European Comminity Website - In concept plan discussion

[Luca Mazzasogni]

As promised here is our current plan (still in concept) for the future community website for Horizons Europe.

MAIN SECTIONS

- News
- Events
- Guilds
- Market
- Players Contents
- Links
- Forums

SECTIONS DETAILES

News Section:

In the news section you will find three different kind of news, with the last one of each kind visibile on the website main page.

- Official news about the game in general
- Technical news about the game
- Events/Community news

Events Section:

In the events section you will find different contents in regard of everything that can be related to events. This will cover:

- Official events (as part of the developments by Tulga Games)
- WM run events
- Players events

In details, contents for this section will include:

- Usual review of current in-game events
- Preview of future events
- Players reports about events
- Players announcements about their own events (submitted through a form and made available after a short review from ourselves)

Guilds Section:

In the guilds section will find place useful information about all the guilds that would like to be listed in it. Contents of this section would be:

- Guilds listing
- Guilds pages with: guild names, description, logo, links, ranks and so on (actual contents to be defined)

Market Section:

In the market section will find place contents related to in-game economy, like:

- On-line consigners listings
- Offer/buy in game items (sort of auction & request system)

Players created contents:

This section will gather all the players created contents for Horizons. A few examples:

- Downloadable stuff (map packs, artworks, tools, etc.)
- Articles and stories about the game

Links Section (links to all the useful official and unofficial Horizons websites)

Forums (dedicated to the European community, but free access to everyone)

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Please feel free to share your thoughts in this thread so that we can adjust and improve the plan with your feedback.

Take care,
Luca

[Sibbe]

looks very good [Y]

but the text is black and not readable without selecting...

[Ariwena]

Would be nice if the guild section was linked to the DB, so ya could see which guild has what members etc...

[imported_Onnidrah]

Yeah would be great and if theirs an page in .xml we can easyer make stuff for it to :))

[Galilee]

[Y] Looks real nice [:D]

A fewsuggestions/questions still:

- Not directly, but I think indirectly related to this: A consignerslisting, véry nice, will have a shadow-side to it: it will 'degrade' all player-consigners, it will kind of 'officialize' that playerconsigners nowadays are ónly usefull as private storages (I had hoped we could turn this around again one day...).
Unless it would be possible for you to also take along playerconsigners that are open to all (maybe the players could 'submit' their consigners somewhere, leading to being put on that list also?). Or as long as this isn't possible yet (should be in the end, to be equally fair to all players): maybe for the time being it would be possible to take along in that list at least a few 'malls', if and when built by the players? This idea came up some time ago (3 to 5 or more stores together in one place,and at least oneof these mallsper 'portal-group'), but there was no interest then in doing this (it was just after itbecame known that this listing would be made for game-shops; understandably all maybe-interested resigned from the idea then, seeing it would just take up plotspace without being used if this listing only-for-gameshops was to come through).
Could a solution for this, preferably all the way right away of course[:P] (but partly would be a nice beginning too[:)]),be possible?

- I think the headings you give herecan really work well, IF it will be possible and allowed to put pointers to new stuff (news, events, players-content at least) in the forums general-section for all visitors there to read. So I really hope this will be possible. Or maybe it is your intention to use these sections for none-replyable announcements only, while all the talking about it happens in the (general) forums? (In that case: just great, couldn't be better, nothing said[:D])

- What I call 'database-stuff' (lists of anything and everything that is in the game) is just a little bit different from map-packs, sound-folders and other things along those lines. If I understand correctly, this 'database-stuff' will be in the same section as 'player-made-things' though ? Don't you then get a division within database-stuff, namely half of it to be found in this section, and another half (coming from the official channels, Tulga, GN, whatever) in another (news??) section ? Wouldn't a 'united' database-section give better usage for players?

These few questions aside, I think it really looks good, these plans [Y].

[Enoeth]

For those interested, the
"Market Section:- Offer/buy in game items (sort of auction & request system)"
would refeer to this thing , so you can know what to expect from this system (Onnidrah can make the database since he made one similar for another game, and give when finished the version to GN for implementation of player characters (+email) thing for security.

* a database which is online (on website) in which you login and only unity players can create an account (from the character name with password being sent to email , and after the first login you can change password); the ones out of unity (not playing on unity) shouldn't be able to post WTB (What to Buy) and WTS (What to sell) since they can ruin the database.

* It would be nice to see some nice graphics, Role-Play kind of feeling with flash candles that burn and some kind of a Unity Tavern.

* A channel implemented on the tavern would also be nice , with sections like Main/Tavern(Only role-playing!)/ Resources/ Spells/ Weapons/ Armors/ etc

* The posibility to keep your item for sale as long as you keep checking a box every 4 days (?) so the people know that item is still for sale (something should notice you when you got 2 more days to check the box, only for you too see, --- perhaps like a candle that burns and it's composed out of 4 parts, and you can actually see when the candle it's at half the size, etc);

* The auction thing implemented so we have competition on buying / selling that item.

P.S. Other ideas I will post them here about the Unity Tavern


As for Events Section: , I have some suggestions:

* If we could have a place (building - perhaps made by the Tulga Dev's) in-game that lists the player created contests, with the info's being able to have consistent text (5000 characters or more)

[[[* The kind of way you announce you have to restart servers ingame, perhaps you could advertise this new website, or perhaps being able to check some things in-game that could show you a window saying: New Event posted, or "The item you're looking for has just been added in tavern. Or perhaps you got a reply to your item you wanted to sell." This might not be so usefull and of imediate need though, just an idea. ]]]]

* I think we should have viewers (login users) vote for the new event and decide whether that event is going online or no. I would also like a very flexible system, which the WM could handle that could make this event ( http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=46364 ) much easier to make (a system that record kills after the round started). And also something not player controled (a NPC hired) which receives the players tax for that specific contest on that link.

P.S. Tried to make those things Luca posted visible but copy/paste and modifying the colour of text doesn't work. Weird...

[Luca Mazzasogni]

Additional sections and sub-sections we were thinking about:

- Guide Section: with guides for players written by other players. Beginner's guides, guides for each profession and so on.

- Best houses of Istaria: pictures and descriptions of the most beautiful plots in Istaria. With some competitions as well.

[imported_Onnidrah]

What kind of competitions Luca?

[Fren]

Here's a bit shamelessly stolen from another online game which shall remain nameless.

They have the ability to open up a chat window from the shard webpage to enter a web based chat if they can't log in, so they can still speak to people on the server including tells etc. It comes in very handy if they have problems patching, are not at their home pc, but can still get on to talk with thier guildmates.

Just a thought *grins*

[Vanaondo]

I allready mentioned this for Luca at IRC and he is positive: The European 3rd dev teamwants a section, or maybe we fit in to the player section with update info for HCC and Map Pack? At least we want a nice, easy to find place where we can put update info.

I wish we had made a autopatcher for HCC and Map pack. *grins*

But this is ******** good news Luca and we look forward to this new homepage.

[imported_Onnidrah]

Maybe and idea to put an Java IRC applet at the site that links to the current IRC channel

[Divine]

Looks good Luca...

It be nice to finally have a web page for us European players again...

[8-|]

Now this is going be a fun thing...

Best houses of Istaria: pictures and descriptions of the most beautiful plots in Istaria

[;)]

[Vanaondo]

Hello Luca.

How does the developping going with the new Europeen Community site?

[Vlisson]

yes any news?

and whats about this security certificate?

[Dragonboy]

Sounds very good Luca [Y]
But uhmmm... News?

*humbly awaitsa reply*

[Milandra]

*Looking in Luca direction*
May we have some news on how things are going please?[:$][:)]

[Fren]

Yep, some news would be sweet Luca, though if you're busy with other things we understand :)