Solaris7 Discussion

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Skyhigh posted this 16 September 2016

Welcome to a basic Solaris7 site that I think will be built around the forum instead of having it be an add on this time.

I am looking for input on what categories to create so respond away!   

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Thunder posted this 16 September 2016

I am much too excited by Solaris7's return.

Bug report thread should be started.  I don't seem to have the option to start my own threads.
register account and recover password links have to be highlighted to see the data entry's label. (Black letters on Solaris 7 background.)

 

An are you human filter for registration may be in order as well.

MajorTom posted this 16 September 2016

Woot! We're back, baby! lol

Thunder posted this 16 September 2016

Forum sub divisions in no particular order.

General

custom designs.

painting and modeling

Game play

forum role playing

Fan Fiction

The Not Battletech section.

website technical support.

 

 

Its all about the Armories.  The draw of Solaris 7 for me has always been a place to showcase your work in fan fiction and custom designs.  The forum on the Battletech site has pretty much all the bases covered when it comes to discussing things,  but their custom design section is just a pile of designs on top of more designs on top of forgotten designs.  Meanwhile S7 had about 5 times as many designs, and it wasn't impossible for even an ancient design to see the light of day once more.  Especially with the most recent reviews being shown, drawing other members to look at and comment on said design.  (Even the rating system is useful.  Sure a bad review can cause drama.  But one man's drama is another man's soap opera.)

Idea's on reviews and rating implementation exist, for when we get to that portion of the discussion.

 

Other thoughts,  Any chance of an archived version of the previous incarnation of S7 being available or reinstated?  (To the limits of, how much would a copy cost?)  There is information there I would still like to reference.

Skyhigh posted this 16 September 2016

Thanks Thunder,

I updated the categories, I've got some more ideas for that so they will change as I go. 

So armories is a major point of interest?  Were they useful *beyond* grouping designs by a single person into one place?    

Thom posted this 17 September 2016

Yay! We're back!

Thunder posted this 17 September 2016

Armories and the TRO's that go with in them are the main draw of Solaris 7.  No other site I've seen has anything like it.  Solaris 7 is something of the Deviantart of the battletech world.  A member is able to sign in and have their own "space" to show off their stuff.  And an armory could either be just a giant holding bay for all of a person's stuff with minimal fluff,  Or in some cases, a single armory can become a multilayered work of art in its own right, telling the story of group, be they pirates, a company or a star empire and the things they have made or kludged.

The other draw of being focused on the posting and showing off of custom designs is that it generates new content on its own.  Any other website is pretty much limited to what is already written down about battletech. (Battlecorps excepted....)  But IIRC the Battlemech count of the last version of S7 was over 20,000.  Admittedly a number of them were deleted from inactive accounts over the years, but you're still dealing with more content generated about battletech then all official sources combined. (At a rough estimate.)

From what I remember, the S7 forums were slowly dying off, or at least inactive.  The resident population was not that large, and we are a bunch of know-it-alls with no further questions.  Not a lot to talk about.   But we would still get new designs posted,  and that would spark conversations in the review section of the posting.

 

The real question is, to what purpose should the site be dedicated to?  An easy to access repository of knowledge definitely. Bring back the planetary database and art galleries.  Make available the links to the various mech design programs.  But remember that these things can be had elsewhere as well.   What can not be found is a database of custom designs, which can then be commented on, and rated.  Searched and filtered to see if anyone has had the same idea as yours.

And yes.  Armories definitely help organize all of that.

 

Other thoughts.
I can not create a new "Discussion."  this is probably not a bad thing right now since we seem to be attracting Bot "Members" as fast as real people, and who knows what spam we're avoiding.

Reviews and comments of posted designs.
Reviews should be allowed once,  But instead of a single 1 to 5 rating,  have 3 categories with 1 to 5 ratings.  I'm thinking things along the lines of, "How well written is the fluff, How effective the design is for its intended role, And something else.  Someone help out.  I suppose 2 separate ratings is enough but 3 would be better to my mind.

Comments on the other hand, there needs to be a way to respond to someone else's comments in a linear fashion, probably similar to facebook's reply ability.   It sometimes got ridiculous dealing with @Theogre @theogre2 @Ice Hellion @Chip @Chip2 @Chip3 @chip4 @ChipIamnottalkingtoyouanymore  and having to go back and forth between your own answer and their comments.

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Headhunter posted this 17 September 2016

clicked my old link for fun today, and wow, it's coming back! Skyhigh, I appreciate all the work you've given our community.  From comments on other sites I realized just how much you had shouldered on your own.  I do wish, however, that you had put out an appeal for financial help before shutting Solaris 7 down.  It was a unique resource, I've not found anything like it since.  There are many places where I can talk over the game, share ideas, but nothing like the armories/etc.  That can't have been easy, and I'm sure it sometimes seemed that no one cared.  We took it for granted and it went away, and I've missed it ever since.  It is your site to do with as you please, but if you do decide that we can rebuild, please feel free to let us know what you need.  I'm not a good coder, but I will send what I can if needed to keep the site up and running.  Just let us know your thoughts and plans and we'll help to rebuild the place.  My .02 c-bills.  

Cavalcanti posted this 19 September 2016

S7 is back.

Better news I got on weeks ...

SkyHigh, Thunder, MajorTom ... it´s good to be at home another time.

SH, if you need some more hands. Count me in. And thanks to rebuild it another time ...

Cavalcanti posted this 19 September 2016

I think you resumed it pretty well Thunder.

I would only add the fiction section on that list ... we got pretty good fiction stories on S7 too.

 

Prometheus Fire posted this 19 September 2016

Wow - I didn't even know S7 was offline - goes to show how involved I am. But one of the guys posted a note over on Astro Empires about it being back. Nice!

Right now, it looks like it is just a forum. I have a longing for my old designs that I posted years ago.

Skyhigh, I've been building websites for a couple years now (you've been doing it far longer, though). If there is anything I can do, just ask.

I think I agree with Thunder about the armories. That really was the heart and soul of S7. It was a huge encyclopedia of creativity by lots of people. There was so much detail and conversation about it all. I really think that should be a big part of it.

Cmdr_Kronos_Riker posted this 20 September 2016

Solaris 7 back online. YES!

Good thing I kept my link to the site.

Anyway, I agree with Thunder, also. It's not Solaris 7 without the Armories, the Tech Readouts, even the Home-brewed rules.

Still, YES! Solaris 7 Functions once again.

Madlizardx posted this 21 September 2016

I agree that armories were the main draw to S7.  I think it would be neat to tie in the custom mech TROs to the forum so that the forums AND and the design posting both get used.

Maybe add an option to whatever mech posting dialog that ends up being used that automatically creates a forum post in the design subforum in place of a comment section on the design?  Its late and I really haven't thought this through.

 

Still, it's good to see S7 back.  Thanks SkyHigh.

Bloodkite posted this 21 September 2016

one of the things that is o main battletech site and what is on www.ourbattletech.com is Expanded Universe and Alternate Universes..

woudn't it be a good idea to keep an aera for an AU with its fluff its fiction, its sourcebook(s) and its TRos and maybe armories /factories all linked to eachother and all one page...


really liked the old solaris7 especially the prawn battlearmor

Teufelhund posted this 25 September 2016

Love Solaris7 and all that it was. Looking forward to being able to work on armories,

post designs while also getting polite, useful feedback. Never saw the use of crass

or inappropriate communication just because one could. Thankfully never had that

problem on Solaris7 and looking forward to that tradition continuing on this site. Good

job dude and glad to see you back. Let me know if I can help and I'll gladly do so, time,

work and all permitting. Again, good to see you back. Semper Fi.

 

Teufelhund

icehellion posted this 25 September 2016

It seems we are slowly all getting back here.

 

I do think armouries and units were a plus as they allowed to make something of a bunch of designs and people by other ways as saying "the same company that built that also built that".

warlock posted this 25 September 2016

So happy to see the sight is up again.

Like most I would like to see armories and units, it was the best feature of the old sight, and what always brought me back.

But no matter what, glade to see it back! =)

Samak posted this 27 September 2016

 YAY, S7 is back.  My 6 and 7 year old sons are starting to really get interested in Battletech, so this is great news.

icehellion posted this 27 September 2016

 YAY, S7 is back.  My 6 and 7 year old sons are starting to really get interested in Battletech, so this is great news.

 

More games to come

MajorTom posted this 29 September 2016

So great to see a lot of the old gang here!

 

Thunder posted this 29 September 2016

It is a mission from god.

Also,  How much for the little girls?

MajorTom posted this 29 September 2016

Maître d'! Maître d'!!

Thom posted this 03 October 2016

They are only for sale if it's dark out and you're wearing sunglasses.

Samak posted this 03 October 2016

I hate to ask, and am afraid of the answer, but is all the info from the old site gone?

JadeWolf posted this 05 October 2016

Yeah, my favourite site is online again . Just one question concerning the "post" button at ssw - does it work again or will the function be available soon?

 

icehellion posted this 05 October 2016

I hate to ask, and am afraid of the answer, but is all the info from the old site gone?

 

I think so. This is why Skyhigh asked us to save what we wanted to save.

Thunder posted this 06 October 2016

Should be a backup copy though. Lessons learned from the first crash of S7

Falkwulf posted this 11 October 2016

I searched it for S@G's and wow Thanks Sky for getting us back up, Thunder hit the nail on the head with his post about the layout and the allure or the former iteration of S7.  

SturmKrahe posted this 12 October 2016

Well I didn't get that memo to save stuff. Oh well. Looks like I'll have to reboot my Alt-U project.

Morrigan posted this 16 October 2016

Thank the gods S7 is back. I miss the tros and the fan designs. I just started a lvl 1 campaign with friends when it went down and was bummed for the loss of such a valuable resource.

I'm happy to help however I can.

Cmdr_Kronos_Riker posted this 17 October 2016

Well, makes me glad to have 1) hard copies of my TROs  2)Stored my pictures, Megamek, and other Battletech-related files on OneDrive and Google drive.

warlock posted this 26 October 2016

Armories and the TRO's that go with in them are the main draw of Solaris 7.  No other site I've seen has anything like it.  Solaris 7 is something of the Deviantart of the battletech world.  A member is able to sign in and have their own "space" to show off their stuff.  And an armory could either be just a giant holding bay for all of a person's stuff with minimal fluff,  Or in some cases, a single armory can become a multilayered work of art in its own right, telling the story of group, be they pirates, a company or a star empire and the things they have made or kludged.

The other draw of being focused on the posting and showing off of custom designs is that it generates new content on its own.  Any other website is pretty much limited to what is already written down about battletech. (Battlecorps excepted....)  But IIRC the Battlemech count of the last version of S7 was over 20,000.  Admittedly a number of them were deleted from inactive accounts over the years, but you're still dealing with more content generated about battletech then all official sources combined. (At a rough estimate.)

 

 

This pretty much somes it up for me.The Armories was the one thing that always brought me back, time and again to start with, later it was just as much the forums, but that first came later, after i had got to know "The regulars" who would review my designs.

Revener posted this 29 October 2016

Finally!

I never was very active though

The armories was the main draw and the huge library of mechs that people made and got  feedback on and I liked that that was  not tied into a forum, made it ess cluttered.

Also nice that it was all in the mechfiles that could be put in differnt mechbuilding programs or megamek directly.

 

The differnt guides where good too, especially to ppl unused to the boardgame.

Like the Techlevel 1 guide, range bracket guide and engine size guide .

 

 

 

bladewinder posted this 31 October 2016

I am just glad that there is a way to contact the peeps. I will sure miss all those custom TROs and Armories though

GreyGriffin posted this 04 November 2016

Nuuu, all my 'mechs are gone.  My SSW and Heavy Metal files didn't survive a PC migration.  I was counting on you, S7!  And you let me down!

Samak posted this 08 November 2016

I rebooted an ancient PC, and BOOM, all my old designs.  Now I have an excuse to fix my horrible fluff on some of them.

UrsisB posted this 14 November 2016

Woot! We're Back!!  Yeee Haww!

Snowjeepney posted this 16 November 2016

Armories and the TRO's that go with in them are the main draw of Solaris 7.  No other site I've seen has anything like it.  Solaris 7 is something of the Deviantart of the battletech world.  A member is able to sign in and have their own "space" to show off their stuff.  And an armory could either be just a giant holding bay for all of a person's stuff with minimal fluff,  Or in some cases, a single armory can become a multilayered work of art in its own right, telling the story of group, be they pirates, a company or a star empire and the things they have made or kludged.

The other draw of being focused on the posting and showing off of custom designs is that it generates new content on its own.  Any other website is pretty much limited to what is already written down about battletech. (Battlecorps excepted....)  But IIRC the Battlemech count of the last version of S7 was over 20,000.  Admittedly a number of them were deleted from inactive accounts over the years, but you're still dealing with more content generated about battletech then all official sources combined. (At a rough estimate.)

From what I remember, the S7 forums were slowly dying off, or at least inactive.  The resident population was not that large, and we are a bunch of know-it-alls with no further questions.  Not a lot to talk about.   But we would still get new designs posted,  and that would spark conversations in the review section of the posting.

The real question is, to what purpose should the site be dedicated to?  An easy to access repository of knowledge definitely. Bring back the planetary database and art galleries.  Make available the links to the various mech design programs.  But remember that these things can be had elsewhere as well.   What can not be found is a database of custom designs, which can then be commented on, and rated.  Searched and filtered to see if anyone has had the same idea as yours.

And yes.  Armories definitely help organize all of that

Most definitely agree with Thunder on those points, especially about the armories.  It's been a long time since I last checked the website, and for a while, I thought it would no longer come back online.  Can't wait to start posting new designs again.

Prince posted this 20 November 2016

If the band's getting back together, can someone fix the cigarette lighter?

...Never saw the use of crass or inappropriate communication just because one could...

Teufelhund

New Website, NEW RULES

From what I remember, the S7 forums were slowly dying off, or at least inactive.  The resident population was not that large, and we are a bunch of know-it-alls with no further questions.  Not a lot to talk about.   But we would still get new designs posted,  and that would spark conversations in the review section of the posting.

Thunder

Yes, but I must respectfully kinda-sorta disagree.

When S7 was at it's lowest point (I'd say around 2013-2014) battletech was in a rocky period again, and the goings-on showed the forum's old age. Just going by memory, S7 had designs and partially-active armories (Thanks, Kronos!) from 2001 when Mechwarrior 3 was still regularly played online with the titular "NO SHADOWCATS ALLOWED" stickers everywhere. Hell, There were threads for Nevanos there and that was dead when I showed up in 2006!

I think the old board really just needed a reboot either way.

Yeden posted this 08 December 2016

You know, if you add a starfield background and change the text to green, then this would be largely indistinguishable from solaris7.com's original launch.

Cmdr_Kronos_Riker posted this 10 December 2016

Wait, did someone just thank me for something? Damn!

Anyway, I also recall Solaris Skunk Works being developed, with integration into the site when it came to posting equipment- A good idea until the site went down and was being rebuilt from the ground up.  Would be awesome to see that happen again.

Cmdr_Kronos_Riker posted this 22 December 2016

Yes, how much is that.. HOLY CRAP! IT'S A TOORIMA! RUN!

Mekslayer posted this 25 December 2016

Welcome to a basic Solaris7 site that I think will be built around the forum instead of having it be an add on this time.

I am looking for input on what categories to create so respond away!   

..................

 

wow, this is awesome!

great to see everyone back...

thanks Skyhigh!

... As to forums.... I think this site was the best for armories and design contests.

... Though I always favored the actual combat side of things to prove a design out.

looking forward to rebuilding... Any chance we can get the colors back?  I always had a fondness for green fonts on a black background... :-D

Rip Snorgan posted this 17 January 2017

This is my first post to any version of S7, but full disclosure, I've been a dedicated lurker here for years upon years, with S7 easily being one of my most visited bookmarks. I MIGHT just have cried a little inside when that bookmark went nowhere one day, so thank you for everything over the years! 

I think my favorite thing about the site has always been the TROs (both original and custom), and I actually had a tendency to link to here when referencing mechs, even over Sarna (don't get me wrong, love that site too).

Was great to have a handy reference to the TRO info from the books, when I didn't have my home library readily available, not to mention browsing fun custom stuff from the S7 members. 

Donteras posted this 27 April 2017

On a whim I decided to go to Solaris7.com to see if anything has resurfaced.

Huzzah! It lives. I'm very very happy.

I also miss the armories.

Azkaiel posted this 14 May 2017

=o I didn't know S7 was back, also kinda sad that all my work is gone ._.

Madlizardx posted this 13 September 2018

Just bumping this thread to see if there's any news about the site and to see how you all are doing.

MajorTom posted this 29 August 2023

Poking around the admin functions, I found that I could change the theme to mirror the old S7 color scheme. w00t!

Thunder posted this 30 August 2023

On one hand,

Change! Panic!

On the other.  I kinda like it.

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