A lot of the features are nice and definitely cleaner. The highlighted posts from devs/important people, the # New Posts feature next to a previously read thread, the darkened out "viewed" threads versus the accented ones that I haven't read.
That being said, I feel your design needs to be tweaked a bit more. Simply minor oversights, I feel, as you clearly put a lot of thought/time into this.
I don't know if you now need an account/be logged in to view the forums but that should clearly be stated front and center when you click on the Forums link.
You need a forum link on every main page from the Unknown Worlds website (linking to a sub menu of which particular game's forums the user wants) to the game specific main pages.
The forum directory showing: General, Getting Started, Etc... should be a bit more identified. You should have clearly labeled, designed links to that particular subset of forums with a notation of "Newest posts" illustrating the most recent posts in the immediate box below. What you're showing is obvious to most people, but the easier you make the 'viewability', the better for every user involved. For example, currently I would see the "General" but until I clicked on that and opened it up I'd have no idea that is where Ideas and Suggestions go, or where Squad Five was currently housed. Same with "Getting Started" and "Technical Support", for example.
Finally once you get into the particular sub forum you want to view you're a bit inundated with clutter. Truthfully, simply removing the avatars from that main forum view would alleviate that in a big way. The avatar's are visible in the thread anyways, so it's redundant in a way.
Edit: Replace the "Options" wheel with a plain old Edit button. Options and a drop down would make sense if you had more options in that particular menu, but since those features aren't necessary/being used, no real need to have it in there.
first thought "ooh shiny!" gj everyone involved, I will now go dive in and explore what other features it has.
ps.
would be awsome to have some spacing between posts in here
This new stuff reminds me of facebook, and my antisocial self is very much against anything facebook related. I don't like it at all right now.
However, I will learn to cope as I will spend many hours lurking.
That being said, I want tacos, so I will go make tacos. Or something similar to tacos, maybe. Depends on what the booze has to say about it once I get into the kitchen.
Also, lerks need laser beams. Wall piercing laser beams.
Looking spiffy. Do the same old requirements still apply, such as 24kB avatar and short post signature? Trying to fit in more than 5 links in there was really tough.
As said by others, the avatar icons in the topic list diverts attention from the topics. Signatures could be a bit more clearly separated from the posts. Please make NS themed smileys (until that happens, this is the lerk: :bz ). Add more content (I know the wiki is being worked on, but I mean a story page, recommended NS2 videos and twitch streams and video of the week, link section, mod spotlight).
Comments
That being said, I feel your design needs to be tweaked a bit more. Simply minor oversights, I feel, as you clearly put a lot of thought/time into this.
I don't know if you now need an account/be logged in to view the forums but that should clearly be stated front and center when you click on the Forums link.
You need a forum link on every main page from the Unknown Worlds website (linking to a sub menu of which particular game's forums the user wants) to the game specific main pages.
The forum directory showing: General, Getting Started, Etc... should be a bit more identified. You should have clearly labeled, designed links to that particular subset of forums with a notation of "Newest posts" illustrating the most recent posts in the immediate box below. What you're showing is obvious to most people, but the easier you make the 'viewability', the better for every user involved. For example, currently I would see the "General" but until I clicked on that and opened it up I'd have no idea that is where Ideas and Suggestions go, or where Squad Five was currently housed. Same with "Getting Started" and "Technical Support", for example.
Finally once you get into the particular sub forum you want to view you're a bit inundated with clutter. Truthfully, simply removing the avatars from that main forum view would alleviate that in a big way. The avatar's are visible in the thread anyways, so it's redundant in a way.
Edit: Replace the "Options" wheel with a plain old Edit button. Options and a drop down would make sense if you had more options in that particular menu, but since those features aren't necessary/being used, no real need to have it in there.
Nice work!
ps.
would be awsome to have some spacing between posts in here
However, I will learn to cope as I will spend many hours lurking.
That being said, I want tacos, so I will go make tacos. Or something similar to tacos, maybe. Depends on what the booze has to say about it once I get into the kitchen.
Also, lerks need laser beams. Wall piercing laser beams.
I don't see how it's worse than the previous boards, the last boards had a friends feature built in.
PS. My PT icon is gone. ┐(╹︿╹※)┌
This affects the link from http://www.naturalselection2.com/, as well as other places obviously...
One note though, browsing to forums.unknownworlds.com gives a missing page on my mobile ( iPhone )
test edit - GISP
Yes, please fix this ... no matter the link I always get to unknownworlds.com and have to make additional clicks.
I think this was a good compromise for the people on the forums asking for achievements ingame. Forum achievements!
It's going to take a while to get used to, but I like it
As said by others, the avatar icons in the topic list diverts attention from the topics. Signatures could be a bit more clearly separated from the posts. Please make NS themed smileys (until that happens, this is the lerk: :bz ). Add more content (I know the wiki is being worked on, but I mean a story page, recommended NS2 videos and twitch streams and video of the week, link section, mod spotlight).
The one thing I'm struggling to find is a 'New Posts' link. Anyone spotted it?
Nope.
oh and editing saves now, good news!