Discussion Are Lineage 2 Players waiting for the next server listing?

[rlfem123]

Hey everyone ,

 

As my title says are l2 players waiting for the next l2 server listing? I saw several topics that Blame more or less topzone and hopzone. I see same old web designs like they  stopped in the distant year 2004. If you are a server owner do you want to join on a brand new website with a modern design, more stats, tools e.g. file translation tool that will translate yours xml, xlf or something else files (suggestions are appreciated), or you won't because? 

   - Example: I'm used to the ones on the market and don't want to experiment. It will be appreciated the translation tool but I do not need a new listing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Porthos]

One thing i learned is that most players dont care about how the website looks as long as it works. Having a nice looking and modern website helps but not as much as you think.

[Onanda]

I think it's great that you're considering a new listing website with a modern design and additional features like a file translation tool. As a server owner, I believe having more stats and tools could be really useful for managing and promoting my server. However, I can understand if some owners are hesitant to join a new platform, especially if they're used to the current ones and don't want to experiment. 

[rlfem123]

@Onanda thank you for your response. Appreciate your opinion but that is not enough for me. I have to gather more opinions. 

[kage]

There are a lot of new and good-looking L2 advertising websites, but no one cares. 

Players keep playing on the same servers with the same owners and new server names.

 

For example this website looks good: https://l2rankzone.com/

But it does not have traffic compared to the old topzone/hopzone (which wont bring you players either)

[rlfem123]

HI @kage, this l2rankzone is good but it seems like a duplicate on l2topzone or hopzone. There is nothing new on this website, it's like he did ctrl + c / ctrl + v xD. However, I give my point because of the design. It is a good one.

[L2LIVEpro]

From my personal experiences

 

Few months ago I decided to create my own Essence project. Project needs website, and I do not specialize in frontend development (t.y. i can make web work, but it won't be pretty for eye). So I search and find a guy in Discord, which claims he can make me a good looking HTML website for 30 EUR, prove some screenshots from his previous work. I agree.

1 week later, I get my HTML website, make few changes to contents, update URLs and upload it to FTP. Site looks good, I am happy that this headache is no more.
 

Few months passes. I randomly crawl through other Essence server websites scouting for good ideas for my own project. Suddenly one of russians project website opens and.. it's the same website as one I have  perfectly absolutely same layout, colours, etc etc etc. I contact my guy to ask what the hell, to get blocked  

So I find a weekend worth of my time. Find HTML5 boilerplate generator and ask it to include Bootstrap 5 and some other stuff. Open Bootstrap documentation, drink two energy drinks on instant and start working my backend-inspired HTML black magic...

Once I found suiting firefly effect for header, result looked oikay for me:

Absolutely no magic or beauty here, but:
* Unique (and probably nobody cares to rip it)
* Done for free in ~10 hours by non-frontend dev
* Most modern browsers friendly
* Completely static content, loads instantly. No PHP at all
* Sidebar statuses (online, pvp, pk) are pulled from account manager REST API endpoint and is cached for 5 minutes. Account manager runs separately from website frontend and has access to server DB.

Where could/will it get better?
* Code in Vue instead of HTML - time concerns only, but Vue is superior compared to HTML/PHP for supporting desktop/mobile, easing development by miles. Need to learn how to use it properly.

* Way to manage content from backend - in my instance I think account manager is not really meant for that. Vue can help here too - there are components for content building.
* Currently default Bootstrap components are used. Would be nice to have custom and more vibrant buttons. Guess what, Vue can help here too.

 

tl;dr don't buy 30EUR website, it will be ripped or shit. you better make your own website.
Be curious. I am backend developer, I obviously have general idea how frontend works. But imho everyone who can make L2 server by editing NPC HTMLs, also can make their own simple website. ChatGPT and other AIs are your friends. Bootstrap. jQuery documentations are your friends. And when you feel good and comfortable with HTML, if you like, you can continue learning Vue, or going backend.


Now, as for the top sites. You really need to invest money to make new project work. I mean really, really much money. For this concept to work, top website itself must get visited.
But if you can sort that your top site would be popular amongst players, then it's a really very simple concept, as far as current 2004-ish sites goes. I think simple, working concept of this, maybe without proper frontend, but with implemented backend logics (add/edit/disable server, sort by votes count (top list), vote for server with verification, callback to server endpoint - all of that can be done using Symfony in mostly 5 days, with lots of breaks for coffee and a smoke . Experienced mid frontend dev would make a Vue/React frontend for it in another 5 days. it's really really simple concept

 

Edited June 30 by L2LIVEpro

[Seamless]

@rlfem123 

I’m a web developer, and I work with technologies like Next.js and React. In the last 10 years, L2 Rankzone is the only one I’ve seen that actually did something different. All the others seem to have the same source code with different templates. L2 Hopzone also did an upgrade and, for the front end, is using Vue.js.

Regarding web development, we have reached a point where you can easily create websites using libraries or frameworks. Simply pick one and start working. You will learn as you go.

Personally, I prefer to build my back-end APIs in Laravel if it’s a big project since the ecosystem offers everything. For smaller projects, I choose Go. Then I use either React or Next.js to call my APIs, depending on the case. Next.js also supports Server-Side Rendering (SSR) if you want to hide some things from the client.

Additionally, CSS libraries have almost everything you need nowadays to start building quickly with browser compatibility. You can seriously build an L2 website with ranks, a good design, and even a simple login/register system in just 3 days.

Here are some CSS libraries I personally work with:

https://tailwindui.com/components

 

https://ui.shadcn.com/

 

https://mui.com/material-ui/

Regarding the top websites i dont thing its worth the time and effort.  Its pretty simple to build one and the market is already bloated. In addition l2 is dying so i suggest to build top sites for many games.  THe main problem is not the build process rather the marketing one. You can build the most awesome website iin terms of functionality but if you marketing is week you wont exceed 10 concurrent users. 

Edited July 2 by Seamless