PSO-World Site Upgrades

[Freshellent]

DAMMIT, my fav theme is gone.

Whelp, time to pack it up.

[Selphea]

I might be the only one, but I'm find it a bit harder to read in the new style formats.

It's a bit darker and the new forums use Arial which is thinner than the old layout's Verdana so that's probably why.

For something less boring, could go to Google Fonts and filter for Sans Serif fonts.

Taking some time to adjust to the changes will probably help a little, though I also find the themes a bit 'busy' visually. Even the updated classic themes are missing the simplicity that the originals used. I'm the kind of girl who values pleasing aesthetics, and tend to lean heavily towards flat design. The classic themes had a clean and minimal approach, and I think if they were to be updated for a more modern style, looking at UI languages like Metro or Material for inspiration would make for some beautiful takes on Bluegray and Blue-Steel.

I wish the forum would use something more flat myself but I've never seen a vBulletin board done in that style. It probably needs a lot of heavy lifting to overhaul some of the clutter innate to vBulletin.

[lostinseganet]

DAMMIT, my fav theme is gone.

Whelp, time to pack it up.

Don't give up yet things are just starting. They said that they may re-make a few of the old ones.

[BWS-1]

You know I expected this to be a slick update alright, but this turned out better than I expected! Good job!

[Ryna]

By any chance is a PSO2 Database coming with this? Cirnopedia has been dead for ages, so if we could get a community-maintained database, that would be great. Could also ask Ricardo (owner of psublog) to list some of his guides here.

No decisions have been made about a PSO2 database. It is something we'd like to do, but setting up an item database is always a very large project.

DAMMIT, my fav theme is gone.

Whelp, time to pack it up.

Can you at least tell us what the name of your favorite theme was?

Taking some time to adjust to the changes will probably help a little, though I also find the themes a bit 'busy' visually. Even the updated classic themes are missing the simplicity that the originals used. I'm the kind of girl who values pleasing aesthetics, and tend to lean heavily towards flat design. The classic themes had a clean and minimal approach, and I think if they were to be updated for a more modern style, looking at UI languages like Metro or Material for inspiration would make for some beautiful takes on Bluegray and Blue-Steel.

We spent a lot of time trying to reduce the visual clutter on the forum pages so they would be easier to read. I think we can make a few other adjustments to certain themes to improve legibility. What sections do you think are "busy" in your opinion? Suggestions for improvement would also be appreciated.

You know I expected this to be a slick update alright, but this turned out better than I expected! Good job!

Thanks for the comment. This particular update has been in development for a long time. We're doing our best to fix any lingering bug and make improvements based on user feedback.

[Freshellent]

Oh sorry, I was just idle bitching. I find the changes quite nice- but I miss the Sunset theme quite a bit. At least the colorscheme. Not because I played a gold CAST for the entirety of PSO's existence.

[doomdragon83]

Can you at least tell us what the name of your favorite theme was?

For me, I believe the theme I want back was "Mint Green"

[Ryna]

Oh sorry, I was just idle bitching. I find the changes quite nice- but I miss the Sunset theme quite a bit. At least the colorscheme. Not because I played a gold CAST for the entirety of PSO's existence.

Sunset was my favorite theme too. It was easy to read and the colors worked well together. Dhylec and I spent a lot of time working on that theme. I'd like to see Sunset eventually return to if there is enough interest. Rebuilding any of the old themes is very time-intensive.

For me, I believe the theme I want back was "Mint Green"

Thanks for letting us know. We're keeping track of requests.

The current plan is to let the just-released styles bake-in for a while so we can fix the bugs and try to improve them.

[[Ayumi]]

It's a bit darker and the new forums use Arial which is thinner than the old layout's Verdana so that's probably why.

For something less boring, could go to Google Fonts and filter for Sans Serif fonts.


I wish the forum would use something more flat myself but I've never seen a vBulletin board done in that style. It probably needs a lot of heavy lifting to overhaul some of the clutter innate to vBulletin.

I don't think it's because it's darker as I used the darker themes anyway (the brighter, the more it hurts my eyes).
It's more of seeing which topic is which at times as they seem clamped up. And the boldness of new topics or topics with new posts aren't standing out as much as they did anymore.

And yeah, as someone mentioned before, I think the new theme might be great for me (minus the problems I said previously) if it wasn't squished horizontally either. That didn't make matters any better at all.

[Ryna]

I don't think it's because it's darker as I used the darker themes anyway (the brighter, the more it hurts my eyes).
It's more of seeing which topic is which at times as they seem clamped up. And the boldness of new topics or topics with new posts aren't standing out as much as they did anymore.

And yeah, as someone mentioned before, I think the new theme might be great for me (minus the problems I said previously) if it wasn't squished horizontally either. That didn't make matters any better at all.

Have you tried any of the other themes? Do you find them difficult to read? Do you have any specific suggestions for improving Cosmic?