Themes: site layout Too Plain? (in General)

I personally think the layout of the site is too plain. I mean the game itself is fun but,a lot of people won't even give a site a chance if the layout of it is just boring. I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way I do,that the site needs a new layout overall. I've got some skill in photoshop I'd love to create a new background and logo for CB. Anyone else think this would be a good idea?

I agree this whole grey and red thing is boring.

There used to be some themes on the site but I don't know what happened to them.

Hiss booo...

Just Kidding. CB is played by a wide variety of folks, some of us play places where flashy graphics would be a problem. I've used a theme addon for ff that allows backgrounds and color changes. Information about it is available in the Help section.

I've made a database at work that looks a lot like CB, all red and grey, so that I can switch between the two if I'm playing at work and somebody comes by my desk.

The layout is probably the reason I was able to play so much I got addicted.

I just think the whole thing is so...BLAH! I really think we could make the game alot more attractive with a new layout and logo. How about we turn it into a competition? Obviously,you would need admin approval or else it'd be a pointless contest but,I think it'd be a good idea.

My office software has a similar color scheme, which helps me to play at work, too. But I have to agree, I would love to see an updated appearance.

We use to have customized themes at one point, but they don't work with this version of the game.

Oh,I didn't know anything about that I mean I only joined a couple hours ago. How about this,we make it an option. Like,we keep the old layout for others who are used and comfortable with it but,we make a new one as well. You could switch back and forth between the two with a option that could be added to your user page.

My usual reply to this is "Substance over style".
I'd rather Jon and NS carry on improving the game rather than the look, valuable coding time on a little colour.
Pictures and graphics is a definite no and it is definitely painstaking to find a colour scheme which isn't garish which was proven by at least 50% of the themes on the old CB.
There's a reason why games such as old Final Fantasy games and original Mario are so loved by proper gamers, their creators concentrated on the game, not the graphics.

King,

Search the forum for "themes". We used to have a bunch, and then we had a great CB Re-Theming, where we tried to modernize everything. That proved ultimately very difficult, and we got like... 80%? done. In theory, we'll finish that system, at which point people can build their own themes once again. Until that point, I highly encourage you to utilize (and distribute) novice's method.

Wasn't really 'difficult' per se, was just that PixelSage stopped logging in, lol. I'd love it if all the new themes came back though, I miss my Blue theme, I forget the name, but it was the #2 used theme.

Can I ask what was being done to make it new theme-able?

http://www.carnageblender.com/wiki/Themes

http://www.carnageblender.com/wiki/Themes

Pretty cool nov. But are new people really going to give the site a chance when they have to install the themes themselves? I do agree with king, the site needs a more mondernized look, themes would do just that.

That was my favorite too, pau1. T_T

blue/grey?

NightStrike: would donations towards Charity be a nice incentive to make the 80% grow to 90%?

oh yeah i miss the battle theme with the black background! if i knew anything about programming I'd volunteer to help, heck if i knew anything about programming I'd get WonderWare to work with XLreporter...

What exactly is the 80% referring to? I thought every page in cb was themed now. The css itself should be the only thing that we need to change, so once we get a few themes made in Css then NS/Jon can reimplement the old theme selector.

Oh wait, is the theme selector code the unfinished business?

^ That's why I asked.

I think the 80% refers to the pages and the selector thing whatever it is :)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I meant what I said. It had nothing to do with Pixel

Oh,I see. I guess everyone wants a little change but,as the saying goes,"you get what you pay for." =]

/me likes it how it is....

But then again I'm old and set in my ways :-)

Yea Loch we don't need no old coots opinion! =]

Back in my day we had to walk uphill both ways to get to the settings page and back to change the themes!

Get off my lawn!

whippersnappers!

The 80% is a SWAG on how much of the conversion was done to stuff that's easily modifiable using CSS. There's still a bunch that we didn't convert over.

When it comes to Pixel, all he ever did was draw a couple of outlines of what stuff would look like, he ran off with the 40mill without suggesting any coding whatsoever.
So I'd say difficult is definitely the word.

How do you know what he did or didn't do?

Regardless, I would love to see that project completed. Let us know if there's any way we can motivate you to somehow finish the job.

I remember everything he made public and I definitely remember how pissed Jon was so I'd feel comfortable assuming it wasn't exactly a lot.

By what was going on I'm fairly sure he'd done full outlines and had starting coding.

that is definitely not an easy thing to do :( Life is complicated.

Maybe you could try to get a member of the community to work on it?

Well I have NO IDEA the first thing about coding but,I'd love to make any outlines or anything that would help out the theme in photoshop.