Spring RTS Engine

Tim Blokdijk wrote: Other then that, take a look at the new function:
http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring-site11/ and
http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... lation.php

Sweet. Maybe you should update your first post? that way people joining can make a comment on the most recent page?

anyway. Things look a lot better then they did at first. Good work.

I honestly can't think of any "negative" criticism right now, except I don't really like the changing screenshots. what if there was a "rating" system for screenshots and the top 5 or whatever were posted? but I'm thinking a bit crazy. doesn't seem all that reasonable.

Stationary screenshots would be better imo.

In any case, good work so far. I'll do my best to come up with more ideas. This one sells it a lot better then the current one.
p.s. I see you're keeping the res for small monitors. I like.

I like it. Needs a better banner, but I like it a lot.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the "Highlight" and "Download" boxes. they should be drawn to the "introduction" and "Download" boxes, i nthat order

I'd suggewst putting the Introduction up front and first, and then the download box next to it. I like the idea of the "Highlight" box, but it needs to go on the side of the page somehwre where it doesnt draw one's attention immediately...

I don't like the need of JavaScript. If you would do it in pure CSS, it would be better. I usually have JavaScript deactivated for good reasons (I hate banners!).

The boxes u use confused me the first time i saw them. They seem not to have an order, as the bottom boxes have other size than the boxes at the top.

Well, I wouldn't say that I could do it better, but as you wanted some feedback - the longer i watch the site, the more I'm sure it wasn't done by a professional.

But I'm pretty sure you will spend some more work on it, as you like Spring as I do :)

LOrDo wrote:I like it. Needs a better banner, but I like it a lot.

I can make pretty badass banners, if you want i'll make one with the core com smoking a nuclear warhead.

Go ahead
You have a picture left and right they slide from and towards each other with changing resolutions, you can use transparent png if you would like to and the height is 120px.

Getting there Tim, looking heck of a lot better now!
Although you want want to do this to css so you don't get image borders:

clericvash wrote:Getting there Tim, looking heck of a lot better now!
Although you want want to do this to css so you don't get image borders:

Code: Select all

img {border:0;}

I know, I know.

The translate system people! Try it! Then comment on it!
I have been hacking on that, the banner was not my focus past day's.
But it's also my fault as I did not explain it that well yesterday just before I went to sleep.

Follow these steps:
1. Go to: http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... lation.php
2. Pick a section to play with. (translate)
3. Pick the language you like to translate to. *See note.
4. Pick the language to translate from. *See note.
5. Press "Continue"
6. Fill in any obscene words you can think of in your local dialect.
7. Fill in your messageboard username
8. Skip the password as I don't check anything yet anyway.
9. Press "Process translation".
10. Go to the site section you translated.
11. Select the language you "translated" from the language menu and see the result of your hard work.
12. Repeat from 1 until you understand the system.
13. Post a reply here where you comment on the translation system.

* Note:
The "Development language" is special, it's intended for the Spring webmaster(s) it's possible to add strings and up the version number for site development.
It's the best "language" to translate from as it's the most up to date.

Other information:
You have a debug function, just put "?debug=1" after the page like for example http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... hp?debug=1
Also you can use the "empty" language like this http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... uage=empty to see how the page looks like with all translation strings empty.

I "fixed" the problem that you had to put .php after the links for news, about and development, the download page still needs .php behind it to show up.

Tim, Have you tested this site on multiple browsers? I can't imagine any semi decent web designer is seeing the same thing I'm seeing and thinking it's fine... If the final version of the site doesn't work on firefox 2.0.4 there's no way that's sufficient.

http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... lation.php

I didnt really understood why there is other languages than english in that "translation from", shouldnt there just be one base language, and everything else are translated from that, like from english?

SwiftSpear wrote:Tim, Have you tested this site on multiple browsers? I can't imagine any semi decent web designer is seeing the same thing I'm seeing and thinking it's fine... If the final version of the site doesn't work on firefox 2.0.4 there's no way that's sufficient.

It's not cross-browser at this moment but I will fix that after I uploaded it to svn.
But the site should work perfectly with FF 2.0.0.4 so if something is fucked on that browser version please tell me about it (screenshot?)

TradeMark wrote:

http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... lation.php

I didnt really understood why there is other languages than english in that "translation from", shouldnt there just be one base language, and everything else are translated from that, like from english?

"Development" is the base language, English is just another language to translate to. But if German is translated from development and you understand German better then "Development" version you can translate from German.
German might not be a good example as in practice a lot of people will like to translate from the English translation.

Anyway the trick is to see English as "just another language" like Dutch and Japanese.
The only special thing about the English translation is that the site defaults to English when the requested language is not available.
Development is the base language which is written in simple and short to the point English (as Spring development is done in English).

I wrote that a bit clumsy but do you understand my explanation?

I did a commit today, you can find the code in svn under trunk/Site/* so anybody with web (php) skills can take a look.
There are also a few gimp and blender files that I made for the graphics, some simple documentation made it in to.

Aside from the purple box at the corner which renders instantly when the site is loaded and I can't figure out a way of clearing...

- The banner image looks like it has been torn in half, and is generally ugly
- The table background is missing the bottom end
- Something weird is going on with the background that just looks horrible
- Different table elements don't adhere to an equal height which is extremely visually distracting and gross
- Literally every surface on the site that is not either transparent or an image is a gradient, and it looks HORRIBLE
- The middle fields being a gradient at the top left corner doesn't match the tob to bottom gradient in the background creating an arbitrary and generally ugly visual schema
- Development is highlighted yellow for no apparent reason
- The language and scheme menus pop down, but selecting an item has no effect
- The transparent table boarder is hideous and gaudy
- There is no consistent visual theme, the boarder image is shadowy green, which doesn't compliment the dark blue to light color gradient, which REALLY doesn't compliment the semitransparent marble table boarder, which doesn't compliment at all the light colored corner gradiented information fields.
- I do like the dynamic cycling screen shots on the side, but they look out of place because the table they are contained in is so ugly

And to top the list your font sucks, I have to look into that I see.
Anyway although I decided not to change the layout any more (I love to see someone with graphics skills pick up on this) I have been trying something new to solve that "different table elements don't adhere to an equal height" problem.

SwiftSpear wrote:

Aside from the purple box at the corner which renders instantly when the site is loaded and I can't figure out a way of clearing...
Banner still needs work, take a look at the todo file for the things that still need fixing.
https://taspring.clan-sy.com/svn/spring ... n/todo.txt

- The banner image looks like it has been torn in half, and is generally ugly
I know. Make me a new one if you like.
- The table background is missing the bottom end
Yes, and it has been bothering me from day one, never got it fixed..
- Something weird is going on with the background that just looks horrible
I will take your word for it but what?.
- Different table elements don't adhere to an equal height which is extremely visually distracting and gross
It's css based so not table but I tried something new, see link below.
- Literally every surface on the site that is not either transparent or an image is a gradient, and it looks HORRIBLE
You mean looks great You know it's because IE7 finally allows people to use png that I took the liberty to fully experiment with it. Spring is hobby so I take all the room I like to play around. Some things work out great other things don't. I think that the current layout is good enough for a version 1.0, it's not perfect but I like to leave room for others to improve on my work.
- The middle fields being a gradient at the top left corner doesn't match the tob to bottom gradient in the background creating an arbitrary and generally ugly visual schema
I guess your right, I have been looking at the shade direction and it has bothered me to.

- Development is highlighted yellow for no apparent reason
Development is very important, that's why it's highlighted. I removed "Participate" from the entry page but I still like people to read it at some point.
- The language and scheme menus pop down, but selecting an item has no effect
Yhea right...
Click on "Nederlands" in the menu selection, or "Deutsch" but that language has only the header translated.
Look at the post above where I explain how to use the http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... lation.php page to translate the page in different languages.
It's all functional!

The theme menu won't work as there is only one theme at the moment and I haven't completely finished the back-end part for themes.
- The transparent table boarder is hideous and gaudy
Did you like the previous one better?
- There is no consistent visual theme, the boarder image is shadowy green, which doesn't compliment the dark blue to light color gradient, which REALLY doesn't compliment the semitransparent marble table boarder, which doesn't compliment at all the light colored corner gradiented information fields.
The theme is 'blue', and only the screenshots have green in them. The 'aqua' css background you call marble table border is a lot better then what it used to be, but yes it can be improved but no not right now. (unless you make a replacement)
- I do like the dynamic cycling screen shots on the side, but they look out of place because the table they are contained in is so ugly
Your face.. I mean alright, alright, I will see if I can make it less "ugly". OK?

Anyway thanks for the feedback.
Look here and tell me if it's better.
http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring-site12/

That's a really nice touch with the semitransparent menu and rotating screenshots. Not too flashy, but professional and attractive.

If you have the time, maybe check out http://www.dynamicdrive.com, it's a nice site with lots of small dhtml scripts you can put on a page to give it a bit of extra sexy. A lot of amateur crap, but some really good stuff. Some news tickers that that especially might be good for a community news thing, for instance.

The uglieness in the background I'm refering too... at the top there is a gradient, that just sort of ends into what appears to be a boarder that seamlessly transfers into an entirely new gradient. It rips the center of the background in two parts for no apparent reason, and it doesn't look like anything sensical. Honestly, my recommendation is to just use a solid color background rather than a gradient, and leave the gradients to the buttons and table innards, or whatever they are, not being tables and all.

[edit] I do like the new site better... Merging the parallel fields fixes the problem of 2 fields being uneven causing ugliness, it also makes the site appear less busy, which is generally a good thing.

Tim Blokdijk wrote:And to top the list your font sucks, I have to look into that I see.
Anyway although I decided not to change the layout any more (I love to see someone with graphics skills pick up on this) I have been trying something new to solve that "different table elements don't adhere to an equal height" problem.

SwiftSpear wrote:

Aside from the purple box at the corner which renders instantly when the site is loaded and I can't figure out a way of clearing...
Banner still needs work, take a look at the todo file for the things that still need fixing.
https://taspring.clan-sy.com/svn/spring ... n/todo.txt

- The banner image looks like it has been torn in half, and is generally ugly
I know. Make me a new one if you like.
- The table background is missing the bottom end
Yes, and it has been bothering me from day one, never got it fixed..
- Something weird is going on with the background that just looks horrible
I will take your word for it but what?.
- Different table elements don't adhere to an equal height which is extremely visually distracting and gross
It's css based so not table but I tried something new, see link below.
- Literally every surface on the site that is not either transparent or an image is a gradient, and it looks HORRIBLE
You mean looks great You know it's because IE7 finally allows people to use png that I took the liberty to fully experiment with it. Spring is hobby so I take all the room I like to play around. Some things work out great other things don't. I think that the current layout is good enough for a version 1.0, it's not perfect but I like to leave room for others to improve on my work.
- The middle fields being a gradient at the top left corner doesn't match the tob to bottom gradient in the background creating an arbitrary and generally ugly visual schema
I guess your right, I have been looking at the shade direction and it has bothered me to.

- Development is highlighted yellow for no apparent reason
Development is very important, that's why it's highlighted. I removed "Participate" from the entry page but I still like people to read it at some point.
- The language and scheme menus pop down, but selecting an item has no effect
Yhea right...
Click on "Nederlands" in the menu selection, or "Deutsch" but that language has only the header translated.
Look at the post above where I explain how to use the http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring ... lation.php page to translate the page in different languages.
It's all functional!

The theme menu won't work as there is only one theme at the moment and I haven't completely finished the back-end part for themes.
- The transparent table boarder is hideous and gaudy
Did you like the previous one better?
- There is no consistent visual theme, the boarder image is shadowy green, which doesn't compliment the dark blue to light color gradient, which REALLY doesn't compliment the semitransparent marble table boarder, which doesn't compliment at all the light colored corner gradiented information fields.
The theme is 'blue', and only the screenshots have green in them. The 'aqua' css background you call marble table border is a lot better then what it used to be, but yes it can be improved but no not right now. (unless you make a replacement)
- I do like the dynamic cycling screen shots on the side, but they look out of place because the table they are contained in is so ugly
Your face.. I mean alright, alright, I will see if I can make it less "ugly". OK?

Anyway thanks for the feedback.
Look here and tell me if it's better.
http://www.timblokdijk.nl/spring/spring-site12/

number 12 is looking AWESOME!!! just needs a better header!

the buttons overlaps here in opera 9.21, linux, 1024*768 desktop

I know and the changes I made with SwiftSpear remarks don't work correctly on IE. Cross-browser fix up's is on the list, spring-site6 or 7 had it all working cross-browser but I did not bother with it after that.