Fwurg

[Brend]

"We need to get more players.

We will do this by shameless self-promotion, hopefully in multiple places and with large posters.

The posters will get people to visit the site.

The site will convince people to play, and allow them to start playing without any hassle."


So, what do you think we absolutely must have to entice visitors to play?

(This thread is NOT intended for 'it would be nice to have X or Y completely finished' -- this thread is meant as a quick inventory of what people think the site really must have before we can promote the game and expect to get a few more players.)

I think we need to...

• ... have a better introduction, that introduces the different parts of the game (might be best as the 'Introduction Guide') and clarifies the different stages of participation (i.e. system detail determines Candidate -> Protectorate -> Minor World -> Inner World)
• ... a Jedi Builder, or at least a clear guide on the creation of a Jedi (one can play a Jedi without ANY link to the Union other than a 'was apprenticed at the Jedi Order'.)
• ... a Protectorate Builder, or at least a clear guide on the creation of Protectorate
• ... not try and get everything perfect -- good is good enough.

Do no hesitate to provide weird ideas or things you're not sure of. We'll sort out the exact Pre-Launch Checklist in a week or so!

[Mercury]

I'd add "fix styling for IE" - that's some horrible shit going on there o_O

[Mercury]

Most Internet Explorer issues have been resolved (might still have one or two oddities). If you find any, please let me know, for now everything seems to be in enough of a working condition that we can continue.

[Freekjan]

Since you asked to be notified, the tax tool doesn't work in IE

[Mercury]

Good catch, thanks! I'll have to ask Brend to look at it I'm afraid, since I don't know much about the tax tool code myself. I'm sure he'll want to ask you what version of Internet Explorer you are using though?

[Zoreone Abaroa]

Version: 9.0.8112.16421; Update Versions 9.0.5 (Internet Explorer 9)

[Brend]

Some musings. Mostly thought them up based on my frustrations about the current chaos in the IC forums such as weird color use, IC posting with OOC accounts, and incorrect formatting of post topics.

• We need to have a better way of alerting people to the fact that they are using an IC account for OOC posting, or an OOC account for IC posting.
• The 'private thread' convention needs to flow from the offered UI, so players don't need to do this by hand.
• The posting conventions need to be accessible by all players, in guide-format

@mercury: Note: currently a private thread's topic is "To {target}: {subject}", or "[private] {subject}". I'm not sure about the feasibility of the "[private] {subject}" formatting. It might clash with our location tags (e.g. having "[private]" and "[ Holonet ]"). You know how the location tags work, so please advice.

EDIT: Answer from Mercury: The '[private]' is going to break in combination with a location tag.

--

@freekjan: IE version noted -- it might take some time before it works perfectly, I will look into this together with a bunch of other tool changes. By the way: use your OOC account in the OOC forums please.

[Brend]

I flatmate of mine had a look at the site this afternoon; he was interested in playing a Jedi.

The thing was, as he told me, he couldn't find any information on how he should create a character. I of course replied with: "Well that's logical, we don't have a guide for that yet -- but you did read the introduction, right?".

He responded very confused with: "But I clicked the 'Character Creation' tab, and all I got was a rather long list of things that did not seem to inform me on where to start reading!".

After some to and fro, I discovered he had gone to the forum, and clicked on the 'System and Character Building' OOC forum -- after which he was presented with a lot of topics not of any interest to him.

He also addressed another point: The 'Intro' did NOT offer him information on how to start playing; though he really liked the animation and the text.

To cut to the moral of the story:

• We really need stickies or announcements (only on some of the topics) that direct people to the correct wiki pages.
• The intro should end with a quick overview of the relevant guides for new players and...
• ... we need a clear call to action (somehting like a big red 'Play Now!' button instead of a simple "log in...")

Also; an announcement about this pref-flight checklist: I will close the checklist on the 31st of march and compile a list on the wiki.

[Brend]

Writing my latest Jedi Post I realized that every time I write one, I'm forced to open another page to look at my jedi stats. The IC forum should really show the stats of the selected 'character account' inline somewhere.

[Mercury]

The Jedi stats are currently just one click away (simply click on the name or image of your Jedi). I'm not really sure how to load data plugin data into the forum, though I'm open to it ^_^ - not sure where it'd fit though.

[Brend]

The Jedi stats are currently just one click away (simply click on the name or image of your Jedi). I'm not really sure how to load data plugin data into the forum, though I'm open to it ^_^ - not sure where it'd fit though.

This is the partial truth: while not editing your post the stats are easily accessible. While editing your post the image of your jedi is gone, so no easy clicking. Besides -- I'm lazy and want all the info relevant in that context available

I think we can fit it in there somehow. Maybe reduce the amount of smileys a bit -- and then add a two or three-line summary of the character above the input field, or next tot the field where the smileys are...

(Loading the data isn't the realy issue, that's just a boring snippet of javascript)

[Mercury]

I don't mind reducing the number of smileys, but would we have enough room to place everything? Between skills and force powers and such there's a lot of information.

However, if there is, we might even be able to make it so that you can click the relevant skill / stat / etc. and then your post gets a line listing the breakdown of that skill / attribute / force power total (not sure if that works with our current attribute system though).

Regardless, a link to the character, automatically opened in a new tab so you don't lose your typing so far, should be simple enough.

[Brend]

The dropdown boxes (both the switch user and the wiki actions) are unreadable in Chrome.

[Brend]

The guides must really hint at the fact that you can use a normal name on the forum. You don't need to remove spaces or somesuch. For example "Merbl Plurbl the IVth" is at least as good as "merblplurbl4", even better because the first will autolink to the wiki.

[Brend]

Make sure that it is clear from a Force Power's page that it gives a permanent effect in addition to any specific level-dependant effect.

[Brend]

Add some notes on timescale to the wiki. (Both in rules and in guides)

[Brend]

Make a more useful RSS guide / and have obvious RSS links on pages supporting them.

[Brend]

I'm closing this list. Below is an overview of the things that really need to be done before we can go 'public'.

I have divided the issues into prioritized lists. The first list is absolutely relevant, with each following list becoming less relevant.

We need to:

1. have a better introduction, that introduces the different parts of the game (might be best as the 'Introduction Guide') and clarifies the different stages of participation (i.e. system detail determines Candidate -> Protectorate -> Minor World -> Inner World),
2. The intro should end with a quick overview of the relevant guides for new players and...
3. we need a clear call to action (somehting like a big red 'Play Now!' button instead of a simple "log in...")
4. have a Jedi Builder, or at least a clear guide on the creation of a Jedi (can one play a Jedi without ANY link to the Union other than a 'was apprenticed at the Jedi Order'?)
5. have a Protectorate Builder, or at least a clear guide on the creation of Protectorate.
6. fix some tools to work in browsers other than Firefox.
7. have the guides really hint at the fact that you can use a normal name on the forum. You don't need to remove spaces or somesuch. For example "Merbl Plurbl the IVth" is at least as good as "merblplurbl4", even better because the first will autolink to the wiki.
8. have a better way of alerting people to the fact that they are using an IC account for OOC posting, or an OOC account for IC posting.
9. have the posting conventions need to be accessible by all players, in guide-format. This should probably go into the Generic Roleplaying Guide.
10. We really need stickies or announcements (only on some of the topics) that direct people to the correct wiki pages.
11. not try and get everything perfect -- good is good enough.

We want to:

• Fix the styling of things in different browser (The dropdown boxes (both the switch user and the wiki actions) are unreadable in Chrome.)
• have the 'private thread' convention needs to flow from the offered UI, so players don't need to do this by hand.
• add some notes on timescale to the wiki. (Both in rules and in guides)
• The current edition of browsers has removed most hints on RSS. Since this is a great tool for people to keep updated, we hae to make a more useful RSS guide / and have obvious RSS links on pages supporting them.

I will start working on issues from the topmost list, and invite all of you to do so to. If you pick up some work, please mention it in this thread.

(Note that if you have a large task, or something that can wait till later, the dev namespace is the right place to put it. Announce the task on the relevant OOC forum as well, after you have added it on the wiki.)