CNC Zero Hour

Costs Summary:
- We need to buy this v4 of this: https://nova.laravel.com/ .Its a really nice admin panel which is easy and fast to develop. This allows us to quickly make special features for the website.
Cost = $100usd
Funded by Entropy

- Domain name (2 years) cncranks.com purchased.
Cost $40.
Funded by cncHD

- Web hosting 2 years via CloudFare (ddos proof).
Cost $120.
Funded by anti pro

- Logo, branding, website professional design.
Cost $220.
Funded by akabolony

- We have 2 developers at present (TheRealSlurpie and MarinT). I have suggested to pay them $100 each for this project, once its completed. That's probably quite low. Total cost $200usd
No funding confirmed yet




This topic is further info to a video I made here - https://youtu.be/oU8zbLUjug4

Example:


The Idea
The general idea was originally suggested to me by a guy called TheRealSlurpie. He is now one of the devs behind this. He is similar to Rejka in that he is able to pull off stats and other useful stuff from GenTool data site like wins/losses, most popular maps, all the best replays for me etc etc. Then he suggested an ELO system website, using all this same information might be possible. I thought about it a few weeks and now think we actually might as well give it a good try. We now have 2-3 guys who have knowledge on this kinda stuff in a private discord server discussing it. It's possible a prototype website might even be ready by the end of this month to take a look at.

The idea is to create a website that displays the stats for all games played on gentool, so any game you played on revora, gameranger, radmin or hamachi etc would all be logged onto this site, subsequently bringing the community more together.

The website should be similar to clanwars with probably a better ELO system, easy viewing of the current leader board, easy access to historic stats, what prize is sponsored this month etc etc. My feeling is that it should be very eye-catching and visually appealing, perhaps like this AOE4 ranking site but maybe even better: https://www.ageofempires.com/stats/ageiv/

The process would go something like this: Game is Played on Radmin > Game is Uploaded to Gentool data > A process takes the data from Gentool data quite instantly and sends to new website > website uses our newly built ELO system to update player rankings.

Of course this is a pretty big project but I actually believe this could happen, from what the developers already told me. Every tough question I threw at them, they already had an answer in mind which impressed me. Anyway, if you wish to read more on it, sponsor this project or help out with technical skills then maybe you are interested to read on. Even if you just give your opinion or solution to any of the problems mentioned or any I didnt already think of, then you will also be helping out.

Skills needed
Front-end support and back-end support
Node.js
Python
Frameworks
Basic HTML
CSS
Database knowledge (SQL, NoSQL, XQuery, OQL)
TailwindCSS
AlpineJS
Laravel
Livewire

Website URL
Need ideas for domain name (website name)
Any cheap domains people can already find


GenTool site
GT site being slowed down by guys running data from it. How can we upgrade this to stop it being slowed? how much cash does it need if any?
What is another solution to gathering the data without impacting gentool site?
Xezon suggest REST api idea, no clue what this is
Xezon is busy with patch so we should not be held up by need Xezon support - should work around him whilst also not screwing gentool site

Funding
With any project, there will be costs, however I am not convinced the price will be crazy high like some of you may be thinking. But we will need funds for the following:
Website URL / domain purchase
Gentool possible site upgrade
Pay coders / programmes to work for us
Back-end software costs, I was already informed of something we could buy which would make back-end better, cost was $100
Any other costs
If you would like to contribute to this project, please PM me or write it here
We cannot give any refunds in future if this project does not happen for any reason. It's quite a big project and there could be many unforseen or blockers we discover later down the line (not currently but could be in future). So if for example we used some funding to buy a website or some software or to pay a coder, this might not be recoverable, but we will try our hardest to make sure the project does have a result. Of course if the project does not happen, and there is money leftover, then this can be refunded if the project is abandoned
I will add any WS prize I get (think $183 for 5th - 8th place)
AKAbolony is willing to support - amount TBC

ELO system ideas
Who knows the most amazing ELO system in the world? what is it?
Links to amazing examples?
What elements can we use from Clanwars.cc?

Visual layout of website
The way I visualise the end result is the most eye-catching, visually friendly and easy to use website you've ever seen before
Who has ideas of how it should look?
Should we copy AOE4 website exactly?
What elements are definitely needed from Clanwars.cc?
Would the end result be a hybrid of AOE4 and Clanwars.cc?

Admins to maintain the league
MrX?
Current devs?
Other trusted volunteers?

Devs to maintain the site & yearly site cost
Current devs?
Who will look after site in 3-4 years time?
How much will yearly cost be?

Solutions for disconnects and mismatches
Should DC's be reported next to wins / losses like gamespy used to?
Should DC be an auto loss for that player?
How will mismatches be dealt with?

Duplicate GenTool IDs
I saw duplicate GenTool IDs on gentool site before, how do we deal with this?
Does the ID creation need to be changed?

Changing PC / Changing GenTool ID
If a person changes PC, does fresh install of windows etc I believe they get a new GenTool ID. If this happens, what do we do?
Need to think, how can a person link their old ID and new ID together
Some kind of account login and authentification?

Messaging / email service
Clanwars has messaging service between players
Should we implement the same?
Is it unneccessary?
Better ideas?

Badges
Do experts and/or pros have certain badges?
Are wins vs experts considered like power wins and therefore worth more points?
Badge for WS wins?
Badges for sponsoring over 100, 1000, 5000 usd towards monthly prizes?

DDOS proof
Possibility to use AWS (Amazong Web Service) to make secure

Ranks like SC2 and CSGO
SC2 has Grand Master, Diamond ranks etc
CSGO has Legendary Eagle Master, Supreme, Global Elite
Do we have the same? E.G. top 20 are like Grand Master but not in seperate league, just a tag on them or different colour on leader board?

Point-pushing
How do we deal with point pushing
Do we limit 10 games per day vs any player?
20 game limit?

When upload doesn't work
If upload fails for whatever reason, then games might not count
if gentool site is down, obviously ladder is frozen
Any solutions / ideas for any of this?

End of month reset
Should ladder auto reset at midnight GMT+0 every month?

Hall of champions
Like clanwars, we will need a hall of champs to show who is overall the best performing player and who has most trophies

Player Profiles
Should have trophies, badges like old Generals ZH online, after you won 1000 games, you get a badge etc
Avatars
Game history accessed from profile

Disputes
If for whatever reason the ladder updates with a wrong win or loss, how can we deal with this?
Feature on website to raise a ticket and get it looked at?
Nickname seems to have a lot of free time and like investigations, is he a volunteer?


Clans
Do we want clans or just keep it to 1v1
Do we want 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 like russian ladder but without any clans
Should there be a section for CXN, FFA, Casino etc

Maps
Do we count all maps or just RANK maps
What happens if someone names a map like [RANK], need to make sure that doesn't count and only real legit [RANK] ones do count

Malicious activity
Like always, there will be people trying to cheat and ruin the system, what could they do and how do we prevent it in advance?

News section
Some kind of news section on website, maybe like CW or can be manuallyy written with ZH news?

IP address logging / violations
Never really fully under violations in CW but what do we do with IP addresses and how to stop violations

Battle Logs
We will want to see battle logs - head to head stats, filter on all games played in X month and Y year between this player and that player
Maybe can click on player and see their last 20 maps, last 20 games, full game history, best army, worst army, favourite colour, what else?

Forum
Does such a site need a forum. I guess not, we keep it just for stats only but welcome to give ideas

Sponsored prizes
Ideally any viewer or player should access the website and see instantly if that ladder month is sponsored and what the prize split is and who sponsored it

Advertising space
Anyone who funds the project welcome to some free months of advertising as a reward somewhere on the page, but without impacting the performance or visuals of the site too much
Future and on-going revenue generation?
Could the site possibly fund itself and even make a profit to fund future prizes?
Big companies like Asus migth be attracted to sponsor a month if they get their branding / ads on the site

Premium subscription
Idea raised that a player could pay $2.99 for a premium subscription on the site
This could help fund the up-keep of the site
Premium subscription could get special perks like extra access to super detailed stats, larger avatar, beefed up profile, special branding on profile
If bad idea, please say

This post has been edited by -DoMiNaToR-: Dec 3 2022, 12:56 PM

pmed you ^^

sounds very cool. Auto updating without reporting would be great, and combining players from all servers.

Suggestions:
Maybe having some live chat feature on the website could be cool. Because where does everyone chat? Here isn't live so its not great, either you need a discord to go with it or live chat on the website.

Some kind of bounty system would be cool. So you get some increased points or something for beating the highest rank player.

Charts showing the win rate of different armies and MU's. Like how it is in zero hour, but one that works.

I think you need to make it as self-sufficient as possible so it doesnt require much human interaction to work after its initially been set up.

Name? If I think of anything good I will let you know. I think some random name would be cool tbh, like shatabrick is a weird name but at least its unique.

Shatabrick has some good features imo, copy the best bits, like comparing a player to another player, numbers of players playing on gentool right now. A few things like that. And ofc take the best parts of the clanwars website and Russian ladder etc.

I would donate some money to this btw.

This post has been edited by fastAiR: Nov 18 2022, 21:53 PM

Will read into the detail more later - but these are the types of projects I will always support financially where I can.

I don’t have a clue about any of the skills you’re looking for but… I know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let fargo have British citizenship now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will deport him.

who?

sounds promising.

++++ Topic

lm with Anti Pro here in regards of financial support

epic thank you

so far we have for funding:

- me
- entropy
- aka
- anti pro
- cncHD

I updated first post with some cost summary at the end. Will keep updating as we realise costs.

One big thing we need is someone to come up with overall design of how the website should look. So if you were to have your dream clanwars site, how would it look? like CW does today? like AOE4? like a hybrid of both?

Who wants to volunteer to come up with the design? and it must be visually outstanding.

come up with functionality first, design second. Decide what people want on the main home screen, and then build it from there. Function is the most important, design comes second.

Planning and thought is the biggest part of this. It needs to be thought out very well, or 6 months into the project you will find problems. Its fun to make a design, and I guess maybe helps with money and things, but that's really the least important thing.

Personally I would make a website that is basic as fck, but works, test it like mad, then when I know it works, do the visuals then. Otehrwise you run the risk of wasted work, when you later decide you want to add or remove different things.

Name also will influence design. I can give you some ideas for design, but pointless without knowing what should be on the screen. If you want something creative to focus on for now, then think about the name and logo only, and maybe a general theme.

In my opinion, while aesthetic provides the first impression, functionality provides the lasting impression. As James Nagy from JS Tech Designs (2017) puts it, “No matter how good a program or website looks, it’s useless if it’s not something that people can actually use.”
https://medium.com/@tylerameylegault/functi...nd-4071e5d629eb

This post has been edited by fastAiR: Nov 19 2022, 01:13 AM

Looking really good and better than the old site with all of its bugs.

isnt clanwars ur site? idk how u can be so nice sometimes i think all humans think alike (like me with arrogance), but i keep getting surprised.

Sounds very promising, a website that auto tracks results would be a great improvement. I would donate if this takes off.

In terms of not crashing the gentool servers and not clogging up a website with lots of unnecessary data, perhaps you do it so players need a certain special character in their name to play ‘ranked’ games. Eg only players with [!] at the end of their name get their data scraped. This would also allow players to play unranked games which I think some would want.

This post has been edited by Rising`: Nov 19 2022, 08:34 AM

I always thought about a system which Integrates maybe both Single games with a table for mus and maps and also bigger challanges, both with some math no issue. Same can be done with any teamgame having just one ladder.

Cool idea

I'll cover $100 of the $300 you need to get off the ground. Will add more as it progresses. Can you send me your paypal? Discord: Entropy#5418. Add a post here with your Discord; nearly got scammed before with an incorrect person!

Ku7ari’s prototype looked pretty damn nice design wise.

That’s amazing entropy. Thank you.

What I suggest is send the money directly to the dev to avoid double PayPal fees.

I have to say this will be for a tool that will allow faster creation of this site, it’s an upfront cost so if the project ends up hitting a barrier and not happening then this money will already be spent and not recoverable. However I don’t expect this to be the case. I expect there will be an end result but still obviously there is some risk.

If you choose to still go ahead, I will get receipts of the software purchase and post here and I will give you the PayPal to send it to.

Also you are welcome to join the development discord.

Cheers again

Just copy aoe 4 which would be earlier and less work I assume?

I just cover the ZH part of cw.cc since 2008. But it's not my site nor can I really change it. And the founder to whom I never really had contact is barely interested in the site anymore.

It is over time that ZH get's a proper new site.