The Energon Pub

I know for many players they left because no one worked on the game. Since Seibs is doing everything he is to clean up and fix the game, should we reconnect with the old players to let them know improvements are being made or wait until Seibs is done? We don't know what all he has in mind to enhance the game beyond the working map idea. Will the idea of someone working on the game entice players to return?

I say wait a little longer, till there's more to show for Seibertron's hard work. Do it too early and it might be a case of "heard it all before". Though on the other hand, it might be different if they knew it was Seibertron working on it

ZeroWolf wrote:I say wait a little longer, till there's more to show for Seibertron's hard work. Do it too early and it might be a case of "heard it all before". Though on the other hand, it might be different if they knew it was Seibertron working on it

The real biggest difference is that we actually an admin section now with a variety of tools available to help us manage the game for going forward, something that HMW has never had before in its 15 year history. Previously, programmers made updates manually in the database or Burn managed with some bare bones tools I created about 6 to 8 years ago, most of which didn't even work any more. Normally I don't share things about the back-end of Seibertron.com, but I think in this case to prove a point, it is warranted. Here are some example screenshots ... more work will be done with the admin section throughout this week.

Even if I quit working on it right now, these tools are now in place at a minimum to breathe a lot of new life back into the game. Once I near the end of building out these tools, I'll be turning my attention to the front end which needs a lot of love.

Neat.

Does that mean that Wingz &/or any of the other HMW Mods (if we have any that still show up) can affect things as well?
Seems like it'd be a good idea to give them the tools to help Burn out so he's not always so overloaded.

@Seibertron I stand corrected though I see an option there for winner in the first screenshot... What's that for? Or is that for tournaments where's it's possible for an admin to choose a winner. Also I second what Bun Bun said about mods having access to the new dashboard.

Bun-Bun wrote:Neat.

Does that mean that Wingz &/or any of the other HMW Mods (if we have any that still show up) can affect things as well?
Seems like it'd be a good idea to give them the tools to help Burn out so he's not always so overloaded.

Absolutely. For those interested in helping, please reach out to Burn and we'll figure out how to go from there.

ZeroWolf wrote:@Seibertron I stand corrected though I see an option there for winner in the first screenshot... What's that for? Or is that for tournaments where's it's possible for an admin to choose a winner. Also I second what Bun Bun said about mods having access to the new dashboard.

The first screenshot was the completed Missions screen. The winning faction icon is just that ... the faction that won that particular mission.

I haven't figured out how tournaments are supposed to work yet. Hoping you guys can shed some light on that in my topic about Tournaments.

Seibertron wrote:

Bun-Bun wrote:Neat.

Does that mean that Wingz &/or any of the other HMW Mods (if we have any that still show up) can affect things as well?
Seems like it'd be a good idea to give them the tools to help Burn out so he's not always so overloaded.

Absolutely. For those interested in helping, please reach out to Burn and we'll figure out how to go from there.

Is that all it takes?

OK Mr. Burn, I'm ready for my Mod-ship

I really wish we had a Like button on these posts! This is outstanding news.

I second the motion on holding off to invite old players. I would wait until we have some sweet upgrades in place, so we can really get the juices flowing.

I can't wait to see what goodies come down the pike.

Optimus_Prime007 wrote:I really wish we had a Like button on these posts! This is outstanding news.

I second the motion on holding off to invite old players. I would wait until we have some sweet upgrades in place, so we can really get the juices flowing.

I can't wait to see what goodies come down the pike.

What I hope to be able to demonstrate is that the work that I have been doing on HMW over the past 2 months really are some sweet upgrades. This development process began on my end when I started working on this new admin section back around July 16th. Burn had made some suggestions dating back to March of this year in an email he sent me titled "HMW 15th Anniversary", which is what really got me thinking about HMW and looking at the code.

HMW had been on my radar for a front-end redesign for several years because it has some extremely outdated HTML code that pre-dates several redesigns of Seibertron.com, which itself is outdated, but not quite as bad. I have worked on a few new front-end redesigns that utilize modern web technologies, Bootstrap and are very mobile friendly, but haven't pulled the trigger on a specific one yet. However, I feel like HMW might be a great candidate because you guys are so good at providing feedback, which I really need with a front-end redesign.

The general point of this post is that the all-new HMW admin section is something we've never had before in the 15 year history of Heavy Metal War. Finally, after all of this time, we now have a tool that will let Seibertron.com staff manage missions, characters, alt-modes, tactics, and many other aspects to the HMW game.

Hopefully, this major improvement to HMW will breathe some much needed life into the game.