You should have noticed by now, that this website has been receiving a series of updates throughout the weekend. Besides the visual changes, the code behind the website has been rebuilt from the ground up. This has been a near 6 month long project which has finally come to fruition this weekend. With any big updates, there are not only a lot of changes, but also possibly a lot of bugs. If you discover any bugs, usability problems, or perhaps just have some feature requests, let me know.
This website is now completely ad-free! No ad-banners, no ad-links, no native ads; ever. Not even to guests. I won't be going through the majority of the changes in this post, because the majority of changes are behind the scenes and only moderators/administrators will notice them. There are however, a few front-end changes that may be of concern.
Discord
The first thing you may have noticed is the new Discord button on the bottom right of every page. This links directly to our Discord server and has replaced the normal chat page. Don't like this button and the occasional popups? In your account preferences, you can disable it.
Forums
With the announcement of SOULCALIBUR VI, we've slowly been learning about which characters would be in the game. As such, new Soul Arenas have been added for each confirmed character. Quick links to these Soul Arenas have also been added to the top of the forum index.
Rankings
Originally, our ranking system used ATP rankings. Over time, what we've discovered is that ATP works great for closed-circuit leagues; such as a weekly tournament series at a specific venue. But it doesn't work well with open tournament style leagues, where anyone can run an event, at any times, across a varied number of regions. So the ranking system has been rebuilt with two ideas in mind. The global rankings, of previous ages have been recalculated using ELO rankings. ELO rankings are not based on your final placement at a tournament, but instead based on who you fought directly at said tournament.
That doesn't mean ATP is going away. As I said, ATP is still very excellent for closed-circuit leagues... And with our new rankings system, that is what we want to do. We will be allowing tournament organizers who run their own circuits to have their own custom sub-league, which will have it's own ranking system; and they could (and I recommend) choose to use ATP. So for instance, for 8-on-the-Break in Dunellen, NJ; we plan to have our own sub-league which has it's own rankings independent of the global rankings. If you plan on having your own local circuits, let me know.
Character Headers
When I was working on the new design of the forums, the most common complaint I heard was the lack of character headers. Well, after some work, they are back! You can not only choose which character you want to see at the top of the website in your account preferences, they will also be forced on specific Soul Arenas.
You may also notice that not all characters have their own headers, not to mention the lack of headers from older Soul Arenas. This is because I have to redo all the headers for every Soul Arena, and I'm not much of a graphic designer. If you're interested in making some character headers, just let us know!
Animated Avatars
Premium members may notice a distinct lack of animated avatars. Don't worry, they didn't go away. You will just need to re-upload your avatars to take advantage of the new avatar system. Animated avatars are also available to all users now, not just premium members. With the removal of ads, and animated avatars for everybody, you may be thinking there is no longer a reason to be a premium member. This is not the case, as premium members still get to change their usernames once every 28 days, put images in their signature, access to the premium member forum, and other miscellaneous perks.
This website is now completely ad-free! No ad-banners, no ad-links, no native ads; ever. Not even to guests. I won't be going through the majority of the changes in this post, because the majority of changes are behind the scenes and only moderators/administrators will notice them. There are however, a few front-end changes that may be of concern.
Discord
The first thing you may have noticed is the new Discord button on the bottom right of every page. This links directly to our Discord server and has replaced the normal chat page. Don't like this button and the occasional popups? In your account preferences, you can disable it.
Forums
With the announcement of SOULCALIBUR VI, we've slowly been learning about which characters would be in the game. As such, new Soul Arenas have been added for each confirmed character. Quick links to these Soul Arenas have also been added to the top of the forum index.
Rankings
Originally, our ranking system used ATP rankings. Over time, what we've discovered is that ATP works great for closed-circuit leagues; such as a weekly tournament series at a specific venue. But it doesn't work well with open tournament style leagues, where anyone can run an event, at any times, across a varied number of regions. So the ranking system has been rebuilt with two ideas in mind. The global rankings, of previous ages have been recalculated using ELO rankings. ELO rankings are not based on your final placement at a tournament, but instead based on who you fought directly at said tournament.
That doesn't mean ATP is going away. As I said, ATP is still very excellent for closed-circuit leagues... And with our new rankings system, that is what we want to do. We will be allowing tournament organizers who run their own circuits to have their own custom sub-league, which will have it's own ranking system; and they could (and I recommend) choose to use ATP. So for instance, for 8-on-the-Break in Dunellen, NJ; we plan to have our own sub-league which has it's own rankings independent of the global rankings. If you plan on having your own local circuits, let me know.
Character Headers
When I was working on the new design of the forums, the most common complaint I heard was the lack of character headers. Well, after some work, they are back! You can not only choose which character you want to see at the top of the website in your account preferences, they will also be forced on specific Soul Arenas.
You may also notice that not all characters have their own headers, not to mention the lack of headers from older Soul Arenas. This is because I have to redo all the headers for every Soul Arena, and I'm not much of a graphic designer. If you're interested in making some character headers, just let us know!
Animated Avatars
Premium members may notice a distinct lack of animated avatars. Don't worry, they didn't go away. You will just need to re-upload your avatars to take advantage of the new avatar system. Animated avatars are also available to all users now, not just premium members. With the removal of ads, and animated avatars for everybody, you may be thinking there is no longer a reason to be a premium member. This is not the case, as premium members still get to change their usernames once every 28 days, put images in their signature, access to the premium member forum, and other miscellaneous perks.