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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

The Xenocide Homepage...


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Hey Everyone...

 

I was thinking (that's what having to fly a lot does to you), that since most people would getting to know Xenocide over the internet and through the project xenocide homepage, we should make sure that it's easy to update and such, and that it looks as cool as the game is going to be...

 

I will take the opportunity to say that it's not a critisism of the people that have been working on the homepage at all...

 

But since I think it is stupid to start writing X-Net entries too much before the models and such are done, I have some time to do other things... For instance making things on the homepage...

 

I've had a look at the sourcecodes for the homepage, and I've made a surgestion for some changes that I have sent to Micah, and I thought that if anyone had any ideas for something they thought could be cool on the homepage, say so here and I'll have a look at it, and then of course it's up to Micah if he thinks it's a good idea...

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  • 1 year later...

this appears to be the only thread here that actually deals with the xenocide homepage, so I will now hijack it for the originally intended use...

 

I believe some updates to the artwork section should be made, especially including the new and as-good-as-finished [Laser Pistol]. I am currently trying to show some people what project xenocide is about and that it is really progressing and a cool thing, but the homepage doesn't have the newest, coolest graphics :)

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I SO much agree with Moriarty. This is too outdated and will only make viewers thing wer're stalled. An update is in order. Especially with artwork!
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I agree with you, mikker. Just yesterday on another forum I came across a bald statement that said something along the lines of, "UFO: AI is the best fan X-Com game out there, far ahead of all the others." It disturbed me greatly, :( but I compared that site to ours, and I was forced to concede that our site definitely appears to be the lesser of the two. A lot of the artwork on the Xenocide site is conceptual or early-stage, and much of the information on pages other than the main page is old.

 

Maybe link (or cut and paste) a lot of the content from the wiki and add a link. For some sections, the information there's much more accurate and up-to-date, particularly the FAQ and the Recruiting Process sections.

Edited by Astyanax
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my problem is that the project is only showing its full scope and greatness for those who are at least project member recruits, and even then only by investing quite a lot of time, crawling thorugh the workshop forums. somehow, this needs to be more transparent in terms of "what can the average web-browsing guy or girl see of this project within the less-than-a-minute attention span"...

 

I agree that this is something someone would have to spend a lot of time for... but then again, this is something the wiki page would be perfect for, if we can convince people to put all the newest stuff there. like "everytime you finish a new picture/text/programming feature, put/describe it in the wiki". do you think this might be possible?

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Guest Azrael
Not the wiki, a moderator. Active: Creative Text was also very messy before, I organised it. What AWD needs is a mod that sortes all threads, splits when there are two topics together (like the laser pistol/rifle/heavy) for more easily search, modify names, merge topics that are together, do something with useless topics. There is a lot, in fact, I'd do it myself if it was my department :)
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You are right Azrael, but I think that someone misses the point:

 

Entering the site doesn't mean that people will enter the forums, become forum members, and then they will stand staring at our incredible work!

 

The download pages dates Dec 2003, Artwork in the site is FAR too old etc. That's the first "layer of impression". The first time I entered the site, I was a bit impressed (actually, as impressed with UFO:AI). Then, I downloaded 0.0.4, and I was a bit depressed... :wink1:

 

But, I didn't join the forums! I left, and I returned 1 month after! No actual changes in the site! I was ready to leave, and then I thought to join the forums! That's when I realised the progress and the quality of the project. And, looking at ALL the progress that has been done since I joined, I just stand and stare.... O_O

 

Show'em what we've got! :D

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Guest Azrael
Actually, I was thinking last night that we should update our downloads and screenshots section in the main page, but if I remember correctly, Micah was the one who had to do that... or am I wrong? dunno, but we should update it soon, you're right there.
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Either way, it needs a major update. :)

 

Personally, I wouldn't mind substituting the some wiki pages for some pages on the main site (Recruitment, FAQ, Who We Are, etc.)

 

How would one go about becoming and being a moderator for the AWD? I'm already searching through the AWD forums when I'm proofreading and enforcing consistency in CTs against the art models, so maybe I could kill two birds with one stone?

Edited by Astyanax
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We don't have to update the wiki! It's "welcome" sections are more than enough! But, the main page is a top priority IMHO. Can't we change the index page ourselves, or is Micah the only person in here with authority to access that part of the server (index.html etc)?
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Guest Azrael
I'm willing to try to update the main page, I could keep the news updated more easily, too. The links in the downloads section have to be removed and updated as well, the FAQ has to be erased and linked with that of the Wiki, or maybe past the one of the wiki there... lots to do.
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I would also enjoy a brand new webpage. Not anything too complex and special, just some dark background and silvery menu! I could provide a photoshop template...

 

But, that's certainly a low-priority "to-do in the future" task. But, we should definitely update the main page, and direct links to the wiki on the left etc :)

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I might be able to help out with this, seeing as how I built the homepage and many of the pages off of it. :P

 

It's been quite a while since that happened and I agree that not many changes have occured. I can try to do weekly updates to things such as artwork, creative text samples, or whatever you feel's appropriate. My homepage (www.maddox-tudor.net) uses some simple javascript for random pictures and SSI and menu creation; I could include a few scripts which would put a random picture of the day or text of the day up, with links to other entries as well as prompts that a user register on the forum to see all the current work.

 

The only thing I need to know is the current ftp information and the folder location for current assets. This might allow me to fix the X-Net page as well, assuming the text entries are still compiled into xml format. If anyone with the proper info could send me a message about ftp info, and where current pics/texts are being stored on the server, I'll see what I can do.

 

(as an aside, if you are used to just linking a pic or text within a forum post, realise it might be harder or impossible to recover such info after a forum crash, compared to it being stored in a ftp folder and linked to. It's also easier to use the data in other areas that way too, especially if threads get moved and their links change)

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Guest Azrael
That would be great Breunor :D, I keep a copy of all proofread texts :), I'll organise things a little bit and PM you with the ftp info.
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I think having an easy to update homepage/news page would be a very good idea. I know that the forum software allows for a "portal" like page with news posts generated from selected forums. If we set that up selected members/groups could add news items by simply posting a new topic. This could allow for very fast news updates, and decent access control.
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What do the portal can handle??? I like the current web page, but I agree that we need some way to allow for an easier administration too. Maybe some other content management solution exclusive to portals a la SharePoint???

 

Do the following give Azrael, Breunor, Dipstick, Kafros and Astyanax access to it and lets see what the guys can do ;) ... when it is ready for primetime we do the switch ;). (Azrael will be in charge in this task)

 

Greetings

Red Knight

Edited by red knight
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My home page uses blogger, so that's also an easy option. I host my own page, but the content is generated by blogger when I post a new entry, and then FTP'd to my site. Xenocide's homepage has a center iframe if I recall, which is calling the current news page by default. So what we can do, is set up that page to be updated via blogger, and give access to post in that blog to whoever needs access. You can set how many posts you want, or how old they should be, before they are split into archives. You can then make a drop down list or list of links to the archives. Check out my homepage link below to see how that works, I think it would work well here, and be very simple to implement, no programming needed.
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http://projectxenocide.blogspot.com/ has a sample using blogger. I picked out the latest posts and put them in there, as well as the template for the home page. The bar across the top can come out once the page is hosted on a server other than blogger. The top post there has some more info on it all.

 

If people like this, I can add some members to the posting group, and they can try it out. Send me an email: breunor at gmail dot com, and I'll send an invite to the address. I tend to take a couple days between visits here, so emailing me is the quickest way to reach me, compared to PMs here.

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Wow, that looks very nice... maybe minus the top bar (but like you mentioned, it won't be there on a different host) and if there's a way to control the size of the dates (they are rather large at the moment)?

 

Also, is this a totally new Xenocide homepage?

 

If we get access via invitation, would we be able to muddle around with it to figure out how it works?

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