What's Next?
Hi everyone,
I hope you're all excited for Y3S1 🌊
Today I want to give you an update on whats coming in the next time along some insights on the current state of things.
The overall goal moving forward is to refine existing features, improve their quality and make them more comfortable to use with the Codex and Loadout family (hub, designer, mastery) being the focus for the next changes.
Codex
The Codex has already received a bigger overhaul this year and even more things are planned! The next updates will introduce dedicated pages for events and world events, so they move away from the generic grouped category page currently used. As the grouped categories are however still used for other types like effects is a visual overhaul for them also planned.
Loadout Family
The loadout family is the next big section that will see a step-by-step overhaul, with the following points being the current focus.
Hub
While I'm happy with the hub and the loadout pages, there is still room for improvements.
On the UI side will the filters be optimized to take up less space while offering more options, with the goal in mind to reduce the need for scrolling and allowing easier access to existing and new filters alike (to account for the growth of the game).
Second, the backend, here it's time for some more fundamental changes as the current database used got deprecated and I'm also not happy with the loading performance of the loadout list. As such will things be re-structured and also migrated to a newer database engine, which will allow for much quicker searches, better loading times and more advanced search functions like "show loadouts who use similar furnitures" utilizing the vast amounts of loadouts shared even better!
This will require some form of downtime of the site, which will be communicated far in advance then.
Those backend changes will in addition also allow for a more optimized loadout approval process - which can feel quite random at the moment and is a point of friction - as the history of a loadout, but also the comparison against other loadouts is quicker and more precise.
Designer
The oldest member of the family and the one who seriously needs some attention - I know - as such will future updates focus on improving the way you create your loadout: this can be by the coming auto import of loadouts via a ingame screenshot or by being able to copy items between slots.
With those updates also comes a strategy change to the designer, when I created it the idea was to offer detailed insights on numbers and the usability for creating those loadouts came second. However in retrospective was I not able to give the stats the attention they deserved to be truly useful and trustful, mainly due to the added complexity back then with mods and now with the mastery. As such and as the game gets better at showing the stats itself, will this part of the designer be phased out in favor of a user experience focused on creating and sharing loadouts.
This also means that the Damage Stats on a loadout page will be phased out step-by-step.
An additional note I want to make is that coming improvements focus on desktop and tablets devices, as this is what most users of the site use.
This allows for a better focus for me without having to worry about layouts on mobile devices. The existing version for mobile devices will remain in place.
Mastery
The last point for the loadout family, is also the newest one 😄 With Y3S1 will a web version of the mastery also come to SnB Tools, allowing you to re-create your mastery tree and to easily share it with other members. The links for sharing will be shorter this time around, I promise!
Due to the short time I had to implement that feature will it, when released, not be integrated into shared loadouts, however that's definitely planned and will follow in close succession after the release. (the idea here is that you can link your saved loadouts directly or use a mastery share link when sharing a loadout)
Personal Note
Thank you for reading this far! I want to thank you all for using the site and sticking with the project for the last two years, in addition to that a big thank you for continuously sharing the site within the community and with newer members. It is really great to see the place SnB Tools nowadays has in the community, and I'm just really thankful for that ❤️
Onto a great Year 3!
~Heinz