Might have an Alpha test ready this weekend, next weekend...

Basically, I'm looking for people to walk through the following features and provide detailed feedback along the lines of:
- did the feature work
- could you figure out how to use the feature
- was the layout smart or awkward
- edit mode needed
- delete mode needed



1) Make a Guild
2) Join a Guild
3) Write a Guild Charter
4) Make an Alliance
5) Join an Alliance
6) Write a Proposal
7*) Bring a Proposal to the Floor for Discussion and Amendments
8*) Introduce an Amendment
9*) Call a Vote on an Amendment
10*) Apply an Amendment
11) Call a Vote on the Proposal
12) Cast a Vote
13) Close Voting
14) Create a Rank Set
15) Change your Rank
16) Change your Powerlevel
17) Assign a Rank to another Member
18) Change the rank of another member
19) Change the powerlevel of another member
20) Leave a guild
21) Rejoin that guild
22) Leave again
23) View your guild memberships
24) Order your guild memberships
25) Set your primary guild
26) CHange your primary guild
27) Browse the Guild Map
28) Assign your guild to a specific Province
29) Start a Friendlist
30) Look up someone to add to your friendlist
31) Add someone to your firnedlist
32) Remove them from your friendlist
33) Add them to your friendlist again
34) Remove them again
35) Start a Forum
36) Start A Thread
37) Post a reply
38) Post a reply to a reply
39) Send a PM
40) Read a PM
41) Reply to a PM
42) Check PM's

....

More to come...

A lot more.... A lot.... Access Control Lists are going to be a major challenge, but without the base features you can't have a ACL now can you? :-P

[ Edited Jan 29, 2010 ]

私は日本語を少し読むと書くをできます。あなたも？

I'll do my best to make time for testing some of those features. I might not be available this weekend (visiting family at my home town), but if you have an Alpha the next weekend, be sure to let us know.

So you'll be migrating the forums too? Will you be moving some of the old threads there? I know we're not the most active community in cyberspace, but there are a couple of topics that had some effort gone into them and it'd be a shame to lose 'em (e.g. Laurah's French translation work, my Bad Subs thread).

Thanks Kyareshi, glad to have you aboard. Next weekend is looking like the ideal time then. I'm making some good progress with the Forum coding right now, but no guarantees it'll be ready for testing this weekend.

As for the fate of these forums, a valid question. For the moment, I don't plan on changing anything. I'll leave all these forums as they are here. Migration will happen, but I'd prefer it in the sense of people copying any pasting what they like here and starting a new thread over there.

The Forum is still a new idea to me... originally I intended there to be multiple private forums within guilds... later shared forums between guilds within an alliance.... but now I'm working on a Generic Forum for all as well. I'm thinking there will be a Default Guild... dunno what I'll call it yet "Citizens of the Empire" ... "Citizens of ACDB" ... but anyways, if everyone is added to that guild, then, when they first join ACDB Guilds they'll have that default guild everyone is in, and can use the forum, then I can use the Ranks system plus some fancy ACL's to make moderators. Coding magick!

[ Edited Jan 29, 2010 ]

私は日本語を少し読むと書くをできます。あなたも？

Well, whatever you do with the guilds, you're still going to need a general forum that everyone has access too. For the purpose of reporting errors and providing feedback on the site if nothing else.

Right. There'll be one. But as I said, I'll work it in as part of a default guild. It'll also serve as a starting point, before someone creates or joins another guild.

私は日本語を少し読むと書くをできます。あなたも？

As long as people can't leave the default guild...

Leaving the default guild would mean being banned from the web site. ^^

私は日本語を少し読むと書くをできます。あなたも？

Cool. Just make sure your userbase knows this. You get crazy people like me who try all sorts of options and settings and might just get themselves banned by accident.

[ Edited Jan 29, 2010 ]

lol, well being banned is only one of the options. We're also going to have Guards who can throw people into a temporary "In Jail" status. lol Being banned will be one option... but I think being Banished would be more fun - as Banished people get their own forum within the Guild. Haha.

Kinda like the Ex-Ninja of the Naruto world. Itachi did walk into Konoha... so I'd like to make it possible for people Banished from their guild to still enter.

And I want there to be a thieves guild that teaches lockpicking so you can break into guilds you're not allowed in.

thieves guild & lockpicking

How it'll work is...
The thieves guild can teach you t he lock pick skill, and sell you lockpicks. Each lockpick allows you to guess a number in Guild Door Combination Lock. Guilds will be allowed to use 1 of 6 locks.

Very Easy) 1 Number
Easy) 2 Numbers
Average) 3 Numbers
Hard) 4 Numbers
Very Hard) 5 Numbers
Magical) Only ancient magick can break this lock

System wise... if you guess the number, you keep the lock pick and continue on guessing more numbers.
If oyu fail to guess the correct number, the lock pick breaks. Once you are out of lock picks, you can no longer attempt to break in. Thieves guilds may of course share the numbers, and work as a team. Hehe. Thieves Guilds will be supplied lock picks by an informant within the Guild Council. Rumor has it the leader of the Thieves Guild is the Emperor himself! Again, there will be an economy, so thieves can earn money to buy the lockpicks... also a social welfare system so that citizens earn money at a set rate. More famous people get more money. We'll have merchant guilds that buy and sell items, and do loans...

Anyways, if one successfully breaks into a guild... they get a Guild Member Card with the status "Thief". Haha. Of course, guild masters if they catch you can severely punish you for breaking in.... a punishment beyond banishment: execution.

Been thinking each guild will be a world of it's own. So you can die in multiple worlds, if that fancies you.

Also.... guilds should be able to buy thief detection so that the relevant people are notified if someone breaks in.

Thus far I'm thinking Read Only access will be granted to thieves but perhaps I'll extend it more as I think about this.... and guilds can change their combination locks at any time... which should kick out any existing thieves. lol

Idea in progress! Coding the lock pick system right now....

Edit
POC: http://www.animecharactersdatabase.com/lockpick.php
Code: http://www.animecharactersdatabase.com/lockpick.txt

[ Edited Jan 29, 2010 ]

私は日本語を少し読むと書くをできます。あなたも？

Haha, broke the code on my -7th lock pick or something.