Sithlore.3 Project Updates

[Jay Mertaal]

This sticky topic is intended to provide information to players about the Sithlore.3 development project, and understand what is happening with the website.

For the first part of the project we will be experiencing a gradual change as we move features of the website off www.sithlore.com and to beta.sithlore.com. These changes will be significant, but should provide a seamless user experience for you, the players. This is because the two sites are both integrated with each other functionally and so you do NOT need to bookmark two sites and remember which features are on which site.


Simply go to www.sithlore.com as normal. When you wish to use a feature we have moved to the beta site you will simply be taken there, and when you wish to use a different feature still on the old site you will be taken back. If you have not migrated your character you will be required to do so, which I explain here: <a href="http://sithlore75146.yuku.com/topic/978 ... -READ>BETA SITE CHARACTER MIGRATION: ALL READ</a>


Both sites use the same database, and so changes made on one are reflected on the other.


Release 1.0
01/01/2016
A. New Database Structure implemented: This has no functional impact on the user experience and can more or less be ignored by the players. If you are interested, know that while the database before was organised along rather old fashioned lines the new one has been custom re-organised with a modern methodology and after extensive analysis of both the way the site works now and the things we might wish to do with the site in the future.
B. User Account functionality. Sithlore.3 (and therefore the beta.sithlore.com site) will require a player to create a USER account, not a CHARACTER account. Characters are items which belong to the user account. A player will only ever have ONE user account, but may have a number of character accounts attached to that User account. This makes a lot more sense for a number of reasons which I won't go in to here, but suffice it to say from both a security and a activity point of view this is a much better system than the one we have now.
C. Bootstrap. We are now using a Front End Framework called Bootstrap, which requires a lot of preparatory work to implement. Once implemented applying new features to the website will be considerably easier. Again, this is one of those things that the user won't necessarily notice (unless you're a web developer) but a lot of ground work has been put in so that we can make big functional improvements to all sorts of areas of the site as we roll out new releases.
. Back end security. For obvious reasons I'm not going to go in to detail here.
E. New Store. The big one from a user perspective. From now on when you use the store you will be able to go to the BETA store and use the new functionality which has a much nicer layout and is considerably easier to browse than the previous store. Obviously store items bought on the BETA store will be reflected on your character sheet on sithlore.com.


Version 1.1.0 : 30/01/2016


Character Profiles, including Personal Inventory and Force Training.
Character Levels (more on this in a moment).
Force Powers section, listing all existing force powers, with new updated descriptions.


You will find your Charater Profile in Character>Profile.
You will also see a box where an Avatar will eventually go. This feature is not live yet.
At the left hand side is a Tab Bar which will take you to your Inventory, listing all the things you own. It will also, if you are Force Sensitive, show your current Force Training: Your Force Level, your Ability levels (Control/Sense/Alter) and the powers you have learned. In the future this box will also allow non-FU characters to apply for Force Sensitivity, but not at this time.


From now on new Characters start at level 1, which corresponds to zero XP. The higher the levels go the more difficult they are to attain- this is to slow down veteran players as they reach higher levels.


Force Powers: We have used both symbols and colours to differentiate between different types of force power, made it graphically clear what the pre-requisites for each power are, and updated the descriptions to provide players with a better guide for what is possible with each power.


Release 1.1.1 Estimate Mid February 2016.
This version will introduce the application buttons to these new pages.
Character>Profile>Force Training will have the Force Level and Force Ability application buttons (and probably Light Weapon application too).
The Character>Force Powers section will show you which powers you have the pre-requisites to learn, and contain the application button to make such an application, provided you have the slot available this month.
We will also be adding the Active Character Roster at this time.



Future Releases:
There is obviously a set order that many things must be done in. We hope to start rolling out some new cool features you've not seen before, as well as updating and improving the functionality we already have. The priority of releases partly comes down to what we consider to be essential features, but also what is affordable at each stage- if it is a trivial matter to roll out new feature A after X, Y and Z have been implemented, we will likely do that before we implement essential feature B, which will require considerably more work.


Again, we have plans for the future I don't want to discuss at this early stage. Partly because I don't want to get people excited about features they may not see for many months, but also because some of what I have in mind simply doesn't make sense out of the context of things which will come first.
At some stage, once many or most of the essential features of the site have been moved to BETA we will swap the sites around so that www.sithlore.com will take you to the new site, and not the old site.


Look and Feel:
This is not a priority at the moment for several reasons. One of the reasons is that it would create more work to make the site pretty now, and then make future releases pretty as we release them, than it would to wait a little longer and do the cosmetic work all at once. The other reason is that we wish to minimise the "two site solution" to the shortest time period possible while essential player features are divided between two sites.


I hope this has gone some way to explaining the process. I will update this topic with new information when appropriate. Please feel free to ask questions below. I can't promise to answer everything I'm asked, but I will certainly try!
Please don't contact me about this stuff personally unless you have a serious concern or issue. I'm happy to answer questions but would rather do it here than on Facebook or over PM etc.