- Mar 15, 2008
- 111
- 6
There was a very small map test the other day of Taotd's map on Warmecha's server the other day. I was browsing the forum at the time and happened to come across the thread saying the map testing was starting in 15 minutes. I had some time on my hands so I hopped over and joined the server. Altogether there were about 6 people there, 4 seemed to be from tf2maps.net.
Thing is I came across that thread by chance and was wondering if there wasn't a better way to get forum users over to the servers for map tests. I bet there were a bunch of people browsing tf2maps.net at the time who would have popped over to the map test had they known about it.
So my suggestion is:
How about having a friendly text banner just below the main navigation in a nice large font and bright color that linked to any map testing server and invited the viewer to join. It would be viewable on all pages of the site. All it would need is the map being tested and the connect to server steam link. (a bonus would be the number of players online etc). When no map testing event is being held, it would simply show the time and info of the next event to be held. (maybe the font size and color would become smaller and more subdued.) With a bit of php shouldn't be too difficult to rig it up to a small database of future play tests that admins could fill in via a form.
I recommend a simple text banner rather than a graphic, because funnily enough I think text actually stands out more. Most people I think now have an automatic "ignore graphics/images" mechanism when they browse the web because of the massive spamming of adverts whereever we go. Case in point, I completely hadn't realised there was that graphic link to the official tf2 server on the left-hand side! I'd just seen images, assumed it was an ad, and phased it out subconsciously.
I hope something like this could be implemented. I think it would allow many more, casual map tests to be held on different servers at times that suited the server admins/map makers. :thumbup:
Thing is I came across that thread by chance and was wondering if there wasn't a better way to get forum users over to the servers for map tests. I bet there were a bunch of people browsing tf2maps.net at the time who would have popped over to the map test had they known about it.
So my suggestion is:
How about having a friendly text banner just below the main navigation in a nice large font and bright color that linked to any map testing server and invited the viewer to join. It would be viewable on all pages of the site. All it would need is the map being tested and the connect to server steam link. (a bonus would be the number of players online etc). When no map testing event is being held, it would simply show the time and info of the next event to be held. (maybe the font size and color would become smaller and more subdued.) With a bit of php shouldn't be too difficult to rig it up to a small database of future play tests that admins could fill in via a form.
I recommend a simple text banner rather than a graphic, because funnily enough I think text actually stands out more. Most people I think now have an automatic "ignore graphics/images" mechanism when they browse the web because of the massive spamming of adverts whereever we go. Case in point, I completely hadn't realised there was that graphic link to the official tf2 server on the left-hand side! I'd just seen images, assumed it was an ad, and phased it out subconsciously.
I hope something like this could be implemented. I think it would allow many more, casual map tests to be held on different servers at times that suited the server admins/map makers. :thumbup: