Author Topic: Website ideas and suggestions (Read 153641 times)

StCptMara · « **Reply #30 on:** 28 October 2011, 01:23:20 »

Love the look of the new site..just have a couple bits of constructive criticism:

1) "Battletech: the board game" just...sounds a bit off. I concur with those who say "Battletech: A Game of Armoured Combat"

2) I hope that we will get the full tables and complete blank record sheets files.

3)I agree with those who would like the Atlas head icon in the URL, not the silly olive branch. That is not something I would expect
from a war game.

4) On the links, you really need to take out:
Battlehex(they have been out of business for years),
Armorcast(their license expired in 2007, and their site even says any orders after Dec 14, 2007, will not be be filled)
FASA Studios(Again...dead for years)
MechWarrior Dark Age(Gone with the original closing of WizKids)

Maybe pull Virtual World, as the site no longer has anything Battletech related on it that I could find through a quick
look around.

Big things I really like:
1) No more of that floating news box that you could click on, and if it was bigger then screen, you couldn't scroll down.

2) Easy finding of the core books Errata. Will we be seeing the rest of the Errata for other books put up there?

joechummer · « **Reply #31 on:** 28 October 2011, 01:33:23 »

Quote from: StCptMara on 28 October 2011, 01:23:20

3)I agree with those who would like the Atlas head icon in the URL, not the silly olive branch. That is not something I would expect
from a war game.

I'm guessing this is probably the default favicon for the web hosting they have, but it's definitely worth mentioning..

Neufeld · « **Reply #32 on:** 28 October 2011, 01:44:13 »

- A link from the forum header back to the main Battletech page. It is annoying to have to go with my bookmarks to go from the forums to the main page, instead of just scrolling up and clicking on the link that did exist in the old pre-hack forums but is now missing.

- Agree that "The Board Game" sounds stupid.

- Agree that the Latest and Upcoming Releases needs to link to the product. Also, would it be possible to fit more than one of each? Maybe tile them in rows above each others?

StoneGiant · « **Reply #33 on:** 28 October 2011, 01:47:49 »

Ditch the board game explanation, A Game Of Armored Combat sounds cool and has worked great as an explanatory statement since the very beginning.

BrokenMnemonic · « **Reply #34 on:** 28 October 2011, 02:45:14 »

I normally read the site from work (ssshh, don't tell anyone) which means that I access it from a rather locked-down version of Internet Explorer. I don't know if it's just me, but the Legal tab is on a second line, distinct from the other tabs, which seems a bit odd.

I like that you've got facebook, twitter and RSS buttons up on the top right, but would it be possible to have seperate RSS feed buttons within the News and Announcement and Battleblog areas of the front page, specifically for those two streams? It looks as if the RSS feed at the moment is for site changes, whereas what I'd like to be able to do is set up a feed just for the News and Announcements stream.

At the moment, only the News and Books & Games menus are drop down menus overlaid on the page. The white frame around each item and the colour of the backdrop on each entry make it a bit difficult to make out the extent of the menu - would it be possible to have a darker colour for the frame? A white frame over a light gray background is a little tricky for my eyes to pick out.

Will there be a version of the website aimed at mobile devices? One of my favourite things about the forum is that I can read it from my Blackberry comfortably, and without devouring my monthly bandwidth allowance.

With the logo reading "BattleTech: The Board Game", it might be worth adding links in the links area to the BattleTech family on BoardGameGeek and the MechWarrior family on RPGGeek. There isn't a particularly large BattleTech presence there at the moment - I added sixty or so entries for BattleTech products to BoardGameGeek myself earlier this year - but it might generate a bit of free traffic back and forth, and more exposure is generally a good thing. A number of boardgames companies have blogs or issue news releases on BoardGameGeek as well - it might be worth seeing if you can pipe your news stream for new product releases into their site as well.

St.George · « **Reply #35 on:** 28 October 2011, 03:47:16 »

But saying "Boardgame" is just like saying,,, Manopoly,life or Sorry.Not to mention trying to keep my 13-year old son playing just got harder,for he says"WTF dad,I just gave "UP" boardgames.I dont want to be "board",,,heheee.Have to admite that he has something there. ;D

DarkISI · « **Reply #36 on:** 28 October 2011, 04:08:24 »

I really miss the specific product pages. It is nice, to have them sorted, but if I want to link to a specific product, I want to actually be able to do it.
Please keep the new categorized pages, but bring the specific product pages back, too.

Nerroth · « **Reply #37 on:** 28 October 2011, 04:26:49 »

Will there be a dedicated site at some later point for A Time of War, or at least a different header for whatever page covers the RPG? While it is tied into the wider BattleTech franchise, it is still a step removed from the tactical combat games in its focus.

Also, on the universe page, will the information be updated to reflect the shift in focus from the end of the Jihad to the dawn of the Dark Age; adding in the Republic of the Sphere, for example?

One other thing (for now); the page headers refer to "Battletech", as opposed to "BattleTech".

Jaim Magnus · « **Reply #38 on:** 28 October 2011, 04:51:54 »

No complaints other than "the Board Game" ... it is clunky and feels like it's leaving too much out. Makes me think of Spaceballs branding.

Diablo48 · « **Reply #39 on:** 28 October 2011, 04:56:11 »

Quote from: joechummer on 27 October 2011, 22:14:01

To be honest, I miss the forum having a skin that screams BattleTech. Back when the forum got hacked in January and had to be nuked from orbit and rebuilt, one of the forum guys said the plain-vanilla skin would be temporary, and it's still around, 9+ months later. Conversely, the Shadowrun forum started out rather plain and now has the whole SR and JackPoint logos and looks more Shadowrun-y than it ever did before. This forum doesn't have to be anything fancy, though. Heck, I'd be okay with even the BT logo. But I do miss the old, unmistakably BT look of the pre-nuking forums.

I fully agree with this. I am tired of the generic, bright white background and would like some more options.

Quote from: StCptMara on 28 October 2011, 01:23:20

4) On the links, you really need to take out:
Battlehex(they have been out of business for years),
Armorcast(their license expired in 2007, and their site even says any orders after Dec 14, 2007, will not be be filled)
FASA Studios(Again...dead for years)
MechWarrior Dark Age(Gone with the original closing of WizKids)

Maybe pull Virtual World, as the site no longer has anything Battletech related on it that I could find through a quick
look around.

I would also recommend adding the wiki, SSW, and MegaMek because they are all great resources.

Dmon · « **Reply #40 on:** 28 October 2011, 05:16:22 »

Serious negative points for THE BOARD GAME.... Does that mean we are dropping all references to any novels/fiction/computer games/the RPG/clickytech and Minis on this perticular website?

Because to me at least BATTLETECH is a whole universe of things not just a dorky "board game"

Davion_Boy_74 · « **Reply #41 on:** 28 October 2011, 05:33:37 »

I personally question the "...The Board Game " being added to the title, though while it's true, what about the other parts of the Game, or are these parts no longer part of the site ?.

Dave.

Wombat · « **Reply #42 on:** 28 October 2011, 06:41:54 »

Battletech: The Board Game is just...awesome! Soon to be followed by Battletech: The Toothpaste and Battletech: The Adult Diaper (granted that would keep folks from having to make unnecessary bathroom trips during long campaigns).

Seriously, the smells of Battletech kneeling down to the Emperor.

BATTLETECH: I pledge myself to your teachings...

PALPATINE: Good. Good. The Cheese is strong with you. A powerful marketing icon you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Battletech...the board game.

There is a reason that Mountain Dew doesn't need to advertise itself as a soft drink, anyone who is interested already knows. If it suddenly became known as "Mountain Dew: The soft drink", I can't imagine they'd sell anymore. They'd probably sell less. Its redundant and rather dumbs down the product. Sorry, but this is epic fail.

martian · « **Reply #43 on:** 28 October 2011, 06:47:53 »

Link leading me to Catalyst Demonstration Team leads me to their news page, where their last announcement is from the 28.X. 2010. Today we have the date of 28.X. 2011!

MistWolf · « **Reply #44 on:** 28 October 2011, 07:13:21 »

I don't like "A Game Of Armored Combat" because it breaks the fourth wall. I'd rather see something like "No Guts, No Galaxy" or "Heavy Metal Without the Hair. Or the Pants". I know it's just a game, but please, let me pretend

Bedwyr · « **Reply #45 on:** 28 October 2011, 07:51:30 »

Ditto everything Col Bosch said.

- The tagline as everyone seems to be saying *is* pretty cheesy. Just battletech is ok, really.

- The highlighted menu elements should be something other than black on white. It looks like a placeholder rather than something that fits with the rest of the site design.

- Will the site display reasonably on a 104x768 iPad? If it does, great. If it doesn't that definitely, positively, absolutely needs to be changed.

- I'm assuming many of the product previews will be re-populated?

- Game Intro and Downloads pages nearly replicate each other. Game Intro needs more explanation about the universe (as Bosch said) before we get to the downloads part (or even just a link to the downloads, maybe).

Otherwise the style and cleanliness looks good and represents Battletech well.

The Hawk · « **Reply #46 on:** 28 October 2011, 07:54:56 »

I'm finding the new website to have a lot of wasted horizontal space on a widescreen monitor. The Mad Cat blueprint background is great, but I've seen it; I'd rather have the ability to see the upcoming releases and the latest releases at a glance and click over to CamoSpecs and back to see what's new and click into the forums without a lot of scrolling around.

Yes, I'm that lazy.

Highball · « **Reply #47 on:** 28 October 2011, 07:58:34 »

Definitely need to ditch "The Board Game" tagline, it is stupid imho, and get back to "A Game of Armored Combat" that so accurately describes Battletech.

And being able to customize the forums has been a long time item I have wanted back since The Great Crash.

Put the menu back on the right side, it was great there.

Bedwyr · « **Reply #48 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:00:29 »

And just do you don't let yourselves off the hook, the errata page needs to be fully populated and indexed. The prominence of the core books is important, but easy access to changes is pretty important.

MajorTom · « **Reply #49 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:02:12 »

One more against "...The Board Game". In my mind, it turns off the new kid because it makes him think of Monopoly, Chutes & Ladders, or Risk at best. It also turns away veterans who have been staving off the pressures of Real Life (tm) to play because it plants in their head that it's "just" a board game. Makes it easier to let go of the game imho.

Deadborder · « **Reply #50 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:02:32 »

Joining in with the lack of love for "the board game". The old "Game of Armoured Combat" thing rings so much clearer and better for me.

HikageMaru · « **Reply #51 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:23:42 »

Home Page: The Boring. Need more dynamism (if that's a word) on the home page---maybe a larger image of something epic and Battletech. People like pictures. People like pictures of big stompy robots blowing things up. And people judge things by their cover.

Menu Font: The Temporary. I agree with Bedwyr---maybe put the menu items in Battletech font.

Product Listing: The Gathering. What DarkISI said---having the types of books listed by category the way y'all have it is awesome, but the old way of looking up products rocked, too. Can't we do both?

Image Gallery: The Missing. No image gallery? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Battletech: The Board Game. 'Nuff said on that---ditto what everyone else said.

Paul · « **Reply #52 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:30:02 »

The products page is definitely WIP. It proved quite challenging. Adding previews is on that list.
Errata: yeah, we're definitely not done there.
Gallery is also on the to-do list, but we decided against holding up the launch of the site for it.
Downloads: similarly, we're not done there yet neither.
Forum skins: also on the to-do list.

Paul

Atlas3060 · « **Reply #53 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:35:19 »

The Universe Page's links go from blue to not blue depending on where you click, also the timeline stops at 3074 or so but I'm thinking that was done deliberately.

Bedwyr · « **Reply #54 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:46:22 »

Quote from: Paul on 28 October 2011, 08:30:02

The products page is definitely WIP. It proved quite challenging. Adding previews is on that list.
Errata: yeah, we're definitely not done there.
Gallery is also on the to-do list, but we decided against holding up the launch of the site for it.
Downloads: similarly, we're not done there yet neither.
Forum skins: also on the to-do list.

Paul

Good to know. Just so you know we do like those things and think they're important.

roosterboy · « **Reply #55 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:51:12 »

Quote from: DarkISI on 28 October 2011, 04:08:24

I really miss the specific product pages. It is nice, to have them sorted, but if I want to link to a specific product, I want to actually be able to do it.
Please keep the new categorized pages, but bring the specific product pages back, too.

They're still there, there just aren't that many set up at the moment.

For example:
http://bg.battletech.com/?wpsc-product=blake-ascending

Paul · « **Reply #56 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:52:18 »

Quote from: Bedwyr on 28 October 2011, 08:46:22

Good to know. Just so you know we do like those things and think they're important.

Same here, just posting to make sure it's seen that the items aren't being collected, then ignored.

Paul

mbear · « **Reply #57 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:53:49 »

Under the "Books & Games" link, could you add a link to record sheets from the Technical Readouts page? The second paragraph has the relevant text in it already:

Quote

Pre-filled record sheets for the various units found in the technical readouts are published separately.

Errata Link: Again, a link to the relevant forum would be awesome.

Quote

Mistakes happen, and sometimes players come up with situations the designers, writers and testers never imagined. If you believe you’ve found a problem, report them in the appropriate thread on our forum.

Some of the text on the page is kind of awkward. For example:

Quote

If you want to see what errata we have issued for our products, please find them here.

Just my 2 cents, but it would sound better as:
Here is all the errata issued for our products.

Also, you change voice in the last paragraph. It goes from "we" and "our" to "they".

Quote

Catalyst rolls in any approved errata every time they reprint a product.

Catalyst rolls in any approved errata every time a product is reprinted.

I like the categories shown in the "Books & Game" link. I hope you'll carry that same organization to BattleCorps in the future.

Can a product be listed in more than one category? For example can I find XTROs from both the "Technical Readouts" link and the "E-Publications" link? (It would be really nice if I could. And probably help your SEO stuff too.)

Edit: By the way I just looked at the markup you're using on the site now. Nice use of H1-H6 tags and other semantic markup. If only the people at my day job used such markup, my life would be a heck of a lot easier.

Frabby · « **Reply #58 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:57:44 »

What everybody said about "The Board Game". BattleTech has outgrown its boardgame roots years ago and evolved into a full-blown media franchise. Simply saying "BattleTech" should be enough.

Why is there no big honking link to BattleCorps in the fiction section?

HikageMaru · « **Reply #59 on:** 28 October 2011, 08:58:55 »

Quote from: Highball on 28 October 2011, 07:58:34

Definitely need to ditch "The Board Game" tagline, it is stupid imho, and get back to "A Game of Armored Combat" that so accurately describes Battletech.

Not "A Game," but "The Game of Armored Combat."