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| Upgraded User Level Database Add a New Game Sunday, July 26, 2009 10:06 pm — Posted by Livio |
ShareThisAdd a New Game" instead. I believe that in the staff forum, I estimated that it would take me maybe a day to revamp the galleries, if I hurried. Well, it's been an entire week already.... It turns out that I went completely overboard adding some extra features to the galleries, and I didn't even add all of the ones I wanted to add yet.
There's so much new stuff that I'm making a list of it all:- You can switch your browsing between games much easier and keep browsing only that game without too much disturbance. And you see more options available when you have certain games selected.
- The search and all the options you'll need can be found on the regular browsing structure. Much better than before...
- You'll see new links to some general searches, such as newest, largest, top-rated, series, etc.
- Each level now tracks the number of characters that the level code takes up. This number can be used to determine the "size" of each level because the larger the level, the bigger the level code is, thus letting you easily find the largest or smallest levels on the site.
- Not all games track the size of their codes, and when viewing HATPC levels, the size is determined based on level dimensions, which is determined to be as accurate as when you open the level in HATPC, which means that it doesn't count lines that get cut off.
- Series now come up mixed into your regular results, but you can turn that off by selecting the "Only Levels" option for the "Search In" field.
- Series pages look better, and while browsing, levels will tell you what series they are a part of.
- Any old gallery links will now redirect you to the new correct links.
- When you view a level, it now tells you if that level has been submitted into a currently-running competition. Also, the trophies are now displayed below the level code.
- New Random Level Generator that lets you control what games it looks through.
- HATPC levels now record dimensions, water type, and if the level is glitched by the Uploader. All of these attributes update when you first add the level and with every consecutive edit.
- When viewing HATPC levels, you can choose an option to display related CaveList results. I think this is really cool.
Now you can search the level database and the CaveList at the same time. But it only gives you the first 24 results in order to make room for the level database results; for the rest you can follow a link to the CaveList search page to continue your search. Many browsing options are translated into the CaveList search, including when you order by rate, it orders by praise. - The Add Levels page now forces you to pick a game before you go in, and once you make a level for one game, you cannot change its game ever again.
- The Add Levels page and the Edit page both look much better now. It was from my attempt to make the page feel less cluttured as I added more options, like how you can now create a new series right there on the spot as you add a new level.
- When you add a level or edit a level, it'll automatically redirect you to the page of that level, similar to how it works when you make a new post. But you also have the option to change where you get redirected to. For example, in the add levels page, you can select an option for if you want to add another level right away. This should make adding several levels to the gallery easier.
Some other stuff I plan to add very soon is the ability to upload files straight to the site, instead of what we have now where you post a link a file on another site. I was also thinking of adding some more browsing options, like a "next level" and "previous level" set of links when you view a level, and it'll bring you to an adjacent level based on the search that you were looking at. And maybe a tiny list of "related levels" or "other levels by this user" to come up at the bottom of the level.
Anyway, enjoy the new level database. And report any glitches and any requests right away.
User Comments (46)
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
If possible (and it should be) make the caves in a serie sortable by ranking, date (which it currently is), size and so on. | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
I was thinking of putting the same browsing options for that the main pages had but then I backed out when I had to deal with the ultra-complicated series of potentially self-interfering options.... Instead, I think I'll just add a couple of quick "Order By" options. | |
| canadianstickdeath | ||
Age: 35 Karma: 350 Posts: 2990 Gender: Male pm | email |
I have a couple of questions. If I select to create a new series, then my added level automatically becomes part of that series, right? What happens if I select a series as well? Does it get added to the series I select or the one that I added. How can I know which will occur without asking you? Any reason for the radio buttons for a custom date? Can't you just have it like the video page, where you "leave blank for today"? | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
basically if you don't select anything for the series, then it'll check to see if you filled out the stuff to make a new series and it'll do all that other stuff, then add the level to it. 'canadianstickdeath' said: Any reason for the radio buttons for a custom date? Can't you just have it like the video page, where you "leave blank for today"?  ) and still put in a custom date thinking they have to. But it really doesn't matter unless you put in a custom date and forget to select the radio button (I actually tried to get the radio button to select when you clicked on the textbox, but that didn't work)... | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
so now there are order-by options when viewing series.... | |
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
Could it be possible to sort caves, when browsing the competition entries? | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
UPDATE: First, something minor: the description of the level or series comes up when you roll over the name of its title when browsing, and roll over the rating to see how many votes there were. But more importantly, there's a new category for Automatic Levels (DDA's). I need you guys to go through all of your DDAs, edit them, and under the description box, check the "automatic level?" option. I already did a few that were easy to find... | |
| Ckjr | ||
Age: 30 Karma: 28 Posts: 1324 Gender: Male pm | email |
Say, what about a semi-DDA like Left Out, or TheOddsofaDDA? | |
| jebby | ||
| Interguild Founder Age: 32 Karma: 233 Posts: 968 Gender: Male Location: United Kingdom pm | email |
Aargh! What is a DDA? I keep hearing about it and isa says it's 'Don't Do Anything' or something, but I can't think of many caves like that. Where's the jargon guide around here? | |
| Sefro | ||
Karma: 313 Posts: 1136 Gender: Male Location: Canada pm | email |
It's a level that can be completed by not doing anything. You start it and then watch Hannah or the Ninja slide through a bunch of crazy dangerous traps. CSD's Stay Still, for example. These levels haven't been very popular lately, but there was a time a while ago when they were popping up everywhere. Although I don't think you were active then. And hey, a jargon guide would be a nice. Maybe I'll start on one tonight. | |
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
Hey, Slackin' in Free Rider 2 and Achieving Nirvana are both very popular DDA's  Look at the rates! | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
'Ckjr' said: Say, what about a semi-DDA like Left Out, or TheOddsofaDDA? | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
UPDATE: The Level Database now lets you upload level files straight to the site!  But actually, currently the games that require this have very large file sizes that the server doesn't allow.  So for now, the feature is there, hidden somewhere... until I either fix this or until we add a game with acceptable file sizes. | |
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
Knytt Stories? | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
I already checked and my computer says that harumbai's level is 1.37 MB | |
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
How small sizes do you allow? O_o | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
right now it's set to somewhere around 700KB, which isn't much considering ZC levels are a few thousand KB (csd's level 3 is around 2,800KB ) but I'm trying to see if I can get it changed | |
| Isa | ||
| No. I'm an octopus. Age: 31 Karma: 686 Posts: 7833 Gender: Male Location: Uppsala, Sweden - GMT +1 pm | email |
You seriously need to change that, because no file will ever be so small in either game, unless they are very short. | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
yeah I know. Btw, it's also possible to get timed out by the server if you have very slow internet while uploading a file | |
| shos | ||
| ~Jack of all trades~ Age: 31 Karma: 389 Posts: 8273 Gender: Male Location: Israel pm | email |
will you be able to direct a file from your computer that is a cavecode?  | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
no, that's not very necessary. This is for more complicated things like Zelda Classic's .qst files, or Knytt Stories .bin files. That is if I could get it to work with a higher file size | |
| Ckjr | ||
Age: 30 Karma: 28 Posts: 1324 Gender: Male pm | email |
I tried editing a newly created series and it says Error: Level does not exist. When i tried to add a level into the series the same error message shows. | |
| krotomo | ||
| The Shepherd Age: 23 Karma: 249 Posts: 4066 Gender: Male Location: My chair pm | email |
Same with me.   | |
| Livio | ||
Age: 31 Karma: 470 Posts: 9620 Gender: Male Location: Arizona, USA pm | email |
fixed. It was crazy | |
| canadianstickdeath | ||
Age: 35 Karma: 350 Posts: 2990 Gender: Male pm | email |
While your at it, are you going to add mod-required-approval for uploaded (external and Interguild) file and URL games? | |
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