Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

DISCHARGE wrote:We have people asking where the mini-cons are

We really don't. And if they do, it's very rare.

I do like the idea of having them as tournament prizes. But again, down the track.

spend energon on a mini con

I'm still working on HMW admin section for Burn and HMW admins to manage the alt mode transform images. I'm making great progress with that. Keep cleaning up old code, making significant clean-up related changes, renaming database tables to schemes that I generally use, removing old code and deleting old files that are no longer used from back in mid-2000s early HMW era, updating code, modifying files, modifying folder structure, etc. Made a few thousand global changes today easily in code while making all of these changes. Also changing how the images work, also changing the alt mode images from GIFs to PNGs, updated faction images, etc. I'm doing my best to keep track of all of these changes. Keep me posted if I missed something that's causing an error.

Seibertron wrote:I'm still working on HMW admin section for Burn and HMW admins to manage the alt mode transform images. I'm making great progress with that. Keep cleaning up old code, making significant clean-up related changes, renaming database tables to schemes that I generally use, removing old code and deleting old files that are no longer used from back in mid-2000s early HMW era, updating code, modifying files, modifying folder structure, etc. Made a few thousand global changes today easily in code while making all of these changes. Also changing how the images work, also changing the alt mode images from GIFs to PNGs, updated faction images, etc. I'm doing my best to keep track of all of these changes. Keep me posted if I missed something that's causing an error.

Hmm, I'll start saving any future images as png for convenience then..

From my understanding they were .gif for the color picker, will that keep its function?

Phasewing wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I'm still working on HMW admin section for Burn and HMW admins to manage the alt mode transform images. I'm making great progress with that. Keep cleaning up old code, making significant clean-up related changes, renaming database tables to schemes that I generally use, removing old code and deleting old files that are no longer used from back in mid-2000s early HMW era, updating code, modifying files, modifying folder structure, etc. Made a few thousand global changes today easily in code while making all of these changes. Also changing how the images work, also changing the alt mode images from GIFs to PNGs, updated faction images, etc. I'm doing my best to keep track of all of these changes. Keep me posted if I missed something that's causing an error.

Hmm, I'll start saving any future images as png for convenience then..

From my understanding they were .gif for the color picker, will that keep its function?

It will probably be reworked. The color picker doesn't seem to work for me. Does it work for you? If so, which browser are you using? Nevermind, it is working for me. I was just using it wrong! If I change it, it will be an improvement to the current system, something that should work in all browsers.

Seibertron wrote:

Phasewing wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I'm still working on HMW admin section for Burn and HMW admins to manage the alt mode transform images. I'm making great progress with that. Keep cleaning up old code, making significant clean-up related changes, renaming database tables to schemes that I generally use, removing old code and deleting old files that are no longer used from back in mid-2000s early HMW era, updating code, modifying files, modifying folder structure, etc. Made a few thousand global changes today easily in code while making all of these changes. Also changing how the images work, also changing the alt mode images from GIFs to PNGs, updated faction images, etc. I'm doing my best to keep track of all of these changes. Keep me posted if I missed something that's causing an error.

Hmm, I'll start saving any future images as png for convenience then..

From my understanding they were .gif for the color picker, will that keep its function?

It will probably be reworked. The color picker doesn't seem to work for me. Does it work for you? If so, which browser are you using? Nevermind, it is working for me. I was just using it wrong! If I change it, it will be an improvement to the current system, something that should work in all browsers.

Never had an issue with the picker(browser used is Firefox), but I know Optimus_Prime007 has had issues with the picker before(being unable to pick a color despite using custom), but not sure why that was.

Also it seems some of the images have kind of broke and are their alt text description instead.

https://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwa ... n_id=75480 Mega and Freeforall don't have their images, for reference.

edit: ah, saw your post that you mentioned breaking them. whoopsie!

Seibertron wrote:I'm still working on HMW admin section for Burn and HMW admins to manage the alt mode transform images. I'm making great progress with that. Keep cleaning up old code, making significant clean-up related changes, renaming database tables to schemes that I generally use, removing old code and deleting old files that are no longer used from back in mid-2000s early HMW era, updating code, modifying files, modifying folder structure, etc. Made a few thousand global changes today easily in code while making all of these changes. Also changing how the images work, also changing the alt mode images from GIFs to PNGs, updated faction images, etc. I'm doing my best to keep track of all of these changes. Keep me posted if I missed something that's causing an error.

Thank you, again, for all of your effort. It's very much appreciated! This is no menial task.

The upgrade to the colour picker looks good, can actually see the different colours now, but on Chrome the right hand side of it has been cut off, I'm missing half of the last colour/shade/brightness boxes on the table, and the image preview is missing.

(Its actually been like that for a very long time, but I figured as you were fixing stuff it was worth mentioning.)

I know most people are allergic to reading the rules threads, but some of you may want to check this one out!

hmw-forum-and-game-rules-edited-5-14-08-please-read-p1981756.php#p1981756

I just noticed that the old armor missions actually say they're producing armor again.
Is that just left over code or has that functionality been returned?

Bun-Bun wrote:I just noticed that the old armor missions actually say they're producing armor again.
Is that just left over code or has that functionality been returned?

Check the armour quantities to verify. If it's working, it's a side affect.

Burn wrote:

Bun-Bun wrote:I just noticed that the old armor missions actually say they're producing armor again.
Is that just left over code or has that functionality been returned?

Check the armour quantities to verify. If it's working, it's a side affect.

Just had another one and checked.
It is in fact working. Bonus!

I'm assuming it's a byproduct of switching from gif to png but all (or at least most) of the small versions of the alt mode icons are looking extra small and diseased.
https://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwar/high.php

Only the custom coloured ones. The best toaster ever™ still looks badass.

Bun-Bun wrote:I'm assuming it's a byproduct of switching from gif to png but all (or at least most) of the small versions of the alt mode icons are looking extra small and diseased.
https://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwar/high.php

FYI ... I switched it back to GIF from PNG, and updated my code that creates the transparent thumbnails for the larger GIFs on the fly. All should be good now! Thanks for letting me know.

FYI ... the HMW admins now have the ability to manage the alt mode icons. We can manage the alt-modes, change the icon's default color on the fly, set dates for when those alt-modes are available, and change factions for each alt-mode.

HMW admins also have the ability to manage your characters now!

Seibertron wrote:FYI ... the HMW admins now have the ability to manage the alt mode icons. We can manage the alt-modes, change the icon's default color on the fly, set dates for when those alt-modes are available, and change factions for each alt-mode.

HMW admins also have the ability to manage your characters now!

I don't believe I have access to the panel yet. It was broken when was made a moderator, and I see no area to engage with it.

This is very exciting, though, as I would love to have the ability to contribute more to the HMW community!

The biggest thing I've been working on this week is rewriting code and restructuring the database. There are 3 general issues that I've been tackling: (1) poor design/planning, (2) normalization was ignored, and (3) poor naming standards.

These problems are NOT necessarily the fault of any one programmer that worked on the game previously. All of those programmers were volunteers working on HMW in their own time. With the exception of the initial HMW programmer, all of them were working with someone else's code (if you are a programmer, you might be familiar with how frustrating that can be). The initial programmer was working with his ideas and mine with no clear road map in mind.

So here I am over 14 years after HMW launched, looking at all of this code (104 PHP files / 684,032 bytes), all of these images (over 5,550 images), and and all of these database tables (56 tables with a little over approximately 1 GB of data total). Due to too many cooks having been in the kitchen, the code, images, database, files, and folder structure were all a bit of a mess. Old unused files still hung around (and were removed a couple of weeks ago), huge blocks of old code was still in the files, variables were inconsistently named, the same with database tables and columns. Some followed a plural naming pattern, some a singular.

While I don't know exactly where I envision this game going, I do know I would love to see my two dreams with HMW finally become realized. In order to achieve my two goals, I need to go through the code as much as possible, clean it up, tighten it up, make the overall structure of the game consistent, and basically just make HMW work like the rest of Seibertron.com works.

My first goal that I've had for at least a decade would be to end up with the ability to have a working map of Cybertron which shows various regions of Cybertron and how much of that map is controlled by Autobots or Decepticons.

My second goal is to make the game able to be ported over to other sites that I own, but have never launched. This is an idea I've had for a least the past 5 years or so. I'd love to see people playing a version of this game on Eterians.com, giCobra.com, LukeVader.com, TurtleFans.com and Thunderians.com.

So with that said, I've spent the last few weeks mostly just working on HMW. The best thing I've seen from all of these changes is that you guys have only seen a handful of errors slip through, which makes me feel pretty good about how careful I've been about making all of these changes.

Most of the work that I've done in the past few weeks involves the alt modes and the missions. Earlier today, I pushed the files live after I made some huge steps with database normalization as I attempt to make the game so we can have unlimited factions (which we won't have, but I'm doing by best to methodically remove some of the poor database relationships and specific database columns that include faction names (such as autobot_, decepticon, maximal_, predacon_, etc). It is highly possible that I missed something or didn't think of (or realize) how the changes I made would impact other areas of the game (such as the arena). If you find an error, please let me know in the HMW Bug Reporting Thread, along with the error message (via copy-and-paste or a screenshot) and most importantly a link to the page where you saw the error so that I can immediately verify the problem and fix it ASAP.

Thank you for sticking with HMW. Big things are on the horizon for this game after all of this time.

Thanks for all the work Ryan, I do know what it's like to work with someone else's code and you're right, it is a nightmare.

Remember my old argument of "I'm not a gamer, that's why I don't like to work on HMW."? Funny thing about life is, you guys might owe my interest in working on HMW to my interest in Transformers Earth Wars and Zelda Breath of the Wild. That and I want to bring back some of the unique features on Seibertron.com that no other Transformers site has.

sounds awsome

Seibertron wrote:Remember my old argument of "I'm not a gamer, that's why I don't like to work on HMW."? Funny thing about life is, you guys might owe my interest in working on HMW to my interest in Transformers Earth Wars and Zelda Breath of the Wild. That and I want to bring back some of the unique features on Seibertron.com that no other Transformers site has.

I remember that, kind of, so long ago... hehe.

Thank you so much for current and/or future improvements + qualities, Ryan.

Bun-Bun wrote:;)^

Burn wrote:

Bun-Bun wrote:I just noticed that the old armor missions actually say they're producing armor again.
Is that just left over code or has that functionality been returned?

Check the armour quantities to verify. If it's working, it's a side affect.

Just had another one and checked.
It is in fact working. Bonus!

Is this still working? I didn't even work on it (I don't think) so not sure what I did that got it working again. Maybe just cleaning up bad code that I keep seeing fixed the problem inadvertently.

Just got locations working for Missions.

It is possible that these recent changes broke something that I setup with getting the locations up and running (very basic ... just a location ID associated with the various missions, instead of the location ID being randomly generated and modified how it's keeping score by creating a new table that links locations to faction IDs), so if you see something wrong or come across an error, please let me know in the bug reporting thread. Thanks!

Seibertron wrote:Just got locations working for Missions.

It is possible that these recent changes broke something that I setup with getting the locations up and running (very basic ... just a location ID associated with the various missions, instead of the location ID being randomly generated and modified how it's keeping score by creating a new table that links locations to faction IDs), so if you see something wrong or come across an error, please let me know in the bug reporting thread. Thanks!

Could you please explain this function a bit more for us techtards? Are you referring to location as in 'Iacon', or location as in specific area within the code.

That first option genuinely excites me...