External Review and Mission Listings Site
By
3dent,
Posted on: 2009-04-13 07:27 in Mission Architect
PIA = Pain In As 
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PIA = Pain In As
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Ah, cannae help I'm afraid. I've done a few File & image Upload sections on sites but all in Java rather than php. All that might be relevant to you would be to make sure you use :
method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"
in the form tag but I'm sure you already know that.
problem is styling it believe it or not. some fool left out allowing styles to be attached to file upload entries. we are having to use javascript to turn the original transparent while hovering it over a pretend styed box looks really bad when it goes wrong.
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problem is styling it believe it or not. some fool left out allowing styles to be attached to file upload entries. we are having to use javascript to turn the original transparent while hovering it over a pretend styed box looks really bad when it goes wrong.
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Oh you mean the way you can't colour / change the "Choose" button with CSS?
Yep, it's a pain. Happened to me yesterday. Just do what I did yesterday and tell the client there's nothing to be done. Thankfully I was just rebadging the site in question and one of the stipulations they mentioned was "No code changes". Yay!
i have a way of styling them it uses javascript though so no nonjs fall back. i wrote a bit of javascript that scans the page for specific class and elements and generates a styled box to the user. nonjs just gives the same normal box.
There's a CSS solution here but of course it involves some JS as well, mainly to copy the selected filename from the hidden actual File Input into the visible styled <input> & fancy button version.
i read the pure js version further down that page and decided that i could do a better one. 
great minds think alike. problem that i have found is that some browsers render the file element different sizes so the click for the upload button can move sometimes outside of the clickable area of the overlay. so it can get screwy. i am looking at attaching to the dom element during page load and seeing if i can override some of the events.
right i need some choices from people.
i am looking at doing uploads of ma files so that you don't have to type and as they are text file i can do sharing from the site. anyone interested?
well you can give some feedback then. i have a critter upload sort of working but am not sure what to do the ratings on. missions are easy fun, story, etc. but what do you want to rate critters and other stuff on?
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what do you want to rate critters and other stuff on?
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I'd say rate enemies on costumes, descriptions and cohesion.
you know it comes to something when there are so many complaints about devs don't listen then when a dev asks for info there is only one response. sometimes i weep 
well since there is no other opinions i am going with leifs. by cohesion i assume you mean powers are meshing and the description matches the powers. so a description of "likes to burn from range" doesn't go with ice melee powers.
Cohesion is probably the best description when it comes to powers. I was going to say some form of difficultly rating but one mans "Hard as nails" minions are anothers "Easy Mode" in a lot of cases.
Some form of freeform field where people can add their own notes on the groups saying things like "Squishies might find this group tricky" or conversly "Some meleers may find the debuffs make their life hell" would probably be a good idea too.
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well since there is no other opinions i am going with leifs. by cohesion i assume you mean powers are meshing and the description matches the powers. so a description of "likes to burn from range" doesn't go with ice melee powers.
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Basically, how well a group of enemies hang together, over all. Do the costumes match the descriptions mach the powers match the names match the minion / lieutenant / boss structure match the group's background match the rest of the game's canon?
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you know it comes to something when there are so many complaints about devs don't listen then when a dev asks for info there is only one response. sometimes i weep
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You know it comes to something when devs despair after only one response in less than 24-hrs... Give it a little longer unless you know people have seen your request for info!
Heck - I bet that a few of the people who've made suggestions before (myself included) wouldn't object to a PM if you desperately need to know we've read your request (as PMs can have a read receipt on them).
As it happens I've only just read your request...
Leif has most nailed.
As does Carni mentioning difficulty and the difficulty of rating difficulty (as it's often character specific). Though I dare say that you could look at several ratings (mezz-capability, defences, melee/range preference etc) to give a general idea of the groups difficulty for some ATs, this could possibly be served better by a text description.
Is the size of the group being given? min/lt/boss/eb/av count may be useful, but is no doubt covered already.
By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)
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As does Carni mentioning difficulty and the difficulty of rating difficulty (as it's often character specific).
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What can be done easily is to just provide the number of people who've voted for each difficulty setting (like IMDB's detailed ratings) rather than trying to compact it into a single number. I'd say go for the four values of "easy", "normal", "challenging" and "frustrating".
Oh, and if I could make a request. One thing I like about review sites is too read the comments -- but at the moment comments are a bit sparse, so they're a bit fiddly to find.
In the mission list, could you add some kind of icon or distinguisher for missions who have at least one comment? (If you do that, you should probably make a second version of the distinguisher for missions with new -- say, < 48 hours old -- comments.)
ok ok i should have waited a bit longer. but i am impatient at times. sorry about that.
i like the idea of voting the level. could make the groups stuff better to find things in. i got the critter stuff working well just need to get the search going. i should then be able to sideport the code to all the other ma stuff and it will be done. semi-cracked the styling problem it is about as sorted as it can be i think. so thats not holding us back anymore. should have another update soon don't hit me
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Oh, and if I could make a request. One thing I like about review sites is too read the comments -- but at the moment comments are a bit sparse, so they're a bit fiddly to find.
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theres an R on the ones with comments on. will need to change that later to a C though. going to need the R for reviews.
actually one other thing i could do with feedback on. when you upload a critter mission or costume. do you want people to download them? and how? plain text on screen or plain text download was what i was thinking.
how about an option in the comment/review to select AT and level that played through it, also an option to say if it was played solo or by a team.
It would give some perspective to the review and might make it easier to find a mission that would suit your play-style/circumstance.
eg: one mans "too easy" comment from his lvl 35 SS/SD brute might be completely untrue for a lvl 25 emp/dark fender.
ratings for enemy groups:
design
Cohesion
Background
descriptions
Challenge (quantified by AT/level)
A link to a .critter file for downloads ?
that way you can either open it with notepad or just save it straight to your MA folder.
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actually one other thing i could do with feedback on. when you upload a critter mission or costume. do you want people to download them? and how? plain text on screen or plain text download was what i was thinking.
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You mean downloading the whole critter file? I think I would like that yes. And being able to upload and download them as text file or just using copy/paste would be my preference.
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actually one other thing i could do with feedback on. when you upload a critter mission or costume. do you want people to download them? and how? plain text on screen or plain text download was what i was thinking.
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You'd have to be able to download, that's the point surely? Otherwise the feature isn't anything more than "Look at the nice cossies / enemies I made", I wouldn't see the use of not being able to download them.
As a downloadable Text File I guess.
Downloadable text file would be my preference for this feature.
BTW _emo_, any chance that we can tell search to exclude arcs that you've already reviewed/commented on. Or to highlight arcs in the search results that you have already commented on/reviewed.
Would make it a little easier on me for my ongoing plan to play each listed arc and leave comment/review...
By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)
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how about an option in the comment/review to select AT and level that played through it, also an option to say if it was played solo or by a team.
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i am going to add reviews on at some point. it has a lot more info in it.
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BTW _emo_, any chance that we can tell search to exclude arcs that you've already reviewed/commented on. Or to highlight arcs in the search results that you have already commented on/reviewed.
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i can add it to the list. there is a new search page almost done. based on some of the earlier feedback oyu gave. it works much nicer.
just taking the site down for an update. brb
Right the site is back. Here are the notes.
Addition of the user preferences page.
Addition of an items per page option on the user preference page.
Fix for a site exploit when editing certain items. Yeah, like I am going to tell you exactly what I goofed on.
Alteration of search page options. These are not now just boolean include/exclude.
Addition of custom critters. You can now upload custom critters to the site, these should be ones that you want to share with others as they are also downloadable.
Critters can also have an image uploaded. This is automatically resized for display. Image headers are also generated in the style of the rest of the site.
Addition of flags to several database tables, these are for future development and should have little to no impact on the standard site operations.
Addtion of short urls for critters.- It is now possible to use the url www.cityofguides.com/critter/nn to display a critter. (where nn is the critter number).
the custom critter upload should be the start of uploading all the stuff. costumes are causing some aggro though. KS has also uploaded one of his creations so that the area isnt empty.
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well khaine did a fair bit he denies it but he did it. we got a load of new toys to add to the site as soon as we can work some bits out. the dumb bit is that the difficult bit is easy and the easy bit is stupidly hard.
as i like doing hints let me just say that file uploads are involved and a PIA
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I think I already know what it is, if it's what I was discussing with Khaines in PMs before.
What's a PIA though? Sounds like a small car made in the far east (possibly out of plastic and bits of string).