Post by Tim on Apr 23, 2015 22:19:01 GMT -6
Change is coming. Big change. But probably not the change you expect.
V14 is going to a little different from most versions. Most of the changes are not going to be new features to the game or changing existing features. The game play for V14 will be pretty similar to V13 (aside from some bug fixes and minor tweaking). No. The big change coming to V14 is an update the the User Interface.
Since I took over the game back in 2007 (holy cow! It's been almost 8 years!), the pages on the game have had the same general layout. Fixed width. Uses tables to display things in the right spot. Minimal CSS styles used. Very rigid. I've made things a little more flexible over the years (adding more CSS, adding Lite mode, etc), but the basic framework has stayed the same. It stayed the same because it would just be SO much work to overhaul it that I haven't felt it was worth it when there were bigger priority things I wanted to get done. Well, I've put it off long enough. Time for GoS to get with the times (no, not micro-transactions
).
In V14, GoS will be updated to use the Bootstrap 3 framework. Bootstrap 3 uses responsive web-design, meaning the layout of web pages adjusts dynamically, taking into account the characteristics of the device used (desktop, tablet, mobile phone). So the same page can have a different layout based on the size of the display you're using to look at it. It will even adjust automatically if you resize your web browser. Bootstrap also provides a lot of common style sheets stuff to make the display more uniform and easier to update/maintain. You'll probably recognize somethings that look similar to other major sites, as Bootstrap (or similar frameworks) have become quite popular recently.
So what does this mean for GoS?
- In general in your normal web browser, the layouts of pages will look about the same. With a few exceptions I didn't muck with the layouts too much as I figure there's going to be enough of a learning curve to adjust to the other changes without figuring out where everything is. So far, no new pages have been added and I've only removed one. Speaking of that one...
- No more popups in new windows. All popups (like information for items) will be handled within the page. No more popup windows to close!
- Confirmation dialogs are now attached to the button you clicked on, so you don't have to hunt around for the popup on larger screens
- (Hopefully) more useable display on small screens. If not initially, at least it should be easier to fix it without affecting the display on browsers. Bootstrap 3 supports 4 different screen sizes by default, so your phone, tablet, and PC could all have slightly different displays depending on your resolution. You'll have to play around with things to see what all is different.
- A new, drop down navigation menu at the top of the screen (replaces the image links). This should allow for easier navigation. Biggest change here though is that Travel is now handled by this menu, so you can travel from any page without having to go back to the World screen.
- Consistent color scheme, but now with more than just Black, White, Silver and Gold! Actual colors appear!
- Most current images on the site will be reused, though Ed is hard at work on a few new ones to spruce things up.
- Easier to add more themes to game. Currently I plan to get the normal mode working first, then try to recreate a theme like the old Lite mode as a test. In theory, I could fairly easily add different themes (Light and Shadow, different nationality based themes, etc) without a ton of effort. That'd likely be in a future release though. Just Normal and Lite planned for V14.
My plan is to make a first pass at each page on the site to update it to the new framework, then open the test site and turn you all loose to get used to it and find things I broke during the transition while I work on smoothing things out and refining the things to look a little nicer.
So right now you're probably thinking, "Ok Tim. You're telling us how much work all this is. We know you. How many months is it going to be before you have the test site ready for us?". Well I deserve that, but prepare to be impressed. Since there's no new features to explain, there will be no V14 countdown. This is pretty much it. I'll likely have a few threads about the minor tweaks I plan on making, but it's not enough for a full countdown and I'll write about those as I make the changes.
My current plan is to open the test site to donors next Sunday (May 3rd). No exact time planned yet, but I hope to narrow it down as we get closer. As usual, non-donors will get access about a week later, so plan on it being open to all on May 10th (Happy Mother's Day!). Not sure how long the test site will run. Depends on how many issues you find and how long it takes me to fix some of the other things that are broken (like tournaments). But all in all we could be looking at the quickest turn around between ages in a LONG time. *knock on wood* *fingers crossed* *say a prayer* *etc*
I've made a first pass at most of the pages so far (have 16 of the 41 pages one the site left), so hopefully I can finish the rest by then, but there may be a few that still need worked when the test site opens. I plan to post a list on the forum of all known display issues on the test site once it opens and will update it as I fix them.
Go Team!
V14 is going to a little different from most versions. Most of the changes are not going to be new features to the game or changing existing features. The game play for V14 will be pretty similar to V13 (aside from some bug fixes and minor tweaking). No. The big change coming to V14 is an update the the User Interface.
Since I took over the game back in 2007 (holy cow! It's been almost 8 years!), the pages on the game have had the same general layout. Fixed width. Uses tables to display things in the right spot. Minimal CSS styles used. Very rigid. I've made things a little more flexible over the years (adding more CSS, adding Lite mode, etc), but the basic framework has stayed the same. It stayed the same because it would just be SO much work to overhaul it that I haven't felt it was worth it when there were bigger priority things I wanted to get done. Well, I've put it off long enough. Time for GoS to get with the times (no, not micro-transactions
).In V14, GoS will be updated to use the Bootstrap 3 framework. Bootstrap 3 uses responsive web-design, meaning the layout of web pages adjusts dynamically, taking into account the characteristics of the device used (desktop, tablet, mobile phone). So the same page can have a different layout based on the size of the display you're using to look at it. It will even adjust automatically if you resize your web browser. Bootstrap also provides a lot of common style sheets stuff to make the display more uniform and easier to update/maintain. You'll probably recognize somethings that look similar to other major sites, as Bootstrap (or similar frameworks) have become quite popular recently.
So what does this mean for GoS?
- In general in your normal web browser, the layouts of pages will look about the same. With a few exceptions I didn't muck with the layouts too much as I figure there's going to be enough of a learning curve to adjust to the other changes without figuring out where everything is. So far, no new pages have been added and I've only removed one. Speaking of that one...
- No more popups in new windows. All popups (like information for items) will be handled within the page. No more popup windows to close!
- Confirmation dialogs are now attached to the button you clicked on, so you don't have to hunt around for the popup on larger screens
- (Hopefully) more useable display on small screens. If not initially, at least it should be easier to fix it without affecting the display on browsers. Bootstrap 3 supports 4 different screen sizes by default, so your phone, tablet, and PC could all have slightly different displays depending on your resolution. You'll have to play around with things to see what all is different.
- A new, drop down navigation menu at the top of the screen (replaces the image links). This should allow for easier navigation. Biggest change here though is that Travel is now handled by this menu, so you can travel from any page without having to go back to the World screen.
- Consistent color scheme, but now with more than just Black, White, Silver and Gold! Actual colors appear!
- Most current images on the site will be reused, though Ed is hard at work on a few new ones to spruce things up.
- Easier to add more themes to game. Currently I plan to get the normal mode working first, then try to recreate a theme like the old Lite mode as a test. In theory, I could fairly easily add different themes (Light and Shadow, different nationality based themes, etc) without a ton of effort. That'd likely be in a future release though. Just Normal and Lite planned for V14.
My plan is to make a first pass at each page on the site to update it to the new framework, then open the test site and turn you all loose to get used to it and find things I broke during the transition while I work on smoothing things out and refining the things to look a little nicer.
So right now you're probably thinking, "Ok Tim. You're telling us how much work all this is. We know you. How many months is it going to be before you have the test site ready for us?". Well I deserve that, but prepare to be impressed. Since there's no new features to explain, there will be no V14 countdown. This is pretty much it. I'll likely have a few threads about the minor tweaks I plan on making, but it's not enough for a full countdown and I'll write about those as I make the changes.
My current plan is to open the test site to donors next Sunday (May 3rd). No exact time planned yet, but I hope to narrow it down as we get closer. As usual, non-donors will get access about a week later, so plan on it being open to all on May 10th (Happy Mother's Day!). Not sure how long the test site will run. Depends on how many issues you find and how long it takes me to fix some of the other things that are broken (like tournaments). But all in all we could be looking at the quickest turn around between ages in a LONG time. *knock on wood* *fingers crossed* *say a prayer* *etc*
I've made a first pass at most of the pages so far (have 16 of the 41 pages one the site left), so hopefully I can finish the rest by then, but there may be a few that still need worked when the test site opens. I plan to post a list on the forum of all known display issues on the test site once it opens and will update it as I fix them.
Go Team!
