal donation widget on the home page has been removed. It will be added only in the months leading to domain name/website renewal from here on out.

 

:tonberry: The Necropolis section, along with the myriad of posts contained therein, has been deleted from the forum database entirely.

 

:tonberry: The Pub section has been eliminated. Linkshell seeking should now be done in the Welcome Desk section, whereas linkshell specific discussions can now be held in the Assembly Room. Should the Assembly Room become too congested with threads in the future, I will consider sectioning it off into different sub forums (such as general RP discussions, story/event planning, linkshell discussions, etc).

 

:tonberry: A new cursor has been implemented! For whatever reason, the cursor does not seem to work in Internet Explorer 9 (nor in some lesser used browsers). As such, the default cursor will still be displayed on this browser. The cursor is also somewhat buggy on Google Chrome, though the reason for this remains unclear. It is currently most optimized on Firefox.

 

:tonberry: Home pageâs portal has been updated from version 1.0.6 to 2.0.0. This will reduce the number of queries the site database makes, thus alleviating server lag issues slightly. In addition to this, certain parts of the site will now auto-redirect. For example: ffxiv-roleplayers.com/forum will now redirect to ffxiv-roleplayers.com/forum/index.php. This should not affect bookmarks or any other navigational issues. These redirects may be better optimized at a later time.

 

:tonberry: A gallery block has been added to the sidebar of the home page and forum index to show recent images.

 

:tonberry: New randomized banners have been added. A total of 10 images will randomly display upon each page load. Images can easily be added/replaced later down the line.

 

:tonberry: The link to the "Info" page in the home page's welcome box has been removed.

 

:tonberry: Some stickies have been updated.

 

:tonberry: 186 users have been deleted from the forum database due to prolonged inactivity or duplicate accounts. More may be deleted gradually over time. Here's the full list:

[spoil]Eva Mhirravi

Oms

Alasturey

wimsical

Hoshiko

Nahaara Khetas

Scaraphae

Karalie Crownite

maxxxrebo

Shugo0160

Adam

mikokami

Marielle

Crimson Bull

chefZoltan

atholonis

sasuke63122

Corolie

Quint

Suteru

Stygian

Zarafin

nightborne

andie123

Eadric

hiroaki

Ashe

Ephine

xkis

Halrath

spectralhunter

eatlyh

Skijarama

awitelintsta

Alto

mathias179

MaskedMage01

Sanosuke

Nieik

Thorbrand

Stope

marctmarty

Lake Desire

Precis

benevolent

darkblade98

Vultari Iztari

Skylee

Shayde

Melorea

Zeri

Lucian

Manes

Annoccupt

TinyKing

tetrahedral

Zwitterion

TerraAdamine

Aldarion

Evalcie

TronKoup

Nica

Blackstar

Gio Maryss

Higeki

Kurotan

Aneira

Alte

Inkspills

Lazislacker

Alyx Varian

Panibago

Erika

Kif

Metalzero

Lunula

Lythros

Amelynne

Kismet

NeroShock

erik90

Caergarr

Neconamis

FatalXIII

cereale

Eraziel

Mr.Haze

noko

RynSidell

Vantol

Granis

Cosette

eclivale

spazure

panos3333

FelXaga

Mitsouko

Faedulin

Al Azif

chigo

Reece

camelye

Monstrous

onomat

jpo

Bronn Weltz

TriColors

Naught

Mjollnir

Ashlaylay

Pallis

Daythief

Marinus

zenespreso

Akara

Sanrio Noa

ElPhantazmo

RedTwin

Prial

islavuts

Thilain

Drefan

Jathor

Aidendale

YoshikoAki

Seapanduh

Avryn

Zirin

Quijen

Ironfungus

Rothero

Cerise Ashland

Ereinion

Caeylan

Tizzychan

Lifestream

Enkidu

Hyperion

Amahra

Kila

Evanlysis

Caira

AlMcFly

Devic

rengylk

Fen

Doomshock

Alaina

Loial

Yoyo

Tyrianne

xSoulSongx

Nemryu

Jasyn

FalisHeartshatter

Rufus Zelbringer

xiuide

Zazahi

Cerise Bell

fangu

halis

Bishop

Desha

Remedy

MarikStormholder:

Gizmo770

envy:chan

Al'Kharaj

Sojiro

Suna

nonpoly

Evictus

DivineMist18

Ketski

Shasta

fherendil

Aleanse

Ari_Greenthorne

PlutoStardust

KratosDiamon

Tyrswind

Mischa

Ryusuke

Wiggle

SeirraLanzce

lyriah karnelle[/spoil]

 

:tonberry: Several bug fixes have been implemented. Further optimizations and ninja edits will occur as needed. Please point out any bugs, graphical or functional, should you find any.

 

:tonberry: The wiki and forum databases have been refused together once again. Your login on the wiki will be identical to your login information on the forums. Those without a forum account cannot edit the wiki. This may be reversed again if any problems arise from the database merging.

 

Known bugs: (to be fixed as soon as solutions are available)

 

[spoil]*(Graphical only) When loading a saved draft into your post, the left border of the post extends a bit too far downward.

 

*(Graphical only) The like button is not as prominent as it should be.

 

*Welcome box not working properly (being worked on right this moment)

 

*(Graphical only) The user panel in the header area looks rather tacky when you log in IF you don't have an avatar. This will be fixed later by giving all users without avatars a default avatar.

 

*(Graphical only) Text in sub forum sections doesnât line up properly with each column. Since there arenât really any sub forums in use, this is an extremely low priority fix.

 

*(Graphical only) Chocobo cursor does not work properly in all browsers.

 

*Uploading images to attach to ads in the classifieds section sometimes fails and leaves behind a simple white box instead of the actual image.

 

*Forum rules blocks lack any borders. Due to no forum rules blocks not being used anywhere on the forums at this time, this is also a very low priority item.

 

*Some text colors/coding aspects in individual posts may no mesh very well with the new color scheme. Users are encouraged to go back to their Linkshell ads and character profiles/stories to make necessary edits.

 

*The new calendar sidebar tool does not sync with the current calendar at this time.

 

*(Graphical only) The sidebar on the forum index does not completely match the sidebar on the home page in terms of placement of text, styling, and sizes. This is because of the complex nature of the new upgrades for the home page coding which resulted in me having to manually code the forum sidebar as a temporary measure. This will gradually be tweaked over time until the portal dev team can create a proper necessary modification.

 

*The scroll background does not continue down when the sidebar becomes longer than the forum list.

 

*The site redirects are not set up properly, though you should be able to get to where you need either way.

 

*Numerous images can stand to be better optimized with added shadows, buffed edges, etc.

 

*IE8 and possibly other browsers may display the login box in the banner incorrectly by breaking up the guildleve borders.

 

*Images aren't resizing properly on the home page's news section, causing the page to "break" when viewing said images.

 

*Some text colors may continue to be tweaked slightly.[/spoil]

 

Delayed/cancelled:

 

[spoil]*Addition of Lodestone character profiles into the user profile. Due to the complexity of this addition (and the potential server load issues), this has been cancelled at this time.

 

*News page with scrolling news items. This has been delayed, possibly cancelled, until further notice. Attempts were made to achieve this and they all failed at this time due to being incompatible with the home pageâs portal.

 

*Possible implementation of the Eorzean clock based around the Windows version. Thanks to Ocaelynth, I possess the basic code for this. However, I am still unsure exactly what to do with it and how to convert it into a proper widget.

 

*Sound effects for hovering over the main buttons in the header. This has been cancelled to avoid server lag, security threats, and potential annoyance to users.

 

*Colorized custom titles. This has been delayed due to low priority. I may go back and reexamine it at a later time (implementation wonât be difficult, just tedious).

 

*Displaying the sidebar on all pages. This has been put on hold due to the complex coding of the home page. As soon as the portal dev team creates the necessary modification, this will be added in properly.[/spoil]

[Kylin]

Please report any unlisted bugs you may see here, graphical or otherwise. About 85% of the site's files have been changed and as such, there's no doubt going to be some hiccups here and there. Other feedback is welcome as well, as some modifications can be made if enough demands are made. Just be nice about it . I slaved quite a bit over all of this

 

A number of things will continue to be tweaked over time. The scroll background will likely have a shadow effect added to better flow with the background image. The background image itself will also be tweaked. I had planned to add a flier above the paladin's head to spruce up that part but it turned out badly so I'm waiting on that a bit. I also intended to add a black mage lalafell /behind/ the scroll for the times the site may load slowly in order to give the viewer something nice to look at. But the blm image turned out to not look too great on it so I'm holding off on that a bit longer too. Some text colors may need brightened a bit more as well.

[Merri]

Going to take some getting used to after having the same exact site for, well, ever since we left the original RPC forums. Speaking of, this colour scheme actually reminds me a ton of the old, old RPC forums. ^^

 

Shaping up very nicely. Great work, Cas. :cactuar: Thank you (and everyone who assisted) for putting in the effort!

[Gale]

Being brand new to the forums I have to say I really like this set up and scheme, not really sure what it might have looked like before to compare it to though.

[Eternal Darkness]

Yeah! This theme is pretty boss! I especially like the Chocobo Cursor~!

[Riik]

The theme is rather nice, but there is one issue:

 

The colour for the name of registered users really hurts my eyes and is hard to look at... it's a little too light for the background, at least on my screen

[Kylin]

I haven't been satisfied with the registered users color myself either. So I'll keep on playing around with that until I find a happy medium. Took me a bit to find a good blue hue for moderators that I'm content with (Admin color may still be a bit bright as well...).

 

Other suggestions are of course welcome, though just don't get too crazy with anything

[Alothia]

On my browser, the two banner pictures are stacked on top of each other, so there's a huge empty space, which looks awkward.

 

Some of the text is hard to read, at least on the scrolly bit.

 

Chocobo cursor? I no has. >.<

 

I like the new background image. Yay for Sylphs!

 

Other than that, I don't have a whole lot else to say. I realize it's a work in progress. Just letting you know how things are working from my end. ^^

[Deirdre]

I personally do not like the websites redesign. Not trying to be a jerk at all, and I did take web design courses so I know how much effort goes in to this stuff, but I think as roleplayers, we need to present ourselves more professionally.

 

-There needs to be some conception of how this could look, perhaps ideas from the whole community.

-One colour scheme, and colours that compliment each other.

-Graphics that give the website a kick, not distract the eye.

-No rainbows, please.

-The option to change the cursor. Some people do not like things on their computers changed for them, myself included.

-High quality images, I don't want to see pixilation in this day and age.

 

I have a few ideas in mind for concepts if you want me to throw together a mock-up and stick with the parchment-y feel. If you want to stick with this, that's fine, though it is not something I will be opening up at work at all.

 

:moogle:

[Miyu Asuka]

Mouse Icon: Annoying.

Also: the site is extremely slow on college computers, mobile phones and other non-home computers, too many things are loading, too many images, shiny thigns and basically bad coding.

[Kassandra Dawn]

there is only one thing that I have a problem with...rainbow flashes on the font...no thanks they're just distracting

[Tessaface]

i Second Kass's feelings on the links. They're like vampires, they're not supposed to sparkle D:

[Renaise]

I can see a lot of time went into this.

 

And I like the cursor and havent had any issues with the site loading on any device so err... yeah

[Riik]

My steam web browser is finally up to date...

 

if it takes that long to refresh cookies, then I think at least a little optimisation needs to be done on the coding.

 

That's my only concern thus far since my last post.

 

Also, there seems to be some debate over the cursor, but I actually like it.

[Kylin]

The coding has zero bearing over cookies refreshing. That's 100% web browsers. If you keep getting old images from the old site design (like I did for awhile), there's a way to delete all cookies related to this site manually (either by clicking the delete cookies link at the bottom of the home AND forum page or by going directly through your browser and deleting the ffxiv-roleplayers folder in the cookies list).

 

Alothia, which browser do you use? Can you please provide a screenshot of how the banner looks? If the problem hasn't resolved itself yet, can you take a quick peek at this phpbb template? Do the three banner images line up correctly on it for you? http://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?style_id=425

 

I'm a bit surprised at some of the 'hate' toward the color scheme/images, especially considering I asked for feedback/help multiple times over a month ago (along with an actual screenshot of the forum index page rough draft) in the Lounge and received very little feedback then. Text colors will continue to be tweaked as necessary, though I see no issue with any of the images or overall colors, and no "pixilation" on my end (unless you mean the sides of the scroll, which is designed that way to give a lighting effect until a shadow effect can be added).

 

Cursor: Option to have/not have is not possible through a phpbb coding standpoint. It either has to be one way or another >.>.

 

Rainbow text: I'll (reluctantly) remove it when I find a prominent means to display text while hovering over it.

 

Loading: It's not really that much more image heavy than the old site design. The borders surrounding everything caused a lot of memory issues then too. The scroll and background /are/ a bit more heavy in loading than the previous backgrounds though. I don't know how much more I can optimize them but I'll try.

 

On a final note, and I don't mean to sound defensive, but saying things like "I wouldn't open it up at work" or comparing the site to Twilight stuff are kinda rude ways to get a point across in my opinion. Yoshi-P put it best in one of his semi-recent posts on the Japenese forums--encouragement will cause me to move heaven and earth to satisfy the community. Insults, on the other hand, can cause one to stop caring. But thank you all for the feedback nonetheless.

[Alothia]

I think it was a cookie issue, it finally resolved itself Kylin. I like it now that it works properly! Good job.

[Riik]

Ah... I got confused because I've never had a cookie issue on a site before and didn't think it was normal on a site update (I know a bit about coding, but I'm not the most informed about the inner workings of a web browser, mostly because I've never had the reason to look into it)... must be a phpBB thing.

[Kylin]

Okay, it's been a few days now so let me go over a few things now that people are getting better adjusted to the design...

 

Banner: I'm 95% satisfied with this setup (alternating pic on the left, logo in middle, user panel on right) and it won't be changing in the future. The only changes to be made include a default avatar put in for those who don't have one in order to make the user panel look less bland for them. The green color MAY change as well. Look further below for further details.

 

Rainbow text: Will be removed entirely once I find a decent hover color for links.

 

Overall background: This is the one with the ruins/sylph/paladin. This is pretty well set in stone now and aside from minor tweaks, it won't be changed too much in the future.

 

Scroll background: I've further optimized this by shaving off about 50kb memory from the scroll images. It hasn't seemed to help much in the loading department though sadly. We can either keep this particular scroll background and just make further ninja edits to it or change it to a different parchment type entirely. I actually originally considered using the parchment used on the Avalon forums for the scroll background. It's elegant and snappy/speedy. However, I just didn't want it to seem like I was copying anything (though I'd only be copying myself ). Changing to this type of parchment would cause the top forum buttons to not really match too well though.

 

Beige colors for boxes: This beige color is probably here to stay, aside from -possibly- changing the shade slightly.

 

Mossy green: The original purpose of the mossy green was to make it seem like moss was growing off from the ruins in the background onto the parchment in various places. I'm unsure if this intended effect was noticed or not or if it's even liked. I'd like more feedback on this. The green could be changed to red or blue instead (red being the likely best choice color-wise), though it may still be not as good. I'd like more feedback on this. Of course, this would also mean that the green link text would have to change as well.

 

Post borders: The Lodestone-like borders that surround numerous boxes (such as this one that you're reading right now) can be replaced with the universal mossy green (or whatever color is decided on) seen in the forum section list, etc if desired. I'd also like more feedback on this. This would further decrease the number of images needed to load.

 

I should note that all of these changes, if desired, wouldn't come for another month or two. I'm a bit exhausted and need a break from site design right now. And I also have no desire to keep changing things over and over again. So whatever is decided upon will pretty much be final for the next couple years.

[Kylin]

Okay, a few things. I'm recoding the template/theme files completely from the ground up. Reason? Too messy due to the insane amount of alterations made. As such, too many file leftovers from the old theme are still floating out there that are a cause for concern. Fortunately, this redo won't be too labor intensive (it's already 50% done after about 3 hours of work) due to me knowing exactly what's needed/not needed as well as using a pre-made template already validated by phpbb. The site will also not have to be down nearly as long this time since I'm simply installing the new template and then clicking a few buttons to enable it when done.

 

Here's the new proposed design (with tweaks still being made--most of the sidebar is also still missing):

 

[spoil][/spoil]

 

As you can see, the background scroll has changed. It's MUCH snappier and faster with loading since it's (perhaps surprisingly) much less memory intensive. It's also (hopefully) more pleasing to the eye. The buttons at the top of the site have also been removed and replaced with a more streamlined navigation menu. This will also reduce loading stress and be less distracting to the eye. It also enables more room (and a submenu feature) for adding more links if we ever want to.

 

Two things I need feedback on (along with whatever other feedback may be out there):

 

1. Look closely at the difference between the Links sidebar (and/or the Information Center section at the bottom) and the forum section lists. You'll notice the forum list has the green surrounding the entire thing. The sidebar/Info Center only has it at the top. I'm only going with one, so which is preferred? It's purely cosmetic and has no bearing on loading or anything of the sort.

 

2. Does a different color other than green seem more suitable to you? I've prepared a red version to compare, though I can pretty quickly put together other colors as well if that's preferred as long as we can settle on one quickly.

 

[spoil][/spoil]

 

If I do not receive any feedback, I'm simply going to go with whatever I like best and ignore complaining that comes after the fact. So speak now or forever hold your peace. Note that other changes will be made within the forums (such as to the borders around posts) to accompany the new template. All present features (gallery, classifieds, etc) will remain largely in tact.

[Eva]

Looks much cleaner/crisper from what I can discern. :approve:

 

I like the red just a bit better, but the green also looks good. That's just my opinion though~

[Xenedra]

Hello! Forgive me for nbeing to lazy to post up until this point, but here it goes!

 

The red to me really blends right into the shadows on the paladin, which looks awkward. I also think the metalic border in the top pieces doesn't match the red very well, though I don't know that it matches the green any better. I do think that the red goes better with the gold text in the center box. My biggest issue with this entire site is that top row of boxes, though. To me it just looks awkward to have the three separated pieces sitting on the same background as everything else. Some sort of separate layer for the three of them to sit on might help, but I think a better solution would be to trash that randomly changing picture and spread the other two out /combine them. The center box looks very much like an after thought and it's STUFFED with the title and main info about the site. It should be the primary focus of the top bar.

 

My other big gripe involves the background. I like the basic concept, but the combination of real and concept graphics throws me off. Maybe if you could make the archways either look less realistic or (and I think this is probably more what's throwing me off:) fix the perspective/proportion of the paladin to the scrolls to the archways.

 

I'm also really amused to see Sunny Dove as a name on that main page. That guy doesn't come 'round here no more!

[Kylin]

Update:

---

 

--A new forum background scroll has replaced the old one. This new design not only gives a more elegant look but a significantly faster load time and less image stress.

 

--A default avatar has been added for those without an uploaded avatar. This can be changed at any time via the user control panel. In the near future, a gallery of avatars may be added. The default avatar does not yet display in the memberlist and this will be looked into at a later time. It does, however, display on posts, your profile, and in the user control panel in the banner.

 

--The navigation buttons have been removed and replaced with a more streamlined version.

 

--Custom titles can now be given a color of your choice via the control panel >> profile section. More colors can/will easily be added in the future. Titles will also now display on the memberlist under the "rank" column. Selecting "none" will hide your title from the memberlist, though it will still display on posts and profiles.

 

--Home page has been properly set up once again, eliminating the need for redirect pages.

 

--The "Location" column in the memberlist has been removed. It can still be found in a user's profile page.

 

--The website column in the memberlist has been made slimmer and will simply display an icon instead of a full link. Hovering over the icon will reveal the link.

 

--Beige panels have been made lighter in order for text to better display.

 

--Numerous background borders have changed in order to lessen image loading and be less distracting.

 

--Numerous text colors have changed to be more pleasing to the eye.

 

--Removing multi-colored links has been delayed. This javascript effect impacts ALL forum links, so removing it caused quite a mess in the different types of links and their respective hover effects. I'll look into this again at a later time.

 

--Bulletin Board forum moved into News section.

 

--Tonberry's Lantern forum moved into Resources section.

 

--Town Square forum moved into General section.

 

--A bug currently exists in the Classifieds section. Sidebar links are all in white instead of the default green. I've looked extensively into this already but haven't found the cause. Due to the fact that the section is never used anyway, I won't likely be in a hurry to fix this.

 

--Identified a bug where a link to a deleted topic will lead you to an error message instead of the default forum message.

 

More tweaks will continue over time. But I figured it was best to get something a bit more stable and presentable up right now ^^;

[Riik]

Wow that does look better... and somewhat more professonal-looking, too. Nice job.

[Kassandra Dawn]

I like the buttons for "forums" "Wiki" etc. it's simple and classy.

 

and the cactuar is reminding me I need to change my profile pic...thanks!

[Merri]

Much easier on the eyes. Good work, Cas!