In talking about how to attract more members here etc. we decided that along with branching out with more games, that this site is due for an updated look.
This is a mockup of a possible design.
We are trying to stay "true" to lowcal and keep the color theme etc. while giving it a more modern up to date look.
This is one of many possible layouts/designs that we could do and so I just wanted to throw this out to get all of your opinions on this design or about the revamp in general.
Note: this is just a mockup that I threw together so don't comment with "that isn't lined up perfectly!" and stuff. I know. This is just to give the basic idea. Of course when doing the real thing I'll be much more meticulous.
Thanks, let us know what you think.

mocklayout.jpg (875 Kb, 10 downloads)

sounds like a great idea, but ur pic isnt showing up

That's two nights in a row that crap has been acting funny... strange.

Huh for some reason photoshop was screwing up my .jpg and .png files
here is a gif, some sacrificed quality, but you get the idea

looks great

This is a fantastic start. We had some good discussions on trillian.

Hopefully we'll get some input from the others.

Just what this site needs.

I'm not a member but I think it looks cool.. nice job

Thanks for the comments!
I was hoping to hear from others, like middy maybe. but this is good. It will have to change a bit to make it more efficent etc.

I think it is cool looking and all, and I am glad you guys do too, but now is the time to give us any imput about what you don't like and what you would like to see in the new design.

Ok not dissing your work here.. Your asking for input. and I just saw a few things here.

Layout.gif (328 Kb, 59 downloads)

Looks good, I don't like the way you did the top buttons much though. Maybe if they were smaller and more like the heading of the server status boxes. That seems to work nicely. I like the bit at the top left of the news boxes.

This is just the proposed title page. (ie what you'd see when you go to www.lowcaliber.com/index.htm) The forum/member/gallery/etc pages would have a layout that follows a similar style, but much simpler. Socket and I agreed that the top of the page would be much too strong if it were carried over on all of the pages.

I have some other nitpicky things, like spacing, font, etc but we'll work those out when we get a more workable layout. I know this is a rough draft.

P.S. Socks, the "servers" link is a temporary measure until we can get working sidebars for all of our servers.

Oh ok mano.

Also what are you guys using to make this?

WYSIWYG?

Thanks for the input!
Yeah I didn't like the top nav buttons too much either.

What are we using?
Well for that mockup I used photoshop.
To make the rest we (I) will be using photoshop and dreamweaver with php and css

Do we have caps on bandwidth?

What is everyone viewing this site at for a resolution so we can design to that. If no one gives us input please be aware that common site designs are to fit 800 x 600. But we could venture out and give her a 1024 x 768.

I have a complex layout ready for testing if you want to try anything with this sort of feel.

WYSIWYG = BAD LOL you will have to hear me rant on this subject sometime.

I like the use of the colours. The free floating window type objects = you will have more trouble for multi-browser compatibilty. As far as coding and getting them to do that no problem just you have a freakin weird ass IE positioning problem and it just makes things difficult.

Back to the resolution. I was thinking that if 800 x 600 or even 1024 x 768 is standard to the club that we should make sure the header banner isn't over powering. It would be a nice intro page to have that you could select from and start your journey onto the forums and help pages.

Nice idea using PS for layout. I also recommend Indesign, Illustrator or Fireworks.

Oh ya many of the graphical pieces in this could also be tricked by using some sneaky CSS tricks.

I am sorry guys that I haven't been active enough lately. I have a company starting and my schooling is extremely demanding. When I do game its like for an hour or two and no one is on during those times.

I love fireworks and i am familiar with dreamweaver. I try to do most of my sites in just pure coding but with confusing shit like this you have to sacrifice lol.

Also 1024x768 I think would be a good idea. 800x600 would keep those immature little 12 year olds that dont know what a resolution is away from here But anything above 1024x768 would prolly take too long to load and be a bit to big for a webpage in my opinion.

From what I understand, having Ventrilo status on the sidebar requires a webserver to be installed on the gaming machine. I'm not willing to sacrifice bandwith that our game servers need/use for a ventrilo staus box.

Don't do an 800x600 design please...

1280x1024 desktop resolution here..Okay, so I have a big monitor. Sue me.

1280x1024 is sad. I want 1600x1200

Res size does not equate to penis size. Though many wish it would.