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Taking a crack at MOTD redesign for servers...


J. Dunlavy

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Not that I've spent much time on these, but I'm hoping to have come up with something a bit more stylish (that will leave more of an impact on visitors) than the plain text MOTDs we have right now. I've even put thought into making the backgrounds dark against high contrast font. The message stands out, and users will strain to see the Counter Strike image in back... allowing for more exposure to our rules.

 

Anyway, this is just being put out for feedback. Fatty has expressed mild interest in this. I can also make the source PNGs available if anyone wants to do something with them.

 

** Release Candidates **

post-1750-1154774388_thumb.jpg

post-1750-1154774130_thumb.jpg

post-1750-1154657459_thumb.jpg

 

I hate the last one the most.

 

Comments?

 

- Josh

Edited by J. Dunlavy
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Could find a different 3rd background and go with 1 for each server.

 

Very nice, I like em. I didn't look at our old MOTDs to see if anything was left out, but that pretty much covers it.

 

Should put (this is your warning) after the instant ban line.

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I'm happy hear the feedback so far.

 

Fatty: I will add "(this is your warning)" after the ban line, but isn't that a bit... threatening? *confused* Also, if you want three, I'll work on the third. Are the first two approved then? Anyone object?

 

The rest of yous: Don't be afraid to offer criticism, folks. I spent a grand total of maybe 45 mins. on these and I work in a field where people crit. my work constantly. Hardest part is getting the screenshots.

 

Which reminds me, for the third, I'm going to try to get a BUNCH of Ts and CTs on screen together. I'm not sure how I can pull this off unless there is major collaboration in one our servers.

 

Oh, do you guys think I need to put a .com in there? I'm debating it, but if enough people think so, then I'll squeeze it in.

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Not bad. The only thing that bothered my eyes was that the "brought to" had some smoke in the text or something, and the "you by" was perfectly white.

 

..and what game are those background pics from?

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i'll get someone to take a group picture tonight @ the OSS during knife round and at the end of the event. that's probably the easiest way to round up 20 people.

 

i like the .com just for association, but then again it's in the server name...for PEET's sake.

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who's peet?

 

Yup..needs a dot com me thinks.

The "brought to you by.." can be totally dropped I think. In the teeny tiny short time they will scan this page, we'd like em to see

1- server

2-rules

3 community.

Xtra words take away from those imo due to short read/attention spans

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How many times have people wanted to be "warned"

 

Maybe you could make it a little more passive, dunno....or we can just go about business as usual and remind those that come whining that they actually saw it in the motd. No biggie. Point taken considering my latest GC speech. Scratch it.

 

Your PM mentioned size....700 x 300 seems to work....what we don't want are people scrolling around to see it. Not sure what the avg rez used in game is.

 

For reference for all, here are the others currently in use:

 

post-3-1153508624_thumb.jpgpost-3-1153508634_thumb.jpgpost-3-1153508652_thumb.jpg

 

I'll see if I can't scrape up a few board members to toss in their opinions as well. The motd is a very important piece, first thing in the face of a new player....and those are looking very professional and clean.

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yah..see, what I DO like about those is...

BIG server/location BIG GC.com...bright rules. ethugs/xtra text is dimmed and secondary and location-offset.

 

I like your grass one the best of the backgrounds, but thats because I dont like a basic CSS background.

 

Way too done...EVERYWHERE...heck, its even my sig :)

I think a "cool" background that isnt even directly CSS related would be cool.

 

HEY!!!

 

can we put MOTD in a crontab?

 

mmmm....diff backgrounds for diff days....

 

sorry getting carried away

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FYI

 

700x300 (current size) fits perfectly in 1024x768. i recommend staying at that size. the 400 might require a vertical scroll. project mayhem is also going to be the longest server title, if that has anything to do with it.

 

dunlavy's onto something, plus he gets the idea. keep running boy!

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For what it is worth, this is what runs in the upper left corner of a player's screen for 5 to 8 seconds upon joining our UT server (players immediately join the action so plastering the entire screen with a message is kinda bad) - had these guys running for over a year now

 

Naturally, these are screened so wherever you see grey, that is all invisible and the game is playing underneath (bluescreen effect stuff)

 

 

nepenthe1.jpg

 

 

Of course, as needed for special events they get changed.

 

 

nepenthe2.jpg

 

 

Those CS ones ya got whipped up look tres' cool - nice job!

 

 

-Fk

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I'm looking and to be honest, I love the GC along the bottom. That's great, gets me thinking about redoing the site if we end up going with a CMS. To be 100% honest, I don't care for the font for the rest. I hate saying that and then not having a font in mind to throw out there though. I do agree, the dark background with the bright font does the trick of sending focus to the text. Might be back with more on the font if I come up with something.

 

Thinking more, I agree with John, the .com will give the pubber that pays attention to that page a sense of where to go rather than just a name. Might make it more evident that we have a nice website to peruse.

 

Maybe rather than "this is your warning" change the color of the first line to red to further make it stand out and add a little to it:

 

This is a no-nonsense server. Debates should be taken to the forum.

 

That doesn't flow well with me, but you get the idea.

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Welcome to GC.

 

Prepare to be Banned.

 

 

PS. Moved this into GC territory (cause it's our motd) and cause that last comment I made was a total joke and ya'll, having read my last post in gen gc, will get it.

 

Needless to say, that's exactly the opposite thought we want to give, but it's still funny.

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