for aesthetic purposes only

[ars68]

just making sure, that after everything is set up, tested, and working properly and all, that the game graphics and everything is 'over-hauled' so to speak.  I mean, myself, I don't care for graphics, as long the gameplay is good, but there are more then a few out there that feel differently, that they won't play something unless it is 'pleasing to the eye.'  already I have had someone else from another game tell me that if Spaceodyssey was better to look at it, he would play.  until then, he hates it


anyway, as I said, just making sure graphics in general is somewhere in that list of updates to come... somewhere   not much point until all glitches and updates and everything are taken care of, of course, though

[Chronos]

Ya, graphics would be nice. But you can't over do it, or else the much broader catagory of people who use dial-up will get jipped.

You know what I've seen other games doing, and it seems to work pretty good, is to have a downloadable graphics package. Nothing required, just an optional thing where you could download all the graphics and pictures in advance so the site can use local URLs instead of having you download them every time. Sorta like a permanent cache. That might work.

[charmuska]

Well, we already have a sort of system set up to make it easier for dial-up users if Emi decides to ramp up graphics.

You start out in classic mode of viewing (which would have, and already does have, the lower-end graphics).  Future could be for those who want more graphics.

The only drawback to this is that classic doesn't get news or chat, which I have already brought up as a suggestion to change classic.  News doesn't take much, and chat only starts if you open it.

[Seither]

Charmuska, those things would cause more lag for dial-up users, that's why they aren't there. Classic mode is fine. But yes, if more graphics are added, a download package for the must be added somewhere.

[ars68]

ya, download package has already been suggested, and I have dial-up, a REALLY slow dial-up sometimes, even for dial-up, and I can play games with a LOT better graphics little difficulty. 

case in point:
www.archspace.org

even though the graphics are greatly 'improved' I still load it about same time it takes me to load SO pages sometimes.

but as I said, this is more of a reminder, not to forget to put graphics -somewhere- on the list of updates to do.

[charmuska]

Monkey, as it stands now, putting in the chatbox won't add much lag for dial-up users.  You have to open it before it loads any of it.

And news is just text, and not very frequent.  Text is pretty much the easiest thing for a computer to load on a website.

Adding them wouldn't change dial-up users' page loading speeds by more than 2% I'd say.

[Seither]

the chat box would slow it down, but if you make it a pop up only (meaning you see no words until it comes up) then it wouldn't b too bad. Though the main purpose of classic mode is to show what SO was like before.

[ars68]

no, I was told the other reason is classic should be easier to sue for people with dial-up, meaning, those who don't have dial-up, and thus not worried about having least to load, can use a style that is graphical.

[Seither]

yes, but classic mode (hence the title classic) is also that way to show what SO was like, but it is also for those with dial-up, which is why I think adding the news and chat box would be pushing it too much.

[ars68]

meh, not really, as someone else said already, just make it a pop-up, and only as a pop-up for a seperate window, no having the chat run seperately inside the window itself.  that way the only thing being added to the view would basically be another hyperlink, being almost 0 impact on load time.  (every single thing you click on to go to another area of the game is a hyperlink, for those not knowing what I mean)

besides, I don't see any problem, considering I have the dial-up of dial-ups (ask anyway who had to wait for me to download something, not pretty at all)  I think most of the time stuff like that, is static pages, meaning nothing actually changes on them per se, so it is loaded partly from browser, partly from temporary files on computer, making only the first load the longest by far...

not sure though.  just my opinion.  I play in future maode just fine, even with chat enabled inside the window.  (btw, for those not wanting chat in future, set it to expanded, close out the new window, and don't set it back to classic chat mode)

[Seither]

I think classic mode is fine as is.