soldat.pl website discussion [split topic]

[Blacksheepboy]

For people that crave eye candy versus design.

Haha, my opinion's so harsh, but in essence, game websites I see are basic.

But enough, I would say if Soldat.pl had several animated scenes in the screenshots section, but I can't envision how it would work out.

[Adam]

the sites I posted as examples have a better design, are newbie friendly, has a better atmosphere, more eye catching, and are just better as a whole.

and the site (soldat.pl) is like, borderline basic in design, lol

also: shouldn't the aim be to attract teens? the only group of people I think would honestly consider soldat.pl as 'good' would have to be adults reaching seniority

[Blacksheepboy]

Okay.

Define design. Is it efficiency or looks?

[Adam]

both. has a good blend of colors, right away you can tell that it's flourishing game with active players, good easy going atmosphere, very simple yet nice theme that fits the game well, right away it tells you about the uniqueness of the game and shows footage that isn't 10-years-old, very user friendly, and if that already doesn't tell you it's not dead, the online user count does.

 Overall: better than soldat.pl

[Blacksheepboy]

right away you can tell that it's flourishing game with active players

That has nothing to do with design.

A website can be designed well and not look good.

If you don't know what a website is, it consists of lists, boxes (and it's been long enough to where I just forgot the other elements), unless it's flash of course.

The user count is a indicative of activity, but they would find out anyway.

Another layout take

[Adam]

Like I said, the design is still better, and that soldat.pl is just borderline basic

for example, the first thing you see when you join soldat.pl is a long box, and next to it a box half it's length, you're basically asking the one viewing the site to scroll all the way down just to details, links, and footage of the game. Osu's site doesn't have that problem, once you type in that site to join, you immediately see the tabs at the top associated with the forums, download, info, etc, colorful boxes that pop out, footage, news, and features of the game. The site even includes a facebook and twitter tab(link?) at the top.

idk about you, but this is better than soldat.pl

[Blacksheepboy]

you're basically asking the one viewing the site to scroll all the way down just to details, links, and footage of the game.

At least 80% of the websites require you to scroll down. Scroll wheel.

I'm one of the people that doesn't want Facebook integration on Soldat.pl.

On first impression, the buttons on Osu reminded me of ads you see on software download sites. I don't think I'm the only one that prefers some plain text and (in) the semi-transparent download button (I don't think ads or malware shit typically looks like this). And it doesn't flippin capitalize this "osu! is a free-to-play online rhythm game." Makes it look like wannabe hipster because "I didn't take time to capitalize a title on a webpage" (forums doesn't matter much). The information while, located in the same general place, is a little more efficient on Soldat.pl (but this is pretty moot comparatively). And I don't like drop down menus on sites (well, there's exceptions to this rule). You can either compress the amount of links and put them with a little more information stylistically in the page, or have them somewhere a little more visual.

[Adam]

I don't think you realize that's just one of the many layous I used just as an example. I wasn't talking about facebook integration, just that they make it more user friendly by showing they have an active community on social networks. Dude, how can you criticize Osu about their site and such, but fucking act as if soldat.pl is leagues ahead. Be realistic, that page is far more appealing for catching someones eye than soldat.pl. And "more efficient on soldat.pl" LOL, that's because the only real link on soldat.pl is the forums. Soldat.pl is basic of the basics, and that's probably why you like it so much. Just because it has no content on it and lego blocks as boxes with really only one valuable link doesn't make it "efficient", it just makes it basic.

Like I said, it's just one of the many layouts I used as an example that I think is far better then the one now. I don't see why you'd go all technical about it. You even suggested the same exact layout soldat.pl currently has as an improvement, lol. I don't expect you to grasp the fact that soldat.pl is plain, boring, and outdated.

[darDar]

Oh I'm so sorry for pointing out the problems on the official game's website. I'm really sorry if it's too much asked having the site up to date / no broken links / no screenshots from 2002 / no wrong download names / no misleading downloads. It's fun how you guys keep trying to defend the current site for no reason and can't even admit that I have a large point.

There is no reason to keep the existing page in the way it is now.
It will be much easier for all the dev - team to manage the site with WP
I have never been offensive ; at any point (calling something a website bad or a feature "crap" can't be considered as being offensive)
Get your facts straight please.

That's what you can get done in just a few hours and you'll possibly be capable of setting up a WP theme in less than 30-60 minutes.

http://soldat.site88.net/ - no WP

I don't understand why darDar is making such a rude ruckus over the site falling under the maintenance radar in recent years.

Is darDar losing sleep over it? Is it making him impotent? Is it stressing him out to the point of him performing poorly at his job? Any of those things would justify him getting so mad about it.

Maybe we should meet up and go to a support group and sit down with darDar so he can tell us how he really feels. I'll be your shoulder to cry on but not in this thread.

Just update the site in a more frequent time than every 2 years. Rather than trying to make fun of me , be thankful that I pointed out all the problems occuring on soldat.pl - It would have never been fixed either, apparently.

I read that like when kids tell their friends something hilarious and then go NOOOOT to turn the statement around. You remind me of a kid anyway.

That doesn't even make sense.


In the end it's up to you to decide on your layout and theme but make sure it's up to date.

[duz]

Honestly, I made this topic a few months : soldat.pl official website [topic].

on: 24 July 2011, 04:24:04 pm
http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=40379.msg495639#msg495639

[Blacksheepboy]

Oh I'm so sorry for pointing out the problems on the official game's website. I'm really sorry if it's too much asked having the site up to date / no broken links / no screenshots from 2002 / no wrong download names / no misleading downloads.

Apology accepted.

I've heard not so great things about wordpress regarding security issues.

I looked at the source. Woo baby.

I'm not defending Soldat.pl, I'm trying to make a good point.

[duz]

The current layout is ok, just needs some adjustments.

There's a lot of easier things to do as:
- Fix (one screenshot box out of the row) and replace the screenshots.
- The rating area is confused. 9.8 on gamespot? It's a single user rate dudes, download.com user rating is almost 5 stars now, not 4. Random quotes: "The best free multiplayer game you will ever play, amazing game!! A+++" what the ****?!
- The list of "pros" can be fixed (there's not just 64 maps right now, it's almost 100) and tweaked.
- Put newer videos randomizing every time you visit the site.
- Remove those unnecessary boxes: Latest news (there's only downloads. you don't need it with a download page) and Popular downloads (doesn't make sense if older versions were most downloaded).

[Shoozza]

There is no need to discuss if the current site is good enough or not.
The only thing we need to talk about is if we can make a better website and who wants to help making it awesome.

So if anyone here wants to work on a better version of the website let me know. I would participate in a deeper discussion on what we need and how it could look like and how it could be done.

If there is not enough support for creating a new site (aka nobody wants to help) the fallback would be to just fix the current site.
It is up to you all.

[Blacksheepboy]

I like lines.

If I were to make a site, I don't know if it would look like this.

[darDar]

I like lines.

If I were to make a site, I don't know if it would look like this.

That's horrible, sorry.

I will see if I can make some further layouts / themes in the upcoming week.

Any comments to this one ? http://soldat.site88.net/

[Shoozza]

I like lines.

If I were to make a site, I don't know if it would look like this.

That's horrible, sorry.

No need to make anyone feel bad here.

First thank you both for the templates.

Do you both want to invest more time in creating the new site?
I don't think creating templates is the first thing we should aim for.

[Blacksheepboy]

Haha, no it was bad. I was just getting back into imagining designs, and that was kind of one of the first concepts. Lines and screenshot boxes

[duz]

About the LEAGUES page:
ESL and the Polska Liga website are not updated since 2012 (dead maybe?).
LOF and TNL doesn't exist anymore.

Whats the difference between Official Leagues and Community Leagues? I think that SCTFL has the same category as SWC...
But I think that those league links should be marged with the LINKS page, no?


DOWNLOADS:
Add the bot editor...

[Shoozza]

I think we should keep the ESL and PL pages at least for historical reasons (for now at least, maybe move them to the end and add "inactive")
I see TNL just links to ESL, and LOF links to some unrelated page. I will remove both.

I have no idea what the differences between them are at this point. Someone from the official leagues could probably explain.

Well it depends we could have only a links page where all the links are sorted by type (leagues, maps, etc)

I'll ignore any request to add tools as long as they don't include: tool name, description, tool site/forum thread, download link
Please look that information up before you suggest tools that makes it easier for me to update the site.

[Mokkun]

I don't see any issues with the current website design, I also liked the old one.
I think it's a bad idea to try to make it "eye candy" at all costs, Soldat isn't really a good looking game (I personnaly love the game design but I know it's just me and 99% of people will say it's ugly crap) and isn't really user friendly or "easy" either, I like the current fanbase and even if it's sad to see less and less people playing the game, trying to clickbait normalfags by making an awesome looking website is not the solution.
Maybe we could talk about features, new pages, categories, whatever, but design wise I don't see a problem.