Accessibility of interface

[SekoETC]

It might be a good idea to put up a notice to new players that characters are accessed by clicking the icon in front of the name, since when I was new, it took me a while to figure this out.

[Addicted]

Me too. I clicked around on everything to find it. (Yes I'm one of those, please don't smack my hands) And yes, I clicked around on everything when first spawned.....

[muidoido]

X3

The first time I played, I clicked EVERYTHING until I found that the icons were the links...

[masterekat]

I think I might've even clicked the names over and over the second and third times I came back.

[muidoido]

I still do sometimes...

[EchoMan]

The names should be clickable...

[Doug R.]

Sounds like a task for a new programmer.

[Cwalen]

Just going global here.

To take the existing system and develop a new interface would take less than a weeks work for a programmer in training. Given a clear description of what is required.

Without a clear road map, which it would take some programming talent to produce, what we have is a messy pile of hopes, combined with an ignorance of the system behind it and our current lack of progress.

We have no active programming talent. We have programming talent, but that is sorted into existing talent who have real jobs and family and apparently don't care enough for Cantr to put in a few days. Frankly who can blame them? A good programmer can get more in a week than Cantr makes in a year.

The other source of programing is up and coming programmers. By the time the task is adequately described and the resulting code is audited there really isn't much margin in employing them.

From my own experience?

I got invited to join staff to help balance the world.

Put my best foot forward, said what I knew, even the obvious truisms have not been widely acknowledged, let alone acted upon.

Kept being told, join the ProgD if you want to do something about that, and when I finally got to the point where I was able to hold up my hand and say "I am willing to put thousands of dollars of effort into helping this world"?

I'd never say I am easy to get on with, wouldn't pretend that I am a brilliant programmer, only have a few years of education and a few more of industry experience. Would rather rip my own nuts off than pretend I suffer a fool gladly.

SO WHY DO WE HAVE THIS PROBLEM?

The entrenched programmers who have the skill and the experience and the access and knowledge, cant be assed.

Up and commers? apart form the time and effort it takes to give them a chance to prove themselves, there aren't that many, and frankly to have the skill level to be useful they can command a decent income for working for somewhere else, even if it is freelance programming.

Abandon all hope those who have read this far.

The old gods have their own thing to do, new gods are better off elsewhere.

It's important, it's urgent, it needs to be done for cantr to have a future, and no one wants to be bothered to do it, will be rewarded for doing it, will be encouraged to do it. So we all fall down.

[Cwalen]

You know, tell me which three competent programmers we attracted this year.
I am wrong.

Tell me the interface is well in hand and will be improved soon.
I am wrong.

Tell me Cantr is on such a streak of brilliance recently that we need nothing.
I am wrong.

Just tell me I am wrong, and I'll feel happier about the steady systematic decline.

[EchoMan]

Just going global here.

To take the existing system and develop a new interface would take less than a weeks work for a programmer in training. Given a clear description of what is required.

You are wrong! You have no idea of the state of Cantr code. There are hundeds of files that mix PHP with HTML, very little use of templates, and a separate translation tool that generates html results in various languages.

Without a clear road map, which it would take some programming talent to produce, what we have is a messy pile of hopes, combined with an ignorance of the system behind it and our current lack of progress.

You are wrong! The road map should be produced by the GAB and the various departmedts, including, but not exclusive to the ProgD. And there is a road map in progress.

We have no active programming talent. We have programming talent, but that is sorted into existing talent who have real jobs and family and apparently don't care enough for Cantr to put in a few days. Frankly who can blame them? A good programmer can get more in a week than Cantr makes in a year.

You are (sort of, but not completely) wrong! Seko is active. That's about it. And I'm the bottle neck. And RL always come before play, it has nothing to do with care.

The other source of programing is up and coming programmers. By the time the task is adequately described and the resulting code is audited there really isn't much margin in employing them.

You are (sort of) wrong (again)! Training someone takes a lot of time. Finding suitable training tasks takes a lot of time. Mostly because the state of the current code. There are many things to consider. There are always issues about formatting. Not every applicant have unlimited free time, so the process of getting someone involved can be very long, even if the current ProgD staff are few and according to you "can't be assed".

From my own experience?

I got invited to join staff to help balance the world.

Put my best foot forward, said what I knew, even the obvious truisms have not been widely acknowledged, let alone acted upon.

Kept being told, join the ProgD if you want to do something about that, and when I finally got to the point where I was able to hold up my hand and say "I am willing to put thousands of dollars of effort into helping this world"?

I'd never say I am easy to get on with, wouldn't pretend that I am a brilliant programmer, only have a few years of education and a few more of industry experience. Would rather rip my own nuts off than pretend I suffer a fool gladly.

Just because you have moments of great activity and write a 2-page post in the resource department forum, it doesn't mean that GAB has decided you're essay is the truth for Cantr, that it should be implemented, and surely not that it is the #1 priority of things to fix. If this had been an organization with people on salary in staff positions, we would have a serious problem. For now people work here non-profit, and that's what you have to realize. Also, just because you are (eventually) on ProgD doesn't mean you get to implement your economical revolution straight away. We still have certain steps in getting things implemented. I believe you have seen the Development forum, so you should know this.

SO WHY DO WE HAVE THIS PROBLEM?

The entrenched programmers who have the skill and the experience and the access and knowledge, cant be assed.

Up and commers? apart form the time and effort it takes to give them a chance to prove themselves, there aren't that many, and frankly to have the skill level to be useful they can command a decent income for working for somewhere else, even if it is freelance programming.

You are wrong! Seko is developing stuff, and I'm the bottle neck. If I couldn't be "assed" I certainly wouldn't spend my lunch break replying to this post. How can you have an opinion on how many applicants we have to ProgD? I'd say we have a lot of applicants, but introducing them takes a lot of time and energy, something I've been short of for a while.

I couldn't understand what you were trying to end your post with, so I don't bother replying to that.

Lunch break over!

[EchoMan]

You know, tell me which three competent programmers we attracted this year.
I am wrong.

tdammers, Pies, Cwalen?

Tell me the interface is well in hand and will be improved soon.
I am wrong.

The interface is a mess. It will take a lot of effort and planning to get it done right. It's not #1 priority to fix.

Tell me Cantr is on such a streak of brilliance recently that we need nothing.
I am wrong.

What you see is what you get, no? How much do we charge you for playing with this sucky interface? How much do we charge you for being able to sim or RP in a huge, unique and dynamic game world? The game is in a working condition. There are bugs and there are areas where we could improve.

Just tell me I am wrong, and I'll feel happier about the steady systematic decline.

For the most part, it seems you are wrong. You do have some valid points though.

[Mars]

My suggestions, to do a cantr interface more ergonomically:

(Before / After)

1. Information about key (if it was subscribed before on key) when key is gived away:






2. Storages, to see how many grams of what resource is in storage:






3. Editing the notes from a place of building without need to pick up it:






4. Check/Uncheck all button in notes (working on many notes):






5. See a note if she is in envelope:






6. Giving a things and notes and tools etc. to someone other peoples and using it to projects without need to pick up this things from a place first (it will do automatically now if we have a free place on our inventory):






7. Draging the resources by a part:

[EchoMan]

1. Good idea.
2. Good idea.
3. Problem #1: several people could then edit the note at the same time. #2: It could become less obvious that someone edit a note.
4. Good idea.
5. Has been suggested already somewhere.
6. This could be very disturbing. Consider a newspawn or some other disruptive character give away stuff from the ground to sleepers. Need to check so that only one person can use a tool at a time. Probably involves more coding than it's worth. It's not that hard to pick something up and give it away.
7. This has also been suggested, and accepted I believe.

[Mars]

3. Problem #1: several people could then edit the note at the same time. #2: It could become less obvious that someone edit a note.
6. This could be very disturbing. Consider a newspawn or some other disruptive character give away stuff from the ground to sleepers. Need to check so that only one person can use a tool at a time. Probably involves more coding than it's worth. It's not that hard to pick something up and give it away.

Yes, it can poses new problems, so maybe it is not the best suggest in this form.


8. Showing the starvation and injuries in percents on characters list page, when character have some injuries or starvation:



Ewa and Jarosław do not have any starvation or injuries, so it is not showing.

[viktor]

hmmm.. interesting suggestion. i remember years ago, there was a smiley icon for each char on the player page indicating their condition, back when hunger counted as and was cured like injury, it was changed after the two were seperated. was kinda handy