EverQuest Arena Grand Opening!

xIsabel38

Well-known member
I finally get to start a thread here!

So I've been designing this site since 2012 but once Hurricane Sandy hit, everything had to stop. Over a year later I finally got back on my feet and was able to restart this project. It's gone through several redesigns and seen many different developers but finally, today March 4th 2014 I can finally announce that the site is now live and open to the public.


A little bit about the design

Main Page
The design was drawn up by myself on paper. After I came up with something I liked, I then recreated the design using MicroSoft Paint. I would then find a developer and give them the rough concept art for them to turn into a live work of art.

photo (1).webp

The homepage above was designed with a less is more concept. I didn't want users to have to scroll all over the page so instead, everything about it was designed to reduce scrolling. Most users won't have to scroll at all. It was also designed to be responsive.

photo.webp

Using JQuery the links load mini-pages right on top of the main page.

Concept3.webp

Forum
For the forum itself, I wanted to go with an old parchment scroll design. So again, I drew up some sketches, presented it, and had it developed.

photo.webp

The forum was created with extensive graphic work and painted sections. I feel the style is very unique. Unfortunately, this also gives it some additional problems not normally found. Add-ons may need additional tweaks to work on it and it is currently not responsive although I am hoping to fix that.

forum.webp

Posting
While posting, each response alternates positions.

Untitled1.webp

But my favorite part is that your user information blocked is completely linked to your contact details. So if you for example enter your Facebook page in your contact details, then a link generates on your Postbit which links externally to your entered page. This can be done with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and your Homepage.

Untitled.webp

The site uses @******* Credits Premium with customized Currency Exchanger to automatically generate 1 Silver Coin from 100 Iron Coins or 1 Gold Coin from 100 Silver Coins and make change in reverse order.

The site also uses @xfrocks [bd]Medal with customized Trophy Extension to generate medals automatically which then display below the Achievements.

credit.webp

Additional Design
The site is about Tournaments and Events. The concept behind the Tournaments were designed from Magic Circle or Glyph concept art. Instead of naming it something simple like, 1v1 Tournament. I decided to instead use something different and interesting. Here come the Glyphs.

Each tournament was renamed to a specific Glyph so the 1v1 tournament was renamed as the Glyph of Strength and the 2v2 tournament was renamed as the Glyph of Unity, etc... The Glyphs were then created fully by hired artists.

glyph.webp

Difficult to see in the above images are the words. Like any good Glyph there is an actual meaning to the words written and graphed and I had to hire some translators to help me. The purple on to the left is written in Bengali and says,

"Amongst my foes I stand in wait. I shall not falter in the face of odds.
My shield and my balance shall be my salvation and my savior, for I know no allies.
Admist the chaos I will leave ruin in my wake and devour the souls of those before me.
I am the Arena Champion."

The one to the right is written in Greek, Japanese, and Spanish. The Greek says,

"Wretched victors of the world dare to oppose me. They dare to challenge me.
Destruction of bone and sinew will define this field upon the scars of the earth.
I am a god. I will lay waste with wrath and anger and they shall know my face and resonate my name.
I am the bringer. I am the champion of champions. I am the Monarch."

The Japanese symbols are words for Valiant, Master, Monarch, Champion, Prestige, and Courage.

The Spanish says, "Supreme Master or Champion".

In the end, I wanted to create something that made users think. Even if most never bothered to look twice, for those that did, they'd be able to find an entire story in the design in the Glyphs.

So that's it for my design and overall concept. I'd love to hear feedback from everyone. If you find errors or bugs then please do share them with me.

And hey, if you plan to play EverQuest Next then feel free to join and help me with the content!


Special Thanks go out to several developers here for making this all happen. Without them, I'd still be hiding behind a locked site:​
@Haswell
@mcatze
@*******
 
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Wow! The website looks great so far! I can't wait to see what the mobile-friendly (responsive) design would look like.

The only thing (to me) that puts me off registering on websites is the lack of SSL. I believe a webmaster should do all it can to help protect their users, especially in this day and age, however... some people find SSL overkill.
 
I'd make it a top priority to get some node icons, like quick, it somewhat kills the "atmosphere" of the home page heh.

Also new breadcrumb icon!
 
So, the question becomes: What the hell were YOU waiting for!? :D

Nice domain: Check
Nice website design: Check
Nice forum design: Check
Nice navigation (and lovin' the animated sword coming out of "menu"): Check
 
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Isn't SSL for when you're accepting credit cards and whatnot?
SSL is (should) used for e-commerce websites because of credit/debit card data, but that's not its only use... the data between your user and your server is encrypted, which simply means; if someone is snooping, they'll see scrambled data.

It all depends on what you class as personal/private information, I feel as if passwords are private information that needs an additional layer of protection.

For the folk who aren't very tech-savvy, seeing that green 'https://' in their browser may just make them feel a little safer.

For the (low) cost of a certificate, it's well worth it (imo).

Anyway, it's not for me to decide, I'm just giving you my thought on the matter, like I said... a lot of webmasters don't care/know for it.

Quite a few people are starting to use SSL on their forums, @DRE, @MattW and @RoldanLT to name a few (off the top of my head).
 
So, the question becomes: What the hell were YOU waiting for!? :D

Nice domain: Check
Nice website design: Check
Nice forum design: Check
Nice navigation (and lovin' the animated sword coming out of "menu"): Check
Thank you very much. I was waiting for some bug fixes and the postbit display to be completed.
Thanks go to @Haswell for the bug fixes and @mcatze for fixing the postbit display.
 
SSL is (should) used for e-commerce websites because of credit/debit card data, but that's not its only use... the data between your user and your server is encrypted, which simply means; if someone is snooping, they'll see scrambled data.

It all depends on what you class as personal/private information, I feel as if passwords are private information that needs an additional layer of protection.

For the folk who aren't very tech-savvy, seeing that green 'https://' in their browser may just make them feel a little safer.

For the (low) cost of a certificate, it's well worth it (imo).

Anyway, it's not for me to decide, I'm just giving you my thought on the matter, like I said... a lot of webmasters don't care/know for it.

Quite a few people are starting to use SSL on their forums, @DRE, @MattW and @RoldanLT to name a few (off the top of my head).
I'm for it, I just have to admit that I know nothing about it.
 
Very nice, although I feel like the postbit background is a bit of an overkill, maybe some other textures? It's a bit hard to read and follow with the dark text.
 
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