Author Topic: RTB Development (Read 333517 times)

Kalphiter · December 03, 2009, 07:34:11 PM

Quote from: Truce on December 03, 2009, 07:31:28 PM

You can, to some extent. Overuse will result in being barred like Kalphiter and Mr. Doom.

I didn't do anything. Doom actually got banned for a legit reason.

Ad Bot · Advertisement

Ephialtes · December 03, 2009, 07:35:01 PM

The current version is not designed for non-blockland use. I've been developing v2 of the api to allow php/web requests and can return data in SOAP and XML formats. It's not high on the list of things to do, but it is on the list. I may post some details about it tomorrow since there's interest in it.

Kalphiter and Mr. Doom were only barred for spamming server information requests to populate their blockland id lists.

Quote from: Kalphiter on December 03, 2009, 07:34:11 PM

I didn't do anything. Doom actually got banned for a legit reason.

Quote from: Kalphiter on December 01, 2009, 06:30:34 PM

You got my other key here.
Funny how it took you two days after I stopped

Kalphiter · December 03, 2009, 07:37:45 PM

Quote from: Ephialtes on December 03, 2009, 07:35:01 PM

Quote from: Kalphiter on December 01, 2009, 06:30:34 PM
You got my other key here.
Funny how it took you two days after I stopped

No, two days after I stopped the 9999 players.

Destiny/Zack0Wack0 · December 03, 2009, 07:39:54 PM

Also I just recalled an idea I had; can you make an RSS for each user's fileCP? It'd be super useful, I'd definately use it...

Ephialtes · December 03, 2009, 07:41:51 PM

I contemplated adding RSS feeds, but development on the site might be halting for a bit.

I'm planning to re-do the RTB website generally. Most of the functionality should be easy to move over but I'd like to get off the phpbb forums and put together a better framework that allows for more extensibility. I guess I'll have to write some big post about that too later.

mctwist · December 04, 2009, 01:52:22 AM

4chan framework?

Cheese... Why do I still break rule #1 and #2 again!

Ephialtes · December 04, 2009, 06:13:24 AM

Ok, the RTB plan.

At the moment I'm putting a lot of thought into the final transformation of RTB. We changed pretty dramatically from 1 to 2 (going from game content replacement to community stuff), and again from 2 to 3 (changing site designs and ingame designs). I'm hoping to do one more transformation which will probably be the biggest. This would either take place between 3 and 4, or 4 and 5. I'll explain the main problems I'm having with expanding RTB first.

The name "Return to Blockland" has no actual relevance to what we do and gives totally inaccurate impressions as to what it's about. This limits how effectively RTB can promote itself and the likelihood of it ever being more officially endorsed as an approved add-on.
Most of the RTB functionality is based around our phpBB forum installation so naturally the forum is the core part of the RTB website. After trying to run the RTB forums for a few months I've found that the users just can't behave and none of the RTB Staff have the willpower or the time to clean up after them. Therefore I'd like to place a lot less emphasis on the forums and make it a significantly smaller and more "tucked away" feature.
Our current layout is quite hard to navigate and doesn't allow me to split the site into core functional areas like "Downloads" and "Forums" and "Gallery" etc. so we'd need a new layout to facilitate all this.
Having a WordPress as a homepage makes it very hard for people to see what RTB is and they'll usually bounce off the site in a few seconds because the About/Features links are so small and insignificant.

So these are the main problems, and what I'd love to do is rename it entirely and create a new layout and back-end for it. That's obviously a lot of work, and quite crazy considering I don't have a name or a layout in mind. A lot of people are against the idea of changing the name because they like the history behind RTB - but the history itself is a problem because people keep trying to download the old 1.X versions of RTB thinking it's part of the new RTB and entirely confusing the two. A new back-end would make it much easier to implement some of the cool technologies on the internet these days like AJAX etc. which would help make the site run a whole lot smoother.

And that's the deal! I'm still looking for good name ideas so if you come up with a good one, let us know.

yuki · December 04, 2009, 06:24:18 AM

Just some quick name ideas:
Blockland+, Blockland Extended, Blockland Improved, Blockland Manager.

As for the home page, have some sort of splash page with screenshots and a "download" button somewhere near a "What is it" button. It should be attractive and most of the emphasis placed on showing off what RTB "is" in just a few seconds to someone with no knowledge.

mctwist · December 04, 2009, 07:05:13 AM

The developer is not naming their projects. It is the publishers job. This means that the project could be named RTB, but the release itself could be named something else.

My name idea(Currently!):
Blockland++

Anyway... About that AJAX part, there's a bunch of libraries out there, waiting to be used.
Like dynamically uploading a file. No reload of page.
A bar to see how long it is left uploading.

The list could go on forever, so I stop there...

Ephialtes · December 04, 2009, 08:15:56 AM

Thanks, I do know how to AJAX though. Anyway I want something pronounceable for a name, and something that has a nice acronym. BL++ doesn't sound very nice to pronounce. Also any thoughts on how a new website should work would be good (as in, what you'd want to be able to do on it most, no discussion of possible web frameworks I could use).

Destiny/Zack0Wack0 · December 04, 2009, 09:01:03 AM

I liked your idea for the name; "Blockland Cloud"
Names I think would also work:
Blockland Connect
BlockComm

Ephialtes · December 04, 2009, 09:24:37 AM

Blockland Cloud or Blockland Connect work pretty well and have the same nice sounding acronym "BLC" which sounds nearly like "DLC" which is what we provide! I like the idea of having an abstract name that doesn't necessarily have any immediately obvious meaning - everyone likes clouds, anyway.

mctwist · December 04, 2009, 09:54:01 AM

Quote from: Ephialtes on December 04, 2009, 08:15:56 AM

BL++ doesn't sound very nice to pronounce.

Neither does C++ or C#.

I like the name Blockland Cloud. Could also be Blockland Internet, because cloud is mostly referred as an unknown bunch of random computer connected in a WAN.

Also, when know how to AJAX does not mean that it is easy to make a good secure application. I do insist that you would use to those more heavy applications already made algorithms to reduce your work, and get an improved platform.

Truce · December 04, 2009, 10:00:51 AM

Blockland Cloud also sounds like it would make for a lovey logo.

Ephialtes · December 04, 2009, 10:27:52 AM

I would rather write the RTB AJAX framework myself and get precisely what I want out of it.

And yeah, I already have a few logo ideas for Blockland Cloud, plus the layout I've been doodling is quite "cloudy" so it should fit well. What do we call the chat service then? I don't know about Blockland Cloud Connect - it doesn't sound right. I'm thinking something cloudy.

Also, in v4 I'm going to try and standardise what we call add-ons. On RTB it changes frequently from "Files" to "Mods" to "Add-Ons" so I might just stick with mods.