General Update

Thanks boss, the new format is more condensed, but I actually find it a bit easier to navigate. There were some instances where certain threads should have been elsewhere, or sections had a similar enough companion section that I could combine them.
I've not got any plans to change the background as at some point in the future, we'll be transferring to a forum owned and operated solely by us. It is there that we're gonna concentrate the design and aesthetic focus. While ForumNotion has served us extremely well, it isn't without it's faults, and there is a lack of customisation that will be resolved once we make the move. The move will likely take some time, as we need to come together with our web designer and possibly Kayleigh to script the new forum and currently we've got other, more important priorities. (Especially since we have a functioning forum here for the time being.)

As for Patreon, my internet has been extremely shitty recently so I'm only really uploading short stuff or lower quality videos. The reason I mention it is because one of the rewards for any subscribers on Patreon is that they get named as soldiers or characters in the series I play. I've been itching to get back in to XCOM and restart with new knowledge, but uploading it would stop anyone else using the internet. I currently don't have a solution for this, and the only real rewards I can offer people is in book format. Patreon subscribers get discounts, or free books depending on the amount. This in itself is a little redundant now until the release of Seeker, as I'm not actively trying to sell SP1 or SS as they don't represent what Chaos Nova is now, more of just a historical document.
That said, the link to patreon is in my tag bar below, and any sharing or pledges are hugely appreciated due to website costs and the like. Still, I don't think I'm offering a fair deal right now, so I don't feel it's worth promoting until we're in a better position.

Hope this helps boss, and cheers for the kind words =D Have a good one!

Excellent!
I understand internet limitations! If there's anything I can actually help with, let me know.
The forum looks great!

I seem to be visiting this post more and more these days...

Over the past few months, it has become obvious that the layout of the forum is by no means 'optimum'. While the recent improvements have neatened it up, we've lost some of the ease-of-use elements.

To illustrate what I mean, recently I've been adding stories to the Troubled Core and Feedback sections, however those areas also contain other 'active' threads, and often times the stories get buried. This issue will only grow as more people join us, and more information is added here.

So what's the solution? Well upon checking the forum layout in the Admin panel, we've discovered that we can break the Categories out. So if we take the Troubled Core Section as an example, it would look like this:

Troubled Core -
(Description of section)
-Ongoing Stories
-Ideas Directory
-Workshop

Changing it to this layout means that instead of just seeing what the latest post in 'Troubled Core' is, we see what the latest post is in the three sub-sections.

The only problem with setting the forum to this layout is that the 'built-in' tools sort of 'misinterpret' what I want it to do, and while it breaks out some categories successfully, it makes a total mess of others. To cut a long story short, I need to make a shed-load of adjustments, then re-attempt the format change.

Obviously this is going to lead to the forum looking a little messy during the work. But I personally believe the benefits outweigh the temporary chaos, and we'll come out the other side of it with a better functioning, yet still quite neat, forum.

If you've got any suggestions, or would like me to add or remove something, let me know and I'll get it done during the change. Once I know what people's thoughts are, I'll set a date it'll happen on, so it won't just be a blindside thing.

Thanks! Catch ya soon! =D

Ended up tinkering. Fixed most of the display issues. Just need to come up with suitable section descriptors now. I also think I can take this further, but we'll see how it works out for the time being. Let me know your thoughts, peace!

"I'll set a date so it's not such a blindside thing" - Turns out, it really wasn't that big a deal to tinker the forum, and the resultant Chaos! should be fine Everything is still where you'd expect to find it, just you can see more of it now =D

Oh hey, the subcategories actually behave this time! Neat!

Nice job dude! Looks great.

fafafabigben wrote:Oh hey, the subcategories actually behave this time! Neat!

Something working?? I don't believe it!

It still isn't 'Exactly' how I'd like it, but this is better than it was with all the topics hidden away under one another. Think I'm just gonna have to compromise with the layout, it won't let me have both this divided layout AND a Section Description, having instead to rely on the sub section descriptions.
IE. So instead of "Chaos Nova Section" Having a blurb to describe what it is, I can only do this for the sub-catagories. I really hope this makes sense >_<

Getting those descriptors in is my next priority Forum wise. It shouldn't take long, but I'd rather not do it alone because I end up coming back and changing a lot once Lore's sensible eyes see it! When we get a moment together, I'll suggest we give this a stab.

I'm also on the hunt for Red October Redundant sections, I'm tossing around the idea of moving the one thread in Author's resources to General Discussion or Crew Discussion so I can remove that section. I can't justify this outside of tidiness, so if you've got any alternative ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Anyway, ramble ramble! If there are any new problems while navigating the forum, let me know and I'll get it fixed.

All the best!

Gah, we've been so caught up in Seeker release and summer lethargy that we've left the forum almost unattended...
Sorry about that. The rainy reason rolls along, and soon the business-brain will awake, and there shall be post and updates, and long overdue links to other channels and all that. Soon.

I'll just casually drop some links with recent months website posts here. (Because while the forums are quiet, plenty of posts happen elsewhere. Wish i could figure out how to embed the twitter feed properly...)

www.chaosnova.co.uk/logs/chaosnova-drawing-board-taking-flight-universe-main-arc
www.chaosnova.co.uk/logs/chaosnova-drawing-board-the-big-picture
www.chaosnova.co.uk/logs/updates-from-the-writer-s-corner-april-2018

Greetings!

If it feels like things have been quiet around here recently, pop into our Discord! The random chatter is more likely to occur over there.

Link - https://discord.gg/A7mMJdW

Thanks,
Knux