Development / News
To clean up the front page, I have moved news articles (information about site updates) to this page.
Planned Changes
Make the site easier to use!
I want to recode the following services to make them more accessible and quicker
to use as AJAX queries:
- Comments: Add, Edit, Remove
- Favourites: Add, Remove
- Map: Upload, Edit, Remove
- Movie: Upload, Edit, Remove
AJAX queries work by sending an asynchronous webrequest to the server without
refreshing the page, meaning less bandwidth is used update the page, the page
doesn't reload, and this will hopefully result in a better user experience.
I intend to maintain all the original functionality, so people with javascript
disabled can still use the site, but those with it enabled will able to use
the new enhancements.
Site Updates and Changes
2010-08-24
2009-05-24
- Added the site to a local SVN so that I can track changes and revisions
- Added Planned
Changes section to the development / news page
2009-05-16
- The favourites page now correctly
groups maps across their histories, giving a truer picture of the most favourite
maps.
- I've added created a Random Movie picker, similar to the Random Point
of Interest box, and moved the box on the front page to top right corner.
- Received word that Safari on the Mac also has problems uploading fdf-map
files, as does Google Chrome - I know what the problem is but am unwilling
at present to reduce the security on uploads. I am somewhat dissapointed
with Safari and Google Chrome for breaking my site.
- Added [+] symbol to Upload Map and Upload Movie on site links.
2009-02-05
- Happy new year everyone!
- The 10,000th
point of interest was posted not so long ago.
- Added a javascript function to automatically select "PoI Sharing"
if you enter in an End Year, thanks to Shurikane
for this suggestion.
- Reminder: For "open ended" Point of Interest sharing, you just
need to check the PoI Sharing box.
- Fixed bug with 's breaking map and movie uploads, appologies to Vetarnian
for discovering this one.
- Roll on 2009...
- ... and I hope no one minds, I've tweaked the stylesheet to give the site
more contrast.
2008-11-18
2008-11-16
2008-10-26
- Added a user profile page, for example: SergiusMaximus
- Name links around the site, on comments, maps, and recent activity will
now take you to a user profile page showing stats and recent posts by that
user.
- This is a good way to find out more about different users on the archive,
whether they are registered, what their favourites are, and what their recent
activity has been.
2008-08-09
- Uploaded new version of CMV Flash Player (again, thanks to gonbon)
- Flash player now resizes itself to support larger
movies (width and height) recorded with the new release of Dwarf
Fortress
- Removed endless list of movies alongside ungrouped movie clips.
- If you enter in the name of the fort or the world a clip was recorded
when you upload then movies with the same name will be grouped
2008-07-19
- Added report problem page/form for registered users to send messages to
myself and the moderators
- Links to the page can be found on the left "Report
problem / contact" or from below map entries "(Report problem)"
- Feel free to use this form to report spam or to send any feedback and
suggestions you have
2008-07-10
- Fixed bug on movie comments page where page 2 and beyond directed to the
map comments page (thanks to Zaratustra)
2008-06-15
- Added Browse maps by description
search option, and made that part of the Any* search as well
- Continuing work on Isometric map viewer. Working on independent version
separate to current map viewer.
- So far have stripped back to loader / decoder, white screen... long way
to go
- Will be recruiting graphics artist or some such in due time (isometric
tile template)
2008-05-07
- Added feature: Setting default Point of Interest for a map
- When adding a new PoI, or editing an existing one, there is now a checkbox labelled "Make default for this map"
- When viewing a map, if there is a default PoI, the map will be focused on that location, instead of centering in the center of the map
- Thanks to Mister Six for prompting me to add this feature
- For example, on Crystal Umbra the Entry Corridor is selected from the start.
2008-05-01
- Fixed bug with map recentering wrongly when recentering view using buttons
- FYI: Views can be changed using the lowercase keys: (t)op, (s)ide, and (f)ront
- Hosting: mkv25.net has been migrated to a new plan! This means more bandwidth, and more filespace, both of which were near their limits. Thanks to www.icdsoft.com for another's year's stable hosting.
- Continuing to review map viewer code to produce an isometric map viewer, though this is still some way off. Am looking for isometric-tile artist.
- Something like this isometric render of dwarf fortress, (edit: by Chris Hildenbrandt http://spriteattack.cator.de/) would be very cool
2008-01-20
- Fixed bug displaying non-square maps, pointed out by Lacero,
(thanks)
- For example, Mountain Banners - Bridge Tower (side), is now visible correctly
- Recorded new bug: Map viewer recenters on incorrect map coordinates when switching view between top/front top/side when viewer first loads
2008-01-19
- Added new BBCode tags [wiki=Page]link text[/wiki]
- For example: [wiki=User:Markavian]my user page[/wiki]
Result:
my user page
2008-01-01
- Happy new year
- Updated recent activity
page
- Removed Longest History and Recent Submitters sections
- Added Recent movie comments and Recent movie uploads
- Need new page for map histories and favourites
2007-12-29
- Added favourites system for registered users
- Favourites let you bookmark interesting or funny items found on
the site
- Logged in users will see links like 'Add to favourites?' below maps, movies,
and points of interest
- The user favourites page summarises favoured items
- Favoured items
show the number of people who favoured them below the entry
- Updated development page
- Merged display of comments across map series
- Greyed comments are posted to another map in the same series - should
make discussions that span multiple maps easier to follow
2007-12-28
- Added edit movie and my movies pages for registered users
- Now you can edit your own movie entries
- ... and track your submissions from the my movies page.
2007-12-24
- New map format, encoded with enhanced information about each tile
- New map viewer, has a fullscreen button, and new buttons when viewing
enchanced maps
- See the demonstration ehanced
viewing mode map, with a toggle button for some of the new information
available
- Possibilities: A 3D isometric viewer. Automatic counts of visible items
in your fort (statistics).
- Soon to be released DF
Map Compressor (3.18) also has new friendlier features and is capable
of removing black-banding from corrupt maps
2007-12-16
2007-12-12
- Incorporated Point of Interest display into map viewer
- ^ Tell me if you don't like this change, either by forum or email
- Linking directly to a poi will still bring up the full text below the main description
- Text fields in flash only supports simple HTML, so images will be converted to links
- Winter banners
2007-12-07
- Fixed Points of Interest sharing
- Added new version of map viewer; has buttons to change layers and zooms with the mouse
- New map version is a big part of the fixed point of interest sharing, but these are minor details in the big scheme of things.
- Removed important information message
- Improved spam checks- may interfere with posting comments but I suspect not
- Still haven't got round to the winter season banners yet
2007-11-24
- Added JavaScript filter to Map Upload form to remove -region1 from map
names when auto completing the form
- Removed -region from map entries in database
2007-11-12
- Added much needed support for comments to movie pages
- You can now add and edit comments for movies like you can for maps
- Added movie comments
page to display recent comments, and to search and filter through old
ones
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
2007-11-10
- Plans in place for improved Map Viewer - a visual indicator for number of layers, and current depth required
- Logical error identified: Point of Interest sharing has been implemented badly - PoIs shared across forts with a differnet number of layers won't work properly, updating will break current PoIs... (will probably perform a manual update)
- New mod rewrite rules: Try dfma/moviegroup-wizards or dfma/movie-pump, the first searches by group, the second by name
- Manually removed 31 cases of -region from the end several fortress names; I know, it auto-fills -region some times from maps, but please just submit the name of the fortress
2007-11-08
- New! Multi-layer map viewer to support (DF v0.27.169.33a) multi-level fortresses.
- Dwarf Fortress now outputs multiple bitmaps, one for each layer of your fort, prefixed with the name of your fort (thanks Toady)
- New version of SL's map compressor now automatically combines and compresses these bitmaps into version 2 of the equally small .FDF-MAP file format.
- Upload to the map archive, share with your friends, browse up and down through layers! (Use the Page up / Page down keys)
- Add points of interest on any layer, help visitors quickly navigate through the coolest parts of your fortress design.
2007-10-10
2007-09-25
2007-09-23
- Added Movie Upload form, for uploading your fave CMV from Dwarf Fortress
- Movie Upload form accepts CMV files, and compresses them on the fly
- Added Browse Movies page so you can keep track of the latest movie entry's
- The Group Name field allows you to group related movies or link them to a map series by Fortress Name
- TODO: Add an 'Edit user Movie' page
2007-09-22
- Minor updates happened over past month:
- Map Upload form now reads Map Year / Season from file names (JavaScript based)
- Big update: First version of CCMV Video player courtesy of gonbon who came to me with a working player
- Examples of gonbon's player in action:
- Movie Player uses compressed CMV files, hence CCMV file format - SL is working on integrating this format with his map compressor
- CCMV files are approximately 1/3rd smaller then CMV files
- Thank's to gonbon for writing the Flash CMV player, and SL for support with the compressed CCMV format
2007-08-20
- Fixed bug with new URLs that had the number 039 (the character code for 'single quotes') which was redirecting to the wrong map
2007-08-16
- Added Points of Interest (PoI) Sharing
- PoIs now have an optional Start Year / Season and End Year / Season that lets them cross multiple maps in the same series
- PoIs are now sorted by title (alphabetically) as apposed to by submission date
- Hid away the Add Comment and Add Point of Interest forms using JavaScript
- Non-JavaScript users will now find the Add Comment form on a separate page
- Note: The Points of Interest form requires JavaScript in order to talk to the Flash based map object, and is disabled/hidden from non JavaScript users
- Added URL Rewriting regex to Apache, cleaned up some of the URLs
e.g. http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-504-ashencrafted is now a valid URL
This means Wiki friendly URLs, and smaller forum/char links
You can also use:
http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-504
and
http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-805
as valid shortforms to access Maps and Points of Interest respectively
- Thanks to Vaevictus from the #bay12games channel on WorldIRC for helping me figure out and debug the SQL for Shared PoIs
- Bug: Captcha image form does not work if cookies are disabled, preventing users from submitting maps or comments (Thanks to Jifodus for spotting this)
IMPORTANT
INFORMATION: The old map field "Fortress Year" has been superceded
by "Map Year" and "Map Season". This change has been made
to give a more consistant numbering and ordering to each map series. This tweak
paves the way for new features in the system, including shared Points of Interest
and Map Histories. The old information stored in the "Fortress Year"
field should still be available if you view the map, but you will not be able
to edit or post to this field from now on. Posted 2007-07-31
2007-07-31
- Changed IMPORTANT INFORMATION regarding change to map database schema
on top of index page
- Added new fields "Map Year" and "Map Season" to map
database schema
- Tweaked many, but possibly not all, pages that used Fortress Year but
should now use Map Year and Map Season
2007-07-29
- Added IMPORTANT INFORMATION regarding change to map database schema to top of index page
- Added counter stats to top of Recent Activity page
- Added link to DF Map Archive discussion on Bay12Games forum
- Updated links format at bottom of page
- TODO: Add support to DFMA for google sitemap to improve external search engine access
2007-07-26
2007-07-22
- Added Edit / Remove points of interest page
- Registered users can now edit and remove their points of interest
- Changed randomised quotes; they are different now
- Updated Todo List and Future of the Map Archive sections
2007-07-20
- Added Edit / Remove comments page
- Registered users can now edit and remove their comments
- Fixed inncorrect listing of Recent Authors on Recent Activity page
2007-07-15
- Fixed bug on browseby.php (Browse Maps) which caused filter problem for maps with double quotes and apostrophe's in their names
- Created new Development / News page to clean up front page
- Added new banner image
- Moved signup link, couldn't be seen on IE6 due to buggy positioning
2007-07-02
- Map submissions can now be deleted. Go to the Edit Map screen, then click the 'Delete Map' button; a confirmation dialog will appear if you have JavaScript enabled
- Deleting a map entry leaves the map file (.fdf-map) on the server, which I will clean up at a later date
2007-06-30
- User Registration / Login system added
- Signing up means you can reserve your username, and makes posting maps and comments easier
- Map descriptions can now be edited
- Community page, your maps, user profile page accessible
- TODO: Allow registered users to edit / remove comments and points of interest
- TODO: Add 'Favourites' system, allowing users to record their favourite maps and for visitors to see the most popular maps
2007-06-18
- Merged the Add Comment and Add Point of Interest forms into one, with an
option selection
- Title field is disabled until you select 'Point of Interest' as comments
do not have titles
- Two-hundred-and-thirty maps have been added. Cool?
- TODO: Add sign up/registration page, would allow members to edit/delete
entries
- (Added a Browse Comments page last week if you hadn't noticed)
2007-06-02
- Improved the "Browse Maps" page by adding a search field
and search area form
- Added additional sort by links, accessible by clicking on table headings.
Clicking again reverse sorts
- TODO: Create "Browse Points of Interest" pages for respective
entries
- 130 maps have now been uploaded, thank you! (and only 22 of them are
mine)
2008-05-20
- Added a "Comments" system. Listed under the bottom of the map,
with a form at the bottom. Recent comments can be found on the Recent
Activity page
- Changed: Points of Interest form now needs to be 'expanded' before you can
use it (only available with JavaScript enabled)
- Updated Recent Activity page with collapsed
counters for multiple submissions
- Changed: Moved points of Interest form to separate script
2008-05-20
- Added a "Points of Interest" system. Listed in the left hand panel,
click on each title to view a description and zoom to a place on the map.
- Add your own Points of Interest to your own maps, or other peoples. Find
a place on a map, scroll down on the "View map" page and fill out
the form at the bottom.
- Fixed the default start location (Just offcentre of the fortress entrance)
- although this is messed up for World Maps. (no reliable way of telling them
apart)
- Improved zoom, now possible to get in closer then the 1:1 (default) zoom
level
- A go to x, y panel now exists under the map - that shows the current location
/ offset and zoom
- A drop down menu to manually set the zoom level
- Show/hide buttons to display the Flash based debug panel. Can be used to
check loading times.
2008-05-18
- Renamed filterby.php to browseby.php - added
pagination and changed the way this page works
- Renamed browsemaps.php to recentactivity.php - changed sorting order of
names
- Uploaded new flash viewer. No idea what's different though. Trying to improve
map zoom.
- Added new 'Things to do' - "Points of interest" feature
2007-05-11
- Added new keyboard shortcuts for map, and instruction panel
- Moved title, author + description to top of map viewer
- Removed scroll wheel zoom because it interfered with browser scroll on small windows or long descriptions
Things to do
The Flash map viewer, and map archive in general, still has a few kinks which
need to be ironed out, here's the current list of things that I keep meaning
to do (in a more likely to happen order).
- Add separate "Dwarven Name" field to map submissions
- Bug: The viewer may crash on some maps when using IE. Try using FF
or Opera to view these maps. (not very common.)
- Bug: Map viewer reported to run slowly in Opera and while running other
programs, like DF
- Bug: Map viewer recenters on incorrect map coordinates when switching
view between top/front top/side when viewer first loads
- Bug: Micro-map viewer doesn't centre on correct coordinates
- Bug: Micro-map viewer doesn't support v2 fdf-maps
- Bug: Captcha image form does not work if cookies are disabled, preventing
users from submitting maps or comments
Future of the Map Archive
Provided that the "Things to do list" is processed in good time, you might find the following things to appearing on this site:
Improvements to Map Viewer
- Alternative Isometric 3D views of DF maps based on tile data available newest version of .fdf-map
format
- Generated summaries of visible items on maps, for example, number of dwarves,
number of logs, number of trees, etc.
- Multi-level image caching to improve performance when zoomed out (in powers
of 2)
Map Histories
- Generate page summaries detailing the full history of a fortress
- Feature longest histories and relate to favourites
User accounts
- Allow users to customise the site design by choosing 'skins'
- Allow users to add a profile / description about themselves
- Karma system for users
- Allow avatars or some such
Artifact Archive
- Set up new 'artifiact' section to the archive describing legendary or interesting items and engravings
- Link artifacts to maps.
- Fields: Artifact Name*, Dwarven Name, Description*, Fortress, Year, Creator, [Submitter], [Date Submitted] (*mandatory) [book keeping]
- Allow registered users to edit / remove artifacts
- Provide 'auto complete' form to assist users document their artifacts without having to type out the full artifact details
Message Forum
- Create a forum based off comments + user system (if site is popular enough)
