Thank for your help Sarahanne. ^^

I've already completed some work on the project and am looking for suggestions/ screenshots to go into the guide.

Heres the current site design im still tweaking.
Edit: changed to a link to keep the thread from being overloaded with images

http://www.artwrkz.net/scottsart/Vendettaguide2.jpg

Thanks for your time, Chikira out

wo wo wo

do there be a link i can follow to the site?

Not currently, ill make one avaliable as soon as its has more functionality. Thanks for the compliment thou ^^.

Edit: Tweak http://www.artwrkz.net/scottsart/Vendettaguide2ships.jpg

If you want to make it really unique, you could make a "combat techniques" section with common tactics as well as the best way to use each weapon. I know a few of us ex-BLAKS, myself included, who would be willing to help.

A quick weapon example: "Gauss Cannon" - Slow firing rate, average velocity, high energy usage, but high damage and good auto tracking make this a deadly weapon used in the right hands. The Gauss Cannon is best suited for close range combat where the pilot can fully utilize not only the excellent auto tracking but the large size of the projectile as well. However, keep in mind the large mass of the Cannon will signifigantly slow your ship. The Gauss Cannon works very well when used in conjuction with the "Jousting" tactic. See combat tactics section for more details.

A quick ship example: "Vulture" a medium-light fighter with a very slim edge but a very broad top and bottom. To use the vulture to it's fullest potential, it is wise to focus on keeping your slim edge facing your target, making you much more difficult to hit. Keep in mind that your wing tips will require attention when dodging rockets. (etc.)

A quick tactic example: "Jousting" occurs when both pilots, usually light fighters, leave FA on and make short passes at eachother, turning around each time they fly by their target to begin the next pass. Jousting works best when both pilots are using energy weapons. Not reccomended when facing rockets, missiles, or mines. Also not reccomended when one is using rockets himself. This tactic works well with "Gauss Cannons".

etc. etc. etc.

Obviously, we won't give away some of the more advanced tactics that every pilot has and would like to keep to himself, but I think we can cover the basics that most everyone knows. A section on group combat tactics would be particularly helpful for people IMO. Let me know if this is something you would like to have on your guide.

For your design, in the lower left corner where the content goes, the rounded corner should use the same radius as the containing element. As it is now, it doesn't look right with the differing radiuses. Also, concerning the same area, the margin to the left and bottom of the containing elements are different.

I also highly suggest to use the white space on the left as a navigation menu. I also liked the transparency in the first version.

What font did you use for the buttons?

@Lemmming Unfortunately the transperacy was deemed to be to much of a slow down from page to page. I love it myself and im making some adjustments to make the solid version look just as good, and im still properly lining thngs up in my spare time. The font for the buttons is actually Agency FB.

Heres an adjustment to the design, fixed the pixelated buttons at the top lol, and a few other minor things to bring down the load time.

http://www.artwrkz.net/scottsart/Vendettaguide2tweaked.jpg

@Ghost: Thats actually a great idea perhaps that could be a subsection in the ships tab? After I get the base system up i'll see how I could possibly organize that. Your answer... I would love to have that as part of the guide, and me myself not being to much of a combat major, some ex-blax members would be some welcome help. Wouldnt start working on anything yet, but it is a welcome idea. ^^

Edit: The tabs will be rollovers, the green is an example of that.

Don't need the Vendetta logo twice, Chikira. I suggest keeping the one in the upper-left corner, and eliminating the other smaller logo and the words "User Guide", thus increasing the amount of space for actual information.
Why are the U and G underlined in User Guide?
I agree with lemming, the radii should match on your rounded rectangles, i.e. be a constant distance from each other.
Text needs more leading
Break the text up into 2 columns. (about 50 chars per column is good for reading)
Text is too tight to bounding box.

Gotta love the Trajan font. hehe.

I suggest moving the nav buttons away from the top and to the left side. Your background shot is a good choice, nice perspective. Cover it up just a little bit with the oval-ish nav buttons and I think you'll have about 20% more space for the content layout.

Even your effort with this single screenshot looks leaps and bounds better than what is existing on either the wiki or on THIS site. I'd just like to make sure that your hard work is actually utilized by other players - make sure that others would have the ability to log in and present their own information.

Keep up the good work, I wish you luck and like usual I'll be here to play art director. >:P

[EDIT] Hah you posted while I was typing. Like the tabs, still lotsa wasted space on the left side. [/EDIT]

@Lebermac:

1. I'll compromise with ya ^^ ill remove the user guide below the left hand side, and place the 'online' there instead. Ill remove the vendetta online logo in the main section and move 'User Guide" to a centered postion.
2. You see that underline in the new UI under capital letters on the buttons.
3. I'll adjust it. ^^
4. How much?
5. I dont think its going to work but i'll give it a try.
6. Fixed

Trajan font? lol got rid of that, Agency FB all the way. ^^

Kinda trying to get a more control panel look, im leaving the left side open for future expansion and perhaps ad's for things such as the Deneb Run, and TGFT convoy's, or Capital ship battles. Took the shot myself.... *I wish upon a star... for a real render high quality render..... please devs?" lol.

No forum, but there will most likely be a suggestions section and a way to contact me.

Lol, play? I thought it was a full time job. ^.^ get your act together man!

Going to be putting together some more adjustments tonight and working gathering information/ writting up things for the guide.

Pretty. I'm not sure it's good for a website (too many images, almost certainly would require tables and old-school HTML to work with any decent subset of browsers), but, hey, half of the web is made of incompatible, image-laden, tabular websites. I suppose some things one just must accept. I'm just, ya know, registering my opposition to image-requiring sites.

And I concur with everybody else. The wasted space on the left does look sort of silly. And the top buttons would fit Vendetta's "sharp corners" ingame appearance if they were a tad less rounded. Like, say, the buttons on the new UI. Of course, that's based on the original shot. The new buttons are even odder, what with the tab-like appearance and the roundedness inside the tabs. I think I prefered the buttons to tabs, since the rest of the layout does not indicate tabs.

Lol it does require tables and old scholl HTML ^^

anyway heres another adjustment, looks better.

Adjustment 1

Adjustment 2


Anybody seeing the site to dark?

QUESTION TO INCARNATE:

Just as a precuation, and out of respect of guild software, can I get written premission to use the Vendetta logo in the left hand side? If so are there specific sizes, variations, or other things you want to appear with it? Such as Community project below it?

Would like to get your input on the useage of the Vendetta logo as it is Guild software property.

Please send your reply to my email in my account information.

Thanks for your time.
Chikira out

I'm not sure how often John (incarnate) gets to read this forum. I'd suggest an email directly to him at john@guildsoftware.com

Thanks for the address ^^ ill send him an email soon.

Not sure if you have this planned, but for the menu it should expand when you click on a category. So if you click on "Ships" it will show "Fighters" "Small Transports" "Nation Ships" or whatever your pages will be.

I was thinking that as well. ^^ I'll build a quick example of what i was planning for it.

Chikira, I'm also a Graphic/Web Designer(and I do it for a living) and I'd be happy to help out with anything during my spare time...

Hit me up.

Ill hit you up if I need help ^^ thanks.

Anytime, I was thinking of launching my own Community Guide, but I figured I wasn't experienced enough and would rather just send some help with one that is under way...

You're layout looks pretty good, let's see how it gets coded...

BTW, If Hosting is an issue, I can give you some free space... Just give me the ring-a-ding... xD.

I've been giving a similar combat training course to my students over and over, it has proven fairly effective and I'd really like to put it up with a particular guide, yours seems in line with that.

It basically goes through all the vagaries of maneuvering and aiming. Emphasizing flexibility.