What do you think? Please check it out and tell me what you think! BTW, as I post this, the crew page is blank. That is because I have to find out everyone who has joined and what their job is. Other than that, please tell me what you think! http://members.lycos.co.uk/arcout/
Design-wise, it's basic, but good enough. However, it really is too dark, although there were some nice images there, they just didn't seem to meld, artistically speaking. I find the inclusion of a FAQ section humourous, as you've only just launched the site - how many questions could have been asked already? Otherwise, I guess the site design is fine. However, I have some beefs with you over your project... 1. I really don't think a full modification of Arcanum is the way to go. People aren't going to want their installation fucked with. It's a very bad idea. 2. Do you even know HOW modify the Arcanum engine the way you're proposing? Unless you have some pretty hardcore coders working for you (which I doubt you're going to get) then I'd start thinking of a different way to do the mod. 3. Do you understand how the mod system of Arcanum works? The game that you played is itself a mod, so if you want to create this Arcout thing, just create a mod for people to download. If you need extra art, create it, import it, and allow others to download it so they can play your mod.
Oh, I beg to pardon that people wouldn't want to have a game screwed so they could try another. http://www.thieveryut.com is a fan-made Thief Online that requires you to change the Unreal Tournament installation in order for it to play. It is very popular in the Thief community. As for editing the files, the extra textures and weapons stuff is in Arcanum\data\proto, so it not really part of the mod abilities. Therefore, it would have to be changed. Also, VerZ wants a complete re-do with new graphics (even for the Arcanum opening screen), music, movies, the whole nine yards. It will require a patch-like program that installs the special proto files and whatever else, as well as the mod, itself. As for how to do it, DarkUnderlord has a tutorial at http://users.senet.com.au/~dbschah/resources.htm that explains how to edit the files: This should be sufficient. And I think that I may be able to find people that can fill in the blanks where we need help. BTW, thanks for rating the site... I'll work on making the images brighter when I find a way to do so without distorting the images...
1) It works with Netscape. Thumbs up! 2) The white text is a little stark on that background. I personally don't like to read anything that helps my eyes speed towards myopia. Plus the font you chose clashes with the rest of the theme. Especially the nav linkies. You'd think, with the graphics-heavy theme, they'd be graphics as well, instead of just the default font. 3) Perhaps you'd consider using fewer graphics for the layout. Or smaller graphics. Sure, the spinning gear looks real spiffy, but it's also TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT KB FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. 4) Quit using FrontPage. Seriously. You'd be doing yourself a favor.
Thanks for the ideas. I will find a better font and add some sort of text effect for the links. That way, nav links can be added immediately and easily when needed. I'll probably find a better color for the text, but I think it is nice and easy to read... And the graphics are all for feel. And the gear has to be there, because it's Blackout Mod's logo. And, although it does take awhile to download, it usually loads up instantly once loaded once, as with the rest.
It looks good. Who are you, and what have you done with Xento? Now, all you have to do is replace all of the software you used to create this... Due to the size of your images, I assume you have a fairly large amount of bandwidth. Go download Macromedia MX off of Kazaa Lite (KaZaA minus all of the massive amounts of spyware and such that it puts on your computer). Learn and use Fireworks and Dreamweaver, I can guarantee they are better than what you currently use. I also think that the sidebar should be smaller, and turned into frames, so that it doesn't have to reload each time you click. Most of the stuff left of the wheel should go. The Forum should look like the rest of the sight, or if you want to go with some serious quality - integrate the forum into the rest of the page, thus you AND your mods can update at any time.
I HAVE Dreamweaver MX... Just haven't used it much, yet. Also, what good is Fireworks MX? What does it do? And what's so good about K-Lite? Does it really speed downloads?
That is the silly kind of lack of sense that causes you to be such a favorite at this board. Graphics editing, specifically for webpages, it is good friends with Flash and Dreamweaver. I like it for the way it handles layering, it has a bar on the side will all of your layers which you can deal with quite nicely It is a peer-to-peer sharing program, it is a cracked version of Kazaa, the most popular sharing program, so that it does not have the massive amounts of advertising and adware
Fireworks.... It's an image editor, arguably more web-oriented than Photoshop due at least in part to its integration with Dreamweaver and Flash. As a matter of personal taste, I use Photoshop and NoteTab. Kazaa Lite is Kazaa without the spyware and adware, and it has some nice unique features to boot. If you find that it speeds anything, it's because it doesn't have all that extra crap running in the background. As a matter of principle you CANNOT use the viewer's cache as an excuse to stuff your pages with oversized and superfluous graphics. That's just bad design and laziness. Normally I wouldn't even wait for such a page to load, but you were asking for reviews.... And I cleared my cache afterwards, I felt so dirty. EDIT: Curses! Beat me to it! *shakes fist at Icairus*
Well, thanks for the info. And I WILL download Fireworks MX and fix that up, but not now... I'm downloading rhino 3.0, a 3d graphics rendering program that was suggested to me by Saint_Proverbius.
The group plans on making other mods? I'd focus on just the one for now. Nice site design. You should be able to reduce that gear down. 300 kb for that is excessive. A decent gif program should be able to drop it down. I wouldn't put up anything over 50 kb. Little images for the menu would be good too. As it stands though, good design. Much better than your previous sites.
Well let me be the first to correct that.. we are only working on ONE mod at this time and once that is done, we will talk about taking on another mod. I hope the one that we are doing does well.Any input or help would be greatly appreciated.
No, we need more than Geocities can offer. Thanks for the ideas and whatnot! :grin: And I didn't compress the images. I will do that.
Xento, the site looks pretty nice. Your designs are getting better every time, it seems. Congrats on that. As for the mod: I hope you have a really detailed plan on what to make and how to make it. You're gonna need that. Plot line, a list of locations, the works. If you don't have that yet, make one. It's called a design document. Gamasutra had a feature on what such a document should contain: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991019/ryan_01.htm You'll need to be a member, but joining is free so you may want to check it out. Looking at mods for other games (a lot of which never get finished), it will most likely pay off if you get organized and make a detailed plan with deadlines for yourself and a division of workload. Anyway, best of luck with the project. It'd be nifty if this went somewhere.
Xento-- I can't really give you a good critique because I have a MoDem, and I need to go to bed sometime in the next HOUR, and your site doesn't seem to have any plans of loading before then. Seriously man, cut down the graphics. The previous try was LESS graphics intensive. Did you never notice that that HUGE House OF Lords Graphic at the top of the forum is only about 30k? And each button is maybe 2k? I make my HTML students design their home page with less than 200k worth of graphics TOTAL, and I recommend less than 100. Most of what you're doing with graphics could be accomplished with background colors. Go here: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/fro ... nners.html Future visitors to your website will thank you. Learn HTML. It's not a difficult language. Honest. Don't give up, just cut some of the graphics, okay? Good luck!
Hey, I know HTML just fine. I just like using graphics to spice it up, and I did compress them, although they may still be rather large. I'll probably go back and do the site over before long, because there are many things I want changed as well. Thanks for the suggestions, though.
