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New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:33 am
by kestasjk
So as mentioned previously Codazen and FAIR have been working on a new, more modern UI for us to help support the AI bot development business, and I think it's looking very good.

It's still a couple of weeks from the planned launch, but we've now got the first functional version deployed to the staging site. There are still some changes to be made, but we can start to put it through its paces and see how it works.


Not going to announce this or post pics etc, because it does use more server resources and hasn't been tested against the live database yet. But for the people who are checking out what's going on in this forum, you're welcome to try the new UI out at https://test.webdiplomacy.net/
Note that it says test but it is linked to the same database as live, so orders you submit there will be just as if you had submitted them here(!)

To use it go to the board page, and click "Play Beta" in the top right of the page. This will open up the new UI.

Bear in mind:
- This isn't quite finished, this is in preparation for going live to find any big issues, but I am interested in feedback or any bugs found.
- It doesn't work with variant maps, that'll come later.
- You can't currently spectate games, hoping to get that sorted before launch.
- We won't be replacing the current board with this any time soon, but will be providing both. The idea is we'll run it in parallel and ensure it has all the same functionality, perhaps see how it works on mobile, and phase it in over time

Thanks to the teams at Codazen and FAIR, notably Bryan Fajardo, Adam Lerer, Colin Flaherty, Mario Malchor, and David Wu. It won't be perfect straight away, and will take time to integrate into the site more naturally, but it's very impressive and is a 15 year jump in terms of the framework it's running on, which opens up a whole load of possibilities.

It's all AGPL licensed as part of the webDip project, so other sites could also benefit from and contribute to this.


The launch to live is planned for the 15th, but we'll see how well things go.

Rgds,

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 2:02 am
by Chaqa
This looks really cool!

But

Can the country colors be fixed?

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:46 am
by kestasjk
Yep sure, do you mean make them the same as the colors are now?

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:00 am
by VillageIdiot
Does this work on bot games?

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:15 am
by C0nd0r
I'm keen to try it out, but I keep getting this error when I open the link:

Error triggered: file_put_contents(variants/ColdWar/cache/territories.js): failed to open stream: No such file or directory.

Probably was automatically reported, but seems like everyone else is accessing it fine.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:02 am
by emperor_midas
C0nd0r wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:15 am
I'm keen to try it out, but I keep getting this error when I open the link:

Error triggered: file_put_contents(variants/ColdWar/cache/territories.js): failed to open stream: No such file or directory.

Probably was automatically reported, but seems like everyone else is accessing it fine.
Seems like it might be a bug, as a temporary work around create the game on https://webdiplomacy.net and then play the beta on https://test.webdiplomacy.net.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:20 am
by C0nd0r
Thanks that worked, basically just had to work around to home page and forum.
Chaqa wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 2:02 am
Can the country colors be fixed?
Nah they're good, they're practically the same, never really liked German brown anyway.

Got to admit, as someone who never really used backstabbr it was a bit daunting with all the arrows and lines, but I'm sure I'll get used to it (maybe). But it does look amazing, good work!

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:24 am
by kestasjk
VillageIdiot wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:00 am
Does this work on bot games?
Yep, I've been giving it a run on that, really good experience actually in my opinion, it's a lot more enjoyable just clicking around than looking up, looking down, checking the name, etc.
The subtle things like highlighting of certain buttons, flashing of warnings, and reminders for mistakes I expect we're all going to make initially, shows that they tested it effectively against real users and made a nice experience. On an iPad it's working very nicely, nice zoom function, have yet to try a phone but I think we're going to have a *much* nicer experience for the phone users out there (and there are surprisingly many)
C0nd0r wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:15 am
I'm keen to try it out, but I keep getting this error when I open the link:

Error triggered: file_put_contents(variants/ColdWar/cache/territories.js): failed to open stream: No such file or directory.

Probably was automatically reported, but seems like everyone else is accessing it fine.
That should be sorted now (though this just means you won't get that error, there isn't a new map for ColdWar at the moment)
Nah they're good, they're practically the same, never really liked German brown anyway.

Got to admit, as someone who never really used backstabbr it was a bit daunting with all the arrows and lines, but I'm sure I'll get used to it (maybe). But it does look amazing, good work!
Yeah I'm inclined to agree, I think the colors are good, though we do need to make sure they're consistent. The colors were tweaked based on feedback during user testing, so I expect most people won't want them changed (but if they do that's fine)

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:32 am
by kestasjk
C0nd0r wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:20 am
Thanks that worked, basically just had to work around to home page and forum.
Chaqa wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 2:02 am
Can the country colors be fixed?
Nah they're good, they're practically the same, never really liked German brown anyway.

Got to admit, as someone who never really used backstabbr it was a bit daunting with all the arrows and lines, but I'm sure I'll get used to it (maybe). But it does look amazing, good work!
Yeah I'll always have a soft spot for our bitmap rendered small/large static maps, back in 2005 it was pretty cutting edge, but I think once you give it a go for a while you can't deny the SVG point & click approach has left it in the dust at this point..

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:21 pm
by Yonni
I was very nervous when I saw this post because I seriously have a soft spot for our map here. It's how my brain pictures the Diplomacy board. But big kudos on the test board. It looks really great.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:38 pm
by Babbo Natale
Hello, I have seen the new map. My observation is about the color choice: they look dull and cold to me, it seems a bit confusing to me to distinguish the countries.
My suggestion is to differentiate more the set of colors or, as an alternative, to allow the players to eventually choose their own set of colors, which would be fantastic imo.
However, congrats for the new map.
kestasjk wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:33 am
So as mentioned previously Codazen and FAIR have been working on a new, more modern UI for us to help support the AI bot development business, and I think it's looking very good.

It's still a couple of weeks from the planned launch, but we've now got the first functional version deployed to the staging site. There are still some changes to be made, but we can start to put it through its paces and see how it works.


Not going to announce this or post pics etc, because it does use more server resources and hasn't been tested against the live database yet. But for the people who are checking out what's going on in this forum, you're welcome to try the new UI out at https://test.webdiplomacy.net/
Note that it says test but it is linked to the same database as live, so orders you submit there will be just as if you had submitted them here(!)

To use it go to the board page, and click "Play Beta" in the top right of the page. This will open up the new UI.

Bear in mind:
- This isn't quite finished, this is in preparation for going live to find any big issues, but I am interested in feedback or any bugs found.
- It doesn't work with variant maps, that'll come later.
- You can't currently spectate games, hoping to get that sorted before launch.
- We won't be replacing the current board with this any time soon, but will be providing both. The idea is we'll run it in parallel and ensure it has all the same functionality, perhaps see how it works on mobile, and phase it in over time

Thanks to the teams at Codazen and FAIR, notably Bryan Fajardo, Adam Lerer, Colin Flaherty, Mario Malchor, and David Wu. It won't be perfect straight away, and will take time to integrate into the site more naturally, but it's very impressive and is a 15 year jump in terms of the framework it's running on, which opens up a whole load of possibilities.

It's all AGPL licensed as part of the webDip project, so other sites could also benefit from and contribute to this.


The launch to live is planned for the 15th, but we'll see how well things go.

Rgds,

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:52 pm
by wulfheart
Any images of this? I would love to see the new UI.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:01 pm
by qrzy
Horrible. The old one is better, simplier. These kind of icons are the main reason I dont play on vdiplomacy.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:07 pm
by C0nd0r
wulfheart wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:52 pm
Any images of this? I would love to see the new UI.
https://imgur.com/a/oS8Lnrm

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:31 pm
by kestasjk
wulfheart wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:52 pm
Any images of this? I would love to see the new UI.
Here's one:
Image

I'm interested in thoughts on the colors of uncapturable territories. I think the orange blue center should be black since it can't be navidated, and I think the area outside of the main map I'm not sure white works best.. but we'll work on that
Horrible. The old one is better, simplier. These kind of icons are the main reason I dont play on vdiplomacy.
Glad to hear someone say that.. I like the old map too.. But objectively almost half of dip-on-web reddit get confused and frustrated at our map; it's the odd one out now.
Also I guarantee if you use a mobile you'll be entering it on the new map. Even if you think it looks worse it is much more enjoyable to use (does anyone think otherwise?)

It'll be around for a long time though.. It won't get new features, but it won't go away.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:20 am
by VillageIdiot
Icons are fine enough, people will always have sentimentality to what they’re used to but then adapt.

Is there no textually version of orders for review or preview feature here or am I just missing it?

My first attempt to play in bots on my tablet it wasn’t obvious orders were processing and somehow I ended up jumping through to a second season without any orders set for the second.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 9:16 am
by Kakarroto
Will there be an option to have the old UI?

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:16 pm
by Bonatogether
Why is germany orange now

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:16 pm
by Jamiet99uk
I don't like the white unit icons, they don't stand out very well.

I really don't like the pastel colour palette. Why change the colour scheme? The "old" map has colours which are much more authentic to the original board game. Please keep the traditional colour scheme.

Re: New Board UI testing

Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:19 pm
by Bonatogether
Also these new icons are too cutesy. The old ones don't need to be kept or anything, but they were a better fit