Umbrella Online | Resident Evil and survival horror gaming

Not too much to update with of late, but a few little tweaks for you.. 🙂

The Wiki index has had another change.. Whilst I liked the timeline idea I felt there was a lot of whitespace, and I didn't like the pre-built horizontal options that I'd looked at.. An idea I've had for a while is to utilise the Slider from Advanced BB Codes Pack (@Xon) and effectively build my own..
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The logo now also changes slightly when the Wiki section is being browsed..
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The registration notice has been replaced by [OzzModz] Nag Guests To Register (@Ozzy47) - though I'm not 100% sold that it's in the right location yet, so I may have a bit more of a play when I have 5 minutes..
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-- EDIT --
Reverted back to registration notice for better guest experience.


User profiles have been tweaked using [PN] VK Profile and [PN] FFW (@prisnilos), with a couple of other custom bits and addons that were already being used. I'm pretty happy with the end result.
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I've been in a bit of a funk these past couple of months, but I'm slowly getting back in to the swing again.. 🙂

New footer - "borrowed" from XF 👀
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New database section layout - inspired by @Gemma's recent tweaks, I came up with my own iteration that doesn't look too dissimilar from an old v3arcade layout modification.. So many different add-ons in play at the same time here, it's a wonder they all play nice! 😵‍
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It's been a while since my last update, I had a few mental health struggles in Q3 last year and there's other things that are still ongoing.. 😶

Firstly, I decided to revert the Wiki back to the previous version with the vertical timeline for now. It works better from an accessibility standpoint. Not much else to report here.

The main changes have been a few months in the making, and are finally headed towards a standard that I'm happy with.. Reviews, Blogs, and News. I'd previously introduced the RMS system but I just couldn't get it to feel like it flowed, and felt too much like an after thought. Similiarly, XenPorta just didn't feel like it fit and I had concerns that the UBS system would feel much like the same. That's nothing against the scripts or their authors, it's just a feeling - - I can't explain it.

So.. I decided to lose some bloat, and simply use the in-built Article system with a few tweaks that @Brogan and @Ozzy47 have shared. A few more tweaks are needed here and there, but at some point I need to start writing some content! 🤣


Blogs
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Reviews
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News
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Yeah, I've not been particularly active over the past year.. but Umbrella Online still lives 😅

Not too many changes to showcase - if anything I've probably reduced a bit more bloat that simply wasn't working whilst things are quiet..


News - Changed from a 4 column layout to 3.. It just gives everything a bit more room to breathe!

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Forum Home - We're counting down to the release of the Resident Evil 4 remake, and have new sliders showcasing the latest game, movie, and tv discussions. A big thanks goes to @Painbaker for developing these for us, and taking feedback during their development. I'm sure they'll be made available publicly soon.. 😉

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Wiki - Added separate timelines for different series..

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Looking great, Andy - good job with the forum. I wish you well for the future.

I will try and pop-in on occasion, but work has all but taken over for me recently!
 
Further tweaks made to the Articles / Blogs / Reviews layout (all based on the same template) after one or two design quirks (mostly with Safari) were discovered with the standard footer from the Article Forum Symmetrical Grid Layout by @Brogan

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The Forum Statistics block has been completely redesigned, tweaking the [XTR] Forum Statistics add-on by @Osman

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A number of other changes have been made over these past few weeks, but they're mostly background changes.

  • Both the "Random Hints" and "Horizontal Scrolling Tabs" which were previously accomplished by template code and widgets, have been replaced by add-ons (here and here). ~ Thanks @XDinc
  • The Dark style has been updated with the latest version of the awesome Rain theme by @Stylesfactory ~ The Light style based on Snow should be making a return this week..
  • Nearly all add-ons have been updated to their latest versions with the help of the Add-on Update Notifier add-on. ~ Thank you to @mazzly and all involved
  • The project is now running smoothly on PHP8.1 - I'm quite amazed given how many add-ons are running!
  • Despite the awesome Spaminator add-ons by @Ozzy47 and the rest of OzzModz to prevent automated spammers, I unfortunately decided to trial the necessary evil of Verification to try and deter human spammers as a last resort before making the community invite only.
    • My hope is that the questions are difficult enough that human spammers may not bother registering, but easy enough for fans.. It may well deter legitimate registrations from non-fans - but that's a risk I'm willing to take..
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Until next time..! :cool:
 
Having been totally unmotivated for the best part of a year.. I've decided to start working on things again, and it's going to be quite the overhaul!

The first round of updates I'm working towards are:
  • A brand new style
  • A simplified, better integrated Wiki
  • User badges

I'll likely ask for this thread to be deleted / reset nearer the time - but for the moment, the main thing to announce is that Umbrella Online has moved to being a closed and invite-only community, though guests can contact us if they're genuinely interested in joining and participating.
 
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