So, as I guess all of you can see by now, we've just launched our brand spanking new SSX website today - encompassing both the main site and the forums.
For the last couple of months MS and I have been beavering away on this update, and whilst it's taken a little longer than I might have liked I hope you'll all agree it's been worth the wait. Huge, huge thanks to MS for coming up with the design for us - without his creative eye, none of this would be possible!
Above and beyond the reskin that you see, though, there's an awful lot more changes that have been implemented today:
The site and forums are now both fully responsive for the first time ever, meaning that we're now very accessible on mobiles, tablets, and other devices.
We've integrated long requested Social Sharing functionality, which you can find at the bottom of every topic and included in every full news post on the main site, allowing people to easily share our content.
We've integrated closer than ever with Twitter and our own Forums, allowing us to promote content from both across our main website.
And for the more technical, we've re-architected the website solution so that it's using HTML5, CSS3, jQuery and MVC. This makes it FAR more maintainable and a much improved platform to build on in future.
Obviously though, particularly since this is our first reskin since 2008, there's the possibility that people may come across issues that we've missed during testing, or suggestions on how to improve things. If so, please post them here and we'll add them to the list to be looked at over the coming weeks - which can be found on our forums.
To help celebrate Star Citizen's second anniversary and as a thank you to their fans for the support and dedication, RSI have launched a special anniversary sale which will run for the next week, until Monday December 1st. The anniversary sale sees the return of several limited edition ships like Origin's gorgeous M50 Interceptor, the 350r and the F7C-M Super Hornet from Anvil Aerospace (plus many more!), all of which were only ever available for a short period of time before being removed from the store. These limited editions will be available for the duration of the sale as well!. Any of these bought during the anniversary sale will also come with an exclusive 2 years worth of insurance, rather than the standard 6 months.
200 Javelins will also become available at timed allocations for $2,500 each, the sales of which bring with them another sweet deal for those looking to support the game - 5,000 Aurora packages for just $20.
Interested in the game but haven't backed it yet? in the market for another ship to add to your growing collection? or perhaps looking at upgrading your existing one(s)?. Then now is a great time to do so!
If you've been following us on YouTube and/or social media (links in the top right corner!) you may have already seen these but for those of you who missed them - Here are three 1080p boss fight videos from the newly released "Lords of the Fallen":
Following up from our recent website updates, some of you may be aware that we are currently working on a new website design behind the scenes which we plan to launch with a whole host of new features and improvements on top of its completely new, sleek and modern look.
We can't wait to bring this to you all but in the meantime are there any changes to the website you would like to request yourself?. A new feature? page? something you think we should remove or update? Let us know on the forums!
As you may have noticed if you're a frequent visitor, we've just launched somewhat of a spruce up for our website!
Not only have we updated our content a little (including adding a new Star Citizen section to our Gallery), but you'll also notice brand new social icons have been added to the header to point you to our various homes around the web. Anyone browsing on a tablet or phone should also now notice that the main website is now fully responsive, making us a bit more device friendly than we have been in the past!
We've also rolled out some new functionality for the forums as part of this update, including (but not limited to) .webm support, and better image embedding support.
Yes, the full game may be a way off from being complete and fully "connected" but that doesn't stop us from being incredibly excited for Star Citizen and its vision, surely one of the most ambitious titles there has ever been. - To share in our interest in the game and to follow the development of it we have just opened a brand new section for SC over in the forums. Feel free to drop in and make yourselves at home in there, both newcomers and existing members alike!
Got your eye on Star Citizen but not quite sure which ship to go for? Fancy giving the Hornet F7C a try but don't want to put down $140?. During this week all Star Citizen backers will have the ability to test drive all five flyable ships in honor of the games second anniversary. As such the Aurora, 300i, Hornet, M50 & 350R will be available for all backers until October 17th. A perfect opportunity to get in there and give em all a try for yourself! - source
Driveclub now has its own Shattered Star club complete with themed paintwork design and badge:
This is just the initial "look" which will probably be updated as our club levels up and more designs are unlocked. Looking for a club yourself?. Feel free to hit us up ingame as we're open to all! (just as long as we have open slots ofc!)
Remember to check us out on our YouTube channel for other SSX videos. Lots more to come!
For those of you unaware, this week has seen the launch of several new SSX branded pages across the internet which now join our existing groups on both Steam & Facebook. These include a brand new Shattered Star Exiles YouTube channel, Google+ profile, Twitter account & Twitch page. Please feel free to make use of them, spread them around and if you would like to become one of our YouTube/Twitch content creators (or have any content ideas in general you'd like to share) please see this thread!
We will be adding all of these to the top of the main site & forums as soon as possible but for the time being here are the relevant links you'll need to find us on our other sites:
As this years arbiter vote draws to a close we look to focus on increasing our activity as a group going forward, provide content across our new sites (as mentioned above) and hopefully introducing lots of new folk to this wonderful place in the process.
As such we have several discussions going on right now over on the forums which we'd like to get peoples imput on. What are your feelings towards IRC & Voice Comms? Would you be interested in an SSX voice comms server?, do we make the switch from IRC to Skype or stick with IRC?. Also, if we're looking to start playing some new games together (those being either smaller co-operative & multiplayer experiences or full blown massively multiplayer games), which titles do you have your eye on? What would you like to see the SSX play together?
Finally, congratulations go to SL33PY who will win this years Arbiter vote later on this evening and continue on in the role until this time next year when we begin the process once again. He has already set the ball rolling going into his second year as Arbiter with the launch of these new sites and forum discussions so please get involved when you can, we'd appreciate your imput!
This years nominations for the role of arbiter have already taken place but the vote itself will be commencing very shortly. On the ballot this year are just two members; SL33PY & Isileth. Please find a few short moments to read their nominee posts here and keep your eye on our members forum in the coming days for the poll. As always, once the poll goes live you will be able to vote for the person you would like to see take on the role of arbiter for the next year.
Good luck to both!
It should be mentioned that this month also marks a very special anniversary for the Shattered Star Exiles as it was 10 years ago in September of 2004 when we first opened our doors and started gaming together under the SSX tag. (As one of our original founding members it makes me very proud to be posting that and I look forward to many more years ahead!)
Unfortunately though we won't be launching our interactive timeline page this month like we had originally planned. The timeline idea hasn't been completely scrapped however and all progress we had made has been kept, but will continue to be developed over a longer period of time. Community contributions to the timeline had slowed for a while so it was decided to put the project on the back burner for the time being rather than rush it out for our anniversary as planned. We want the timeline to be as thorough as possible and cover each and every group founding and milestone we can think of, dating all the way back to the founding of the Confederation in '97. As such, when we're happy we have achieved that (with the help of each and every one of you in your free time) and made it the best it can possibly be, we will then shift our focus to implementing it onto the site. Huge thanks to everyone who has helped so far!
Last but not least we have two extremely full months ahead in terms of gaming releases featuring titles such as; Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Driveclub, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, The Evil Within, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Assassin's Creed Unity, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Far Cry 4 just to name but a few. An exciting time to be a gamer indeed! What is everyone looking forward to playing? What do you anticipate your GOTY to be? - Hit up the forums and let us know!
It is also worth pointing out that some of these games (and several other titles releasing in the coming weeks which I haven't mentioned) feature some kind of online multiplayer or co-op mode, like the new Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed for example. Lets make use of those as a community and get some smaller multi/co-op games going!
