New responsive layout

I haven't posted on this blog for a while because development has been a bit lax.

However, with my recent decision to try and focus on it a bit more, I'm hoping to revive this blog as I do different stages of the development but we'll see how my life gets on.

I need somewhere to note down my thoughts as to where I am currently at anyway.

The current state of play is that the site needs to become mobile friendly and more future proof so that aspects (new functionality) can be easier to implement.

My current plan is that I change the outer shell of the site and then work through the pages afterwards so once launched, the menu/header/footer will scroll and resize nicely but the actual page content may end up stretching pages or looking a bit odd. I'll then work through the pages as and when I get chance to make them all look and flow better for mobile devices..

Once this has been done and looks are OK - I want to improve functionality so that users get a better experience. Then I can look at improving the ganeral game.

The one caveat to the outer shell update is that I also need to do the home page and login page alongside it.

So then, here is the current layout for users who aren't signed into the site;

This then scales to a mobile phone like such;

There are differing sizes in between too for tablets and various other screen sizes.

The above, of course are for managers not signed into the site.

Once signed in, there is an extra section at the top of the site which is for notifications. I will aim to give more information on that on my next blog post.

Transfer searching

As I said.... buses.......

I have tweaked the transfer list and pool searches to enable an age selection and to include injured players or not. Possibly more search criteria can go in there yet but I'm on a roll and adding things from my suggestions list as a priority before I start getting too involved with it.

This will be the new transfer list search;

This will be the new transfer pool search;

Hopefully you are liking these additions to the site - I'm bracing myself to start implementing player contracts and hoping these little niceties keep everybody happy in the meantime.

Manager achievements

Mystify game updates are like buses..... here's another change that I will be implementing soon.

It's a change to the managers's profile page where previously you could see a managers' awards. You will now also be able to see what trophies they have won or come runners up in during their time as manager.

The attached screen shot from William Hsu's page shows his achievements with his 2 teams. You may also notice an addition at the top where it says how many weeks he has been in charge of the teams.

Some of the long term managers (who joined before March 2010) may have this a little faulty for their primary team as I didn't store exact game week numbers for managers joining clubs until then. I just have a date and have attempted to guess the game week number from that. If any managers know this is wrong I will be able to correct it providing you can remember the game you first managed a team for. You just need to let me know.

If not, I don't think it will be that big an issue as it will only be a few weeks out and can't include that many achievements that aren't yours. As stated though, I could always correct it if you let me know.

To any managers reading this, I'm not bothered if this is mentioned on the message board now. May be fun for you to talk about it and confuse managers who won't know how you know it is coming!

Advanced match tactics

You may have noticed that I have mentioned 3 game developments on the main site. 1 of which I have been vague about. 

I know this blog doesn't get updated often but I don't get chance to develop that often either so the 2 go hand in hand. As such, I'm interested to know who follows this blog, however you may read it, and I would appreciate it if you don't post the below on the game message board.

However, feel free to let me know in the comments that you have read it (and you play the game).

Anyway, this is a sample screen shot (not finished) of the new game tactics;

It's not finished yet because it doesn't actually do anything - I've only altered/added to the display. My next job is to make this page work and save to the database before I implement it into the game engine.

If you are wondering, then you will be able to add multiple of each - so you can attack for one half and then change to defensive after 45 minutes. On top of making the changes at specific times, there are a list of reasons for a change shown here;

This means a change will only happen if the selected scenario matches.

As well as this, I will be adding an option to select 'Any' minute so that a change will happen based on just the scenario. Therefore if you have a man sent off you can go all defensive - or attack even more if you like! I haven't established exactly how the 'any minute' feature will work yet because 'if drawing' for example could happen multiple times and there may be conflicts so I will work on that as I implement it.

I know some of you may suggest that this should be done with substitutions as well and I intend to at some point. I'll try to walk with this first before running with timed subs.

Team colours

I have recently established the colours for every team in the Mystify Soccer game. I will shortly be displaying them on the team pages like this:

They are possibly also useful to help managers differentiate what team they are currently managing in the case where they have 2 but I'm unsure where I can place them on each page so it;'s obvious.

I've tried a subtle horizontal line near the top of the page but it doesn't seem to have been noticed.

Therefore any ideas or suggestions would be handy.