Launcher Major Update

[Zovc]

I attached a picture to this, with most of my ideas, but here it is:

Server list updated and moved:
It would be nice for servers that just have ip addresses. If I have 5 servers with ip's, it gets annoying remembering which is which.

New and Updated colour scheme:
Kinda like the website would be nice, atm is kinda mis-matched.

Character Updated:
A display showing your character skin, so if you make your own you don't have to go in and out of game, but restart the launcher.

Multiple Launchers:
Is a problem. If we could, it would be nice, it just needs pop-ups.

Pop-up removal
Instead of an up-link pop-up, just 2 bars to make easy and slightly more recommended.

Move settings:
It could easily be moved to the "Settings" button at the top...that's kinda the purpose I think.

Staff ship picks:
(Completely Optional, just to make the launcher look nicer)
Ok, so idk the exact number, but say we have 10 staff members. Each would choose 2 ships to help inspire aspiring builders. Now we have 20 pictures, 1 from each ship. If we switch the picture every day, that's almost 3 weeks of new and updated community content, just to inspire you. Someone might pick a hangar on a lovely carrier, and I might like a feature and mix it up so it works for my cargo carrier.

Character List:
I have heard rumors that your uplink can protect 2 names. It would be nice if you could have it set up so you can easily switch characters. You could have a limit of maybe 5 characters, and when logged in only 2 would be "favourite".
When logged out, the favourite characters would still be listed, but not usable.

News feed update:
Instead of the big box (which personally sucks cause it doesn't resize for your screen, and its annoying moving the sidebar to see all the picture, like the gui in the dev update) You could have headlines in a list. Clicking on the headline would either take you to the actual post or open a pop-up that takes about 85-95% of the screen. The box would be draggable, resizable, and the best part, the contents (pictures and words) would resize so it fits in the <>.

That's all for now. Sorry for any spelling errors, as my computer doesn't want me to type right now.

 

[CyberTao]

I like some of it, like being able to give server IDs a name so that you dont have a list of numbers. A character preview would be nice, but should be kept in the menu (The screen where you choose to upload a new skin) just to keep clutter low.

The Amount of names you can uplink is dependent on the server's config file [PROTECTED_NAMES_BY_ACCOUNT = 10 //How many player names a player may protect with his account (if exceeded, the player name, that was logged in the longest time ago gets unprotected)]

News screen scaling is a good idea as well, but I don't think staff picks is. Maybe if we someday get more filters for the community content section, the launcher could link and show us various ships that match what we would like to see (Want it to display stations? Ships under 5k mass? Jumpgates? 4+ star ranking only? etc). Just trying to stay away from bias accusations or favoritism and such.

 

[ltmauve]

Pretty good suggestion there. Also, let me add world and server selection directly on the screen, instead of as a pop-up. And let us give each world its own install directory, not just its own database directory. A creative and a survival server are going to have different config and block settings, and we can't do that now.

 

[Zovc]

I like some of it, like being able to give server IDs a name so that you dont have a list of numbers. A character preview would be nice, but should be kept in the menu (The screen where you choose to upload a new skin) just to keep clutter low.

The Amount of names you can uplink is dependent on the server's config file [PROTECTED_NAMES_BY_ACCOUNT = 10 //How many player names a player may protect with his account (if exceeded, the player name, that was logged in the longest time ago gets unprotected)]

News screen scaling is a good idea as well, but I don't think staff picks is. Maybe if we someday get more filters for the community content section, the launcher could link and show us various ships that match what we would like to see (Want it to display stations? Ships under 5k mass? Jumpgates? 4+ star ranking only? etc). Just trying to stay away from bias accusations or favoritism and such.

I didnt think of bias staff, just more of inspiring pictures. Gives us a goal: get a ship picked.

@Itmauve Nothing but newscreen and the settings is a pop up in my idea.

 

[MossyStone48]

Yeah 'staff picks' is not a bad idea but one I'd avoid too. People have asked my opinion on 'best shipwright' and I just say 'ponies' back and they run for the hills. I do have some fav builders but whom they are and the reasons are secrets that go with me unto the grave. I'd rather let the community opinion show through anyway. I might push a few underdogs into the spotlight but if they don't take - they don't take. No need to force it.

 

[blurb357]

totally agree with most of it, the character skin should be in a pop up to keep things clean, we should have a pic like the website, and it does need to be cleaned up, and we need to fix the uplinking errors

 

[therimmer96]

I don't like it.

It's just as crap as what we have, just with more clutter. We need a proper main menu rather than a second iteration of the connection manager.

Sorry

 

[Zovc]

Its fine rimmer, everyone is subject to their own opinion. My goal with what I did was to keep it all collected. Instead of pressing a few different buttons, I can just open, see which character im using, see if theres any updates, and look at my server list. Maybe a few clicks to update, but if everything is right, you press 1 button and launched.

edit: for me right now, with saved uplink, I click once on first launcher, and twice on the second, to maximise screen so I can press ok.

 

[therimmer96]

see if theres any updates
The updates and connection screen are different for a reason. The connection screen is part of the main game jar, that get updated, so that can't work. The first screen is there to pass the arguments that the jar needs, such as RAM allocations, weather it's a server or a client, which port to use and so on.

I don't mind a few extra clicks. something as simple as the MC UI would work perfectly. A nice title screen, single player, multiplayer, options. keep everything separated and relevant to what you want too do.

 

[NeonSturm]

I think:

Colors should be very easy to adjust - Good thing, few effort. Definitively should be done.

If it would be HTML, everybody could customize it. Should there be a settings file?

You can even make tabs with CSS - without JavaScript
IN HTML> Input1 Div1, Input2 Div2, ... input = tab, Div = content
CSS> Div { display:none }
CSS> Input:selected + Div{ display:block }
CSS> input:target{ display:inline }