Shattered Star History - Imput needed

[M.Steiner]

Added!
Still a lot we can add to this but it's coming together very nicely indeed I think. I'll have to set aside some time to go through what we have so far and make sure each year is all in the correct order, at least for the events we have monthly dates for.
On the timeline mockup I did think each year would have the most notable event written beneath the date in bold and then under that would be the rest in small text, bringing the other window up to view the detailed descriptions of each of those where necessary. However some years were actually quite busy and to list each and every event under each year like that I think it'd get to look a bit messy. Might be best to list the top 1-3 events for each year and then have "view more" or something written underneath which would bring the pop-up window up. That can then display the detailed descriptions, links to forum threads or pictures etc as already planned but list the rest of the events for that year as well.
Once we think we've gathered as much info as possible and nailed down some more dates for those SSC groups for example (don't want to release anything half-arsed) we can start writing up descriptions for each of the events we've listed so those are ready to go when it comes to actually implementing all of this. Looking good though so far!

[esd]

I nearly forgot the SSX beer tasting session on St Patrick's Day in 2006...
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3038

[Rock-n-Roll]

MW3 was in Spring 1999. I'm fairly sure we split off before the end of the year as PL did not play MW4 with SSC at all.

[SL33PY]

split wasn't until later, as I was in SSC in neocron at the time and that didn't happen until later march '03 I think

[M.Steiner]

Just thought I'd mention that I've recently started transferring the list from the OP over to a desktop file where I'm writing them all up with full descriptions for each years events.
Once I'm done I'll see if I can upload the wordpad file with the posting option below or something so you guys can check it over and add/remove any sections.

As an example, for the detailed description of Neocron 1 & 2 I've made mention of some of our members, which Faction we were and how they were aligned within the game, our server, some of our allies, the formation of the United Angels alliance, our magazine appearance, Rah becoming Chairman of the FA, our rarespool etc. All with dates when available. Likewise for WoW:EU with our dungeon weekends, major boss kills, clearing of dungeons and what not. Lots of group specific info which I thought should be mentioned and were nice to reflect on. Though will later get on to its collapse...
I can only do this for the games I have played myself though (unless extra info has been pointed out like in the case of the Lore events which esd posted). As said before I'd like the timeline to be as complete and accurate as possible and across all of our groups, not just the ones I've been a part of. So if some of you can help write some descriptions to cover a particular games events which you've played yourself but I haven't; FreeSpace2, Eve, Anarchy Online etc etc etc just to name but a few, that'd be helpful. As always if anyone has extra events to add to the list above as well or can help with dates for the above SSC divisions that'd be nice too.

Once I've finished the detailed writeups (hopfully with some help) I'll figure out how much of the infomation needs to go on the graphic itself and finish completing that whilst seeing which info needs to be left in the text file to hand to Anny for adding as proper text within the pop-ups too. Once all of that is done we can then start implementing it all.

[Anubis]

If you could post an example of a write up you've done that would be a help, to know what we should be templating on.

I'll try and do one or two on the groups I've been a part of, if you slap me around enough to remind me

[M.Steiner]

Sure thing, I'll have a quick look over one of the years I've written up either later tonight or tomorrow (just to see if there's anything I've missed or needs altering) and post that up so you guys can get a better idea

[M.Steiner]

Right, here's what I've written out for 2004 for example:

2004
- SSC-NC featured in the VotR magazine (21st June - Pre-split)
- SSC Splits - SSX is founded (Sep 1st)
- Neocron 2 (Fallen Angels / Terra)
- Dawn of War
- Final Fantasy XI
- World of Warcraft US
- Dark Horizons: Lore (July)
- Mavlympics (Oct)
- Group sites for NC2, FS2, DoW & Lore go live (Nov)
- SSX-NC2 becomes richest clan on Terra (Nov)
- SSX-NC2 rarespool opens


2004 was a big year for the Shattered Star.
On June 21st the Neocron group had a full page SSC advert featured in edition #2 of the Voice of the Resistance, an Anti City Neocron magazine covering news and story related content to players outside of the game.

It was towards the end of 2004 though which saw the split in the Confederation. Due to the differences of opinion, peoples actions and intentions towards the running of the SSC as a whole and disregard of its ideals, the group slowly started to fall apart from behind closed doors. It was then when several members decided to leave the Confederation and thus became exiled from the people & the place it had become, and so on September 1st the group as it stands today was born - the Shattered Star eXiles (SSX). Many other SSC members slowly started to follow and become exiles with us, though not all leaving for the same reasons. Still believing in the same ideals which brought us together in the first place (Freedom, Equality, Honour, Integrity & Friendship) but rather than using them as our written law at every opportunity we have since focused on one single ideal - Friendship. The Confederation continued over at shatteredstar.com whereas the home of the Exiles soon became shatteredstar.org & .net.

With the founding of the SSX our entire Neocron division (now Neocron 2 and situated on the Terra server) transferred over to a new SSX clan on Sunday September 5th, later the same year (during November) going on to become the richest clan on the server.
The SSX-NC2 rarespool was also opened during this time as well. The rarespool was a huge collection of rare item parts (implants, weapons, spells etc) collected by members of the clan which were stored across multiple apartments, completed and then fully constructed and distributed to members of the clan (under a fair "you give, you get" policy) by Maester Seymour (aka SSX-MS/M.Steiner) & SirRah.
Some of our NC1 founding members like QuantumDelta were still present for NC2, although less frequent, but we had other new members like Lee join us as well as existing members from the greater community such as Anubis & Kahn.

In October of 2004 MGT's (indie developer "Max Gaming Technologies") Adrian & Ed (also known to the SSX as JarodRah & Inquisitor) hosted the Mavlympics. This was a special PvP event held across 3 days in Dark Horizons: Lore in which players were able to battle to win real life prizes from companies like ATI and Sennheiser worth over $1,400.00.

The SSX also saw groups for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft (US) & Dark Horizons: Lore form, as well as the launch of group websites for NC2, FS2, DoW & Lore go live in November.

It was with the forming of the Exiles that the group decided to hold yearly elections for an "Arbiter" position too. Doing away with hidden moderator and admin forums which we previously had under the SSC too but making our members forum public for all to see. A caretaker or mediator for the group as a whole as it were, something which we never had before and someone who the membership themselves voted for. Inquisitor won the vote for this first term of Arbiter (Sep '04 - Sep '05) with a whopping 83% of the vote. 10 years later and we still hold these yearly elections together.

So at the top we list the year followed by a quick bulletpoint rundown of the notable events of that year. Some of these will be visible on the main view of the timeline itself too but we'll have to cut some of those back for busier years to keep it nice and clean. This is the kind of thing people will see when they click each year though and bring the pop-up up. The description basically covers everything in the bullet points but in a more detailed fashion, including links to images (which would use our screenshot system), threads and sites when appropriate.
I could probably add a little more detail for the DoW group here but hopefully you will get the idea. This is just the writeup for 2004 though ofc, 2002, 2003 & 2005 also have other mentions of Neocron related goings on. I may add to this too, need to look around and see if I can find a date for when BD finished designing the SSX star.

Hopefully that will be of help to you guys!

[M.Steiner]

I've done a mock-up preview using the above write-up I did for 2004:

So on the main view of the timeline, 2004 would just list 2-3 of the events for that year (to keep it nice and clean), clicking the orb for 2004 would bring up the window for that particular year as shown. Within this pop-up window will be the year listed at the top followed by a full bullet point list featuring the rest of the events for that year. Below those will be a more detailed description of those events including links to screenshots, threads or sites where necessary and/or possible. This will be the same for every year and group, hopefully.

Quick questions for you, Anny - Is such a window like I mocked up actually possible for you to do?.
- Dark blue/black background which is semi transparent. (Is it possible to code something like this? or would it need to be an image which you lay the text over?).
- Nice thin and clean border around it. This one has rounded edges but that's not a necessity. Just looks nicer heh. (Suppose this depends on the above as to whether it's an image or not).
- Tiny "X" button at the top or bottom somewhere to close each window. Clicking back on the main timeline image outside of the window could also close it.
- Appearance of a scroll wheel when needed so the window always stays the same size. The above mock-up doesn't need one, I just added it as an example, but if a years write-up is too long for the window the scroll wheel would appear rather than the window becoming bigger.
- (Optional) Could perhaps include thumbnail screenshots in there as well (using the screenshot system) rather than just links to them. Could experiment with that later though if needs be, I've just included links for now.

[Anubis]

Yeah, should be possible mate. We already have lightboxes for images and those should be able to be leveraged for use with other content easily enough.

- Semi transparent background is probably doable, but I'm not sure how well it would transfer across browsers (opacity is generally applied in browser specific ways, meaning it can be a fight to get it consistent sometimes). We'd need to do some tests. Could always use a tiled 1x1 image if we needed to though.
- Border will be no problem.
- Close button will be no problem (standard lightbox functionality).
- Scrolling window implementation should be fine, though we'd need to do some experimenting to confirm. Not usually the way lightboxes are implemented, but I think we should be able to make it work.
- Thumbnails, again, wouldn't be an issue. We'd need to iron out whether they'd link to anything though, as obviously we couldn't have a lightbox within a lightbox situation

And thanks very much for posting the example too! I'll try and write something for you for one of the other areas this weekend if I get a chance

[M.Steiner]

Awesome, sounds good mate
We can experiment with window sizes and all of that when the time comes as well. For now though we can continue with the write-ups and event listings. Excited to see how this eventually comes together ^^

[esd]

Slight correction - "esd hosted", nah, it was MGT (Max Gaming Technologies), Adrian and Ed basically

[M.Steiner]

Have made some alterations and additions to that part, thankies!
Also found a snapshot of the Mavlympics site on the wayback machine to include as an extra link

[M.Steiner]

I posted these back in October but I still need dates if we're to include them in the timeline so I'm going to bump the list again. Would rather not release knowing entire divisions are missing from it.
These were all before my time but I've gathered some extra details for each group via both wiki and the wayback machine just incase those help narrow stuff down.

Dates & Info needed for the following SSC Divisions:

• Age of Empires 2 - Group founded by SSC-Ramses. Game was released on Sep 30th 1999, SSC-AoE website launched on Jan 7th 2001. Was the division founded in Jan of 2001 too, or before?
• Asheron's Call - Game released on Nov 2nd 1999. It is present on the first wayback machine capture for Feb 27th 2001 but I can't view anything before. When was the group founded?
• Baldur's Gate II - Game was released on Sep 24th 2000, first news post was June 3rd 2001 for a dungeon crawl. When was the group founded?
• Diablo II - Group founded by Bladeslinger. Game was released on June 29th 2000, website launched a year later on June 5th 2001. According to Blade, the group itself was formed between Dec 2000 and Jan 2001. Since this is going on a timeline I can't really add an approximation for Dec 00 - Jan 01, it will need to be added to the listings of one year or the other and I'd rather not guess.
• Dungeons & Dragons - We've always had D&D sections on the forums ever since I can remember (both SSC & SSX) but are there any specific games/divisions which were formed in them? If D&D is to be included on the timeline what details needed adding and where?
• Jedi Knight - Seen mention of this via the Wayback machine. Need details please.
• Project Entropia - Present on the first wayback machine capture for Feb 27th 2001, can't see before. Details please.
• Quake III - Game released on Dec 2nd 1999. First website news post was Feb 8th (The news post didn't say a year but the division was present on the first wayback machine capture for the main site so the AoE site was launched either Feb 2000 or Feb 2001). When did the group launch?
• Unreal Tournament - Game released on Nov 30th 1999. When did the group launch?

Also if you were around for these groups (or even better, a member of them) and would be able to help with the writeups that'd be great


[ My work on the project has been put on hold for the time being. See OP ]

[Bladesinger]

M.Steiner,

The D2 group started around Dec 2000/Jan 2001.

[Padishar]

M.Steiner thank you for trying to tackle this immense feat
I am truly sorry for not contributing anything to it, until after the fact

If you don't mind I will still occasional post things that I find in old HD's here or if I rem how, will upload them as well... lol

A for instance?
I founded the Asheron's Call Division and can post a detailed breakdown, while digging for the related information, as time permits...

Also, I will contact Koyote/LaughingMan and see if I can get his old SSC art work... he made some of our old star emblems and things like our former Tribes skins.

[M.Steiner]

M.Steiner thank you for trying to tackle this immense feat
I am truly sorry for not contributing anything to it, until after the fact

If you don't mind I will still occasional post things that I find in old HD's here or if I rem how, will upload them as well... lol

A for instance?
I founded the Asheron's Call Division and can post a detailed breakdown, while digging for the related information, as time permits...

Also, I will contact Koyote and see if I can get his old SSC art work... he made some of our old star emblems and things like our former Tribes skins.

No worries, Pad
and course not, that would be great.


Sorry if I went on a bit of a rant in the opening post update btw. With the time limit I'd given myself to make sure things were ready to move on with the implementation with Anny quickly ticking down, and not seeing much imput from anyone in a while I kinda just hit a brick wall if that makes sense.
I've done about as much as I can do with the photoshop file until our list is fully complete and I can make sure what needs to go on the main image is there, with the extra/smaller stuff being left for the detailed window pop-ups. Also deciding how that will fit on the website itself but that won't come until later either.

I've done some write-ups myself for a few of the groups (and full years); 1997, 2002-2007, 2009, 2011. But take 2006 for example. I've talked a lot a bit about WoW:EU events for that years description and gone on to talk about our raiding success, bosses we'd killed and legendary weapons which QD & Ava aquired, all with dates and stuff attached which I'd managed to nail down from our news archive and old forum posts, even some screenshots we have from those events. I've mentioned the other events for that year too, like the founding of the SSX EVE group (we had one in the SSC too ofc) and Conquer Online but I've had no imput with either of those games or groups so other than a brief mention they don't get much coverage. They should. Someone who played those games would be able to do a much better job at writing about those than I could, and do them justice. I could have continued to do the rest of the years and groups but there would be many patches like that and I didn't want it to be biased towards the groups I have been actively involved with myself as would probably happen if I was the only one writing about em. I also didn't want to be left doing it all by myself either as I say.
(Just to say too, if anyone wanted to do their own descriptions for the years or groups I've already done a lot of (like Neocron or WoW:EU), we can totally go over those and try and incorporate them together to make them better and more complete. Just because I went ahead with those doesn't mean someone else can't have any imput on them too)

So yeah, for the time being this will be on hold for me until I can move forward with it a bit. I'll still continue to compile any info that gets posted, either dates and infos for some of the divisions we're missing or full descriptions for a group during a particular year. We're just cutting it fine to try and hit the launch date I'd hoped for and that's probably not feasible now.

All is good though. It might take a bit longer than originally planned and it would have been kinda special for it to go live on that date but I'm sure it'll have been worth it in the end


(Just to add: I was actually doing a little experiment with this. Was curious to see just how long it would take for anyone to pop their head in here and notice my "on hold" update without me flagging the thread with a new post alert or changing the topic title. I'll admit that I wasn't expecting anyone to post in here for some days, maybe even weeks or a month or so. Very happy to see I was wrong even if it's just one person heh <3)