Spring RTS Engine

What do you think about start using BA-BAR website (balancedannihilation.org) for everything related to it?

This website is focused on the engine stuff, but we have some BA stuff here, some duplicated posts here and on ba.org forums, tourneys are announced on both forums, etc.

I think it would be better for BA players and for BA to have only one website.

The main reason I don't like using the BA forums are because they're Wordpress and not PHPBB. That may seem like a silly reason but I just feel at home with PHPBB boards. The primary advantage though is that PHPBB boards load up so much faster and winding my way through the web of categories, sub-forums and topics feels like it's five times faster on this board than the BA one.

To be honest, the whole balancedannihilation.org site just feels very slow in general for me. Maybe because it's Wordpress based and has tons of CSS/HTML/JavaScript to load all the time but I can't say for sure why it's so much slower to use than, for example, the Springrts.com site.

Make it faster, work on optimisation and functionality, then people might be more inclined to stick around instead of leaving after a page doesn't load after 8+ seconds.

Jazcash wrote: To be honest, the whole balancedannihilation.org site just feels very slow in general for me. Maybe because it's Wordpress based and has tons of CSS/HTML/JavaScript to load all the time but I can't say for sure why it's so much slower to use than, for example, the Springrts.com site.

It is not a wordpress problem.
The fact it is slower than springrts.com is very simple, it has a background image (which is different for each page), it has more css+js load too. Maybe it is the price to pay, I dont think a game website should have a poor design.

A basic html+css website will always be faster to load than this kind of website. But if you have a good connexion, you wont even notice the difference.

Ofc the css+js can be optimized but there is no miracle, it will always be slower than a simple website.
For example you can resize your chrome window and you will see the responsive css which adapt the page elements, it is not ready for mobiles yet but it will be soon.

Make it faster, work on optimisation and functionality, then people might be more inclined to stick around instead of leaving after a page doesn't load after 8+ seconds.

ba.org has a low Bounce Rate: 29.68% which means people in general dont close the website so fast.
But I am working on to make it faster, I will do my best. A good internet connexion could also help :D

--

Some info about loadtime:

springrts.com
Homepage:
-First View (3.333s)
-Repeat View (3.451s)

Forums:
- loadtime 1.26s

balancedannihilation.org
Homepage:
-First View (7.077s)
-Repeat View (1.568s)

Forums:
- loadtime 1.56s

Finally, if I remove the background image the loadtime is 1.17s.

I will just focus on the points that I find annoying:

The forum is slow
The color chosen for the forum are too close one to the other
The width of the forum is not even 50% of total screen.

For these 3 reasons, I will probably never use it if I have the choice. The rest looks good but I have not really spend any time there.

that (happened while my pc is under heavy network load, but seeing as it's a 5xx..), and the media tab sucks - it's not arranged vertically nor horizontally, media boxes are of different size which makes it about as bad to navigate on as facebook's timeline - who comes up with these things?

PS: also got an internal server error here when posting this - odd you can get these when you have a high network usage

With my internet it loads just as fast as anything, but this site mostly has a nicer look and layout.

I share the dislike of the forum the others have above me. About loading of the site. There seems to be something wrong with it. I ran a tracert on it, a nice clean uninterrupted 25ms. Did a ping -t on it, a pretty nice 25 ms with occasional jumps to 163ms, 128ms (maybe twice a minute). But that shouldn't be a problem for loading the site. Furthermore I'm on a very good 100/100mbit line so bandwidth is no issue at all. * oh wait, the site does load fast, but the main body is on a very, very, slow fade in. The forum presents me with a Error 500 - Internal server error though.

If the forum would be fixed (phpbb would make it tons better) and the site is made to feel fast I would agree to have it as the primary portal/site for BAx.

About people complaining that the forum is slow I really dont get it, it is not that bad. Am I missing something?

albator wrote: The width of the forum is not even 50% of total screen.

Really? Which navigator, os?

For me the ba.org forum width is always bigger than on this one.
I put some screenshots for some standard screen sizes and using chrome:

1920x1080px


1600x1080px


1440x900px


1280x1024px


1024x900px


800x600px


640x800px

It's great to have a place to point people towards when they're like "I love TA and want to play a modern TA-like game" rather than just the root springrts page.

klapmongool wrote:* oh wait, the site does load fast, but the main body is on a very, very, slow fade in.

It is not true, there is no fade in, and I removed almost all smooth transitions. (I hope you are not talking about the title fade in on the homepage).

The forum presents me with a Error 500 - Internal server error though.

Can you try to reproduce it? And give me more info about this error? Thx.

If the forum would be fixed (phpbb would make it tons better) and the site is made to feel fast I would agree to have it as the primary portal/site for BAx.

First, the forum is not broken (afaik). Maybe phpbb is better, maybe it is just that you are more familiar with it.
I could replace bbpress by phpbb but I am not sure it is a good reason to not start using ba.org to everything related to BA. Imo if you all support BA it would be a good thing to centralize all the infos, community, players, tourneys, etc.

1680*1050, because I am limited by my scree, so yes, less that 50%

marciolino wrote:About people complaining that the forum is slow I really dont get it, it is not that bad. Am I missing something?

If everyone tell you the same and you don't take it into account, then well..., what the point of this thead ???

Yes I am talking about the title fade in, because that is the only thing there is in the 'Home' section.

Can't reproduce the error 500. Forum works now. Still the forum was down (for me) earlier today so that ain't good. Also this can't be right. Look at these screenshots for example.


Anyways, I'm all for using the BAR site and forum but when the forum is off-putting to users that is just not good. I am not saying the entire world should stick to phpbb because 'it is already there' but the fact that people feel at home in phpbb environments should speak for the use of it.

I think your website it great and enjoy the design for its functionality. Hopefully you can take the criticism and feedback users are giving to make it even better!

Although my internet is below average I don't have significant loading issues – unless downloading simultaneously.

albator wrote:1680*1050, because I am limited by my scree, so yes, less that 50%

- for 1680*1050 the forum has 910px width, which is 54%.
- 910px width is enough for the forum.
- for comparison springrts.com forum have 760px max, for all screen sizes.
Am I missing something?

If everyone tell you the same and you don't take it into account, then well..., what the point of this thead ???

Not true, on this post there are some few people who dislike some parts of ba.org but most people gave me a positive feedback. If most people ask me to change something I will.

Yes I am talking about the title fade in, because that is the only thing there is in the 'Home' section.

Are telling me the whole website is slow because one title fade in takes 1 sec?

Can't reproduce the error 500. Forum works now.

Great!

Still the forum was down (for me) earlier today so that ain't good. Also this can't be right. Look at these screenshots for example.

I did a wordpress + bbpress update today, it happens.

I am not saying the entire world should stick to phpbb because 'it is already there' but the fact that people feel at home in phpbb environments should speak for the use of it.

I can change the forum to phpbb, but it was not what most people asked me for.

Lol, I just meant that that title fade in makes it feel slow.

Did you check the screenshots I made?

klapmongool wrote:Did you check the screenshots I made?

I did a wordpress + bbpress update today, it happens.

Can you check again please?

Yea, that is much better. I guess people can get used to differences between that forum and phpbb.

Having a site didicated for BA is great and i think you did a great job there. Whats still a problem is that the download and install process is as complicated as usual.
Again, noobs have to find out about spring - engine - mods - maps - lobbies. This wont work. I'd suggest providing a BA package with one single dowload file. Use the standalone spring and add ba, a few maps and tasclient. Then repack.

caldera wrote:Having a site didicated for BA is great and i think you did a great job there. Whats still a problem is that the download and install process is as complicated as usual.
Again, noobs have to find out about spring - engine - mods - maps - lobbies. This wont work. I'd suggest providing a BA package with one single dowload file. Use the standalone spring and add ba, a few maps and tasclient. Then repack.

BAR will be coming with an installer :)

caldera wrote:Having a site didicated for BA is great and i think you did a great job there. Whats still a problem is that the download and install process is as complicated as usual.
Again, noobs have to find out about spring - engine - mods - maps - lobbies. This wont work. I'd suggest providing a BA package with one single dowload file. Use the standalone spring and add ba, a few maps and tasclient. Then repack.

cart before the horse.