[color=#CC0099]For the past few months our tech team have been diligently working on rehauling the Fallen London website. Fallen London’s been running for about 8 years and the architecture of the website has changed very little since its launch, so we’re extremely excited to bring it to a more modern state!
The most pronounced and exciting change will be an update of the face of Fallen London! As you may have seen in our sneak peek screenshot of the new front end, the website will be receiving an update in its UI and also some of its visuals.
Other updates include:
[ul][li]A much better experience on mobile browsers [/li][li]Tech updates such as bringing the whole site to HTTPS![/li][li]Reorganisation of the Myself tab to make finding information about your character easier[/li][li]General improvements to the overall user experience of the website[/li][/ul]Barring any belligerent bugs, we’re hoping to put the updates live in 2-3 months time. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to give everyone at least a week’s heads up once we’re close. Once the initial revamp is live, we’ll be focusing on fine-tuning the mobile responsiveness work.
We can’t wait to share the redesign with you! Throughout this process, feel free to send any feedback to feedback@failbettergames.com.[/color] edited by Absintheuse on 5/23/2018
You can almost feel the excitement radiating from this post, which makes me feel rather bad for saying what I am about to say. Regardless, my opinion has yet to change and I will say it once again.
I am sorry to say this, but I am personally not a big fan of the website’s redesign. I prefer our current 'parchment’y styled website over this more modern aesthetic. I feel as if Fallen London would lose some of its character and appeal, if it were to make the switch. The loss of the greeting, action candle, its 'parchment’iness, and blocky qualities makes me feel rather upset and the idea of making Fallen London look like more like a modern website just makes me feel rather uncomfortable overall. And personally, I never had an issue with the site whenever I had accessed it via mobile phone.
Regardless, this is merely my personal opinion. Even if FBG were to make the transition to the more modern looking website, I will still play Fallen London to the very end. Even if I do disagree with some of it, I very much appreciate all the hard work FBG has done for its game and for its fans. edited by Harry P. on 2/16/2018
There’s an entire topic already dedicated to complaining about the aesthetics of the preview. Most of this announcement was on technical details, and we can (I think) at least agree that a better-organized Myself tab would be a major plus for everybody.
As a side note: If someone happened to work in making the Addressed As quality visible on characters’ profiles, I wouldn’t complain… edited by Siankan on 2/16/2018
[quote=Absintheuse][color=#cc0099]For the past few months our tech team have been diligently working on rehauling the Fallen London website. Fallen London’s been running for about 8 years and the architecture of the website has changed very little since its launch, so we’re extremely excited to bring it to a more modern state![/color][/quote]Uh, changing the architecture as well, more than greaaaat!
[/li][/ul][/color]Guess older browsers are blocking you to go for HTTP2 directly or the serving mechanism?
[quote=Absintheuse][color=#cc0099]We can’t wait to share the redesign with you![/color][/quote]I think you can offer us more if you really want to!:P
[quote=Absintheuse][color=#cc0099]Once the initial revamp is live, we’ll be focusing on fine-tuning the mobile responsiveness work.[/color][/quote]Need help? :) edited by Skinnyman on 2/16/2018
The only major things bugging me right now about the preview image are the circular icons and the floating tabs. The circular icons I find quite problematic as icons in FL were drawn to fit in a rectangle frame and not all of them look fine in a circular one. This might have been a better (not necessarily good, but better) change if you were to redraw all those icons to fit both frames, but seeing the sheer number of images assets currently in the game that doesn’t seem feasible to do. The matter with floating tabs I admit is more of my own personal taste, but the current tab design is more familiar and easier to understand for me on a glance.
It would be nice to have the greetings back too since the top area now looks so empty, but this isn’t something I’d die for as long as I can see my username somewhere.
And I assume there’s no easy way to let the current candle(s) stay in the web version? I can see why you’d want to remove it for mobile interface, but it’s such a nice visual indicator… I’m not a programmer or a web designer so I have no idea, haha.
[color=#cc0099]I have managed to procure another sneaky screenshot from our programmers and added it to the main post - hopefully this helps! Also we are looking into how to keep the candles, even though they aren’t featured in the screenshots.[/color] edited by Absintheuse on 2/16/2018
Well, I will admit the changes to the ‘Myself’ tab do sound appealing. Separating ‘Myself’ and my ‘Possessions’ would be a nice feature. And admittedly the game has crashed on me on mobile browsers several times, though that could be a problem with my mobile. And it is great to hear that they are keeping the candle.
Aesthetic is still a topic of debate, and this is an offical announcement, making it a better place for discussion rather than the other easily missable post. edited by Harry P. on 2/16/2018
As part of this update, it would be lovely if we could get additional outfits. I know that many people have suggested a BDR slot, and a sixth slot for general purposes would come in handy too.
So if I’m remembering the app right, square images are for items and circles are for qualities? It does help to distinguish, but the combination looks quite strange, especially since some items and qualities use the same images.
I’m also very glad to hear you’re trying to keep the candles; it’s such an integral part of the FL Aesthetic.
Isn’t https a prerequisite for http2, and browsers can negotiate http2 when both browser and server support it? Amazon aws cloudfront apparently supports http2 and FL seems to be using that … edited by xKiv on 2/16/2018
I just hope that no functionality (like, having menaces easily visible whenever you are, unlike mobile port) won’t be lost. Other than that, as long as candles are kept, I am OK with whatever - trusting the Sunless Sea-like interface guidelines.
Also, hoping that extensions won’t be much harder to implement OR that most useful of them get implemented as vanilla interface, at last.
Thanks for heads up! edited by CatLady on 2/16/2018
Isn’t https a prerequisite for http2, and browsers can negotiate http2 when both browser and server support it? Amazon aws cloudfront apparently supports http2 and FL seems to be using that … edited by xKiv on 2/16/2018[/quote]
Probably there are more reasons, but I’m sorry as my brain went on vacation as of 2-3 hours ago after 12 consecutive days of intense work! Most I remember is that HTTP2 delivers content way faster, but blink browsers don’t like the new protocol. Will need to conduct more research next week! :)
Very happy to hear that Failbetter is looking into trying to keep the candle, and also that Myself will be better-organized.
Add me to the list of voices missing the greeting up top that tells me the name of the area I’m in.
Also… there is just something weird about all that powder blue. I know it’s more readable than red-on-black, I get that, but red-and-black is just… it’s Fallen London’s aesthetic, to me. I wish we could at least keep the red progress bars.
I too have certain reservations about the changes, but if they result in a site that doesn’t bug out every five minutes or ignore three out of five of my card clicks it will be well worth it.
I’m probably just iffy about it because I’m so used to the site as it is, but I don’t think a change like this could make me stop playing FL. I am very happy to hear that we’ll (most likely) still have the candle, but still wish we could have the greeting too. I have five accounts and often forget which one I’m playing. Even so, I welcome this update with open arms and will celebrate by buying my main 450 more weasels from the Bazaar.
I don’t have anything profound to say other than to state that I have NO reservations whatsoever about this change. I don’t feel it’s a big deal. I don’t feel it will break immersion. I think it’s a good change and FBG has my wholehearted support.
Well I know what I’m making a user style/script for in a couple months’ time.
I only really, really hope nothing gets irreversibly broken - for instance, if they were to physically crop off the corners of the newly-circular art, it would be far more painful trying to restore the old aesthetic. Are there any archives/mirrors anywhere (perhaps on the wiki or something) of the Fallen London assets, in case some things do get irrecoverably removed upon update?