15 October 2008 - Improvements to the game log-in process

Warren · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 5:31 am

wrote:

Today we’ve streamlined the way you get into the game. The aim is to help you get playing more quickly with fewer pages to go through every time. To start the game, simply click one of the two new buttons on the front page (depending on whether you’re a free player or a member). You will then be taken straight into the game. Once the game has loaded, you will be able to (optionally) choose both your world and detail level directly from the title screen.

More details on the changes made:

World selection has now been moved entirely in game, so there is one less page to go through to start the game and you can get playing faster.
We’ve had a world switcher in-game for a while, but since it is now the main way of choosing your world, it was time for an upgrade. The in-game world switcher now shows lots of extra information, including suggested activities for various worlds.

This is the new-look log-in screen with World Select and Detail Select highlighted.
Automatic world selection. Just press 'Log in' on the title screen, and the game will automatically choose a suitable world for you. If you want to play on a specific world, just choose it from the world switcher first, and then press 'Log in'.
Favourite worlds. The in-game world switcher now lets you select up to 2 worlds as your favourites. For example, you could set one favourite as your non-PvP homeworld and one as your PvP battle world. Once you have set up your favourite worlds from the world switcher, you will see extra buttons for them directly on the title screen, you can then click on those buttons to go straight to your favourite world.
Members see less adverts. Because of the above changes, we’ve been able to remove adverts for members playing on free worlds – we hope you enjoy the change!
The detail selection option has also been moved into the game. Again, this means there is one less page to go through to start the game, and gets you playing faster. This also means that you can now switch modes more easily without having to reload the game. The game will remember your last selection, so you no longer have to keep making the same choice over and over again.
The 'safe mode' feature is now automatic. If your game fails to load for any reason, it will detect the failure the next time you load it, and automatically activate safe mode. If you want to force safe mode, then you can still do so by pressing the 's' key on your keyboard while the game is loading. Safe mode has also now been adjusted to only make the minimum changes needed to get the title screen to load: if you want to change any other options you should do so yourself from the 'Graphics Options' menu on the title screen before logging in. Your choices will then be remembered for next time.
Unsigned mode is automatic. We’ve removed the ‘unsigned’ option from the Java options menu. Don’t worry, you can still access the unsigned applet if you need to. We’ve made the selection process for it automatic. If the game cannot load in signed mode (either because you didn’t grant it permission, or your security settings do not allow you to grant it permission) it will fall back to the unsigned version, you don’t need to do anything for this to happen.

Mod Chris E
Game Engine Developer

Adbot · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 5:31 am

blethorskite · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 12:26 pm

Seems okay. Have yet to set up my two favourites though.

Marking22 · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 12:42 pm

the only thing i dislike about this is the world select thing
i wish you had an option to make the world select like you wanted it to be

Sir Xenox · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 1:49 pm

This seems fine to me.

I didn't mind the old way tbh but this one's good anyway

The Xbox Legacy · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 6:56 pm

Was a little confusing at first since I obviously didn't read the article but ... meh, seems like they're making the game better one step at a time.

Waffle 350 · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 10:31 pm

2/5

it doesnt seem that much faster unless u just wanan play and dont care about what world you are in.

there needs to be a way to make it so its always hd or always standard and then i would give it a 3.5/5 or 4

Adbot · **Posted:** October 15th, 2008, 10:31 pm

rev9841 · **Posted:** October 16th, 2008, 5:29 pm

2/5... 1/5 if not for the favorite world thing

Pro nerd5 · **Posted:** October 17th, 2008, 1:35 pm

4/5 i think it saves some time and i like the fav world feature.

colinsoccer123 · **Posted:** October 17th, 2008, 2:02 pm

I Liekess~! it of course I'll give it a 5/5

Sunset Fish · **Posted:** October 18th, 2008, 8:54 am

I really dont see the point in this
They pretty much just change it rather than making it better
I dislike it more than likeing it

crwire · **Posted:** October 19th, 2008, 6:30 am

It's good and bad, good being that all the options for it are now all in 1 game screen. The bad thing for me is I can't load my favourite world from 1 link, it has to be from that "main menu game screen" :cry:

Not much change, just presented in a different way as I see it.

Jason · **Posted:** October 19th, 2008, 7:42 am

I dislike it. I find that the world selector is too small. And like Shane pointed out on the show the URLs are all the same now.

Unbirthday · **Posted:** October 19th, 2008, 9:18 am

I like it, but I sometimes get the feeling like I'm forgetting something when it goes directly to the game screen.

Al3X · **Posted:** October 23rd, 2008, 9:04 pm

3/5 i haven't tried it my self but it doesn't seem like much improvement.

And I'm sure like other website features, when you clear your private data it resets the settings you set. So its useless to me since I clear my cookies and browsing history often.

TomatoHead · **Posted:** October 25th, 2008, 10:19 am

I think it's a little annoying because my comp hangs up for 1-2 minutes while loading java and i cant check rw fast enough -.-