Started Development :)

[TheMightyDude]

I am just letting you all know that I have had a good couple of days so I thought I would start development on the recode.

I haven't done much as yet, but I have been playing about with Bootstrap which seems rather cool.

I have been playing about with a new look for the root page of the game where it will display news, notices, etc about the game.
This is also where the players log into their accounts, update their friends list, send private messages to a friend or friends, and also messages to their clan members plus extra stuff.

The login part uses SSL via HTTPS address, so every login is secure.

Anyhow here is some very basic on how it looks so far, its nothing special and is my first try using Bootstrap.

http://dev.blacknova.net/dev-update-001.html

At this stage, I am not sure at this stage whether to just have this for on our running games and have a basic normal version for the released version (if there is one), it all depends on how much this changes from the original version of BNT.

[TheMightyDude]

I have some bad news for people hoping to play the game on they Smart Phones, sadly due to their small screens we would be unable to support those devices.

I have tested a very basic grid system layout like it would be for the main page (i.e. left menu, body in the middle and the right menu) and it looks fine on my 10.6" Android Tablet in landscape orientation as well as on my Desktop PC (1920 x 1080).

I know this might upset players wishing to play it on the Smart Phones, but you need to be realistic here, you will never be able to display all that information on the screen.

Saying that, there is nothing stopping us at a later date, taking another look at things.

See this was exactly why I wanted to move away from browsers and creating a dedicated client that will work on Smart Phones, Tablets and Desktop Computers, but where most people moaned for it to be a browser based game.

[Rincewind]

This is really most exciting news

I guess tablets should still be okay. Maybe just add an option for larger buttons/fonts etc. so it's easier to hit on tablets.

Looking forward to see some progress. Make it open-source on github so others can contribute! I don't know PHP but I can help with CSS/HTML/JS.

[TheMightyDude]

This is really most exciting news

I guess tablets should still be okay. Maybe just add an option for larger buttons/fonts etc. so it's easier to hit on tablets.

Looking forward to see some progress. Make it open-source on github so others can contribute! I don't know PHP but I can help with CSS/HTML/JS.

Well the last time I tried it on my 10.6" Tablet it looked fine, I will try to take a picture later on today (if I remember) when I get back from my Hospital Appointment this afternoon.

At the moment I am just playing about with things to see what works and what doesn't etc.

It currently uses PHP, Smarty Template System, Bootstrap, JQuery, JavaScript, CSS, MySQL (PDO), and probably other stuff that I have forgotten.

[TheMightyDude]

Well here is the image from my 10.6" Android Tablet when I am logged into the page.

Its got no game code in it yet apart from allowing logins etc.

I also had to scroll down to get rid of the URL bar.

[Rincewind]

Looks decent I'd never play it on a tablet over PC, but at least it's an option for people who may want to do that.
Good job. Looking forward to more dev previews. I will also compile a list of suggestions and maybe even a demo of what I think the game should look like design wise (in 2016).. talking mostly about AJAX calls to load content, dynamic messages about sector travel instead of a useless page which just says you're now in sector X, blabla. That could all be displayed in a place without a hard browser reload? Right?

o/

[TheMightyDude]

See the issue with using AJAX is that we are using Smarty Template to handle all the Graphical side of things resulting in Separate Logic and Graphics.
And the actual issue is things become harder to update and change due to Smarty has already outputted its display.

But like I have said I am still playing with things to see what works and what doesn't.

TBH I really want a page that does stuff in the background like checking if your under attack, if one of your friends have just logged on, real time messaging and so on.

I liked Bootstrap due to it handles all the resizing of the screen allows you to do loads of UI Layout stuff with hardly any code.

Also you will have to have page loads or else we would have issues, like loading the Port page, Planet Page, Traderoute Page etc.

Saying that...
...
While I am still playing with different ways of doing things...
I could try a container page which AJAX updates by calling PHP files that returns all the required data in JSON form that JQuery parses and I then format the data to be displayed.

Also having AJAX sending HTML GET Requests every X seconds starts to become an issue when you start to get an increase in online players.
Where as with UDP or TCP Packets its a lot easier for the server to handle, which will become another issue if coded as a browser based game.

See there is loads of different issues depending on the route taken.

I think more playing is needed.

[Rincewind]

Fair enough.. I guess it would also be best to investigate what other popular, similar, but newer games are using that do have a lot of players.
You probably already have a rough idea

Any idea if you will start a new BNT round here at blacknova.net soon?

[TheMightyDude]

Fair enough.. I guess it would also be best to investigate what other popular, similar, but newer games are using that do have a lot of players.
You probably already have a rough idea

Any idea if you will start a new BNT round here at blacknova.net soon?

See with browser based games you have loads of issues, like screen sizes, the browser used, the capabilities the browser supports etc.
I remember redoing the layout for main.php it looked great for IE, sadly on FireFox and Chrome it looked crap, after more tweaking FireFox looked great and now it broke IE and Chrome still looked crap, and to get all three looking ok I had to break the HTML Standards.

As for when I will be running a game on here, I have no clue, I know the version I had on here that worked fine on the old server now has loads of errors that kills the game and I end up with a white page and nothing is logged in the apache error logs.

Hence the recode.

[Rincewind]

Sounds like it's a good idea then, I guess, to recode the whole game. Use all the goodies of the new PHP eh?

I will be waiting patiently then, playing a very unpopulated game atm, practicing my trading/building skills and remembering all the old tactics! But keep us posted on the progress!