The future of Terra-Arcanum?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DarkUnderlord, Oct 4, 2003.

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Is the concept any good?

  1. Yay, tis good. Go forth and design!

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  2. If I squint really hard and use my imagination a lot, it looks all right.

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  3. Uhh... I need to see some decent graphics before I can agree or disagree.

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  4. It sucks.

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  5. It sucks HARD.

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  1. Jinxed

    Jinxed Active Member

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    Well, I really don't care if you like it or not, since you are but one person.

    That reminds me, I remember when Milo posted on the Tarant Daily with his Jesus sig and received a caning by one of the mods.

    We at Terra-Arcanum don't mind any sigs until they have actual pr0n content or links and what not. Sig size is also and issue.
     
  2. Sleek_Jeek

    Sleek_Jeek New Member

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    i tried to add it to my signature, but it made it too long...

    the irony of that situation is that if i added the non-google link (which has shorter text) the picture would fill most of the screen, but the one i'm using now uses more text (about 35 characters i think) and i think my current sig is pretty much the best ever... so i'm not going to change it.

    does anyone else think that that sombrero boy piscture is a good idea for a custom avatar? i'm thinking something along the lines of

    what do you guys think? (how about it mods ?)

    anyway, the super kkk bros. can be found at http://www.i-mockery.com along with many other pretty lame but hilarious hacked nes emulator roms. my favorites are "super black bros. II" (the goodness minded retaliation to all of the numerous rascist hacks of nes games) and any game involving
    [​IMG]
    WILFORD BRIMLEY!

    i personally think wilford brimley is best implemented in "baby dodge ball"
     
  3. Silvio-Arjunza

    Silvio-Arjunza New Member

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    I'll have to look that up... Wilford Bemley is funny... and I think that you should get like a spam-person (take a cookie cutter, and cut spam into a person shape) as your avatar... since it fits you so well...
     
  4. Jarinor

    Jarinor New Member

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    Sleek, you need about 800 more quality posts before you can start thinking about maybe asking if you could possibly get a custom avatar. Perhaps. At this stage, you are nowhere near deserving of any avatar apart from the spam can.
     
  5. Settler

    Settler Member

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    I should qualify when I hit 1000, eh? Anyway, as far as avatars go, how can you go past...


    [​IMG]
    MONTY!
    Love him. Love him now.


    [edit] - Count your blessings - marquee didn't work :) .
     
  6. Chalupa Cobra

    Chalupa Cobra New Member

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    Who's Monty?? I'm wont to distrust anyone whose nose takes up more than a third of their face. . .
     
  7. Dragoon

    Dragoon New Member

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    Tell me you're kidding. Please do.
     
  8. Jarinor

    Jarinor New Member

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    I'm not kidding when I say I'd also like to know.
     
  9. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Monty? C'mon guys... he's famous. He was an allied leader during WW2. Fought against Rommel in North Africa.

    Excerpt from this page: http://www.angelfire.com/ct/ww2europe/bios2.html

     
  10. Chalupa Cobra

    Chalupa Cobra New Member

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    Oh, THAT Monty! I'm absolutely in LOVE with the man but I've never seen a picture of him. All you had to do was drop the Desert Fox's name in connection and I would have known. DUH!
     
  11. monkeypunch

    monkeypunch New Member

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    DU and Jinxy - on the subject of redesign...

    1. Structure of the site.

    What are you going to code it in, and how? I would here suggest a php template heavy site, as it would make it easier for me if I'm to help with the graphics, but anything similar and I might be on.

    2. Arcanum contra ToEE, VTM:BL and possible upcoming games from troika.

    I'm not sure what all the people in here think, but how much focus should be put on arcanum, and how much focus on the new games - and in the design how much of this will shine through?

    Also skinned templates could be used for various games, this requires that some graph kid ties up with you - I might, but I might not - and to decide on this based on maybes is trippy indeed - but might work wonders.

    also custom news, for those that simply don't care about game X.

    2.1. the name TA.

    love it, partly because I was with the 2 others that came up with it - but anyway it will pose problems for the focus if the contentt drifts away from Arcanum, and how to deal with it?

    3. Timeline

    how are much time does everyone need for it?

    3.1 Where it is worked at.

    I'm seeing lots of changed on TA, and lots of broken links; would it not be best to make a subdir. with the altarnative site (perhaps drawing info from the old DB) and work on everything there instead of whacking this one in the process?


    the end.

    more to come I'm sure.
     
  12. Blinky969

    Blinky969 Active Member

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    And in the words of Monty, Python not the Fox, and now for something completely different.

    And slightly more on topic too!

    I was wondering if you can through my page on the links while your rehashing stuff. It's the only currently active clan, that I know of, for Arcanum MP. And don't ask me how we play MP, it's inexplicable. But we do it :razz: .

    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Weekend_Warriors_Clan

    When I hit 1000 I want a spacebar as my avatar.

    DU EDIT: Fixed the link. You just needed to drop the url and add 'http://' to the front.
     
  13. chrisbeddoes

    chrisbeddoes New Member

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    I would love minimal graphicks since most of the ppl are still in 56K.

    Thank you.
     
  14. monkeypunch

    monkeypunch New Member

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    Chris: thinking about the forum, or a possible upcoming page?

    I might have neglected some compression on the current graphics, so if you are experiencing problems here speak up.

    as for the later possible project of building out the site, we could probably throw in a LG version it goes with templates.
     
  15. DarkUnderlord

    DarkUnderlord Administrator Staff Member

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    Re: DU and Jinxy - on the subject of redesign...

    PHP all the way baby. The future of Terra-Arcanum will be a lean mean, easily updateable machine. A seperate forum (phpBB) will be established that only administrators and 'site content people' will be able to access.

    This new forum will be the content forum. The pages of Terra-Arcanum will read the topics posted in there. Like the News Forum, where topics in that forum become the news on the front page, but taken to a whole new level. Using a phpBB forum also means it's easily updateable. Open the topic/page to edit. Edit and submit. Wallah.

    In terms of content, my idea has always been "3 sites". That's basically what we're doing, we're making three sites for three games, but all linked via the main Hub of Terra-Arcanum. A few ideas thrown around are that clicking on a ToEE link on the main page will change the site to a ToEE theme. Same with Vampire and Arcanum too. As the page and site is called "Terra-Arcanum", Arcanum will be the 'default' theme unless the user changes it (not sure how yet, depends on the design).

    :nod: The news script Calis has has categories. At the moment they're not quite 'right' for T-A (it was designed for the RPGCodex) but changing the categories so that whenever a news item is posted, the appropriate ToEE, Arcanum or VtMB category is given to it, will allow custom news.

    My idea is this: Terra-Arcanum: The World of Troika Games

    We'll keep T-A as the name but simply expand to cover all of Troika's Games (I don't even want to think about upgrading the site again when Troika release a new game...).

    I've got most of the code already. I'm really no more than a PHP Hack (can't code much from scratch, but can edit existing scripts to make 'em work). The code to do what I want to do is already written and working, only over at www.fanmadefallout.com and that's what I'll be using.

    Yes, that's the plan. I just need the site admin codes so that I can get in and create another database. I can create a temp directory via FTP, but can't hook it up to anything (except this forum, but there ain't no way in hell that I want our content sitting in the same database, especially given that this thing, at 92 MB, would be a bitch to back up).

    EDIT: A pure fast, text based page and pure text only forum could be done.
     
  16. chrisbeddoes

    chrisbeddoes New Member

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    Monkeypunch i do not have any problems now .Everything is now lighting fast since i now have a 384/128 line. (only 85 euro/month bargain in greece)


    So no matter what you do i will not complain.

    But in general content is king and graphics do not matter unless they make the page download slower.

    Graphics are really secondary .

    Terra Arcanum may need.
    More people more news more games to cover more content .
    (hey good developer givez miz morez eXclusivez)

    It certainly does not need more graphics or more customization in graphics.


    EDIT.(the exception to the rule lol) Oh and i would really like a way to use terra arcanum code for my website that you host so that my site would look better because right now it looks like s&*t.

    Chris.

    EDIT 2 Another idea ready for the dustbin.

    Instead or Terra Arcanum the world of Troika games

    why not

    TERRA TROIKA ?

    http://www.terra-troika.com
     
  17. monkeypunch

    monkeypunch New Member

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    well not more graphic - we are talking about changing what we have

    it might end up being less then now - and the templates are something you pick, so you will only load one.

    ...and I'm all for content over graphics, I wouldn't want it anyother way, and the point of the graphics is to help the content, and not distract it - thus the fixing of problem areas in the forum that detracts from the content.

    for example the site itself is hard to read due to the resolution I made it for (the standard at the time I thought), the menu is horrid, and it seems the site wants to expand into other troika games, and as it is you wont be able to fit it into what we have now. And again the forum/site wont really get more graphics, perhaps less even, and hopefully it will be a lil' better place to get the content we have in the forum - and once the site is rewapped (if) - it should fare the same.

    As for more content over graphics; I wont become a newsie, nor am I really in the mood for posting at forums or write about cRPGs (perhaps arcade games + music and books, all unrealated to this site)- so if I'm to help out, it is through the graphics, so that the users (like you CB) of the site can get through the site without too much fuzz.

    EDIT: omg - this is bad, I need to sleep - so much errors...
     
  18. Dragoon

    Dragoon New Member

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    Just one thing, I don't know whether you're planning on doing it or not but don't use ActiveX while building this new page. Pages which make use of that bloody AX don't work properly in Opera. Don't know about Netscape. Besides AX is a huge security hole.
     
  19. monkeypunch

    monkeypunch New Member

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    IMO the page should work without active code, php should be enough, and javascripts should always be optionial and not needed.
     
  20. Ron_Lugge

    Ron_Lugge New Member

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    Re: DU and Jinxy - on the subject of redesign...

    When OrionSector went from Moo3 only to any Empire Building Sci-Fi game, they had no trouble with names...

    Darn, I keep on coming back to that, don't I?
     
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