I had a few thoughts about the recently reorganized upper area of the forums a few weeks ago. General consensus among the staff about this idea is that the community should voice their ideas before we just implement something new again.
The idea is to compact the sub forums to be a little bit more user friendly and visually pleasing. The primary goal and largest change would be to combine the top two sections, as seen below. Please compare to the current index page. Note that I have a pair of suggestions for placement of "LFG: Looking For Group" - please comment which might work better for the visibility of that forum.
Discovery HQ
> Welcome
--> LFG: Looking For Group (Option A)
> News and Announcements
--> Development Information
> Help & Support
--> Tutorials
--> Discovery Launcher
--> Site & Board Feedback
> LFG: Looking For Group (Option B)
Aside from that, further down, Uncharted Sector could be placed under Communication Channel.
Please let us know what you think of this arrangement!
Of all things, make the Tutorial section more visible. Be it in the upper bar or a general tutorial subforum with subsubforums, since we have a tutorial section in the modding part and in the general forum. Those tutorials are only useful if people find them.
![[Image: tv8JVZ7.png]](https://i.imgur.com/tv8JVZ7.png)
(click for size)
This is how I'd have it done. I would also make Disco Launcher and Site & Board Feedback subforums of help and support.
Take note of Tutorials at the top, perhaps it could also be given a unique colour and moved along to the left.
I'm glad the forum layout is getting some love, but why are you wasting time asking people about such a minor detail when there are so many more important things that could be fixed in 30 minutes by anyone who has basic moderator editing powers, and it hasnt been done in years, even though I've spent HOURS trying to help mods, admins, or des do it, to no avail.
Sorry for the large picture-heavy post, but I think it's really really REALLY REALLY important that the mess that is the main index page finally gets cleaned up after years of neglect. It's been a testament of how incapable this community is to understand even the most basic things when it comes to making things attractive for newcomers. It's actually more than incapable, it's stubbornly refusing to understand it.
-The words "Discovery 24/7 RP" were spammed all over the page in nearly every single entry, forcing people to read the same useless words over and over and over again when looking for something.
-Cluttered with even more totally useless information like number of posts
-Repetitive descriptions made long by useless words
-Titles for subforums too small (and cluttered with "Discovery 24/7 RP") making the sub-sections confusing. If its impossible to make the fonts larger in the subsection titles at least make it all caps and only the really relevant words.
I've mentioned this multiple times over the years, wasting hours of my life explaining things that anyone with even a small amount of common sense should have been able to figure out on their own, but to no avail. So here are some pictures as examples, for those who aren't able to understand even the most basic and obvious rules of layout (yes, I'm extremely frustrated and annoyed):
How it is:
![[Image: NrZoRnQ.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NrZoRnQ.png)
How it should be:
![[Image: 5KrTyLK.png]](http://i.imgur.com/5KrTyLK.png)
How it is:
![[Image: bdRUTmW.png]](http://i.imgur.com/bdRUTmW.png)
How it should be:
![[Image: NCueSuC.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCueSuC.png)
How it is:
![[Image: anqgHsa.png]](http://i.imgur.com/anqgHsa.png)
How it should be:
![[Image: NN7Kptv.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NN7Kptv.png)
How it is:
![[Image: pDufyzK.png]](http://i.imgur.com/pDufyzK.png)
How it should be:
![[Image: hzi4l8Y.png]](http://i.imgur.com/hzi4l8Y.png)
Also, just call it "Looking for a Group" instead of "LFG: Looking for Group".
For crying out loud.
Quote:Flying Discovery Freelancer solo is never going to be fun, especially for a new player.
You can post in this forum and give a brief description of your level of new-ness, your experiences, preferences in characters/locations/IDs and other.
Try to mention useful things such as:
*Your overall experience on the server.
*Your existing characters (factions they belong to, you do not have to disclose the names).
*What are you looking for in terms of RP, PVP and other.
*Do you enjoy using VoIP communications such as Teamspeak.
*Other quirks and tidbits you might want to share with potential friends.
Once you post a thread, it will remain in this thread until you tell a staff member to remove it.
Other players will not be able to post in your thread after you do. This allows for a focus on a player's confidentiality in regards to what their server presence is.
After your thread is posted, Player Groups and Individuals can then use the forum PM function to contact you with proposals.
Flying Discovery Freelancer solo is never going to be fun, especially for a new player.
This line sums up the most important reason server population went down to where it is. But the solution is not to tell that to new players from the start (it's fair to them by warning them to leave before trying to have fun anyway, but its not going to raise the population), steps should be taken (and I mean many, large steps, not soon but RIGHT NOW) to make playing alone fun again. So drop that line if you will.
Make the rest shorter, like this, because the more words are wasted on giving no information, the less people will read, and the less those that read it will want to read afterwards:
Quote:If you are looking for player groups to hang out with, post in this forum and give a brief description of your level, experiences, and preferences.
Telling things like the following will help you find like-minded friends:
-experience on the server
-existing characters (or factions they belong to, if you don't want to give names)
-what are you looking for in terms of RP, PVP or other
-do you use things like Teamspeak, Skype, Discord
-quirks and tidbits you want to share
-times you are usually online
Your post will remain visible until you remove the content or tell a staff member to remove it, so that other players may contact you in PM for as long as you wish.
It's true more now than it was in 4.84 or 4.85.
The restarts with perfect rep and maps for every faction took away most of what made the solo experience worthwhile before. No more exploring, no more repping with missions or bribes, no more gear gathering. Everything is handed to you if you spent enough time mining. Also, the no-CD npcs made exploring less challenging... or not challenging at all.
(10-15-2017, 04:42 PM)Karlotta Wrote: [ -> ]Also, the no-CD npcs made exploring less challenging... or not challenging at all.
I still dont understand, why are those NPCs so crippled. The worst they can do to you is flip your ship. Then you encounter GBs with CDs and its something way different. There seems to be no middleground.
On topic:
Change
LFG: Looking For Group to
Looking For Group (LFG) or just
Looking For Group
I would merge
Discovery HQ and
Discovery RP 24/7 Hub, because Server Rules and Admin notices should be more on top. Along with Announcements and News about server.
And please please please, use that top notification bar more often. If there is event, any event, it should be noted there. If there is a change, like the one with Jump Drives, it should be there.