Bringing Metroid Construction to the 21st century!

[GF_Kennon]

So MetConstians, its been 6 and a bit years since this place was created, we've come a very long way since its creation, hacking has grown exceptionally open and advanced as time has gone on, you guys have been producing amazing resources and hacks and MetConst has been aiming to put it all under one roof for easy access for all.

But one thing has not kept up, the main site. "Whats a main site?" you might say and well, considering the state of it its quite understandable, someone had to manually edit and searching for anything was a pain in the ass, and as such hardly anyone used it, with a massive backlog of things still needing to be submitted to it, its fallen apart from the inside out...

BUT, today, I unveil the FUTURE! Behold as I present to you the new face of Metroid Construction!

This is what Metroid Construction needed when it started 6 years ago, there is nothing manual about this site as it is fully functional and automated, you can now submit your own resources yourself instead of waiting for someone with FTP access to manually edit it.

So thats the biggest change, but we have implemented others to make your life easier, for one, you can now sort and search the site for whatever you wish, you can now also rate and review hacks! This is one of the more exciting systems, when a hack or resource gets 3 ratings, it will get a star rating from 1 to 5, letting people sort by rating on the hacks page.

The site is empty for now, we are counting on you guys to fill it up with as much as you want, if you want to simply copy over your entry from the main site thats fine, just give the form you need to fill in the information from the main site and it will pull from there, but this is your chance to submit any additional media with your submissions, over the next week or so we shall fill out the site with your help and replace the old site, anyone with FTP access when this change happens might find that they need to get in touch with me as FTP stuff will be changing along with subdomain location.

So feel free to share your views and discuss the main site update here, I look forward to hearing about them.

Special thanks to
thedopefish: Without him this probably could never have happened, so thank you dopey for putting up with my shit.  :awesome:
Grime: For the mockup of the new site layout, giving us a base to work off.
Mon732: For helping me make the mockup work in PHP, and finishing off the things I couldnt do
Crys: For creating the original beta of the site, from which me and Mon732 used elements from in the creation of this new version of Metroid Construction.
Everyone who participated in the closed beta, who helped find some site breaking bugs before public.
And you guys, the people who make MetConst what it is today, I hope you all enjoy the new site!

[Quietus]

Grime: For the mockup of the new site layout, giving us a project base to work off.

Fixed that for you. :wink:

[Lunaria]

If there is anything out of place or looks a bit weird, let us know, and we'll fix it! Criticism in general will be helpful as we go forward, but as James has alluded on already, the best way each and everyone of you can help is by submitting any and all sort of resources and hacks to the site!

[Quietus]

A few quick suggestions:

• I don't like the title.  Is this placeholder?  If not, it looks a little bit too wacky.  I like the bricks down the sides. :^_^:
• I think the Youtube link would probably be better opening in its own tab.
• You have filtering options on the resources page.  You should add the same for the hacks page.  Once we get loads of hacks on there, it would be a pain to have to scroll through, even with it sorted into game order.
• I think we'd better off using stars (or something similar) for the ratings.  I understand that the orbs are more Metroidy, but they don't really stand out.

[Retroo]

I think the orbs are better than stars.

[thedopefish]

Filters for hacks will likely be added down the road.  You might also notice that the RAM Map and Hex Tweaks sections are planned but not in place yet--those will also be expanded on in time.  Other changes or new features are also a possibility, now that the framework is in place.  So feel free to keep the suggestions coming.

The exciting thing is that now, all the content is now user-driven.  You can submit your own hacks and resources directly on the web site.  This gives you full control over what links, screenshots, and text you want displayed with your submission, and it allows you to go back in at any time and make revisions.  And even if you haven't released any hacks or resources yourself, you can still go in and rate your favorite hacks and write reviews to help the rest of the community narrow in on the best content.

The more content everyone adds to this, the more useful it will become for everyone.  So let's get submitting!

[GF_Kennon]

Among other things, I'm looking to see if anyone wants to help with some images the site could use...

If anyone wants to submit something to replace the orbs they can, we are looking for something Metroidy hopefully, I'm also looking to see if anyone wants to create some top hacks banners, as you can see top hacks is now part of the main site, I'm looking for banners to fill in 10-13, 09 already has one, at some point SparkConst is also going to need banners, like ZelConst.

If I remember correctly the title is probably going to be replaced too.

[Cpt.Glitch]

I like the orbs, but if you want it to stand out more, a bright colored item like ZMs morph ball, or Samus' symbol would probably look good.

[GF_Kennon]

On a side topic, a few people have been submitting a few non direct links to their resources, MetConst cant download unless its a direct link, so your link should be ending in a file name.

I have corrected any submissions that happen to submit links like these but you guys could make it easier for me if you submit correct links, also you should be submitting YouTube links via the important links section, add a new link, select other, insert your URL and type YouTube into the description, at some point, embedding will work though.

Edit: .md does not work for readme's, .txt only adamf, but you can submit it under other, which I did just now for you.

[Cpt.Glitch]

Does  submiting a patch follow the same requirements?

[Digital_Mantra]

2015 just keeps getting fancier.

[personitis]

Curse insomnia. =_= Anywho, nice run-on sentence.

Welcome to Metroid Construction, the ultimate resource for all things Metroid hacking related, started on the 19th February 2009, Metroid Construction has aimed to be the central spot for all things Metroid hacking related, feel free to join us on the forums or use the chat link in the tabs above to talk to us over IRC, alternatively use your own IRC client to connect, we exist at irc.esper.net on channel #MetConst, we hope to see you around!

[Law]

So MetConstians, its been 6 and a bit years since this place was created, we've come a very long way since its creation, hacking has grown exceptionally open and advanced as time has gone on, you guys have been producing amazing resources and hacks and MetConst has been aiming to put it all under one roof for easy access for all.

But... but we can't possibly be bringing the main site to the 21st century when it was made in the 21st century, right...? :P

Seriously though, it's good to have an update where users can actually bring stuff in with these new mechanisms without having to manually hack stuff in.

[Metaquarius]

I don't like the title.

[adamf]

Edit: .md does not work for readme's, .txt only adamf, but you can submit it under other, which I did just now for you.

Whoops.  I'm used to github's way of life.

Did the gif on energy sizing work without issue, or do I need to try harder to get a real link out of google drive?

[GF_Kennon]

oh yeah, the gif didnt work ether, but I downloaded it and added it in manually, its actually pretty nifty that gif, you could try using imgur for gifs like that, unless you can get google drive to give you a direct link

[Parabox]

Functionally upgrading the main site? Sure. Making it a little more attractive and varied? Fine. But I really appreciate the minimalism of the current site. The beta looks like it was made concurrent to Metroid2002 and Samus.co.uk, only fitting to a 1080p browsing window, and having better-placed navigation. Sure, we're not serious around here, but that doesn't mean our main page should be cartoonlike. I do agree that upgrading is a good idea, but the current ideas for the beta aren't quite the way.

[Lunaria]

Can you go into more detail what your issues are Parabox? Resolution is currently not one of them as it downscales fairly well in smaller windows. (Which begs the question if you even tried to check how that worked?)

I'm also unsure what you mean by both comparing us to m2k2 and SCU in design as well as calling it cartoonish, considering both of those sites are very much more plain than we are. (And to be honest, we are not really competing with either in any way.) So what is it that you really would want to have changed? Replacing all tile graphics with plain colour?

[Metaquarius]

I like that new title. :yay:
Much much better than the previous one !

[Quietus]

I like that new title. :yay:
Much much better than the previous one !

Quoting in turn. :^_^:

[JAM]

Resolution is currently not one of them as it downscales fairly well in smaller windows. 

Ah, so that's why it's working perfectly with 640*480. I'm impressed!

About the hacks and resources pages... It's all good when you need to upload the stuff. But it's completely useless when you want to correct the stuff. Let's say, I know the actual release date of hack X and want to set it (instead of early 2004 or unknown or something). Or I want to add screenshots to hack Y, which have bad screenshots or doesn't have any at all. Or I want to upload the new version of hack Z. Or set the genre or correct difficulty of hack T. And all I'll have to do is

waiting for someone with FTP access to manually edit it.

So, how about entry correction form? Simply rating isn't enough, IMHO. It's good when every hack or patch have proper information and screenies but we're far from that. I so suggest to add a form in where anyone can add more screenshots and correct the data if needed. Of course, it should not allow to just changing the data at site by any user. So, I'm about idea of adding information to the form and sending it. Then someone will approve or deny it.

[Zhs2]

While I wouldn't go so far as Parabox's description, I do agree with his sentiment: making the new beta site even more plainly colorful than it is keeps the new functionality but sacrifices none of the feel we originally had, which I'm assuming, to Parabox, is the need to feel pretty by adding Red Brin and stars. Main site themes? Gogogogogogogogogogogog

[Scyzer]

Just posting this here cause poop.

The new site category system is fine as is, but we need more information or ways to sort the hacks. The current system sorts the hacks by theit play style (are they exploration based? Fun quick plays? Etc). This is cool, but there is no indication of their approximate size.

I think what we need is a combination of the new system and the old system, split into 2 categories. For example, the first category would be the style of hack. Exploration, quick play, boss rush, etc. The second category is the approximate size/type of hack. Full Hack, Minihack, Add on.
Also, hacks should be able to belong in more than one category for the first one.

As an example, Stardust would be a quickplay/exploration for the first category, and full hack in the second. Squishy's Inertia would be quickplay and Minihack, etc.

People would then be able to sort all hacks by category from either side, such as all exploration hacks at the top, sorted secondly by hack size (exploration full, exploration mini, exploration add on, then quickplay full, etc), or the other way around, having the hack size as the priority sort, then type second.

[JAM]

I absolutely agree with anything that Scyzer said above. Some players may want to play  hacks based on explotation, but with changed map at least. And even some Half hacks with insanely altered course and item progression can be categorized as "Exploration". Like you know the map, but have absolutely no idea, where to go.

Another example: Challenge. There are a lot of hacks based on challenge, but of them are really small (like Crystal Flash Training or more similar from that guy), some are medium (I count Darkholme Hospital as challenge too), some are really big, like Cliffhanger.

Also, "sort by ID" feature would be nice.

[Dynastyx]

So when exactly is it coming out of beta? Just curious.