I just looked at the media section, because I can, and I thought, 'this is one of the main links people will have when thinking of whether to DL, and it's a collection of out of date and largely irrelevant pictures.' And I was thinking, that's a bit shit really. And then I thought, learning curve is curvaceous, and then I thought 2 birds, 1 stone. Someone, possibly me, records some tasty bits from any Empires game, that gives a good interpretation of what it actually is, you know, like the best bits with the pew pew and epic splosion, maybe the odd shot of the com view, that sort of thing, and then, here's the good bit, someone with a sexy voice (etho.) voices over what is happening, why it is happening, and why Empires is great; thus providing a) a super basics tutorial and b) a proper advert for The Great Game that is Empires. epic win, or epic win?
If you feel like it, make short, professional tutorials of around one minute long, explaining the basic concepts like changing class, customizing a vehicle, etc. Keep all source files. Make sure they're 640x480 and that the narrator has a clear and understandable voice (if you're having noise or hiss issues, I have some professional equipment that can remove those).
Find a girl, instant win. You doubt? All will listen. <this message has been encoded to prevent comprehension>
A bit off-topic, but in-game dl-ing: small videos, or even better music, would be kinda nice. Or, have the tips actually be useful (see Eternal Silence tip screens) and rotate them after a period of time while the client is DL-ing. Back on topic, some nice tutorial vids/trailer vids would be nice. I like how the NS trailers show some of the epicness of the game with the buildings and all the lifeforms. Empires it's a bit harder in some respects (the importance of the classes), but definitely possible. Dystopia has a pretty nice trailer now that also explains some of the class features.
someone should redo the main website, i would do it if i had the time... and it was said someone was working on it but it somehow didnt happen
Extrems worked on it. And finished his bit. What he did to my knowledge was rebuild the posting system so that items could be added more easily. The old system required a good ol HTML editor (or notepad for the old skool) and for the news post to be added directly to the news pages HTML.
FINALLY! The current website is a nightmare. IMO it's not accesible, it loads very slow on some browsers and the looks are just terrible. There's no amount of tinkering that could make it into a good site. It really needs to be redone. I'm not volunteering myself atm, just complaining..
I'd volunteer if I wasn't completely useless insofar computer programming is concerned. Instead, I will hone my Photoshop skills and submit some pieces of art and writing in hopes of getting signed on as a concept artist/loremaster.
The reason I'm not volunteering is because I'm very busy at trying to not fail this year at the university and I already volunteered to do something else for the empires team. Do not think I don't want to, besides I'm not that into php and if I would make the website it would require a asp.net 3.5 webserver, which is a bit more expensive to maintain/rent.
Where and how are the loading screens stored? I might be able to come up with a few ideas for new ones over the weekend.
They're stored in an animated VTF, consisting of about 50 frames. The game selects an appropriate frame to display through coding.
Would be awesome to have it exported to a script or just code it so the game searchs for a vtf with the same name as the map and displays it.
what the hell was wrong with the "press" page we used for when we released 2.0? that should be the official page. just add links to the forums near the top, the rest of the page is a massive advert with the download link at the bottom. that was a good page.
The way Extrems explained it to me was it was just a scripted posting system. Same site design, the devs just don't have to edit HTML to add posts.
