Please join the forum to discuss the Project and for more RCT3 goodies !!! :D
Started by ChaosX (~cXc~) on August 1st, 2007
Email: cxo.rct@gmail.com
Please join the forum to discuss the Project and for more RCT3 goodies !!! :D
Started by ChaosX (~cXc~) on August 1st, 2007
Email: cxo.rct@gmail.com
For full details about the project or to get involved yourself, please refer to the Project Overview Text File (http://www.chaosxtreme.com/rct3project.txt). This is a community project and I encourage everyone to get involved and share my ambition!
Project Introduction
Project Contributers Updated!
Accepted Suggestions
Site Partners and Affiliates Updated!
Granted Permissions Updated!
Progress Notes and Pics Updated!
|~ August 1st - 5th, 2007
|~ August 6th, 2007
|~ August 7th - 11th, 2007
|~ August 12th - 22nd, 2007
|~ August 23rd - 29th, 2007
|~August 29th - October 12, 2007 NEW!
Contact Information
I've started working on a website for Roller Coaster Tycoon 3! It will be a new community for RCT3 players/modders to use for sharing their creations and discussing various RCT3 related topics. The project was started August 1st, 2007 and will conitnue for as long as it takes and there is still an interest shown by friends/contacts of mine and I have the ability and desire to continue ;)
Plans for the site include a community center/splash page that welcomes visitors and gets them excited about RCT3, a Ride Exchange type feature, Plenty of information about the game (including cheats, strategies and walkthroughs), a community forum and a chat room for meeting the members, asking for hel p when you get stuck on something or just chatting each other up about anything (in good taste and appropriate). I plan for the main sites layout to closely resemble the in game menus and work similar to what is experienced while playing RCT3.
There are many things peeps can help me with such as granting permission for me to host/link to your pages (tutorials or whatever), offering advice (feedback and suggestions), screenshots of the game using coaster cam, and ofcouse by sharing your Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 creations/designs. If after reading my project journal you feel I have left anything please contact me so I can consider adding the suggested addition. All those wishing to contribute are encouraged to contact me via email (cxo.rct@gmail.com) for all things regarding this project.
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I would like to thank the following people for their contributions to the project so far ...
| Coasterfreak | Invertedvertigo | ||
| LittleMac | |||
| SurfingOz | |||
| German Taco | |||
| Vodhin |
The list of contributers will be expanded as more and more RCT 3 fans are made aware of the project and begin contributing to the sites design. All those wishing to contribute by offering advice, feedback, ideas, suggestions, or just wanting to share their creations (i.e. Coasters, Parks, Scenery and Tutorials) are encouraged to contact me via the forum or by email. Please use cxo.rct@gmail.com for all things regarding this project. As the project nears completion and I get to know and trust all the contributors, there will be more ways to contact me but at this time I can only be contacted using the above email address, I hope everyone enjoys the project and gets involved ;)
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There have been no suggestions made for the project yet, if you have one please contact me (cxo.rct@gmail.com or on the forum) so I can consider it and add it here :D
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I would like to thank the following websites and communities for their endorsement of the project so far ...
Littlefreaks Custom Workshop - "Let's get a LittleFreaky!" - Forum devoted to RCT3 and Custom Scenery, a fairly new community that shows great promise with friendly and helpful staff and members.
Surfingoz-Theme Park Fanatics - Surfingoz-Forums - Site and forum founded and ran by the Tutorial Master SurfingOz, a great place to learn how to create CS or just chat with others taht share your interest ;)
Vodhins Community Pages - "RCT3 Community!" - Definitely one of the best and most active RCT3 communities boasting over a thousand members and many post per day, everyone should have this one bookmarked!
The list of will be expanded as more and more as other RCT 3 sites are made aware of the project and begin supporting the project. If you are interested in becoming one of my Site Partners and/or Affiliates please feel free to contact me (cxo.rct@gmail.com) so I can add you and your site to the list.
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The following is a listing of all those that have granted me premission to either host or link to their creations ...
| Designers Name | Website | Coasters | Parks | Scenery | Screenshots | Tutorials | Other | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | L | H | L | H | L | H | L | H | L | H | L | ||
| Coasterfreak | Littlefreaks Custom Workshop | Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| SurfingOz | Surfingoz-Theme Park Fanatics | Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| German Taco | One Legged Cow | ? |
? |
? |
? |
Y |
Y |
? |
? |
Y |
Y |
? |
? |
| Klinn | Designamatic 4000 | ? |
? |
? |
? |
N |
Y |
? |
? |
N |
Y |
N |
Y |
| LittleMac | Littlefreaks Custom Workshop | Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| InvertedVertigo | Snowerx Portfolio | Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| Vodhin | Vodhins Community Pages | Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
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Click on the preview images below to see the images in full size and get a better idea of exactly how the finished project will look.
I started working on the template for the site and have nearly 1000 screen shots to work with. I am quite exited about this project and have gotten encouragement from both friends and the community. I had originally intended to just cut/copy/paste from the screen shots to create the site but eventuallly got aggravated by random pixels and decided to create my own layout from scratch based on the in game interface. The pics below show how far I have gotten with it so far and where the slices will be for buttons and content.
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This is what I have got so far as the basic layout, all of the GUI background is finished already and I have made the menus mouseover base images. |
This is the current slice points I will be using, blue tabs represent the key slices the rest are just used for the background areas. |
All images were either created by me (except the background for the text area, it was barrowed for testing). There are already over 100 layers to the image with only about 70 or so that are actually being used to get the above result. The background pic behind the Text area will eventually be replaced as its not one of mine or one contributed for the project, its just for test purposes. If you would like to submit your screen shots for use as the background I need 1024x768 images to work and want Coaster Cam shots. I can't use images with menus showing and prefer them to be .jpg files (.png will also work), .bmp's are just huge (and can be blocky), and .gif files do not have enough colors to keep the images smooth (and also cause the images to be blocky).
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To begin there where a lot of things that got updated today :D The project received massive updates and several new features today. I added an index and made several changes to the way it appears. To save bandwidth and help those who are using dialup while viewing the Project Journal, I have now began using smaller images. To view the images in full size just click on them and your browser will open the full size image in a new tab or window. Several additional sections were also added today so that the Project journal can be more informative and to show who the people are that are contributing to the project in one form or another. I also did some additional editing to the Project Overview Text File and fixed a few typos and clarified a couple of the details. The biggest changes to it are in the TEMPLATE PROJECT NOTES category. The changes/updates mostly concern the Button Notes and Finding the Fonts sections (the fonts idea got canned read about it there) respectively. I am still working on the template, of course, its a monster and going to take a couple more days minimum to complete all the images I will be needing. I primarilarily worked on the button bases today ;) for now they are basically the light/dark blue backgrounds used for the buttons. The reason the button bases took me all day is because I needed my buttons to line up as close as possible with their locations in the game.
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This image shows most of the progress I made today and is displaying all buttons I have made today as well as the interface changes I made. |
By accident I hid the blue outer circle in hotoshop and discovered that it looked much better this way than the way it was so I am sticking with it ;) |
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This shot shows what the buttons will look like individually. the small ones are the default default buttons and the large ones are the mouseovers. |
I also had to update the slices for the template today sinceI added a few extra buttons and cleaned up the previous slices that would have served no purpose. |
The three buttons on the right will have the images of the panda, the shark and the tiger in them like they show up in game. These will used for providing details about the games (basically the back of the box sales pitch) and are being called "Buy Game Buttons". They will be using mouseovers that change the Buy Area Buttons found directly below them. The Buy Area Buttons are four animated gifs of text that start with the same frames. The first frame says "CLICK TO LEARN MORE!" then goes blank for a sec and then either flashes "CLICK TO LEARN MORE!", "GET RCT3 Platinum!", "GET RCT3 SOAKED!" or "GET RCT3 WILD!" depending on which image the users cursor is on. The flashing "CLICK TO LEARN MORE!" button will take visitors to an overview of RCT Platinum and all the expansions. The other three so called buttons are just swap images for the Buy Game Buttons.Clicking on the Buy Game Buttons will take visitors to an overview of the game icon that the cursor is currently over, the Buy Area Buttons will also be flashing stating what game they are selectng. The page will then be displayed in the content area and have an option to purchase from the online vendor I choose to affiliate with.
Other than all that I also changed the background image, this is still a Background Testing image (i.e. not one of mine) just to get an idea of how other backgrounds will look. This also gave me a great idea for one of the monthly contest ;) the way it will work is users will get to submit their in game pics for the community to vote on, the pic with the most votes will then be the background of the index page for the next month :) runners up might get their pics placed on other sections of the site also it will all be annouced in the contest rules. I'm still not entirely sure how it will work I am still a while away from running contest lol
Well that about sums up my progress for today ;) tommarow I'll be working on the individual buttons and I might even get to doing some coding on the actual site as well. Once I get it all coded I will put up a temporary live preview of the site but it probably won't have much content and a lot of the links won't be functional yet but it shouldn't be long after that before I at least get the mouseovers linking properly ;)
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Well there really isn''t a lot to show for the last 4 days visually and though I intended to get the buttons ready several other things got in my way. First of all my health became an issue and cost me nearly 2 full days of work on the project :( Things like this are unavoidable and due to my health complications they may occur several more times before I complete the project :( Please understand when these problems occur, I am sorry. There really is no need to worry unless teh Project Journal goes more than seven (7) days without being updated AND I have not made a post at one of the established communities you have seen me at ;)
The other delays have been site related, which is good news, it means I've actually been working ;) lol. With the interface basically finished I decided to take the time to install the forum (~cXc~ Community Forum) and chat (~cXc~ Community Chat) software. I haven't Styled/Themed either of them yet but they are online and functional, as of today, I finished adding all the Categories and Boards for the Message Board. Please keep in mind the forum is still pretty much empty and in desperate need of post, please feel free to fill it up ;) I have installed 25 SMF mods so far and once a few others have been made compatible with the version of SMF that I am using there will be a dozen or so more added. The list of installed mods are ...
~cXc~ Community Forum - Installed Mods (see the SMF Mod Database for more information) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMFShop | Custom Board Icons | GarbledURLs | LogModAccountEdits | Signature BBCode Bar |
| FlashChat Integration | Digg Topic | Gender On Registration | Max Subject Length | SmileyLimit |
| AutoSig | MySpace Field | Global Headers Footers | Mod List Color Alternate | Trim Url |
| AvatarSelect | YouTube BBC Tag | Gmail Field | Profile Comments | Users Online Today Mod |
| Buddy Message Highlight | FontandSizeDropdown | Line Numbers Mod | Quick Upload | Wrap Text Around Image |
I originally started with 61 mods but only these 25 were compatible with the version of SMF I have installed, if while browsing the SMF Mod Database you find some others you think would be good for the forum please let me know. Getting the board setup required considerable research of existing RCT3 Forums/Sites to make sure I didn't leave any of the important categories out. If I happened to leave somethng out that you think should be added please don't hesitate to let me know ;)
The ~cXc~ Community Chat is fully integrated with the forum and can either be accessed through the forum or by Direct Link. The username and password for the chat will be the same as your forum username and password. If you are a mod or admin on the board you will have the same status in the chat ;) I've finished modifying the chats code to our purposes. There are 5 rooms for us to chat in, each room has its own focus of course and the chat has some nice features that allow for Private Chats between members. Another thing the chat can be used for is sharing files, I have enabled it to handle zip, rar, jpg, gif, sit, pdf, png, psd, ase, and ovl of up to 5mb. If I have left off any related file extensions or set the file size too low please let me know by suggesting the file extension or size on the ~cXc~ Community Forum. The primary concern about using the chat to upload files is larger files take longer to upload and it appears as if the chat uploader has locked while it uploads. Remember some visitors still use dialup and a 5mb file could take them quite a while to upload/download. Files are removed from the uploads directory after 24 hours and will no onger be available after that time, this is mostly for fast swapping files and getting help with issues you may encounter while creating/using RCT3 Custom Scenery ;)
Thanks to a suggestion by CoasterFreak I decided to take the time to make a few banners for the site, below you will find the first 10 banners. They are quite simple but in my opinion they will serve their purpose well enough ;) Follow the link in the Table Header for the post about them on the forum and for the bbCode needed to add them to your sigs and board post ;)
OFFICIAL ~cXc~ Banner Sets |
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Now you can help me get the word out about the forum and fill it up while I continue working on the project ;) Thats about all I have for this update, keep checking back to see whats new. I'll most likely get the buttons next and then go live with a WIP preview while I work on the databases and the content.
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The last 10 days have flown by o.O there really isn't much to report about the project. The forum now has a good reliable list of staffers and I'm pleased to announce that LittleMac has found his way there and accepted the role of Admin. With the solid team of LittleMac and Coasterfreak tending teh board and other areas of design and brainstorming for the community I can once again focus on the project. The forum, however, is not what slowed progress on the project, my PC's hard drive crashed and had to be replaced. As of today I have fully recovered from the crash, with the exception of a few program settings that need to be adjusted. I had been expecting this for a while and began preparing several weeks ago, so there was little if any true data loss. I of course used this as an oppurtunity to upgrade my PC and now have plenty of room to play and work on my own CS sets and teh project. All database information will now be stored both online and locally so the database will alwys be backed up 100%. As a sidenote I can now install every CS set out there without worry and enjoy them ;)
I do intend to be working more on the template and as mentioned before I should have a working WIP of the site up soon to make setting the database up much easier. A merger of sites is being proposed between myself and LittleFreaks taht will better enable both of our sites to help the community and I'll keep you updated on how that turns out. Considering the merger includes the 2 people most influential in this sites focus and design I don't expect many (if any) snags and it all just comes down to the details.
Sorry for the delays, though unintentional they were necessary and have proven to be a good thing rather than a disaster. Hopefully updates and news will flow faster once again and come at least a couple times a week this is all dependent on the usual factors, my time, my other projects, my family, my friends and my life ;)
~cXc~
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This week was filled with image edits and learning the underlying code of the forum. Finding hidden settings and tweaking things to display the way we wanted it too, there are still a few tweaks I plan to make on the forum but they will be a little later. The biggest Changes to the project have been with the forum and include some new buttons, icons, images, style sheet changes and template modifications. We (LittleMac, Coasterfreak and I) have all been exploring and learning the admin panel and the various options available to us. We worked on the shop a bit and have some big plans for forum money now that we have successfully added a download to the rewards available :D The exact details of how this will be implemented hasn't been hammered out yet but it will be determined when there is more time for us to discuss it. I have to get the database set up and tie it all together (if I can figure it out) so that will come as the actual site nears completion.
The image and style sheet changes were a lot of fun but quite time consuming, there were hundreds of images to go through. Everyone seems happy with the new look of the forum and I think it was all worth it. They are still some things left to add/change on the board but it is up and ready for peeps to register and I hope to see everyone over there soon ;) I thought I would give you some pics to show the before and after pics of the forum mostly because I haven't added any pics to the project journal in a while and I am quite proud of it so far ;)
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Comparing the before and after pics is easy enough but no reason not to explain the changes just in case you miss a couple of them ;) First of all I modified many of the Style Sheet settings and basic colors to make the board resemble RCT3 as much as possible. The Simple Machines Forum Watermark was removed from up there mostly because I just thought it looked better without it. No worries though peeps removing it is acceptable by Simple Machines and doesn't violate the license in any way ;) The next thing I removed from the default template was the news display in the header section, its just not needed since we are using the news scroller as well ;) As you work your way on down a change that isn't really noticeable by most of you is the link hover color for the link tree created by the board I changed it from red to white to match and stand out more when you move your mouse over it. In the community center the changes are completely obvious and there you will notice the "No New Post" icon (the swinging ride) and the "New Post in Child" icon (the information shop). |
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Again these are all easy to notice so I'll be brief here, first new one is the "New Post" icon (the information booth as it appears in game, the legend explaining the icons. I added the recent post section for faster browsing and you'll notice that all the info center images have been changed and no match our theme. Another addition is the copyright notices and the change in the way the SMF copyright and the powered by images appear in the footer section. |
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Many of the changes I made to this area are very apparent and include a full set of moderator and post icons. No need to explain all teh images here but there are three that I should explain slightly better than the board it self does. For boards you have posted there are actually three icon rather than just the one that is displayed in the legend. For regular topics you have posted in the gentle rides icon is displayed  hot topics you have posted in get the thrill rides icon  and for very hot topics the icon is of course the coasters icon  each of them have there own corresponding poll/locked/sticky icons based on the default images. |
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As you can see there were also some changes made to the layout of post ection dealing with the member info section, since noticeable, I won't explain these ;) |
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The forum isn't the only thing I have worked on this week but like I said ands as you can see I have focused on it. I have also managed to get several changes to the chat done as well as exploring its files for things I can customize. Most of these changes must be done at the code level and are not really high priority at the moment, the chat is fully functional and since peeps can upload their own backgrounds and change colors fonts etc themeing it can be postponed until the end of the project ;)
I also managed to get a few more buttons finished on the template and a couple other features of the site completed this week :D and have every one some new pics to look over ...
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This pics shows the template updates I have completed so far, I had gotten farther and had more buttons done but I wasn't satisfied with them so I deleted them. Here you see the home and the back buttons as well as expansion images. |
Several of you were asking me to put up teh live preview WIP to get an idea of how the site will look once completed sp I obliged ;) The link to the live preiew is http://www.chaosxtreme.com/index.rct, nothing really works yet though :( |
I have the sections worked out in my head but don't have them on teh live preview yet I plan to up date it in a couple days and add some of the mouseovers and other things needed. I went ahead and labeled the areas to give everyone an idea of what the finished areas will be used used for. There is still a lot left to do to the main site and I still hope to be working on the database and coding by the end of the week ;) I want to at least get the mouseovers working and the style sheet finished by the end of the week.
With so much accomplished this week I encourage everyone to try to get their fellow RCT3 enthusiast to join the forum and get involved. We are now getting quite close to the opening of the site (forum and chat already opened ;) to get us going) and need to build our member and user base to make the site a success there are still many areas on the board in need of posts. So far we are doing quite good for only having 14 members, in just under a week we had over 500 posts in over 50 articles :D This is great but to be a success we need many more post from active and future members, in particular the Xchange and the WIP areas could use more posts to let us all know what you are working on so please share your projects to get us all excited! :)
We have set the "Grand Opening" date to October 31st, 2007 but the site should be finished and open way before this date. I plan to start a large advertising capaign as soon as the site is finished and a few community Events will kick off from the "Grand Opening" date and run for the entire month of November (if all goes according to plan). As of November 1st, 2007 the "Founders Club" membergroup will be closed to new members. This group has yet to be created but is in the works the "Founders Club" will have access to additional features and sections of the board as well as other yet to be determined bonuses ;) It is also worth noting that one special group has already been set up and established on the board but is by invitation only, that being the "Secret Scenery Society" :D This group has been established to work on a top secret project led by Coasterfreak, Little Mac and Myself and details about it will soon appear in the Announcements section of the board as well as the News Fader so watch there for more information.
Well I think this is enough of an update for now ;) see everyone in a week (or less) until then have fun and get the word out :D
~cXc~
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The last couple have weeks have been filled with large planning stages and discussion on the final content to be added, some of the content is still undecided but some good progress has been made and we move closer to our completion date. Sice the last update a lot of talk has been focused on the databse and upload manager, ChaosX is currently working on the code and is battling his current illness just too succeed in this project.
The main visible update over this period of time has been the "Tutorials Section", surfingoz has taken on the role of setting up the tutorial section and also help with some of the other areas while ChaosX works on the hard coding. The tutorial section has some nice new features that has not really been seen before when it comes to RCT3 tutorials, a small frame has been created on the four individual tutorial sections("Getting Started", "All Things Custom", "Imprter Tutorials", "Misc. Tutorials"). Whilst these sections are currently complete they will always be updated and have more content added, s few more tutorials will shortly be added and the tutorial section should then be ready for the release date. Bug/Error checking begun over the last few days, a few simple target frame errors were found and fixed in the tutorials section, overall no real issues were found.
Check out the new tutorial section here, this is now home to all surfingoz's tutorials and also contains some of coasterfreak's and LittleMac's tutorials. Below are some screen shots to show you the general set up of the tutorial section.
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After clicking a tutorial a small description appears, this is so that a user can find out more about a tutorial and be sure of what they are going to learn before entering the tutorial, from there you can simply enter the main Tutorial. These descriptions are only very short and just give the user a basic heads up of what to expect. |
Here you can see that once finally entering a tutorial you get a main heading and you also generally get a picture to show what is a possible outcome from that tutorial. Below that is the main tutorial itself, it contains images that are no wider then 460 pixels, simply click an image to be taken to a new tab/window to view it in a larger and better quality. |
Well it has not quite been two weeks since the last update, progress has been a little slow since ChaosX has fallen ill, once he returns we will strive forward and conquer this website. The site will not be finished as soon as we hoped but it will still be completed by the official release date. Once coding is done for the database and uploader then progress will soar and the site will be finished in no time at all. For the next update we intend on having a few more sections completed of the main page, that includes getting the "News and Reviews" section up and running with all content and layout finished.
The next update will be in about a week (or less), the update depends solely on the time constraints that we face to get the site completed. Any spare time surfingoz and ChaosX get they will use to update the project joournal so keep your eyes open and watch the site head towards its final goal.
surfingoz
"The Wizard of Oz"
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As the project nears completion and I get to know and trust all the contributors, there will be more ways to contact me but at this time I can only be contacted using the forum and/or cxo.rct@gmail.com I hope everyone enjoys the project and gets involved, thanks for showing interest and taking the time to read my project journal ;)
~cXc~
A.K.A.
Chaos, Chaos™, ChaosX, ChaosXonline, or just Doc ;)
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