『New Forum/Site ideas, suggestions, discussions』

[John Dark Souls]

『Hmmmm, what would be a good opening line. No idea. Bad non-intuitive interface? Limit to boards? Whole movement post system? Having to always link pictures and whatnot? Just random limits of what you are able to do on forum? I'm sure I'm not the only one who have been conscious of all of these for a long time now. "But what are our options? What else can we do? Nothing much really." is what comes to any arguments about these and then it dies down, because nobody me included is proactive enough to do anything about finding any alternatives. Which is why, I'm making a thread for this.』

『Did you try out looking around internet for other forum or website platforms that have found one that does something different or better? Have you this amazing random idea for something this forum could have but don't have any idea how to do it or it sounded stupid and so you threw it in the back of your head without ever mentioning it? Maybe you even have idea for something completely revolutionary that isn't even a website for what MMG itself could be? You have any of these, feel free to throw it here. Lets start the discussion of it all.』





『Me? For a long time now I have been dreaming of making a new website for MMG with all kinds of useful functions for both playing and masterminding and other cool stuff that annoyed me. And I must say, when I dream, I dream so big that i have no idea how to achieve them, and my laziness is also too great to allow me to just blindly run towards those dreams~ Today for starting this thread tho, I decided to try to at least shape a part of that new website dream and draw interface for what I envision as good if not perfect MMG website. I'll just go ahead and name it: MMG OF MY DREAM』

[smear:fd0303]『MMG OF MY DREAM』[/smear:3f03fd]

『For me, the dream shape of MMG is 1 website. 1 website. But 3 different shapes and functionalities. With 3 different interfaces. It is one of the reasons why I had this triangle shape in my mind for a while. I just feel like triangles and you can number lots of things in MMG to 3, including the name. So, the final images is basically something of 3 different websites in one. The image I have in my head right now is something like huge triangle logo you can see above turned upside down at the center of the banner and pointing down on the site and when switching between different modes of the site, it will spin around. I'll touch all of the modes in order describing functionalities, and eventually draw images for interfaces, though these will be just examples with no stylings so they will be far from pretty in most cases. Well then, lets start from first face, first side of the site.』



『FIRST SIDE, FORUM』
『"Wait? What do you mean forum site? Isn't whole point is making new forum?" Is what you might want to ask. Now look back to my opening message, did I ever say that the MMG of my dream is forum? If you are lazy, I'll just say, no I never called it forum and specifically said website. BUT! It certainly will have forum elements. The main face, that will greet all people coming to site and players outside of season will be this face. Honestly though, I make it sounds all cool, but this side is basically same as what we have now. Just the forum. What more could forum have except well, forum? Thus interface for it is pretty much same as what we have right now, except for few points:』
『New rank systems, borders around the portrait changing color depending on forum role/progressions I will mention later, round avatars, bigger resolution for avatars of at least 200x200 maybe more depending on how large people want them to be, maybe even eventually make innate system for uploading images (something I really want to do, but don't really have set image in my head for it)』
『And I guess this is pretty much it for the forum side. Oh, wait, I forgot to even mention what it'd be used for. Basically, the use of forum side is: new person introductions, posting tutorials and guides, making off-topic threads, feadback threads, making season applications, maybe for trials unless I feel like making whole new interface for it (which I might just do from the direction my mind is heading into) and uhhh.. I guess that's it? I mean, there will be viewing options for points I bring up in other sides, but I think I should get there first before explaining them here. This side concluded super fast because of nothing new, but it is from next side of the site that it will get complicated because I'm gonna be throwing completely new system stuff that doesn't exist on our forum.』



『SECOND SIDE, SEASONS』
『Yes, actual seasons will have completely different interface of the site with a new different functionality. Actual game maps are placed outside of forum threads and aren't even made of threads at all. Maps are what the are, maps, and rooms are what they are, rooms.』
『But first, lets start of joining season process and touch on users. Unlike our current players where user = player = character in the season. I am imagining a whole new character system where a site user will have lots of different characters attached to them that they will be able to select, not that much unlike current alter system in a way. When players apply for season, they create a character through special interface that has specific options set up by mastermind when they open application thread. They choose what options there are visible for other players and what aren't and which are up to player to decide, which eliminates having players send PMs with any extra stuffs needed for seasons. Then mastermind processes applications and if they go through, that character is created and added to the user's Character List. Then the player can switch to that character and participate in the season that was set for that character and spawn on the map.』


『When player spawns on the map, they are entering the Season Map Mode, which has complete unique interface to it, I tried my hand at drawing it and this is basically how it turned out.』

『The interface will be split on two sides. Left side is room itself, every player in it will see this left side in exactly same way, and it will update as soon as somebody does any changes to it. Meanwhile right side is Character Status Screen. It will show your season character and information on character stuff in one easy to see place.』
『Right side might look super familiar, but, don't get mislead by me being lazy and using same text formatting for everything! This isn't just one thread post that has text formatted. Every single part of the room is it's own system. Title is text box for room title, room description is text box for room description, BUT, from there onwards its all new game systems. First of all, Items』
『Items. This is directly related to Inventory thing you might also see on the right. And, that hand icon before the item is what you think it is. It is a button allowing you to just go and grab the item and place into your Character's inventory. Every character has their own inventory with the limit equaling what mastermind set up for season or for certain character in particular if they have abilities related to that. I was too lazy to draw it, but there will also be a button for dropping the item from the inventory on the right, and when you do that, the item will be automatically added in the list of items in the room you see on the left. YES, NO MORE NEED FOR HOST TO GO EDIT THREADS.』
『Movement. Of course, no more movement posts. No more placing dots in the thread. No more looking at the time of post to see when you move, the site will have set timers of how much you have to set in what room depending on value set on both the room and your character by mastermind (in case you have abilities affecting that). BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. The site knows exactly what room is connected to what because of how maps are made on the site, it automatically links the room mastermind connected and places them under the movement, making 1-way doors and hidden passages that are then visible for your character once you find and use them once are possible too. The site knows exactly what room you are in, so if you try to follow link to room that isn't connected to current room, unless you are in Magician Mode, the game will just tell you NOPE and won't let you see that room or move there. The only way to move around the map are buttons in Movement section. Clicking on that will move you to the next room. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL TOO! I am even thinking of making something like "peak into adjacent room" button that will show you a room layout for next room but with parts of it blacked out, like you will be able to tell parts of layout and bigger items in room, and see if somebody is in the room. Which brings us to:』
『Players in the Room: This will list the characters (now that I think of it, I should've used characters word) currently in the room with you. And if they move to another room the icon of them will disappear and appear in room they moved to. I was too lazy to write ava inside circles but it should be obvious. Hovering over characters will also let you see their name and their Inventory (only items that have visible checked in by mastermind due to size).』


『And that's it for the left side, as you can see. The site I have in my head is much smarter than our forum making mastermind do half of the simple tasks listed above through PMs. But lets take further look at Right Part, Character Status Screen. I am still undecided by what exactly it'd have, but for most parts it'd be:』
『The (4) in circle to notify status of char, it could be Dead/Alive/Special game role. Char Name. Maybe char title under it. Avatar inside a badge. And if we want to have some cool progressions like rooms moves, murders done, trials solved, games won, etc, we could place the numbers into triangle in the badge of 1,2,3. The obvious inventory. Clicking on items her (or in the room thread) might bring up descriptions or something. Later if we get complicated, we could make useable items like say notepad to create sticky memoes and place them in the room for others to see. Location, not sure if its necessary while on the actual map since you will have the room you are in always opened on the left, but it is possible to make a link like this that'd send you directly here from any part of forum. I'm not sure what else to put here actually, it could be both ability details or buttons to use them if we actually make useable abilities without masterminds overseeing them. Or we could make plots into specific types of items accessible on the site itself and in order to give plot docs, mastermind won't have to copy paste from their docs into pms, and just press on few buttons to give certain plot doc to certain char in their season. Or you could make murder clues/bullets (if we ever go back to that system) appear here. End image is basically having a customizable character screen that's different between different chars and seasons.』
『That kinda concludes the season map part of the season though. Lots of stuff like editing rooms for information on murders and whatnot. But it definitely should be more easy and fun to play for both players and mastermind. Which, brings us to last side.』



『THIRD SIDE, MASTERMIND MODE』
『For mastermind, I have a whole new completely different interface in mind starting from season map creation, and all up to being able to observe all player locations, their inventories, having buttons to restrict movements and actions, and all kinds. I will go into details on that later, but I've already spend like an hour and a half typing this stuff up and want to go get some foods. So maybe another day.』

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

I want to make a really detailed response later, but wanted to toss this out.

I did run around looking at other sites and I couldn't find anything that I though would be better as a home for MMG outright. Proboards still wins the forum battle, even with Bugs like REB. Plus any game hosting style sites lack almost any kind of information management similar to threads/boards. So I do think we would have to make this or find some super flexible engine to make it.

If we were going to make this, the hardest parts in my opinion are:

-User Accounts: Creation, Password reset, etc. We need this to link people to rooms, faces, and to track ongoing information like inventory.
-Database: SQL, MongoDB, whatever, how we store the data is going to be complicated, ESPECIALLY if we are maintaining Data between seasons.
-Mastermind Mode: This is where things get REALLY nuts. We need a UI for people to put stuff into the database, BUT it needs to be human usable. Its kind of a failure if only people who know SQL or something can make season stuff.

[John Dark Souls]

『Seeing as it is kind of pain making separate thread about the site banner and whatnot, I think I'm just gonna post it here:』

『Just got this amazing idea for banner. The idea is basically same as my last one: Making 3 series of characters, one of those won by murder walking off to left direction, one of those won by solving mystery type of chars to right, and then those who won via secret season-specific conditions walking off away at the distance to center. But then add to that idea what Eclipse once mentioned, the huge mastermind thing holding the puppet strings at the top. And only 3rd type of chars not having strings signifying them going free from mastermind's palms. The twist here is though, as I mentioned before, mastermind part not visible to normal players in normal or season mode of forum I mentioned before, and only when you switch to mastermind mode, will banner slightly move up and show highlight on the mastermind figure holding them strings.』