Simutrans site - www.simutrans.com (old topic)

[sojo]

So I created a new and simpler version of download page:

I think this is a good way. Everybody will understand this.

[DirrrtyDirk]

Linux with SDL and SDL_mixer

Didn't we change that to "Linux (requires SDL and SDL_mixer)" some time back in the past? Or are these things included by now?

[jamespetts]

"You need the executable compatible to your operating system" should be:

"You need the executable compatible with your operating system".

[prissi]

Maybe open a new window for the download page, as going backwards is not always working with all those redirects.

[IgorEliezer]

Yet another sub-version of site:

- Welcome page and About page have received "new skin". If you like it, I'll apply it in other pages. (I did)
- Download page opens new windows to download files.
- New background for all pages.

I'm thinking of removing watermark from Welcome page.

http://pt.simutrans.com/newsite/index.html (refresh to update page styles)

EDIT:

I need a small icon to put in these buttons:





As I did here:



... but I'm not getting good results.

[prissi]

Honestly this white patches somewhere looks very ugly. Why not keeping Simutrans grass? (Also very small ... )

[IgorEliezer]

Honestly this white patches somewhere looks very ugly.

Somewhere where? If white background is not good, then I'll revert the changes of yesterday: I'll put gray background back as before. I would prefer the site with white background than older one with gray everywhere.

I think it's time to stop here and release this site.

[vilvoh]

For wiki, you could usew this one from graphics.simutrans.com (resizing it if needed) or any other. IIRC, the wiki logo is available to be used with any purpose.


In project page button, I would use the Simutrans logo. Btw, wouldn't be better to use a simple icon in download button? like this one, for example:

[IgorEliezer]

Okay, I reverted almost all editions.

My last offer: http://pt.simutrans.com/newsite/

About icons: Anyway thanks. But I don't know if I'll make more changes in site ATM. I prefer to host it soon and/or leave new editions later. This story is taking too long.

[vilvoh]

IMHO, it's ready for the release...great work, Igor!

[prissi]

The link text of underlined links changes when mouseover effects occur and cause the text to jump up and down and left and right when just moving the mouse over the text, at least for webkit browsers (safari and chrome). Those underlines links also only are seen in the latter. I presume the CSS needs some more tweaking.

Personally, I would just put the about section under the welcome section. I find those two redundant. On the other hand I dearly miss the link to the sf project page in the main menu.

(And 101 is not really a stable release, as it destroy lines when saving, which is quite a fatal bug.)

For the debug section: THe programming wiki is on sourceforge too:
http://simutrans.wiki.sourceforge.net/

[Spike]

In the pakHajo section it says:

However, certain aspects still tell the 8 Bit heritage.

Which aspects would that be?

Although I don't have much time to work on pakHajo.Evolution, I'd like to upgrade the graphics. The set is meant to be a feature-frozen version of Simutrans 0.84.x, but the images (and also the in-game texts) I want to improve to my best abilities.

[prissi]

I think the powerplant was still 8 Bit, as some of the curiosities and the grass of the construction sites.

[Spike]

Ok. The powerplant has been upgraded meanwhile.

Some of the curiosities, particularly the stonehenge wait for better images - I had a better stonehenge once, but lost it somehow. The construction site image is very old for sure, too. Thanks for the pointers

[IgorEliezer]

A little question:

Can I release the new site officially?

Thanks

[KrazyJay]

One last thing, sorry to be a bit extreme, but on this page about.htm is a little mistake to be found. "Each passanger (and unit of goods) is intelligent, knows where it needs to go, and can transfer from one vehicle to another to reach its destination." It should say passenger, and correct me if I'm wrong, but to be precise, it should be "Every passenger [...]". But don't pin me down on that one... Everything else, the site looks nice, really!

[prissi]

Is it only me, who finds about and wecome redundant? If yes, maybe we could go ahead. The development section is still a big mess, but it was that already before. (If I had time I would think of a some section for grafik, testing, and programming to have some structure at all.)

[vilvoh]

You're not alone.. ... The Welcome section is more or less a summary of some parts of About section. It should be shorter. The wikipedia article has a good intro that may be useful as example:

Simutrans is a cross-platform simulation game which players has to run a successful transport system by transporting goods and passengers between places. Simutrans was originally written by Hansjörg Malthaner but it is now maintained and developed by a small team which releases bug fixes, changes or new features for the game

Short, simple and direct. I think it expresses what exactly Simutrans is

On the other hand, imho Development it's too long, and as I said before I would move Simutrans history to About section.

[prissi]

I would move the "about" stuff just below the welcome stuff, just after a horizointal line below those boxes to the right.

This is the further motivation for the non-braindead people, albeit usually the ones who are longer with us. If you are too lazy to read this, you are not going to play simutrans because it will be too challenging anyway.

[VS]

Igor: agreed, if it was up to me, I'd say put it up, then fix what is found in time.

[IgorEliezer]

agreed, if it was up to me, I'd say put it up, then fix what is found in time.

Okay. I fixed the "typos" pointed out by KrazyJay (thank you).

After hosting the new site, I'll pack entire material into a zipfile so that any webdesigner better than me can download and make changes/updates that are needed.

I need some instruction about how to host this site (via PM); the latest times I tried do to so, I failed.

Also, I'll need someone to redirect www.simutrans.com address to the new site.

About Welcome page: I see welcome page as a summary of entire site, then I don't see any problem if we have some similarities between welcome and about page. Actually, the index page has some info that are not in about page, has a different text.

The index page should have more visual appeal than texts and details. If a visitor, after having an overview of main theme - the Simutrans, gets interested, he'll look for more details in other pages. OTOH, if we have an index page with too much information, the visitor will get tired easily because we weren't objective with the message. We are dealing with players.

IMHO, the index page should be short and clean, with just 1 or 2 paragraphs and latest news (e.g: http://www.freecol.org, http://www.openttd.org/en, http://www.scirra.com and http://www.blender.org ). It would be better if we get rid of vertical scrollbar...but for these things we would need to remove at least two paragraphs out to get more space; and someone in charge of posting news there too.

Just it.

[Dwachs]

on the development site there is a strange graphic, showing some box in the 'transparent' color. I suppose this has a special meaning but I cannot figure it out.

[vilvoh]

I guess it tries to show you how the graphic engine works, but I thought It was there to show a usual graphic bug, when you forget to use E7FFFF as transparent background color in png files.. :-\

[VS]

Napik used that picture to depict "development". I thought it was strange choice, too, but do you have any better idea? I don't :-\ It is not that easy:

The picture must convey that something is new, so just slapping there an image of a new feature like tunnel slopes will not work; the viewer does not know if it is a new feature or not. Such image would not even communicate "development". Also, consider that this section may stay the same for ages, so the idea of "new" should be rather timeless.

Showing code text would not work, too, since that is dull - you do not even need a picture for that. Maybe some blend from code to picture...

I'm afraid I have pondered this too many times and can't think of anything new :(

[IgorEliezer]

I thought it was strange choice, too, but do you have any better idea?

I had found it:


http://en.wiki.simutrans.com/index.php/Source_Code

... but as VS said "Showing code text would not work since that is dull"... I got stuck.

I can't stay here. I need to go to work.

[vilvoh]

We could mix some code and graphics development references. The image may include a painting program (GIMP, Ps, Paint), a 3D program (Blender, Wings, 3dStudioMax) and code compiling..

[VS]

Could be. I'll try to come up with something.

[IgorEliezer]

I'm here just to say:

New site is out.

http://www.simutrans.com/

bye

[vilvoh]

Great work!!  it still needs some arrangements but at least now we have a decent main site, apart from SF.net project site. Thanks very much for your time and effort Igor..

[jamespetts]

Excellent! That should help to encourage more people to use Simutrans. Good work :-)

[sojo]

Nice site. But some SEO (searchengine stuff) make a better title-tag (mainpage).
Nobody will search for Simutrans - Welcome. Use Simutrans - Freeware-Game or Simutrans a free Transportation Simulation (only 65 characters!).

The most stuff is really good. Google will love this site. Only you can give the links at top of the site a title tag.

[Tomas]

Hi Igor, nice page!
But i see one small "bug":

My screensize is happen too big; i see i bottom of page green zone without texture.
And in Safari browser is this zone white.


Can you fix this, please?

EDIT: 7 errors and 128 warnings in (x)HTML validator...

[VS]

Well it's xhtml interpreted as sent mimetype, which is text/html, so almost al <tag /> constructs are invalid. A bit overzealous check...

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fsimutrans.com%2Fpaksets.htm&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.606

EDIT: Yeah, got it. Doctype needs small first HTML, or all is lost.

[Tomas]

A bit overzealous check...

Im sorry 4 offtopic.
VS, this is right. When  is document declaration invalid, must validation of xHTML document ends with error (see documentation of xhtml1.0 language)

EDIT: Yeah, got it. Doctype needs small first HTML, or all is lost.

XHTML is evil!

[prissi]

Shouldn't this go on sourceforge to raise our rating there?