Shattered Kingdoms

I have to say that with the current main page, I turn off page style to read it. Especially when I went through to read the long mythology sections. The black backgrounds and dark pictures make it difficult on the eyes. Just something for those designing to keep in mind.

Take your time by all means, but present your ideas so we can brainstorm - I guess what I mean is collaboration or feedback would be best: like I said in the opening post, I'd hate to turn down someone's weeks worth of work that could have been adjusted or redirected to a more worthy cause earlier on.



Oldbies probably know the current website inside and out, but the fact is the menus are getting out of sync with the actual information being presented and there is definitely a need to reorganise the way the information that is there is presented. Even in building the list in the opening post of this thread is a step forward, since it shows what could be the new menu structure?

Also, a revamp of any website once it gets to a certain age is always useful - freshen the place up and cleans out the cobwebs, as it were.



I think we're after something that is very self-maintained rather than an external "bells and whistles" package like Joomla. Assume you have PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript - that should be enough design-wise.

Agreed.

uh...bump.

seriously though, we were discussing this not too long ago. plz continue in a flameless(idealy) place and hopefully this time, we can move forward.

haha, an epic thread to rez.

oh god

who the heck recommended joomla in 2008? no wonder the thread died.

We have some good artistry on offer - this might help make up for the butchery I did on Ed's work for backgrounds (I'll again apologize publicly for those watermark images, Ed).

For anyone that's interested there's a few ways you can contribute:

- for artists, I'd prefer the same artist be represented across the different areas of the website showing character/faction imagery. This leads to a consistent appearance of the website; once we select the artwork for the new site, then the option a different artist producing work in a similar style becomes a more viable option. Colour, b/w or ink - all are fine. Hand made and scanned or 100% CGI or anything in between, all are good:

-- as a general art request: we'd need a set of pictures that are in-theme and consistent, to be used across the website (Ed's artwork will still have a dedicated home somewhere though)

-- we're most in need of a full set of tribunal and cabal logos/images. I'd suggest basic, quick sketches first for feedback, review and then finish off accordingly.

- for graphic designers:

-- a mock up in Photoshop would be a good start. I can pull that apart and implement buttons, highlights and whatever PHP / HTML code is required. I can also easily use template PHP methods for identical left / right / top frames or DIVs, tailored using PHP functions and paramters, etc.

- for web designers, we want to avoid flash if possible and use Javascript that degrades gracefully. By targetting Opera/IE6 or even an older browser generation, we should be able to have a site that appears properly to the widest possible audience; remember a text-based game has very few hardware requirements to play, so our website shouldn't lock such users out either.

-- don't get carried away with dynamic content - no AJAX, etc; we need something that is easily maintained by the staff.