Bugs and Feature Requests for PlanetsCentral and other VGAP software

[Posting] Message buttons at the game page
Thread opener
Posted Wed, 2020-08-26 14:46 GMT

Can you remove these ugly buttons?.. it hurts to find where i can download rst at the game page.

Early design was better...

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Posted Wed, 2020-08-26 15:13 GMT

Can you remove these ugly buttons?.. it hurts to find where i can download rst at the game page.

If you have a better suggestion where to put the 7 functions that are behind that menu, I'm open. The story behind these buttons is that these functions were not easily findable previously (in particular, "Resign"). That was the best design that I could come up with.

Early design was better...

I guess it's not a valid suggestion to turn off JavaScript which gives you the old layout?

You can bookmark a link like https://planetscentral.com/host/file.cgi/game/54/8/ for direct access to your result if you use that frequently.

--Stefan

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Thread opener
Posted Wed, 2020-08-26 15:44 GMT, edited Wed, 2020-08-26 15:46 GMT

Can you remove these ugly buttons?.. it hurts to find where i can download rst at the game page.

If you have a better suggestion where to put the 7 functions that are behind that menu, I'm open.

There's no functions, just "send message". Simply remove those buttons or replace them with standart blue "message" link.

I don't see the difference between MESSAGE button near other races and OPTIONS button near my race that i'd find. My eyes hurts :smile: I think message buttons are senseless...

The story behind these buttons is that these functions were not easily findable previously (in particular, "Resign"). That was the best design that I could come up with.

Never had a problem to find Resign earlier. and what 7 functions are you talking about? In OPTIONS button I see Setup and play (1), Message (2 - senseless to myself), Resign (3), Result zip (4 - the only I use), and Browse Files (5 - senseless) It was good to see one icon link near my race, while no icons near others

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Thread opener
Posted Wed, 2020-08-26 15:52 GMT

If you have a better suggestion where to put the 7 functions that are behind that menu, I'm open.

In addition, what do you think about adding old yellow ZIP icon at HOST page?.. https://planetscentral.com/host/ Right near your active games. So, player don't need to open game page itself, and can download rst and upload trn at the HOST page for all active games.

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Posted Wed, 2020-08-26 16:05 GMT

Never had a problem to find Resign earlier. and what 7 functions are you talking about? In OPTIONS button I see Setup and play (1), Message (2 - senseless to myself), Resign (3), Result zip (4 - the only I use), and Browse Files (5 - senseless) It was good to see one icon link near my race, while no icons near others

There's also "Mark turn temporary" after you submit a turn, and "Manage files" after you used "Setup and play".

And if you don't use a function it doesn't mean nobody does: "Browse Files" leads you to a file structure that includes not only your result file, but also all previous results, which is really useful when you enter a game after turn one.

If the menu has just one option (namely: "Message") only that one is shown. I added the icons to make the difference stand out better.

(If I find the time and skill to re-do the site in Material Design, there would probably a "Play", "Result" and "Three-dot Menu" icon for each race.)

--Stefan

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Thread opener
Posted Wed, 2020-08-26 17:46 GMT, edited Wed, 2020-08-26 17:48 GMT

It was good to see one icon link near my race, while no icons near others

If the menu has just one option (namely: "Message") only that one is shown. I added the icons to make the difference stand out better.

(If I find the time and skill to re-do the site in Material Design, there would probably a "Play", "Result" and "Three-dot Menu" icon for each race.)

--Stefan

I hope you understand what i'm talking about. It needs to READ what is written at these buttons, MESSAGE or OPTIONS to find where MY button is located, and only then I can download my turn. It takes time and hurts.

All of them are big and gray, with no difference between

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Posted Fri, 2020-08-28 05:12 GMT

I didn't like them either when I saw first but now I find it useful.

-I have my games set to play online (PCC2), so instead of going to Play and pick the game, I enter my turn with one click. (*)
-I can change the submitted turn from temporary to definetly back and forward, that is great, before that if you changed your mind (example, received an email from another player) and you need to make many changes, and need time to do it, you needed to make a new trn load marking it as temporary to gain time. Now just one click.
-If you want to contact a rival, you can click his name and then go to the send mail option, but using the game page feature already tells the game number and the player race, so you can't (shouldn't) mistake if you play several games.

(*) If you use PCC2 from time to time to make a turn, or you plan to use it on your vacation when you can not access to your computer, echoview, etc, I suggest to enter in every turn so your map keeps updated to the moment you need ot use it.
If you own planet 344 and they take it, when you enter PCC2 it is an unknown planet but you already knew before the temperature and minerals, so entering the PCC2 once per turn loads the updated map to keep it fresh.

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Thread opener
Posted Fri, 2020-08-28 10:22 GMT

I didn't like them either when I saw first but now I find it useful.

I'm afraid i can't show it clearly.

Let's your own OPTIONS buttons left, but MESSAGE buttons near OTHER PLAYERS hurts. There's no functions there except of message sending. If Stephan will replace them with blue links (at least), we can just look and see the OPTIONS button. ONE OPTION button of MY race. For I shouldn't read all of them and find my race in the list.

What I'm asking - to remove MESSAGE buttons from other players, or at least change the color of them.

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Posted Sat, 2020-08-29 04:10 GMT

What I'm asking - to remove MESSAGE buttons from other players, or at least change the color of them.

So, what you are saying is My button and the other players buttons are very like each other and we have to find where MY button is, because it's not highlighting.
One colour for MY button and a differet to the others, with enough contrast to call your eyes when you see the page.

[Posting] Re: Message buttons at the game page
Thread opener
Posted Mon, 2020-08-31 10:38 GMT

One colour for MY button and a differet to the others, with enough contrast to call your eyes when you see the page.

I hope so.

This is a testing version.
It may be incomplete, and have more bugs (or features) than the public live version at planetscentral.com.