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Heres the universe map ill be using as an example ^^
The PDF guide is coming along well, after its complete ill transfer all the information to the site *which works but however is on a private server* Then hopefully as the cilent becomes production I can wrap things up and make the necessary changes.
Er, ah... wow. Um, just shift over the Arta-Helios and Azek-Ukari woemholes to the right one. Ie, make them Arta-Ukari and Azek-Latos.
If you need help with anything, collecting stats or some other odd thing, give me a buzz.
EDIT: Although the mistakes you made would make the universe more interesting. Helios would be a viable alternate route into Serco space, instead of just "the other way". Plus, Ukari would become a main hub.
If you need help with anything, collecting stats or some other odd thing, give me a buzz.
EDIT: Although the mistakes you made would make the universe more interesting. Helios would be a viable alternate route into Serco space, instead of just "the other way". Plus, Ukari would become a main hub.
Lol ill make the changes ^^ at least I dont have dozens of mix ups ^^, ill make the changes soon. Thanks for pointing them out ^^
/me puts on the art director hat...
Purpose of this map is to be usable, non-distracting, and part of the new interface, yes?
Hence, the style does not match at all, even though it looks "cool."
The nebula in the background is distracting, I say nix it. The nation borders look like someone spilled something gelatinous on the map and make me want to get a rag to clean it up. I dunno if I like all of the beveling and embossing and shadowing of the lines connecting everything. Simple lines and dots would convey the information just fine.
Nice that the "capital" systems are larger. Perhaps get the other "sub-capital" systems and make them slightly larger than the normal dots? So that we have LARGE capital systems, MEDIUM sub-capital systems, and then small normal systems. Odia should not get equal billing with Itan, Dau, and Sol II. Medium size at most.
I would also suggest keeping the names of the systems all on the same angle. Don't alter them willy-nilly to match the angles of the interconnecting lines. There's plenty of room, just keep everything horizontal and off to the side/top/bottom of the dot representing the system.
I like the Battlestar Galactica font. Oh yes and make sure the map is accurate - that's Job #1 of a Map. Hehe.
Purpose of this map is to be usable, non-distracting, and part of the new interface, yes?
Hence, the style does not match at all, even though it looks "cool."
The nebula in the background is distracting, I say nix it. The nation borders look like someone spilled something gelatinous on the map and make me want to get a rag to clean it up. I dunno if I like all of the beveling and embossing and shadowing of the lines connecting everything. Simple lines and dots would convey the information just fine.
Nice that the "capital" systems are larger. Perhaps get the other "sub-capital" systems and make them slightly larger than the normal dots? So that we have LARGE capital systems, MEDIUM sub-capital systems, and then small normal systems. Odia should not get equal billing with Itan, Dau, and Sol II. Medium size at most.
I would also suggest keeping the names of the systems all on the same angle. Don't alter them willy-nilly to match the angles of the interconnecting lines. There's plenty of room, just keep everything horizontal and off to the side/top/bottom of the dot representing the system.
I like the Battlestar Galactica font. Oh yes and make sure the map is accurate - that's Job #1 of a Map. Hehe.
Accuracy, theres no accuracy in mapping things, how the hell did they get a flat world then eh? ^^
I guess being 15 ill go for the cool factor a good 9 out of 10 times ^^ Besides you should extremely nice your frist on my list of shout-outs in the project.
I would make all those chnages but, theres a small problem, I dont have the file and ill explain this as best I can to not make myself look dumb.
So I built the map and saved out a jpg, following this I close the file " A pop-up window opens saying "Save-file?" and ignorantly I click the thing away. So in any event I have the file without the background and the nation borders I did. However I guess this also means its at the state you want it lol. So alls good in the end.
I guess being 15 ill go for the cool factor a good 9 out of 10 times ^^ Besides you should extremely nice your frist on my list of shout-outs in the project.
I would make all those chnages but, theres a small problem, I dont have the file and ill explain this as best I can to not make myself look dumb.
So I built the map and saved out a jpg, following this I close the file " A pop-up window opens saying "Save-file?" and ignorantly I click the thing away. So in any event I have the file without the background and the nation borders I did. However I guess this also means its at the state you want it lol. So alls good in the end.
Heres a few pages of the PDF I felt like showing ^^, none of the information is final yet but this is pretty much what your going to see for about 120 some odd pages, colors may change and the header is kinda funky, but this is the format you will see throughout the guide.
Hot. Damn.
Seriously, the devs need to host your guide on the site, pending accuracy, of course. It looks even more in-depth than the Wiki.
Seriously, the devs need to host your guide on the site, pending accuracy, of course. It looks even more in-depth than the Wiki.
Thanks Dark Kinght ^^, Comments like yours fuel me to work on it more.
Great work Chikira. I'm a sucker for typos, so here's one: it's Ragnarok, not Ragnorak. I've seen so many people doing this typo that it must have become some kind of mass suggestion by now :-)
Yes. I volunteer to proofread when it's all over. Just shoot me the original InDesign or Quark or Word doc or whatever.
But your links are broken for me, Chikira...
But your links are broken for me, Chikira...
I know, we are uploading alot of stuff right now, and for some reason it tends to screw with our links.
EDIT: sure thing ooooh art director god. ^^
EDIT: sure thing ooooh art director god. ^^
Definitely, DEFINITELY run it through a spell-check before you send that thing to the net. I saw a few really glaring errors that need to be fixed ASAP.
will be done lol, remember this is just a layout, not finalized text.
1st off:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me you are not laying this out in Photoshop. If you are, slap yourself repeatedly. I suggest Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, hell even CorelDraw or Illustrator or FreeHand would be better. They make "Page Layout" programs for a reason. Photoshop is most definitely NOT a "Page Layout" program. Making an entire user guide with it will be painful for you.
On the comps you submitted, on the titles, why is "Vendetta Events" so small compared to "General Information"?
Chrome is neato. The look is nice, smooth chrome/steel is a good look for Vendetta. If you can incorporate at least a little of the "Look-and-Feel" of the new User Interface, that would be good. Perhaps just a few transparent aqua/teal boxes or something to tie things together? Maybe replace the darker gray behind the headers with a dark aqua? Like the background color of THIS very webpage?
If it's a PDF, it is intended for people to print out, most likely on their home printers, considering the audience for this game. Make sure your designs are readable when you print them out black & white. If someone decides to print it out in full-color, make sure they won't go thru sixteen color ink cartridges doing so. (i.e. Whitespace Is Good™ )
Is your page size A4 or 8.5" x 11" or what? Remember Vendetta-Online has MANY international users.
Speaking of international users, will you make this available in other languages? (One of the good things about InDesign and Quark is that they both allow for easy language swap-outs via XML tags. Well, InDesign is easier, but I'm extremely biased.) Remember - languages like Spanish & German take up about 50% more space overall then English, so keep some space in your layout if you intend to do this.
Keep text away from edges and borders. In the "About the Guide" section, the first line is getting too close to the right edge. Come up with a border that is consistent throughout your layout. If one line is getting too close to the edge, reduce the kerning or letterspacing/word spacing to make it "fit". In the ships selection area, the makes (Mk. I, Mk. II, etc) are too close to the border of the pictures. Move 'em to the right just a scooch, it'll look better. Trust me.
Feel free to remove me from credits, this is YOUR work, not mine. I am more than happy to just point out things *I* would do, and it's up to you whether you listen to me or not. I don't want to detract from the credit you will receive from the community if you pull off this task.
I like the direction this is going, I'll make one more plea for you to allow community involvement, tho: If you do this in a non-proprietary format that allows collaboration, it will be done much more quickly, and you'll get the "buy-in" of most of the community. (I say "most" because you can never please everyone, so don't try.) So I hope that if you won't do it in a wiki-style guide, that you at least compose the guide in a fashion where other folks can help out.
--
LeberMac out
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me you are not laying this out in Photoshop. If you are, slap yourself repeatedly. I suggest Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, hell even CorelDraw or Illustrator or FreeHand would be better. They make "Page Layout" programs for a reason. Photoshop is most definitely NOT a "Page Layout" program. Making an entire user guide with it will be painful for you.
On the comps you submitted, on the titles, why is "Vendetta Events" so small compared to "General Information"?
Chrome is neato. The look is nice, smooth chrome/steel is a good look for Vendetta. If you can incorporate at least a little of the "Look-and-Feel" of the new User Interface, that would be good. Perhaps just a few transparent aqua/teal boxes or something to tie things together? Maybe replace the darker gray behind the headers with a dark aqua? Like the background color of THIS very webpage?
If it's a PDF, it is intended for people to print out, most likely on their home printers, considering the audience for this game. Make sure your designs are readable when you print them out black & white. If someone decides to print it out in full-color, make sure they won't go thru sixteen color ink cartridges doing so. (i.e. Whitespace Is Good™ )
Is your page size A4 or 8.5" x 11" or what? Remember Vendetta-Online has MANY international users.
Speaking of international users, will you make this available in other languages? (One of the good things about InDesign and Quark is that they both allow for easy language swap-outs via XML tags. Well, InDesign is easier, but I'm extremely biased.) Remember - languages like Spanish & German take up about 50% more space overall then English, so keep some space in your layout if you intend to do this.
Keep text away from edges and borders. In the "About the Guide" section, the first line is getting too close to the right edge. Come up with a border that is consistent throughout your layout. If one line is getting too close to the edge, reduce the kerning or letterspacing/word spacing to make it "fit". In the ships selection area, the makes (Mk. I, Mk. II, etc) are too close to the border of the pictures. Move 'em to the right just a scooch, it'll look better. Trust me.
Feel free to remove me from credits, this is YOUR work, not mine. I am more than happy to just point out things *I* would do, and it's up to you whether you listen to me or not. I don't want to detract from the credit you will receive from the community if you pull off this task.
I like the direction this is going, I'll make one more plea for you to allow community involvement, tho: If you do this in a non-proprietary format that allows collaboration, it will be done much more quickly, and you'll get the "buy-in" of most of the community. (I say "most" because you can never please everyone, so don't try.) So I hope that if you won't do it in a wiki-style guide, that you at least compose the guide in a fashion where other folks can help out.
--
LeberMac out
I am allowing communtiy invlovement, if I wasnt then I would have never began a thread requesting advice and help... dur leber ^^
Im going to be working with a few people on a combat techniques section, and if anyone has any other suggestions as to what should and should not be covered in the guide please say it now before I write dozens of pages on it lol.
I am not laying the text out in photoshop as that would be a nightmare, I bring in the basic layout to Quark XPress and add the text over top, besides the header of course. I believe the size is eight and a half by nine printed out horizontally centered on the page.
================
Page information
p.1
===============
Ive already got it to print out this way, and I tested it in black and white, works just fine ^^ I probably wont be sending this out in any other language.
Im going to be working with a few people on a combat techniques section, and if anyone has any other suggestions as to what should and should not be covered in the guide please say it now before I write dozens of pages on it lol.
I am not laying the text out in photoshop as that would be a nightmare, I bring in the basic layout to Quark XPress and add the text over top, besides the header of course. I believe the size is eight and a half by nine printed out horizontally centered on the page.
================
Page information
p.1
===============
Ive already got it to print out this way, and I tested it in black and white, works just fine ^^ I probably wont be sending this out in any other language.
Dark Knight: You don't read the wiki much, do you...
Anything involving A) Akanese stuff (meh), B) Rockets or C) Heavies, I'll be willing to help out with. And, oh, racing. Lots and lots of racing :)
Lol moldyman ill give you a PM probably soon. ^^
Would be happy yo have your help.
Would be happy yo have your help.
Really nice work, keep it up!