Ranking system?

[Ryan]

Is it possible to add a ranking system under names on the forum?

The recent requests for disambiguation between Counts and other nobles has led me to think such a system would work well in lieu of having many groups.

e.g. A star ranking could be used to indicate rank. Like this: - Which would indicate a 4 star general, but could be used to indicate a Duke.

We don't have to use star rankings; it's just an example. I'd also be willing to create the graphics for a ranking system if that's wanted.


Another nice touch would be to add, below ranking, any award icons that particular citizen may have.

Say, for example, I'm awarded the Shirerithian Merit of the Old Fartiness. Thus I would get a little medal - - below my rank. I can design these as well.

This might serve to give a little more fluff and emphasis to awards and ranks within Shireroth.

Thoughts?

[Ari Rahikkala]

This (ranks corresponding to feudal titles) would be somewhat complicated to implement, being that in phpBB both a user's rank and name colour come from their default group (should it define either), and an account can only have one default group. Since duchy citizenships already take up that one default group slot, without modding the board I'd have to set people's special ranks (just about doubling the work involved, I'd say) separately every time feudal titles move around. Unless there's a lot of interest I'm not very inclined to do this.

On the other hand... putting up people's knightships and decorations in their titles sounds like a far better idea. The current system of ranks for higher governmental titles is perhaps mildly convenient (I wouldn't have noticed http://shireroth.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 94#p137794 without the rank clash ) but it doesn't really add any flavour, and duplicates information that is almost immediately available otherwise anyway. Now the Roll of Honor is also almost immediately available but... it *could* use a bit of spiffying up, and emphasising the honor on people's titles might just do the trick. Besides, awards are granted far less often than government positions so replacing the former with the latter will mean less work for me in the long run

So, yeah. The awards and knighthoods are described in the Decreebook, and you might want to include an icon for the Order of Mischievous Intent too. Hit me.

[Ryan]

Right then. I don't want to make more work for you obviously. And you have a better sense of the ebb and flow of the system than I do. That being said, we can scrap the whole ranking idea and instead focus on the Roll of Honor, and Honors and Awards (incl. OMI), as you linked to above.

Before I go ahead and start drawing up icon representations of these awards, is there any specific size limit you want on them? Give me a general idea of min/max dimensions. File size shouldn't be an issue, as I imagine they won't exceed several kb per icon.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Well, the space where they go is 150px wide, minus 4px of padding on both sides... supposing 4px of space between the medals... the most highly decorated Shirithian, Scott, seems to have five awards/knightships: Knight of the Mango, Knight of the Dragon, Order of the Sunburst, Order of the Gold Sword and the Victorious Golden Nixon, and Dux Emeritus of Mischievous Intent. So if we want to put all of Scott's awards on one line (I don't really expect anyone to get more awards than five anytime soon), you'll have 25 pixels of width to work with. As for height, just go with something reasonable I guess. Not more than 50px. That enough space to work in?

[Ryan]

That works for me. I'll make them a standard size so they won't cluster oddly, probably 25x35. A height greater than that may skew things oddly. I'll put up some test examples to begin with and we can play with those and see what works best.

[Allot]

WHY DID NO ONE THINK OF THIS BEFORE
THIS MAN IS A GENIUS

MAKE IT SO

In all seriousness, I do like the idea, but I think it would have to be subtle. Also, it depends how much work it is for Ari - it would be just like making titles for everyone (I think). So...yeah.

[Ryan]

First prototype icons:


Phoenix


Kampioen

Thoughts?

[Ari Rahikkala]

Well, the best way to see if it looks nifty in practice is to actually put those decorations up, I guess... all of the currently active Kampioens and Phoenixes, and a few of the inactive ones, should now have those icons. Greg has both. I'll have to make them go a bit closer to the username, I think, but otherwise they seem great to me so far

[Jess]

Golden Nixon?

[Malliki Tosha]

Is it possible to add icons for the guilds as well? Like a mango or a lawbook or something for the Mango Bar, and something for the Guild of the Machine God?

I also would like to suggest that you differentiate in some way between the classes in the Order of the Dragon.

Finally, good work! I can't wait to see mine in a nice row.

[Erik Mortis]

Were are my myriad of award...?

[Ryan]

I'm working on it... Don't rush an old tree...

Besides, I'm distracted by Allot's new avatar...

[Erik Mortis]

It does draw the eye.... Though some naked hot chicks would draw the eye more.

[Ryan]

If only books had animated covers... *mind wanders off on a tangent*

Ahem... anyways...


Chimera


Dragon


Griffon 1


Griffon 2


Nixon

[Harvey Steffke]

Brilliant Ryan, bloody brilliant.

Any chance you could make a silver sword for me? I'm rather fond of that award of mine, and the circumstances of which it was given to me.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

On account of the above I am paying Ryan 500 out of the Household Account, if he has an account himself.

[Ryan]

I just created an account. Thank you!

Ok, so I've got seven more award icons to do plus differentiate the 3 levels of the Dragon Order. For the latter I'm just thinking a golden Roman numeral (I, II, or III) in the top right.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Right that's been transferred.

[Ryan]

I can't believe I found this when looking for a mango icon...

[Jess]

Freakin' sweet.

[Ryan]

Celestis


Gold Sword


Silver Sword


Bronze Sword


Red Dragon


Swan


Mango


Since the above had no images, I just made what I thought to be most fitting. Still working on the 3 dragons. And OMI.

[Harvey Steffke]

Those look wonderful. Nicely done.

[Allot]

bountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybountybounty

[Andreas the Wise]

Very, very nice.

[Ari Rahikkala]

My approach of putting these up using phpBB's native special rank images is looking a bit intractable with more than a few possible combinations of awards... but I have a board-modding approach in mind that should get us there with minimal trouble...

[Malliki Tosha]

Is there any way of making the Swan golden, since it is the Golden Swan award? Also, perhaps bronze, silver and gold could be used for the three levels of the Order of the Dragon?

Other than that, marvellous work Ryan.

[Ryan]

Oh crap. I didn't realize the swan had three levels too! Ok, will add that to the to-dos.

[Malliki Tosha]

There has only been one recipient of any form of the Swan. Perhaps just a swan in gold, silver and bronze will do?

[Ari Rahikkala]

Right then. In five or so years when I finally get around to giving that course on Shireroth's online infrastructure I'll have to remember to include this mod . For now, though, the way this thing is used is, administrators get to see an "Awards" custom profile field when managing a user's profile (usually you'll get there by clicking on a user's profile link, choosing "Administrate user", then choosing "Profile" from the "Select form" dropdown). It accepts a list of lowercase words delimited by ", " corresponding to the names of the images in http://shireroth.org/forum/images/awards/ . For instance, for Greg the value is currently "kampioen, sunburst, phoenix". Users *shouldn't* be able to set this field on their own profiles, though I haven't actually bothered testing whether this is the case...

[Ryan]

That's very nifty, Ari. Thanks for doing all the coding work. And I just checked the profile access, and it's as you said; standard users can't access the awards panel.

There has only been one recipient of any form of the Swan. Perhaps just a swan in gold, silver and bronze will do?

Yeah, that's what I was planning to do. Simply make them colored like the swords (they share the same level system).