PlaneShift website criticism (extensive)

[AryHann]

I prefer version 1 of the latest 4.
Still, I agree with you that it gets too much \"defaultish\" and it should be a bit more original.

I didn\'t like the acid green theme. Just subjective taste, I guess, there.

[Karyuu]

Heheh, same agreement - the darker version 1 looks nicer here :) I think customizing the forums won\'t be as hard as making a \"matching\" website, but the color everyone seems to agree to are a light (but not too bright) blue.

[josephoenix]

Since the forums are controlled by a stylesheet (iirc), they\'re easy to change. There\'s a place in the forum admin panel to change it, even. Of course some of the things don\'t match up properly (which is probably the reason for the black-on-brown text in the brown forum skin).

I\'m working on my own site thing, but it\'s secret ;]

josePhoenix

[Netty]

Hmm, I don\'t know, quite a few people, including myself want a lighter text on darker background but perhaps overall feeling shouldn\'t be \"too dark\". Here\'s the edit of my very first theme:

Slightly off-white text

White text

EDIT:

Third  Variation with off-white text

IMO, all look easy on the eyes, blue enough, dark enough for lighter text but not too dark overall. We don\'t have to use the main logo with the bright crystal. The PS blue does not always have to be that bright. Even the crystal itself gets darker in the night. There is also the kind of blue that can be seen on partially lit caves. The underground world of Yliuakum is not as bright as the crystal itself, it has many variations of blue, and this current one fits, IMO. Think of it as partially lit walls of Yliakum world or the night-time of Yliakum. It does get a bit dark sometimes after all.

Going with the darker text on a light background means being veeeeeerry close to the defaultish forum colors, which not many like. That is if you want to keep the logo-bluish theme. Honestly, the default forum colors look too clinical, they remind me of a hospital, and that\'s not a good feeling, lol.

I also didn\'t want to make the blue too saturated or vivid because it becomes overbearing. So, the soft look is meant to be that way.

If you later add a skin and graphics to this theme, it will look even better.

I\'m hoping you guys like these latest versions.

Originally posted by josephoenix
Since the forums are controlled by a stylesheet (iirc), they\'re easy to change. There\'s a place in the forum admin panel to change it, even. Of course some of the things don\'t match up properly (which is probably the reason for the black-on-brown text in the brown forum skin).

I\'m working on my own site thing, but it\'s secret ;]

josePhoenix

Hehe, I think I know what you\'re up to. I won\'t say how because I don\'t want to ruin the secret. The only thing I suggest is not to use a left-justified layout. Try centered and elastic. :)

Perhaps you guys should wait with the forum color theme until josephoenix completes the \"secret\".

[Vengeance]

I appreciate the work that is going into figuring out new colors and themes for the website and forums.  I don\'t really care how they end up looking--I\'m sure they will be fine.  What sets this thread apart from a million others, though, is that now a person who was being critical is now actually trying to move us forward.  Thanks for that Netty.

- Venge

[Karyuu]

Indeed :D

Though if I may continue poking with my random personal opinions - I feel that we\'re back in the too-dark scheme with the latest themes. Moreover I\'ve never been fond of yellow and blue, and orange and blue have only worked when both are really vibrant. I think if colors are cool, a dark tone feels too heavy.

[Xordan]

I don\'t like blue at all. I really like the brown PlaneShift-test theme. If it had some icons specific to it which matched the rest of the brown theme instead of being blue (like the new posts/no new posts icons), then I\'d be even more happy to stick with it.

Edit:

Variant icons of these would look good for that example above:

So yeah... I\'m a brown supporter I think blue just doesn\'t feel PlaneShifty/Fantasy at all, more sci-fi, and it doesn\'t match our current website, the theme of which I personally like the look of. And I find brown more soothing to the eye than blue.

[Netty]

Hello,

I\'ve been pretty busy with work lately, so I didn\'t have time to post any new updates for a while. However, I\'ve finally gotten a chance to play around with this again and came up with something new.

I decided to drop previous ideas for now for the following reasons - no matter how good a combination of colors and/or design we pick for this forum, all of it will mean nothing, if it doesn\'t match the website\'s colors. Website colors can, in theory, be changed to match what we pick for the forum but there is no such guarantee. What if Luca won\'t accept new designs? What if he insists on the current color choices, even if he will appreciate new designs? There are quite a few existing graphics with the current brownish color theme, so the artists may not have time to do a complete make-over, just because of a color change.

Besides, brown can look damn good. When I said it was overbearing or bad, it\'s not that the color itself is bad, it\'s just that it was utilized in a bad way.

I have decided to go with a theme that matches the current site. However, I got rid of everything I hated in the current brown theme that is selectable on this forum. I also added some graphics. If some of you still think that a dark text on light background would be better - I don\'t think so. Whether it\'s better to you personally or not, the colors must match the website\'s colors, otherwise it looks unprofessional. So, let\'s make the best of it, shall we?

Example 1

Even though the image is quite large in the width, the forum (and the site) in this example are meant to be set up as an elastic layout. This means that the forum will stretch up to a certain point at higher resolutions, and shrink, theoretically forever, at the lower. I had the same idea for PlaneShift website when I mentioned an elastic layout.

Note that the forum is never meant to touch the edges of the screen, even with a small margin. It is always meant to have a bit of space on the left and right. The reason for this (and a certain limit for elastic width) is that at some point, with insanely large (wide) monitors, it becomes hard to scan so much with your eyes horizontally, even if the whole thing fits onto your screen. That is why I believe an elastic layout is better than both, fixed and fluid.

However, a fixed width option is a good alternative in this case as well.

I got rid of the ugly yellow frame, lightened up the hard-to-read text, got rid of the black text and added some graphics. The forum icons were thrown there very quickly and some are probably not the best choices for each category. However, this is just to give an idea. I really like the idea with GUI icons on PlaneShift France forum. You can see it here.

I didn\'t bother making new \"Search\", \"Register\" and similar buttons. I simply gave them a quick color-change, so they don\'t stick out like a sore thumb. However, using something new in their place would make the forum look even nicer.

***

Example 1 (a)

This is simply a small extension of the first theme to see what the \"General Discussion\" bit might look like.

***

Example 2

Same as the first example but with slightly different colors - more brown.

***

Example 2 (a)

\"General Discussion\" extension of \"Example 2\".

***

Example 2 (b)

Alternative extension of \"Example 2\".

***

Seamless (ish) background

In case you are curious, this is the seamless (ish) background  (reduced to 800 width for viewing) behind the main forum. I quickly took an in-game screenshot, made a seamless bg, coupled with a little graphic on top. It then merges into brown. The screenshot containts about two repeats of the background. The image can be reduced/optimized to save size, of course. This is just a rough version.

I can\'t remember where I got the top graphic, I think it might\'ve been at PSMC site (I mean that little bar with the background, not the 3D renders with Kran and Fenki). As you can see, it\'s in style with PS GUI graphics. I hope no one minds that I used it. As it was purely used for test and only for this purpose and not any other project.

Anyway, I really like how the themes turned out and I hope you like them too. Although remember, these are somewhat rought drafts and a lot can still be added. For example, more custom PS-theme icons, background and forum skins instead of pure colors, and so on. If you have your own ideas on what to add, feel free to post a screenshot.

Let me know what you think.

[Nikodemus]

wow, http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/7751/pstheme17lw.png
This is so beautiful !!!
I would definetly use this skin if it existed.
But with few changes
1. The forum width can\'t be defined by hard. When i make my window wider, i want the forum text space be wider too.
The left and right margins can\'t be too wide. max 40 pixels

2. The brown #A0806F color of forum description/posts count/common posts text should be lighter thus easy to read. I propose #C8B1A4

3. I don\'t like the windows logo assigned to bugs this aren\'t just windows bugs (or i\'m wrong) but all kinds of bugs under different OS.

[McHammer]

I didnt read all the previous posts so i dont know if someone has suggested this before but there could be a make donation button in the website. Then there would be at least a one way to thank the game makers for this FREE game.

[clint8565]

Example 1 is awesome! Like Nikodemus I would definately use that theme if it existed

[Xordan]

Both examples are great I prefer example 2 over example 1 I think.

[josephoenix]

@Netty: Regarding the tiling bar in the seamless background: I put that together from samples of the PlaneShift GUI images for use in my loading screens. I have one example uploaded now, here.

Technically, the copyright belongs to Atomic Blue Inc., but since these are made for PlaneShift I don\'t think anyone would have a problem with it ;]

@Xordan: I already made some forum icons in this style for my phpBB skin...





For regular, with new posts, and locked, respectively.

In other newsI\'ve been working on my secret thing, and came up with two colorscheme/layout things. They aren\'t perfect, but they display like I want them to in FireFox and even IE, for which you have the people in #css on freenode to thank ;]

Behold! The Streets of Ojaveda!

And the Blue City (Actually, I lied. This one is still a little weird in IE)

Not revolutionary, I grant you, but PS Themed. And with secret info on the Laanx Server.

josePhoenix

[Karyuu]

Netty, this is amazing :) Absolutely gorgeous design! I personally prefer Example 1 more, with the bluer bars, but both examples are really well-done. I would love to see this look adopted for the forums and website.

As always, thanks for taking the time to do this :)

*edit* Hm.. you know, looking at this theme further there is one thing that irks me - though the use of the PS icons is beautiful, it doesn\'t let one see when there are new posts or threads in that forum, which I personally find vital. If there was some sort of obvious visual change (something other than a color/tone variation), that would be just grand.

[josephoenix]

Wah, Kary didn\'t comment on my design.. perhaps because I\'ve been pestering her about it for so long she\'s become unsensitive to it

About Netty\'s forum design (which I am just having a chance to look at properly):

I\'m not convinced about the blue bars for category titles; they don\'t seem to fit with an \"earthy\" color scheme (which is what pervades the rest with the green and brown).

On the other example you changed it to a dark brown. in my most conceited opinion, the category titles would look better if they were lighter than the background of the forum description. The categories are supposed to stand out and divide up the mess of forums, with a dark background you don\'t notice them as much.

With the collage at the top, it would look better without a black 1px border on the top of the image, since you already have your border with the green/gold top bar. A small detail that you probably would have changed if you were making the actual stylesheet instead of a mock-up

Also about the collage, I think you should reverse the order of the two rendered images.. the way it is now, poor Mr. Kran has \"PlaneShift\" plastered across his face.

also, I get the feeling that the color it fades to at the right should be different, but I\'m not quite sure how >.> hmm

Overall, very nice. Also, even if some time in the future the website changes, this forum supports multiple skins, so as long as the default theme is matching there\'s no reason half the users (including me!) wouldn\'t use yours

josePhoenix