AltArc

[blackson]

I think bitesizing would be good again but It would be nice if you could see who bitesized it.

No. Anonymity was a good thing about being able to bitesize. At least for me.

Agreed.

[Fraxtil]

Okay... now that Arachnid is back and planning on one-upping NUMA again, I'm debating whether or not I should even continue working on AltArc at all. Should I keep going in the current direction, or change the direction to focus more upon things like mappacks, collabs, and other sorts of special maps? Or should I just shut it down entirely?

[aids]

Okay... now that Arachnid is back and planning on one-upping NUMA again, I'm debating whether or not I should even continue working on AltArc at all. Should I keep going in the current direction, or change the direction to focus more upon things like mappacks, collabs, and other sorts of special maps? Or should I just shut it down entirely?

put it on hold until Archnid figures out what he's adding. maybe you could take over NUMA for him.

[LittleViking]

I wouldn't expect Numa to change radically in the near future. Arachnid's put out the offer more publically for new coders, but I've only seen one or two people working at it so far, and everyone's going to be getting used to the system for a while before big changes take effect.

[a happy song]

Okay... now that Arachnid is back and planning on one-upping NUMA again, I'm debating whether or not I should even continue working on AltArc at all. Should I keep going in the current direction, or change the direction to focus more upon things like mappacks, collabs, and other sorts of special maps? Or should I just shut it down entirely?

I honestly think you should focus on features that are unlikely to be implemented on NUMA but would run along side/integrate with the current system.

Things such as:

Episode submissions.
Map pack submissions.
Stats pages (for those who like top rated etc..)
Bitesize or similar.
etc...

It would could also be a very useful tool to test new with the potential to transfer them to NUMA should they be effective and wanted.

You certainly shouldn't stop work on this completely.

[Rikaninja]

I never actually/properly new of this. I've got some unnecesary yet probably good extention ideas. Once arachnid has sorted out his things and GForce and everyone else has started on this thing again. I'll just share one of those irrelevant iddeas. More skins? Or even PMing. Though I think that would be really bad and hard but is still an idea.

[//Zander]

I am sticking with NUMA, and if that goes down, you've lost me... I agree with atob... Arachnid's reins need to be taken.

[Nexx]

For all those who want to know where this Arachnid/NUMA info is coming from, follow this link.

On to my post: Well, GForce, I suppose there's 2 ways you could go from here.

On the one hand, you could do as atob suggested, sort of making a NUMA companion site. It could host things like mappacks, but not single maps. (Which Unreality might be able to utilize, btw.) You could keep track of bitesizing or other stats, if somehow Arachnid could grant you access to the site's stats. Etc.

On the other hand, you could continue as you planned, creating an alternate site with all the bells and whistles.

On that other thread, I (somewhat implicitly) threw out the suggestion of going back to a PHP-based site. Honestly, a NUMA where you can't sort is just annoying. But back to AltArc, I can't really recommend one course over the other. I'm not sure what to think about this news.

[Fraxtil]

I have a sort of vague idea here... if I were to add in statistics for how many maps someone's beaten (maybe somehow verify that with NReality?), and possibly throw in a difficulty modifier, would that be a sufficient change of direction from Numa?

[Fraxtil]

?a difficulty modifier,

would that be like you get a rating on how fast you agd or speedrun then the difficulty increases say you have a handicap of 50 frames and you have to try and get the same rating

that could work, but it would be hard to implement

I was thinking much simpler, i.e. users vote on how difficult a map is, and if you beat a map, you earn a certain number of points based upon the difficulty.

[Rikaninja]

That's really sweet. And fingersonthefrets once had the idea; you could rate a comment for how useful it is. If this is a good idea, I'm not sure anymore.

[behappyy]

I think that the people and the author should be able to see how views a map has had.

[BNW]

I think that the people and the author should be able to see how views a map has had.

I second that. Then add in views under the search, like ascending/descending.

[//Zander]

now. If an altarc is made, will we be able to view all our old maps? or will we have to resub them? there's no point having half your crap on ones site and the other on a different site.

[behappyy]

now. If an altarc is made, will we be able to view all our old maps? or will we have to resub them? there's no point having half your crap on ones site and the other on a different site.

Oh yeah I didn't think of that. I wouldn't really care though.

[KlanKaos]

I think you should definitely keep going. In fact, I'll throw all my support along with you. I mean, if we get a bundle of solid coders to work on NUMA and implement some of the suggestions that are flying into this thread, then I'd love that, and probably stick with NUMA, but it doesn't seem like it's really going anywhere update-wise. I'd just like to have a site with a coder that's still involved in the community and has time to work on implementing user suggestions. So I'm with you, and anything I can do to help out without any coding ability I will do. I have a few hours a week to spare, and I'll gladly spare them on organizational things or anything else you can think of that you'd like me to do.

As for AltArc, I think that the main thing you need to do is connect it as much as possible to NUMA. As in, have an option to submit maps to both at once, have the option to transfer maps over, etc.

So far, you've done spectacularly, and you're living up to all my expectations as I opened this thread.

*applause*

[Fraxtil]

Thanks for the support, everyone. ^_^
Anyway, I had a bit of an epiphany about what to do with AltArc: One can now filter maps by date, so rather than viewing the top-rated maps of all time, you can view the top maps in the last 24 hours, week, month, or year (in addition to 'eternity'). This could lead to innovative map filtering, such as viewing the oldest maps in a year, which would show you maps from exactly 365 days ago, or being able to compare the top maps from one day to another. It's going to be really cool.

I've also introduced some BBCode into the system ([ b/i/u ]), so map descriptions and (once implemented) comments can have some text formatting. URLs automatically transform into clickable links, so there will be no need for the [ url ] tag.

[Nexx]

Thanks for the support, everyone. ^_^
Anyway, I had a bit of an epiphany about what to do with AltArc: One can now filter maps by date, so rather than viewing the top-rated maps of all time, you can view the top maps in the last 24 hours, week, month, or year (in addition to 'eternity').

Awesome! ^_^ It's taken a ridiculously long time for that feature to finally get implemented.

[Zephyr]

If all my old maps are carried over, and everything in the existing NUMA is in AltArc, then i'm in.

Although if maps are carried over, accounts will have to be too (And the ratings, comments, etc)
Now if you can manage all that, you got my full support

[KlanKaos]

So when're you thinking this is gonna be up for public beta testing?

[Amadeus]

I'm all for a new NUMA. And I'm also all for atob taking over. He seems very capable.

Also, I'm tired of the hotmaps layout. It's kinda sad to see a map you spent 2 hours on get bumped down by a map that took 5 minutes to make. I suggest 2 portals, one for new-comers and one for experienced mappers. Just an idea.

Again, something like that would come down to someone's biased opinion... which isn't really a terrible thing, but somebody could make very good maps and not be recognized as an "experienced mapper", which would be unfair.

This is what should perhaps happen
A select users would have to take it upon themselves a responsibility to look at the newer mappakers.
What perhaps would happen is a panel or a single person would look at the maps and decide who is experienced. Initially, everyone would start out on the newer map area and then the panel or single user would decide looking at maps to either promote or demote the user. However, if this utopian site was to occur, I believe all the users should receive attention, and author should take it upon themselves to look at and rate other's maps.
Perhaps to submit a map, you must rce 5? It doesn't have to be a requirement, but more of a code of conduct perhaps?
The only other idea I can generate is a set amount of maps to become 'experienced', though that seems flawed.
Also, on a side note, a new N site would require new forums. That would be a pain

I totally love the idea of deciding whats on the hotmaps. Perhaps there would be a hotmaps where you pick your favorite authors, types of maps, or even date of being made. That would be an amazing turn of events, and if this could be followed through, I would seriously consider becoming a user of the site.

Finally, yes I think ATOB is a worthy owner. Also, I'm sure there's someone capable of taking the coding reigns from Arachnid.

[//Zander]

you should also have like different views, eg thumbnails, maybe coverflow, etc

[Amadeus]

I've read through some more. Go for it this project sounds amazing
Quick Ideas:


Favorite authors list
Collabs could be listed under two authors, and both would receive unread comments messages
Better Series organization/submission
Custom hotmaps page
1-10 Difficulty level as voted or decided by author
Mappack submission
Bitesizing
Highscoring
A Section with all the Metanet levels (this would help for people who just want to play a single level)
Statistics (most viewed, highest rated, most rated, most commented, etc)
More indepth profiles (with better histograms, pming and other forum abilities)
PMING!

[kkstrong]

If you need -any- help, you know where to find me.

[KlanKaos]

Experienced mappers is a bad idea in SO many ways. It emphasizes division in the community, and it WILL create elitism. No two ways around that at all.

I like all ganteka's other ideas except having the difficulty level decided by the author and the section with all the Metanet levels. The difficulty level should be decided by the players, not the author, and I think it should be like the rating system, where you vote 1-5 and have the average taken. Metanet levels should stay locked until you unlock them ingame, and then you can play single levels through the highscores menu anyways, so there's no need to have a separate archive for them. It'd make people enjoy the main game less, I think.