New Site Progress

[infoxicated]

Will there be a way to show only times for specific ships [teams]?

Yes.

It'll have a "advanced sort" options so you could, for example, list the pilots from America who used Auricoms, if you wanted.

All this is the reason why it's taken so long, really - in order to do sorts like that I had to completely re-structure the records system. In the end I'm hopefull we'll be able to do stuff like comparing Talons Reach times regardless of version, for instance.

[Lance]

That's one helluva ''Piranha Switch''! Worth the wait.

[stin]

Looks like competiton is back on through the winter again, yeah Lance? (it`s time for you to click your fingers and your spectacle (well a visor) on)

stevie

[Lance]

Yeah, I really haven't played for.... [gasps] two years!

No wonder so many of my old times have been trashed. I wonder if I still have the same reflexes at age 63 that I had in the good old days when I was 61.

I've been playing my ancient original copy of GT this last week, first time I've played anything in ages [see above], and I set some new personal bests, but I think that's because I tweaked a suspension adjustment or two on a couple of my favourite cars. [My absolute fave is the Cerbera coupe.] I don't think GT takes much in the way of reflexes, quite unlike WO.

[Zerow]

Yup, it looks good already, nice one!

[Kowkat]

Great information

[Asayyeah]

WOW Brilliant stuff Rob !

These new records tables sound very promising for all of us , die-hard wipers
I agree with whats been written above : this could be a new fresh air for competition on the whole wipeouts


ps Lance : i am pretty sure you are going to clean the dust from for marvellous qirex and get a ride with it

[q_dmc12]

the title bar image map looks better now

[infoxicated]

I moved your topic about that to the Evolution Engine forum and answered it there. I guess you were looking at cached versions of the banner images, which is why they looked squashed to the wrong size.

[eLhabib]

Okay Rob, one more thing to annoy you with (sorry!), but this just stings my eye typographicly:

on the 'WipEoutZone Forum' banner, the spacing between some letters is bigger than between others (to be precise between the i and the p, the o and the u, the o and the n, the r and the u). This simply looks wrong, but hey, I'm just picky.

btw the little subtext has some spacing issues too...

[Sausehuhn]

That is because the font is not anti-aliased but set to "none" or something like that, so the font looks sharp. But that also causes letter spacing issues and on the "WipEoutZonE Forum" writing itself different width of the letters. If you look that the "u" for example you can see that the left side is wider than the right one.

So that's my guess, maybe its also just the font

[infoxicated]

Perhaps I had auto-kerning switched on by accident - it doesn't tend to make the best job of it. To be honest I'm so used to seeing the banner that I hadn't even noticed, so I'll take a look at it to see if I can improve the kerning.

In other news I got the basic record table output working today for both "best times only" and "all times". I still need to add the advanced sort options so people can filter by other criteria, but once that's done it'll be down to cleaning up the design and just general polish and attention to detail.

I've got a bit of a rough and ready admin system in place that allows me to add games, tracks, teams, speed classes, and stuff like that on the fly without having to touch the code. However, there's no reason to hold off the launch of the site while I'm completing that, so it can wait.

[Lance]

I suppose the answer to the question of when the new table structure will be online is... When It's Ready. Just like on the Opera forums. WIR.

[q_dmc12]

I moved your topic about that to the Evolution Engine forum and answered it there. I guess you were looking at cached versions of the banner images, which is why they looked squashed to the wrong size.

Actually it was quite different from what you are explaining but in any case it looks alot better now.

Ooo, and it's always on top - i just noticed that.

PS> i like the little shadow under it - very esthetic

[Zerow]

I second what q_dmc12 said, the new look of the top bar is very cool indeed.

[infoxicated]

I found out today that the version of MySQL used on our server is of the dated variety. I had wrongly assumed that it was a newer version, so that's kind of put a spanner in the works.

What it means is that the functionality of the new record tables is pretty much out of the window unless we can upgrade the server. If not, the new version of the site will not be fully functional until we move to a new server, and I have no idea when that'll be.

The problem lies in allowing folk to have a record for each team per track. In order to get the best times only, it involved doing a sub-query - this is the functionality we're lacking in the old version of mysql.

We have a small handful of options.

One, I could make some changes that disallow multiple records per track for the time being, although it seems a shame to undo work I've already done. Two, I could implement it as-is, although the records tables might become cluttered by multiple records that couldn't be filtered out. Thirdly, I can hold off on the new site until we move server, with the added bonus that I might be able to add more polish to it.

Myself, I'm not sure which option I prefer - none of them are as desirable as being able to implement the site as I'd intended.

Anyhow, that's how things stand right now.

[lunar]

That`s got be a bit gutting after all the work you put in. I know how annoying it is when you set your sights on a goal with a project, then something gets in the way. I don`t know what moving server involves and, as you say, you don`t know when that will be. If you decided not to wait for a server move, I think we could live without multiple times per track, and if it was added later that would be a bonus. Only one time per track would certainly be better than a cluttered table, in my opinion.

Whatever you decide to do, thanks for all your massive work.

[Hellfire_WZ]

If upgrading MySQL on the current server is not an option, then I guess it'd be best to wait until the server change rather than have the site in an unfinished or buggy state. Unless of course you feel that implementing the new features after the change with most of the new site in place would not be more hassle than waiting and doing it all at once. I know we're all dying to see how this site will turn out, but I for one would be happy to wait and see the site as good as it can be.

[Asayyeah]

'till we can upgrade server ' how much it is for that kind of upgrading ?
It's my own opinion : you know i am not very rich but maybe with old members we can give you a financial help for that upgrade ?
If this is nothing in relation with money we can live without multiple times per track like Stephen said

[Dominator]

Your more qualified than any of us in this area Rob so the decision should be yours to make.