A long overdue update

[Gads]

Hey Grim,

Sorry for only spotting your reply now. Thanks very much for taking the time to check out the alpha website and supplying feedback. I've posted below some comments:

I tried your Alpha Test Site, just now. On the main page, I like everything but the artwork. It's a clean, simple design, and the Ilkor logo looks really good.

I proceeded to the Character Creation screen, and I tried to create a character. The black box that pops up that says:

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Not so fast, would be adventurer! Looks like you're not quite ready...

Enter a password, but choose wisely! Your input will be frowned upon if both password fields do not match...

Your Gatekey is required in order to enter the world of Arcadia. This was sent to you via email.
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I couldn't get that box to disappear. I tried entering a password and proceeding, but I could never get off of this page.

Other also pointed out this glitch. Chris is working on trying to fix this and hopefully soon enough we'll have this sorted. However, at this preview stage this is only as far as we are allowing players to go, at least for a little while.

On your menu system, I don't care for the shade of brown that you are using. I do like the shade of green that you are using for your background on that main page.

Once we get into the playtest we'll get into the style and look and feel a little more and this isn't something that is very difficult to change if we find your opinion is voiced by many.

I do not like being unable to name my character, right off the bat. That would be an instant interest killer, for me.

Yes, this is a tough call for us and we're still not 100% sure if we have it right, again the playtest will give us a better idea. The flipside to this is that we get tons of names that are out of character which is something we don't want. Each race has a naming convention that needs to be follow (at least loosely). For example humans have a first and surname, while dwarves only have 1 name. We will allow players to submit their own name once they start the game which has to be OK'ed by a GM before it will be accepted.

You also need to remember that we hope to attract many thousands, if not 10's of thousands of players overtime so we need this rather basic and quick way of getting players on-board and playing. As they slowly get into the game we'll open up more and more features to the player. Although the naming of a character isn't difficult in itself, understanding the naming conventions will require more time.

For some reason, I thought that I was going to be able to change the appearance of my character's face and torso, in that image that sets off on the right hand side of the screen. Not being able to helps to mute my interest.

Similar to the character name, the avatar you are given at the start of the game is something you will be able to change and construct yourself once into the game. This feature won't be made available immediately, but when it is you'll be given a number of facial parts that you can choose from to build up your avatar.

I can't seem to proceed past the Character Creation screen, so the amount of feedback that I can give to you is limited.

Yes, this was intended...for the moment.

Just clicking on a few links at the bottom, I do like the Gazetteer page over on your game's wiki section. Very nice - although the artwork in the character portraits on display on the right hand side I am not overly fond of. Senyors favors Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The maps are a plus. Maps are always a plus with me. I do not like the white background on the horizontal bar that runs across the bottom of the Gazetteer page.

The GM portraits are based on what the GMs themselves have submitted to Simon our artist. It is what they want. Unfortunately we can't please everyone and although the game is very much for players, the GMs play a very important role in moderating the game and their character design is equally important.

I clicked on the Mythology page of your game's wiki, and ack!! The white menu and white horizontal bar play havoc with my eyes. I don't like this, at all, and I would not spend any lengthy amount of time browsing your game wiki, for that very reason. Also, the color for links on that page could be improved. In conjunction with the white menus and bar, I just don't want to explore the page any longer. Maybe put the links in bold, or change their color slightly. Because the background color behind the links is a light tan sort of color, it is best if your text and your links are dark. The general text is black, which is fine. The links, however, need to be darker.

I agree, more work needs to be done on the styling of the wiki. Currently it is rather low key due to the main focus of getting the website and the gaming engine complete.

I do not like the half-sun stand alone symbol that is used at the upper left corner of the game wiki (wiki_logo.png). It's not a critical dislike, unlike the white menu and horizontal bar, but it could be improved if you added something with it in that space. Perhaps some text with it, displayed in the Ilkor font. I'm not sure what. Perhaps the word Wiki or Gazateer right beneath the half-sun image. Just make it part of that image.

The half sun is just a gap filler, we have a new logo actually when arrived from Simon just last week!.

On the game wiki Introduction page, there is the world Arcadia in large gray lettering. That gray part sucks. Make that image:

http://wiki.ilkor.com/mediawiki/images/1...a-Logo.png

look more like the main Ilkor image located on the following page:

http://alpha.ilkor.com/

Just some thoughts for you to chew on.

Thanks ago Grim for the time spent on checking out the website.

All the best,

Sean.