Shroud of the Avatar needs a complete website overhaul...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Retro, Nov 29, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
Page 2 of 8
  1. smack

    smack Avatar

    Messages:
    7,077
    Likes Received:
    15,288
    Trophy Points:
    153
    smack, Nov 30, 2013
    #21
    Rustic Dragon and OSullivan like this.
  2. Owain

    Owain Avatar

    Messages:
    3,513
    Likes Received:
    3,463
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Maybe they can hire the guys who implemented the Obamacare web site. :p
     
    Owain, Nov 30, 2013
    #22
    rild likes this.
  3. tphilipp

    tphilipp SotA Dev Moderator SOTA Developer

    Messages:
    535
    Likes Received:
    1,747
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Hi there,

    about the add-on store. This is a shortcoming we are aware of – the reasons for it are purely historical. Originally we didn’t have an add-on store, but simply those pledge tiers. We used the same system to start that add-on store, as everything was integrated into the accounting, etc. already. For only a few items it was great and a big time-saver to get it started, however, it starts to show its limits – it obviously doesn’t scale with the number of added items.

    The new merchandise store uses a real shopping cart, however, it’s not integrated into the accounting (yet). And it's missing the other payment options, also, requiring some good amount of work. Then it needs to be skinned, etc..

    The payment and accounting system is unfortunately more complex than what it looks like to the outside, with all the early- and late-backer logic, the unique items, which tier gets what, etc..

    We are working on making this better, unfortunately this will take a little while, there are so many things to do…! [​IMG]

    And about the Star Citizen website - personally I think it's confusing to navigate and without a big screen not user-friendly. However, that's just my observation, taste differs, of course. The thing it comes down to is that they have a bigger team and 10 times the money to spend, so their site goes through more iterations more quickly.

    I’m sorry about the inconvenience.
     
    tphilipp, Dec 2, 2013
    #23
    Kuno, rild, DeftAvatar and 9 others like this.
  4. Lum the Mad

    Lum the Mad Developer Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    2,488
    Likes Received:
    12,987
    Trophy Points:
    190
    Hey, that part I can fix! I was initially confused because spellchecking isn't part of forum software - it's handled by your web browser (if you use Chrome or Firefox - IE requires an addon I think). The third party editor I installed disabled that by default for some odd reason (I think because they were trying to implement their own solution for full IE compatibility, but from a quick web search it was dependent on a Google API which was deactivated earlier this year).

    Short version, unless you use IE, if you misspelll wyrds they will correctly appear squiggly-lined now.

    (I'm aware of the double-spacing quoting issue with Firefox, no ETA on fix.)
     
    Lum the Mad, Dec 2, 2013
    #24
    Rampage202, Umbrae, PrimeRib and 12 others like this.
  5. Floors

    Floors Avatar

    Messages:
    4,266
    Likes Received:
    6,622
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Yeah It really needs some attention. Also I ordered items over a month ago and haven't gotten shipping notices or info of any kind.

    Compared to most e-checkout stores in the web, it's not a good experience currently.
     
    Floors, Dec 2, 2013
    #25
  6. smack

    smack Avatar

    Messages:
    7,077
    Likes Received:
    15,288
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Sweet! Spell check works now. Thanks Lum!
     
    smack, Dec 2, 2013
    #26
    rild, Fireangel, OSullivan and 1 other person like this.
  7. FireLotus

    FireLotus Royal Bard & Master Dabbler Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    964
    Likes Received:
    6,438
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Anchorage
    Lum, you are my hero man!
     
    FireLotus, Dec 2, 2013
    #27
    Rampage202, rild, Gabriel Nightshadow and 4 others like this.
  8. Mishri

    Mishri Avatar

    Messages:
    3,812
    Likes Received:
    5,585
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Great Falls, MT
    spellcheck is back!

    well.. I haven't bought anything on the website, didn't realize they had no shopping cart. Paypal has a shopping cart system they should be able to easily implement. I know my bro used it for some of his websites.

    edit: apparently spellcheck is back x3 :D
     
    Mishri, Dec 2, 2013
    #28
  9. tphilipp

    tphilipp SotA Dev Moderator SOTA Developer

    Messages:
    535
    Likes Received:
    1,747
    Trophy Points:
    63
    tradyblix, do you mean shipping notices for the merchandise? I assume so as the add-ons ship with the game, of course, not immediately.
    There should have been notices, actually.
     
    tphilipp, Dec 2, 2013
    #29
  10. tphilipp

    tphilipp SotA Dev Moderator SOTA Developer

    Messages:
    535
    Likes Received:
    1,747
    Trophy Points:
    63
    @Mishri - well... that won't fix the usability on the site. That's just once it's all put together and then sent off to PayPal. And on top of that, we need that for all payment systems as abstraction.

    And well, about PayPal... that has unfortunately been the single most annoying thing we had to deal with over months, and spent hours with them on the phone... so nope, it's unfortunately not that much of a breeze if you have to handle a lot of transactions.
     
    tphilipp, Dec 2, 2013
    #30
  11. smack

    smack Avatar

    Messages:
    7,077
    Likes Received:
    15,288
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Thanks for the explanation, tphilipp! Question though -- are you guys writing your own or integrating with third party shopping cart providers and customizing that?


    I personally don't like Star Citizen's website either. While it is indeed "slick and flashy" it isn't the model I'd use if I were to redo SotA's website. Although I believe they did outsource their website development rather than try to roll their own internally.
     
    smack, Dec 2, 2013
    #31
  12. NirAntae

    NirAntae Avatar

    Messages:
    1,367
    Likes Received:
    2,686
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Mississippi

    Yaaaaay. Just knowing that it's being worked on and will happen goes a huge way. Thanks!!!





    Yet another post it will only let me like once! <3 <3 <3
     
    NirAntae, Dec 2, 2013
    #32
  13. Mishri

    Mishri Avatar

    Messages:
    3,812
    Likes Received:
    5,585
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Great Falls, MT
    Yeah.. I don't see it listed on their website anymore.. this was about 5 years ago... now they recommend 3rd party shopping carts that charge monthly fees, they used to have a free one. My mistake.
     
    Mishri, Dec 2, 2013
    #33
  14. LoneStranger

    LoneStranger Avatar

    Messages:
    3,023
    Likes Received:
    4,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Petaluma, CA
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
    LoneStranger, Dec 2, 2013
    #34
    Umbrae and NirAntae like this.
  15. tphilipp

    tphilipp SotA Dev Moderator SOTA Developer

    Messages:
    535
    Likes Received:
    1,747
    Trophy Points:
    63
    We aren't shooting for reinventing the wheel, we'll try to use an existing and stable system, and customize that. The merchandise store is in many ways exactly that preparational work. At the moment, it's only merchandise as this doesn't affect the entire pledge-level logic, etc., though. So, for a transition, there needs to be custom code that brings in all of that into yet another system. Then we need to add more payment systems - that sounds simple, per se, as this shop system has a bunch of plugins to handle those, but experience shows that there's always stuff to add, tweak, change, and so on. And unfortunately, we don't have at the moment Amazon Payments and the Credit Card payment provider that we use in there.

    But yes, that was intended to be the start of a slow transition to make this area better. Time permitting, of course - and as you all are aware of the posted schedule for Shroud, there is not a lot of extra-time for our team size... :-/
    So, please bear with us, we are definitely aware of this being quite frustrating to use.

    Yes, they did outsource, so it doesn't take away time from their team, either. Unfortunately we don't have the 30 millions they have ;)
    However, given that, don't forget also that Star Citizen's website is still work in progress and the community made it through a bunch of transitions to get there, including reimporting their accounts, etc..

    One step at a time, ... :)
     
    tphilipp, Dec 2, 2013
    #35
    Kuno, Miracle Dragon, rild and 4 others like this.
  16. Bubonic

    Bubonic Avatar

    Messages:
    2,455
    Likes Received:
    7,975
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    Unfortunately, this has been a recurring theme with several aspects of the SotA campaign, not least of which is the rough-draft-condition of the official prologue available in the add-on store.

    I am a huge fan, and desperately want to see this project succeed. The talent is great, but the implementation has been somewhat lacking.
     
    Bubonic, Dec 2, 2013
    #36
    Kuno, Dame Lori and LoneStranger like this.
  17. Rustic Dragon

    Rustic Dragon Proprietor of the Hearth

    Messages:
    219
    Likes Received:
    1,261
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    I am now. ^_^
     
    Rustic Dragon, Dec 2, 2013
    #37
    Kuno, Gabriel Nightshadow, Sir Frank and 2 others like this.
  18. rild

    rild Avatar

    Messages:
    1,220
    Likes Received:
    2,485
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I think we backers tend to think of this project as further along than the devs. It's my understanding that we aren't really into the public marketing phase of Shroud. This is all behind-the-scenes and even newcomers are really a small segment of the proposed market.

    One thing they're not doing is pushing this site with ads before it's polished. That being said, yes those improvements need to be made for a professional appearance. And it is frustrating to not add multiple items to your cart when I want to buy everything!! Still, it's not THAT tough!

    I work in the orders/ fulfillment/ logistics/ accounting bidness and I can vouch that the accounting part really makes things so much more tedious and difficult. They haven't lost anyone's pledges yet!

    Glad to hear it's being improved.
     
    rild, Dec 2, 2013
    #38
    Mishri, Miracle Dragon, tphilipp and 1 other person like this.
  19. rild

    rild Avatar

    Messages:
    1,220
    Likes Received:
    2,485
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I was surprised by the jump my company experienced after we reduced the time to purchase by a couple clicks. Also, scalable CSS would be excellent. Mobile traffic can be huge. This is easier than building a separate site or app.
     
    rild, Dec 2, 2013
    #39
    Kuno likes this.
  20. LoneStranger

    LoneStranger Avatar

    Messages:
    3,023
    Likes Received:
    4,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Petaluma, CA
    I think it would be great if the Add-on store was given the guise of an in-world shopkeeper. The pledge store could look like some kind of registration with one of Lord British's organizations. However the prequel story works out, it would be fun if the website appeared to be in-world and meshed with the story.
     
    LoneStranger, Dec 2, 2013
    #40
    Retro, rild, Mordecai and 1 other person like this.
Page 2 of 8
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.