Change the look of the homepage

[XxDaSTaRxx]

To me, as an outsider looking at the download site for my new addiction it looked a bit sketchy ....

[ridley1]

Compare Hitech's to World of Tanks, or Warthunder's

"play for Free" is in huge fonts. "free trial" is buried in the graphics.

The background art is more dramatic and eye catching. 

Marketing...unfortunately, it's all about marketing.

[Franz Von Werra]

And have an indicator of some type that shows that this isn't 15vs15...
That this can be 100s vs 100s...

[wpeters]

Agreed. I'd gladly do the work... I'll use web.py + Boostrap/HTML5/CSS3 + JS/jQuery/angular/backbone. Something clean and simple, with easy to find information. I think the most important part is making the tutorials and game info easier to access. Other ideas for the site:

• live updated scroll of the most recent kills (Snailman [B29] killed jeffdn [Ta-152]) or similar[/color]
• scheduling/calendar function with Outlook/Google Calendar integration for trainers and people wishing to be trained
• forum facelift?
• better statistics displays, perhaps I could work with Lusche on ways to generate cool things automatically
• the latest ad with in-game footage in HD right on the home page, not in a tiny video box on the left side

Just say the word and I'll get started. Graphic design help welcome.

I love all of these ideas.    Especially the  most recent kill but have it as a option to turn on in a seperate radio box.   

Would also love to have A kill camera like in CoD..  Last minute before death....   with option to turn on or off

[Chugamug]

+1 on a new home page. There's a lot of good ideas mentioned here. I think k it would be a good idea to launch the game via the home page. The clipboard is ok in-game. As it is now the only real information is the number of players in any given arena. Each arena should have a description of the plane set and arena settings.

How many people go to the web site to see what The Axis vs Allied arena settings are? Same for the Sea. You would be marketing to current players as well as potential new players.

[PFactorDave]

Lots of good points in this thread.

The homepage needs to trumpet the fact that there is no waiting for a match in Aces High.  Log in, choose an arena, and take to the sky!

The guys over at WT that want to fly with the more realistic flight models have long waits to get into matches.  We don't have that problem here!  Make some noise about it!


Then...  If I were in charge...  I would take a look at all of the maps and make certain each map has an area where bases cannot be captured and unimpeded fur balling can happen, in the air and on the ground  (Tank Town type areas without the base captures)....  Have an area on every map where you can ALWAYS get into combat quickly.  This would help appeal to the group of folks that enjoy the quick action.

Just some thoughts.

[EagleDNY]

How about a real time image of the map and radar contacts, plus a scrolling text of system messages (leave out the jabber).

[Lusche]

How about a real time image of the map and radar contacts,

Dar contacts of which country?

[muzik]

Static numbers would not convey action like kills scrolling.  And numbers might be low enough to discourage people from signing up.

Spot on.

[caldera]

The kill scrolling might look something like this:

[The Fugitive]

Something like that kill list would be easy to do and doesn't even have to be tied to the game actively.  You could use a script to pull a "name/kill line" from a pool of names randomly and random times from .5 to 2 seconds and it would look like it was running the list from the game but have nothing to do with it. The movement on the page would draw your eye to it and give you the illusion of "some action" going on.

[Lusche]

Something like that kill list would be easy to do and doesn't even have to be tied to the game actively.  You could use a script to pull a "name/kill line" from a pool of names randomly and random times from .5 to 2 seconds and it would look like it was running the list from the game but have nothing to do with it. The movement on the page would draw your eye to it and give you the illusion of "some action" going on.

The German term that comes to my mind for this is "Mogelpackung", "deceptive packaging".

[caldera]

The German term that comes to my mind for this is "Mogelpackung", "deceptive packaging".

Yeah, that would be bad news for AH's reputation once word got out. 

There really is no need for the "illusion" of action in the arenas.  Last month alone, there were 316,657 kills in the Main Arenas (LW, MW, EW, WWI, AVA).  Including kills in the DA, FSO and events would add thousands more.  Real-time display of the kills would happen fairly rapidly.   There could even be a "Total kills for the month" real-time display rolling underneath the kill scroll. 

The page is rather stale and needs some life breathed into it.  A few other things that might help:




Also mention the free offline missions.  The static picture could rotate between action shots of the more recently updated planes and tanks.  Show off the goods.