What would it be, and why?

[A2]

It's time for us to start working on the r10 portal site, so here's a chance to tell us what you'd like to see.


If you could change/add one thing on the Planetarion Portal what would it be and why?


Please post your answers in this thread, or come and talk to us in #portal on IRC. And if people who only want to post silly non-constructive posts can kindly go somewhere else it would be appreciated. Thanks.

Changes that are planned already:
Re-introduction of anonymous "spy-reports"
A complete design revamp.
Easier methods of finding help & support
A more reliable, and configurable polling-system.


Comments please...


(In case anyone cares - the r9 version of this thread was at: http://195.149.21.200/~paforum/showt...hreadid=155857)

[Leshy]

The ability to list announcements by the title only, in the way that this forum lists topics. Would be a lot handier than 20 text-boxes with 2 half lines and a 'read more' link.

Possibly have the latest announcement listed in whole on the front page.

[Cochese]

More and "better" columns...the ones up there currently don't seem to be updated often, and there isn't as much variety considering the depth of our community.

Yes, I know it requires people to actually submit columns in the first place

[Morden]

the r4 portal, probably the best one ive seen, but that was mainly due to the imput by the players,

in short it doesnt matter whats on the portal as long as people imput into it.

[hAl]

Just a few of the suggestions I can think of now:

Announcement listed in single lines (expect mayby the most recent) simular to what Leshy said

Simularly create a single list (single lines) of all recent columns (last 4 eeeks ??) with titles and authors in the order they are submitted like the announcements and preferbly with easy to see link/visited links colourscheme so you know which you have viewed and which you haven't.

Full integration with the game manual.
Manual only reachable from portal so when you are in the manual you can use the the portal menustructure

Use portal as the ONLY login for the game.
Make www.planetarion.com point at the portal and not have a separate login page. Put the login field top left in stead of top right on the portal page or place it on the default portal main page.

Get a normal colourscheme that complements the game graphics in stead of clashing with them. It would be better if the portal for instance used simular looking menu structure as the in game menu does.

Integrate the PA toolkit more into the portal. And lose the name toolkit.

hAl

[wakey]

Originally posted by hAl

Use portal as the ONLY login for the game.
Make www.planetarion.com point at the portal and not have a separate login page. Put the login field top left in stead of top right on the portal page or place it on the default portal main page.

I disagree, not only do I ahve major problems accessing the portal so wouldnt be able to login (dont know if its a coding error or something wrong with my PC which is playing up a bit) but also I feel the portal actually HINDERS the attempts to attract more players.

When you load planetaion.com and get a nice splash screen with easy links to signup, login, forums, portal and the manual(or just an about page) you get a feeling what planetarion is about BUT when you land on the portal you just think its a bog standard portal like the thousands of others out there and it doesnt give the impretion that PA is a game. And no matter what you do to the portal making it obvious that PA is actually a game will be extreamly hard. I know obviously the portal needs visitors to make it worthwhile but I really dont think sending them immediatly there is in the intrests of the game

[wakey]

Oh and Alliance columns were always the best feature on previous portals and should be brought back

[Leshy]

For the record, let's keep this thread a serious one with valid comments and useful input. While undoubtedly porn would be appreciated by many, it's not going to happen

[Chax]

Originally posted by wakey
...I feel the portal actually HINDERS the attempts to attract more players.

When you load planetaion.com and get a nice splash screen with easy links to signup, login, forums, portal and the manual(or just an about page) you get a feeling what planetarion is about BUT when you land on the portal you just think its a bog standard portal like the thousands of others out there and it doesnt give the impretion that PA is a game. And no matter what you do to the portal making it obvious that PA is actually a game will be extreamly hard. I know obviously the portal needs visitors to make it worthwhile but I really dont think sending them immediatly there is in the intrests of the game

I agree here, splashscreen back please.

Add forms for report cheaters.

[hAl]

Originally posted by Chax
Add forms for report cheaters.

And a list of shame of planets deleted for abuse/cheating/fraude

hAl

[wakey]

Originally posted by hAl
And a list of shame of planets deleted for abuse/cheating/fraude

hAl

nah, while cheaters do deserve to be shamed it would be extreamly unfair on the galaxies they leave behind. They will have already lost one or more players due to the inability to follow the rules without having the fact your down some members to the whole game

[Chax]

Originally posted by wakey
nah, while cheaters do deserve to be shamed it would be extreamly unfair on the galaxies they leave behind. They will have already lost one or more players due to the inability to follow the rules without having the fact your down some members to the whole game

You think publishing the coords of cheaters would be to damaging to their galaxies? I say they've had too much of an advantage already due to the cheater having an artificially high score.

Not only should the cheaters galaxy be hung out to dry, anyone associated with the cheater should be punished as well.

Anyone that's recieved defense from the cheater should lose 10% of their roids for each defense. Anyone who has lost roids to the cheater should gain 10% extra roids for each attack.

People should chose their friends with great care.
In a round with private galaxies harbouring a cheater in your midst should be as dangerous as harbouring an enemy spy.

Do you allow cheaters in your alliance? When you have incoming and your ally offers to send his friends fleet to cover you, do you accept or do you say no? I say no, because If I accept I'd be benefiting from cheating and that would devalue my efforts.

[hAl]

Originally posted by wakey
nah, while cheaters do deserve to be shamed it would be extreamly unfair on the galaxies they leave behind. They will have already lost one or more players due to the inability to follow the rules without having the fact your down some members to the whole game

People profit from cheaters in their gals. And we already know which gals are not full as any PA tool site nicely shows up the amount of planets. And with current gone page on Gayle's tools yiou can see instantly the people deleted or quit in last 24 hours so a list of shame would only give us the reason why they were removed from play and would make the people who actually quit not be looked as possible cheats.

hAl

[Leshy]

With random galaxies next round, it's impossible to tell whether someone in your galaxy is simply active and a skilled player, or whether he is a cheater. At least not in a timely fashion to avoid profiting from it one way or the other. Hell, even with private galaxies, it doesn't need to be known by everyone else.

Punishing 9 innocent players because they had a cheater in their galaxy is not the way to go.

[wakey]

As Leshy said r10 is going to be random and with this being a r10 portal thread I wasnt dealing with the current private round. Your completly right that in a private round you are partially to blame for any cheaters found in your galaxy but I know in a random round id be extreamly pissed if I was punished because i landed in a galaxy with cheaters in. I would not have choosen to be in this galaxy, if I was choosing id have been in a galaxy where cheating wasnt consider acceptable but due to being random i wouldnt have had this control and I certainly wouldnt want the portal telling everyone to attack my galaxy.

And yes I know you can find out these things via the PA tools but at least that requires some work on the part of the potential attackers where as this would remove this need.

[isildurx]

Id like to c competitions of varying sorts and difficulties, and mebbe sum amusing Quiz`s.

[Chax]

Originally posted by wakey
I know in a random round id be extreamly pissed if I was punished because i landed in a galaxy with cheaters in. I would not have choosen to be in this galaxy, if I was choosing id have been in a galaxy where cheating wasnt consider acceptable but due to being random i wouldnt have had this control and I certainly wouldnt want the portal telling everyone to attack my galaxy.

In r8 there were 4 closed planets in my galaxy. We were top 10 and dropped like stones. I feel I was heavily punished by the slow deletion of the cheaters as it took many weeks before their planets were removed and new people could join.
The fact that 4 people in my gal were closed was nothing I was ashamed of, I had reported one of them myself.

If you want more cheaters gone then maybe if a person in a galaxy reports a cheater in their gal the planet should upon closure be removed to a separate cheater galaxy and then the original galaxy should share the ships and roids.

[wakey]

Originally posted by Chax
In r8 there were 4 closed planets in my galaxy. We were top 10 and dropped like stones. I feel I was heavily punished by the slow deletion of the cheaters as it took many weeks before their planets were removed and new people could join.
The fact that 4 people in my gal were closed was nothing I was ashamed of, I had reported one of them myself.

If you want more cheaters gone then maybe if a person in a galaxy reports a cheater in their gal the planet should upon closure be removed to a separate cheater galaxy and then the original galaxy should share the ships and roids.

ofc you shouldnt be ashamed about having a cheater in your galaxy as you havent done anything wrong but as you saw its hard enough to survive when you get a deletion yet alone if its highlighted on the official portal.

And yes the time it takes to delete a cheater isnt great but them i'm sure if you were to have 4 people removed without a proper investigation you also wouldnt be happy becuase these people could very well have been innocent.

As for the idea (not too sure how serious your being) it would be better if you post this on one of the threads discussion deletions, although I have to say it would be a good way to prevent planets becoming easy targets BUT with some of these cheaters being so large from their actions compared to the rest of the galaxy it could be a little unfair on everyone else in the game. Such an idea would perhaps be better as a percentage. Also reporting for this to work would have to be done in the game and so you can see when it was the galaxy reporting the cheat so that those galaxies covering up cheats dont get rewarded

[Vencedor]

It's meant to e about the PORTAL....
Leave that kind of stuff out of this thread, and so far everything I've heard about multis/cheaters is just gay

Well, I agree, we TOTALY NEED the splash screen back!
Make it with some cool graphics and maybe have a short write-up about the game as PART of the splash screen!

Also, keep login.php .... I know it may, or would, cause people to skip the portal and everything all together but when www.planetarion.com goes straight to a portal... or if you have to click 'portal' in the splash screen (PLEASE bring it back) it will decrease the number of people willing to play, or play actively which is what PA has been lacking from about r6

Also, have a 'Shout Box' on the portal that people can say messages on....
But have each post checked for swearing, URLs, co-ords etc and insted of staring it out (***) actually don't let it be posted.

Umm, what else .....
Yes, the color scheme... I know it loads faster....but I say go back to the 'gamey feel' with it all images forthe entire portal structure... like round 3...
Picture here...

And ummm.....
I think that's all I can think of at the moment...
Hope that helps...

I'll be checking back here.
If I think of anything else'll post it.

C yaz

-=] Vencedor [=-

[CrashTester]

Originally posted by Cochese
More and "better" columns...the ones up there currently don't seem to be updated often, and there isn't as much variety considering the depth of our community.

Yes, I know it requires people to actually submit columns in the first place

Or just get rid of them entirely. Lets face it, they are mostly crap and written by unimportant people, so what function do they really have?

[CrashTester]

Originally posted by A2
It's time for us to start working on the r10 portal site, so here's a chance to tell us what you'd like to see.


If you could change/add one thing on the Planetarion Portal what would it be and why?

Comments please...

Err...how about not changing the portal? Leave it as it is and start developing what you have. With the exception of the login boxes, I doubt many people go into the portal to do anything of note.

So why redesign something that people dont use?

Add to what you have got and spend your time getting good content and features that people use regularly.

In the past the portal has always struck me as being unfinished. It doesnt need to be changed round on round so dont, just develop it and make it have a function. Then think about a redesign based on that function.

[Leshy]

Originally posted by CrashTester
So why redesign something that people dont use?

Because you can't get around using it next round, apparently.

[SommerMinthos]

links to player-made resources like ship comparison tables and 72-tick plans. things that are otherwise hard to find for newbies. Wasnt a problem for me earlier but r9 I had to use google to find ship comparisons (me, an inactive). I really just want people to think of the portal every time they encounter a useful link and put it on a link page. The toolkit doesent really cover all our needs, you know.

[wakey]

Originally posted by Vencedor
It's meant to e about the PORTAL....
Leave that kind of stuff out of this thread, and so far everything I've heard about multis/cheaters is just gay

Well, I agree, we TOTALY NEED the splash screen back!
Make it with some cool graphics and maybe have a short write-up about the game as PART of the splash screen!

Also, keep login.php .... I know it may, or would, cause people to skip the portal and everything all together but when www.planetarion.com goes straight to a portal... or if you have to click 'portal' in the splash screen (PLEASE bring it back) it will decrease the number of people willing to play, or play actively which is what PA has been lacking from about r6

Also, have a 'Shout Box' on the portal that people can say messages on....
But have each post checked for swearing, URLs, co-ords etc and insted of staring it out (***) actually don't let it be posted.

Umm, what else .....
Yes, the color scheme... I know it loads faster....but I say go back to the 'gamey feel' with it all images forthe entire portal structure... like round 3...
Picture here...

And ummm.....
I think that's all I can think of at the moment...
Hope that helps...

I'll be checking back here.
If I think of anything else'll post it.

C yaz

-=] Vencedor [=-

I have to agree that r3's portal was both the best style wise and for content. With this Coffee took the great parts of Planet101 (which at the time was much better than the current Planet101 and beat every official portal we have seen so far) and brought them to the official portal. This resulted in a portal worth going to and one that was extreamly pleaseing on the eye. Since then the designs have got less 'professional' and slick each round which to me makes it less attractive to visit (For certain with Coffee's r3 portal you may have been able to get away with it being the start page alot more)

However I always feel that the simple fact the portals official restricts the design and content alot. Planet101 during r1 and r2 was fantastic and was a site every pa player had to visit every day if only for the alliance columns which were fun and informative (which with columns on the official portal not having this as you oftne have to be careful what you say on them). Planetarion Central during r1 was another PA portal which excelled in its unofficial nature

[CrashTester]

Originally posted by Leshy
Because you can't get around using it next round, apparently.

So you will have to go there to log on, right? And most people wont really use the portal any further than that.

And I dont see the point in giving the portal a whole new look just for people to come log in and not use it further.

I say keep it as it is and spend time getting better content that people do want to use.

[A2]

The aim of this isn't to get actual 'design' ideas (although they're more than welcome) but more a case of finding out what actual content you'd like to see on it.

Part of the code for the portal is going to be forced to be changed by the new system that everything will operate, and we are aiming to make it look a lot nicer than it does now and make it a site to be proud of. With the new framework holding it up that's being developed now we should be able to make the site properly dynamic, and finally be able to leave the base code alone for the foreseeable future.

So far many of you have pointed out that we need more frequent and interesting columns. There is only so much we can do to get columns written, and it's possible for anyone to write either a one-off column or a series of them with very little effort. Several people have also asked for some method of telling what columns/announcements/what-not they haven't yet read. With the new system this will become a lot easier to accomplish and so should be making an appearance.

[Cicada]

one that doesn't look like the backside of a bus would be nice

[Cochese]

Originally posted by CrashTester
Or just get rid of them entirely. Lets face it, they are mostly crap and written by unimportant people, so what function do they really have?

Which is why I called for "more and better" columns.

[Woof]

A really wizzy menu system that doesn’t work properly, and just annoys people, like we had a few rounds back..that was great!

Being sensible now, something that practical and easy to use.
Don't have lots of useless wizzy crap just because it looks good.

[Goatie2k1]

Originally posted by Chax
Not only should the cheaters galaxy be hung out to dry, anyone associated with the cheater should be punished as well.

Anyone that's recieved defense from the cheater should lose 10% of their roids for each defense. Anyone who has lost roids to the cheater should gain 10% extra roids for each attack.

Im sorry mate but you can't be serious. What if I got to a DC in my alliance and they help me get defence. Most of the time you don't even know the IRC nick of the person defending you (in an alliance situation). So to say that people should be punished for being defended by a cheater is just down right stupidity. How the hell is someone in the above situation meant to know that that player is a cheater??

Its good that you hold such strong views against cheating, but I think you're taking it a bit too far.

..hehe anyway as for the portal

Yeah I think a splash screen would be a good thing instead of being brought straight to portal. I think also a nice feature might be an occasional interview with alliance HC in the event of a war or such like within the universe (provided the HC are willing to cooperate).

my 2 cents...

[mbushell]

Can we not just have a portal and stick with it? It's slowly getting worse and worse as it is, obviously rushed to be completed and generally the same each time.

[hyfe]

- 'more and better accesable columns'

- Newest columns shown on frontpage.

- alliance columns where alliances get to write propaganda/their view.

[ashes2ashes]

If you could change/add one thing on the Planetarion Portal what would it be and why?

I personally would like to see a less cluttered design, with a more graphical, more intuitive interface, at the moment, I find it incredibly hard to find anything on the page... And it really does look a lot like any other page on the web implemented with *******... I'm not saying it is, just that it looks like it...

I have to admit, I do prefer the look of the round three portal to that of the round 9.

A consistency between the actual ingame style sheet and the protal style sheet would also be nice.

Cheers
Ashes2Ashes

[CrashTester]

Originally posted by Cochese
Which is why I called for "more and better" columns.

They wont get better, ever. It will always be nobody's writing about some crap or other because they have to meet a quota or be removed for being sheite.

So if we cant manage to get a half dozen good columns by now, what chance is there of getting more better ones?

Zilch.

Scrap them, they are useless and a waste of space. The people of Planetarion are not journalists and PA is not a magazine/newspaper, this has been proved by the portal so far and the attempts at a planetarion newsletter.

[FSW]

Banners! Popups! Everyone loves those!
(Please do not take that seriously)

Hmm, I think IRC info should be more easily accessible. Perhaps IRC should have a section devoted to it; pages describing 'official' rooms like #planetarion and their purposes.
There should also be a nick and channel registering facility like there was at one point... I forgot what that was called, though.
Also, it would be very nice to know what the IRC server is at a glance.

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally posted by CrashTester
They wont get better, ever. It will always be nobody's writing about some crap or other because they have to meet a quota or be removed for being sheite.

screw you! i think my strategy column would be quite useful - if the people who really needed it could find it. At the very least, its not crap!

[CrashTester]

Originally posted by Ultimate Newbie
screw you! i think my strategy column would be quite useful - if the people who really needed it could find it. At the very least, its not crap!

Hmm..your column was about the only one I read this round. To be honest, I followed some of your strategy and it hasnt served me much use I'm afraid

Maybe it would have been better at home in the 'fiction' section.

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally posted by CrashTester
Maybe it would have been better at home in the 'fiction' section.

That bad, huh?

Can you email me about it plz? (email is in profile) thx.

[CrashTester]

Originally posted by Ultimate Newbie
That bad, huh?

Can you email me about it plz? (email is in profile) thx.

I was just joking with that last remark.

At the end of the day you tried, which is fair enough and more than what I do. And while I did take on board some of what you said (and not do too well with it) I admit that I didnt try very hard.

But I still feel that in general the columns are of no real benefit to the majority of people, certainly in their current form.

[Golin]

teh columns have sk*cked for ages.

i hereby announce myself as a candidate for teh columns.

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Leshy
The ability to list announcements by the title only, in the way that this forum lists topics. Would be a lot handier than 20 text-boxes with 2 half lines and a 'read more' link.

Here here!!

[BLACK_OPPS]

Originally posted by A2
It's time for us to start working on the r10 portal site, so here's a chance to tell us what you'd like to see.


If you could change/add one thing on the Planetarion Portal what would it be and why?


Please post your answers in this thread, or come and talk to us in #portal on IRC. And if people who only want to post silly non-constructive posts can kindly go somewhere else it would be appreciated. Thanks.

Changes that are planned already:
Re-introduction of anonymous "spy-reports"
A complete design revamp.
Easier methods of finding help & support
A more reliable, and configurable polling-system.


Comments please...


(In case anyone cares - the r9 version of this thread was at: http://195.149.21.200/~paforum/showt...hreadid=155857)

get the portal seprate from the dam game so we dont have to login via that or use it for links

[Leshy]

Originally posted by BLACK_OPPS
get the portal seprate from the dam game so we dont have to login via that or use it for links

From what I've been told, it will be more integrated next round.

This round, you can still log in through the login page on jpaweb01.

[whoop]

The column should have some sort of information as to what exactly the game administrators are doing to earn their keep.

I want to see stats like.

123 planets reported as cheaters to date
12 planets investigated, deleted
111 planets cleared of all charges
57 bugs reported, click here for details.

etc.

That way perhaps we can get the impression that we are actually listened to once the credit card goes through..

-whoop

[BLACK_OPPS]

Originally posted by Leshy
From what I've been told, it will be more integrated next round.

This round, you can still log in through the login page on jpaweb01.

ffs
the portal in its current use is an unwanted nessasaty it provides pointless infomation and biased opinion to the planetarion universe at large why have this uninspireing apitmy of pointlessness to login via ?

isent this just not another useless tack on that planetarion will suffer from ?

if the portal was realy usefull and people wanted to read it why not have it as a seprate entity like it used to be instead of forceing people to login via that may up page veiws but most certainly dont make people at large read it

[Griffin]

A link to a "sporting store" online, so that I can buy a boxing bag instead of hammering on my PC.

[Not_RIT]

Originally posted by Cochese
More and "better" columns...the ones up there currently don't seem to be updated often, and there isn't as much variety considering the depth of our community.

Yes, I know it requires people to actually submit columns in the first place

I am extremely sorry for my lack of updates, firstly snowed under with alliance work, then not really playing R9 then loads of college work...its been very hard to write anything. I will get something done tho, I promise

[Not_RIT]

Originally posted by CrashTester
Or just get rid of them entirely. Lets face it, they are mostly crap and written by unimportant people, so what function do they really have?

Glad im an unknown unimportant noobie. =)