Originally Posted by
Elite
Alright, let's see where i can explain why the devs don't.
Switch To Something Like Xenforo- They'd have to remake the clan, market, mod, replay, shop, and script scripts for it
- they'd have to hire a company to get a theme made which costs extra money
- the forum software itself would be an extra 100-200 dollars
- the forum in itself is old, yes, but it works just the way it is
Taking Effort On Improving The Forums, Rather Than TB Next Or TB- Would delay the game release for TB next if not by a day or two
- would need hampa's consent which im sure hampa is fine with the forums as is
- changing something that works is useless, could improve the community, but at the same time for what?
Not to mention i was a sitedev twice, although i didnt do much (if anything at all) i did see the code, reworking all of that stuff for a new forum software, that the devs probably have no experience with if little at all would take a load of time, and effort that would much rather be spent working on the upcoming "sequel" to toribash, TB Next, and upgrading the current game with small or large updates.
I'm a web developer/designer, let me counter some of these arguments.
They have sir, he's an excellent designer, I can guarantee he could work with an already existing theme and modify it ti fit toribash needs.
Forum software cost isn't that much at all, I'm sure players would potentially donate to help cover that (I personally would).
It's old and unattractive, turns players off from using it. I hate using it sometimes, but you gotta.
The only person working on Toribash Next is hampa. That is it, and I guarantee he's not going to go out of his way to work on the site, someone else would. Ya know, like the site developers.
Reworking would not be as hard as you'd assume; working with databases is nice for this reason. As long as everything is stored to some form of a database, none of that would be complex, just would take time to write, and if you're going to counter this by "we dont have enough paid web developers", I would gladly volunteer and I'm sure others would too.
Improving the community is key to a game like this. This game is ridiculously community-based, if nobody is talking to each other, and new players aren't using the forums, odds are they'll quit early because they'd be bored, missing out on all the awesome shit the forums has to offer.
If I chucked a new design in hampa's direction, that looked beautiful and had everything integrated already, I'm very very sure he'd be pleased with implementing it.
The forums is lacking, hard. Some of these UI elements have been around since before I was born, I sincerely think it needs an overhaul.
Just my $0.02, doesn't mean you can't have an opinion, which I respect fully.