49 replies to this topic

[khay]

Website up and running -- maybe too many threads are already pinned but this wouldn`t hurt, I guess. Any questions/suggestions related to the website should be directed to me, the authors of the mod are already busy enough.

EDIT by TGM: dead link removed, see the end of this thread for the working ones!

Edited by T.G.Maestro, 28 October 2004 - 04:14 AM.

[T.G.Maestro]

*Pinned*

[jester]

Hooray, I might say.

[Galactygon]

Site is well done, I say. I have some critiques though:

There should be more sections in it:

- High Level abilities (a detailed explanation on what each does, as in the thread)
- Screenshots (with thumbnails and enlargements)

I reccomend you simplify the 1st page though, in the favor of K.I.S.S.-policy (stands for keep it Simple, Stupid). Although I can navigate these easily, not all people can.

Also, keep in mind that when making a website, aim for the maximum compatiblity rather than making it perfect for one browser. While the majority use Internet Explorer (that includes me), there are people who prefer different browsers. But when it gets to more than 3-year old browsers (namely NS 4.7), it doesn't matter.

BTW: Just as a curiosity question, I see LC in the links sections. Not that I am complaining; I am just curious.

-Galactygon

[CamDawg]

It's beautiful!

Unfortunately, like most beautiful websites, it's unusable--108K worth of data for a home page is questionable at best. Not everyone has broadband.

[Caedwyr]

I have broadband, and I noticed a significant wait for the page to load. The graphics are very nice, but I'd prefer something that worked a bit quicker. One of the reasons I don't frequent the TeamBG forums is the long load time for most forums there. (Galc, your website is beautiful, but pretty intense on the modem. It takes forever for me to load and I have ADSL.)

Great work, though. Don't take the criticism too hard.

[Galactygon]

Caedwyr, on Mar 19 2004, 03:23 AM, said:

Galc, your website is beautiful, but pretty intense on the modem. It takes forever for me to load and I have ADSL.

I tested it one at least 20 computers (includes ones w. slower connections). I didn't notice anything that loaded for more than 5 secs.

-Galactygon

[Caedwyr]

Hmm, I must be just hitting it when Geocities is under heavy traffic. It normally takes me 30s + to load.

That said, the Refinments website took me a bit longer because of all the graphics. Then again, I do like the minimalist/functional look, so I'm not exactly the best person to judge a graphics intensive website.

[CamDawg]

Galc, your main page is 145K with graphics included. Given that most browsers top out around 5K/second on dialup, you're likely getting a significant speed boost from either local or network file caching.

[khay]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Galactygon said:

There should be more sections in it:

- High Level abilities (a detailed explanation on what each does, as in the thread)
- Screenshots (with thumbnails and enlargements)

These will appear in the FAQ section soon, nothing to worry about.

Galactygon said:

I reccomend you simplify the 1st page though, in the favor of K.I.S.S.-policy (stands for keep it Simple, Stupid). Although I can navigate these easily, not all people can.

I didn`t really understand this one, something like a text 'click the skull to enter'?

Galactygon said:

Also, keep in mind that when making a website, aim for the maximum compatiblity rather than making it perfect for one browser. While the majority use Internet Explorer (that includes me), there are people who prefer different browsers. But when it gets to more than 3-year old browsers (namely NS 4.7), it doesn't matter.

It was tested and works mighty fine in: Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape, Konqueror and Mozilla.

Galactygon said:

BTW: Just as a curiosity question, I see LC in the links sections. Not that I am complaining; I am just curious.

What was the question actually? Why not? The links page was entirely compiled by me, anyone can suggest more links, I`ll add them if need be.

CamDawg said:

Unfortunately, like most beautiful websites, it's unusable--108K worth of data for a home page is questionable at best. Not everyone has broadband.

I don`t have broadband either, I have Romanian cable. That`s worse than American dial-up. I don`t really think it`s unusable, it loads acceptably here. That`s exactly why I included a preloader, to make it appear faster. After the first visit, while it`s loading you can click the 'Click here to skip preloading' text at the bottom of the page and the site will appear at once because the images were already loaded in the cache during the previous visit.

Caedwyr said:

Then again, I do like the minimalist/functional look, so I'm not exactly the best person to judge a graphics intensive website.

Me too! I`m crazy about minimalistic websites! That was my first intention, but Maestro kindly requested something more similar to Galactygon`s page.

All in all I will optimize it for faster functionality today, I will post when I release the newer version. Many thanks for the comments and keep the criticism coming.

[khay]

Alright, website updated with new images. It looks basically the same, but the total size of the images have been reduced with 150kb, which is a most significant improvement, I must say.

[Seifer]

You used XML in that, didn't you?

Not bad at all.

[khay]

Thank you.

No, not at all. If you wish I could sent you the full source, plain html and css done in Dreamweaver. The preloader was a javascipt I sniffed from www.mortiis.com and that`s about it.

[Seifer]

Send the code over, I'd be interested in taking a look at it.

Cheers

Seif

[khay]

Sent a PM with the location.

[Caedwyr]

Very nice, I've tried it again and it runs a fair bit faster on my com now (Yes, I did clear my cache too). Hopefully, there will be some more material to be posted in the near future.

[T.G.Maestro]

For now we could post the actual screenshots, plus a few extra ones.
Could you do it khayman? If you are ready to work on it, I can provide 3-4 new screens as well.

[khay]

Sure thing, I`ll post them in a few minutes.

[khay]

Ermm few minutes turned into a longer time, sorry about that -- but good news ahead: new screenshots have been posted and also a FAQ has been added.

[Caedwyr]

The link for the screenshot of shatter magic takes the viewer to the Energy Storm Screenshot instead.

I'd also recommend having a Screenshot heading instead of burying them in the FAQ section.