Spring RTS Engine

There is a LOT of wh... discussion about the front page/web design...
I think a good way to start is just to post a bunch of links to web pages we thing do what we want our front page to do...

http://www.galciv2.com/

Resons... all news posts are accompanied by at least some nice glamour shots... another touch is that everything on the page has a touch of sci-fi to it... I think that when we come up with an interface we should integrate it into the front page...

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/index.php

Again... This page has, again, so much... "interface" that you don't notice that the whole thing is endless reems of text... we want the page to be able to get accross a lot of information without scaring people away... one advantage we have is that instead of sponsors/ads, we can put more screenshots...

http://www.blizzard.com/

Giant F-ing glamour shot/logo thingy on the left side, screenshots and or cool images with every post

http://www.wikipedia.org/

Has a good thing going with hiding the ugly text behind a nice giant image with links around it... problem is, without an interface or an officially advertisable MOD... what do we put in it... I'm thinking a glamour shot of one unit from each team of each of each of the popular mods...

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/tabletop.htm

Good and clean, lot's of simple images to spice the thing up.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gaim/

all of the sourceforge pages have these great big quick download links...

Here is my Franken Site (made at work in powerpoint... my design skills are far superior to my "artistic" skills)




Imagine that all of the outlines are cool sci-fi style borders.

Nice list of sites Sinbad, I was thinking similarly, but I couldn´t find any fast (most where too similiar to the spring main page, or all flashy but no content).

http://maelstrom.wik3d.com/spring

Basically Sinbad's picture ported to HTML. Comment on it in the thread in General Discussion.

pfff... wont post it there, but the af site.. is exactly what that guy wanted for spring site..

So now both sites will look identicall?

and i really didtn like it.. he used one of the logos he had for spring.. !.. ??... i dont get it right.. it was logos for spring or for an ai?..

all in all now alantai's site looks "generic" ("corporate"?... better than nothing maybe.

edit: also, the image shows a porced base.. bad taste.
about contact.. a link to PM :)

The sites posted..

The thing is many of them are aimed with commercial objectives in mind.

Like blizzard site, has a big banner for wow at the left... well its almost the only banner. i like the different languages to choose from but that is hard to mantain.

gaim has a better looking site here. i like that one.

Maelstorm, your site is missing the comunity and general info. (i know its a sketch but its important to save space for that), also the picture is quite big. Maybe add a more direct access to some wiki pages? like using, getting started? Content creation?.. i like wiki start page it has good usefull info.
A most active space for the forums (in that front page) fits good.. (like last posts?.. last topics?..).

edit2: Oh, and its learning from copy, not plain copy :p

mongus wrote:Maelstorm, your site is missing the comunity and general info.

Where should that go? Above the news?

also the picture is quite big.

Its a glamor shot that would only appear on the front page. Its ment to be big, so it can show off Spring.

Maybe add a more direct access to some wiki pages? like using, getting started? Content creation?.. i like wiki start page it has good usefull info.

Ill add that in then. Below the mod box?

A most active space for the forums (in that front page) fits good.. (like last posts?.. last topics?..).

Ill put space in there somewhere, but someone else will have to script it. Im not sure how to work the forum database.

Ill go add some of that in now, as well as setting up the rotating pics thing.

Unit creation, map creation.. That is the important part of this game.

so that should be key part..

im babling, but that is what you must see when you open the main page.


Unit creation

Map creation


Maybe some eyecandy related to that and links to "getting started" sections.

edit-ed:

Mods is taking too much space.. and only shows some of them..

How about a general link to them or to the wiki for mods...

or maybe small icons (smilie-sized) for the mods...

e2: Why not TLL screenshots, you know.. the copyrigth..

e3: Army packages? aint those called mods?

I don't even remotely like the term "mod"... it just isn't exactly what they are... it's close, but not quite...

PS: The problem is that "Units Packs" are acctually mods with dependencies... which makes them more like "add-ons" or expansions... you can call them mods but you will need to explain the term...