Brother Tyler

While there are certainly some Chapters that are little more than carbon copies of their predecessors, the variation found within the official Chapters makes it very clear that successors can often be notably distinct from their predecessors. The textbook example is the Mortifactors, one of the Primogenitors, which has developed to incorporate the headhunting culture of their homeworld, Posul, such that they are quite different from both the Ultramarines Legion and most of the other Primogenitors. Another example is the Exorcists, who incorporate an occult theme that is quite different from the other scions of Rogal Dorn. Ultimately, while a Chapter may be influenced by its predecessor (if that predecessor was involved in its initial development), the more important influences are from the Chapter's homeworld and the world(s) from which it draws its recruits. A Chapter bearing the gene-seed of Lion El'Jonson could very easily incorporate cultural influences that are quite different from the European stylings of the Dark Angels Chapter. One whose thematic elements draw upon Ancient Egypt could be fascinating and distinct.

Yes (see the linked tutorial).

That's good to hear. We're still working on fixing the issues I previously described; and we're looking into other things that might help, too. For example, one thing that bogs the system down is working through all the achievements for each and every member. While we pruned a large number of zero-activity members (not new/recent members, just old ones), we are considering reducing the achievement progressions from 20 milestones to something lower (numbers ranging from 8 to 15 - we're going to play around and see what works). Reducing the achievement progressions has cascading effects on rank and discipline, so we're being methodical about that (i.e., it won't be a quick decision/implementation). And we're also looking into a way to reduce the vertical scrolling that members have to do to get around the site. That has been in preparation for a while and you might see that Very SoonTM.

Yes, members can delete their own images.

We are requesting assistance from the members in cleaning up the Gallery. For background about the Gallery and why it is an essential feature supporting the community, see this tutorial. We are looking for your help in three areas: Delete any of your albums that are empty. Consider breaking multi-(sub)faction/subject albums into multiple albums, each focusing on an individual (sub)faction/subject. Ensure that each of your albums is in the correct category. Empty Albums We are looking at ways to clean the database up, and one of the culprits is empty albums. Many members create albums with the intent of populating them with images of their miniatures, but then they don't upload images. These albums then reside on the database, taking up space (a very small amount of space, mind you, but the aggregate adds up). In addition, empty albums waste other members' time when they are poking around in the Gallery to look at images - they click on an album whose name piques their interest and then see that there's nothing there. Deleting empty albums, then, frees up space and frees up members' time. Multi-(sub)Faction/Topic Albums While most members think of their albums solely as a place for them to store images online so they can include them in their posts, there are actually members who enjoy browsing around directly in the Gallery to look at images. Often, their interest is focused on specific (sub)factions. For example, someone might want to look solely at images of the Blood Angels. Another member, meanwhile, might want to look at images of the Adeptus Titanicus game. To that end, the Gallery is organized by categories that allow members to focus on specific (sub)factions, games, and types of content. While it's easy for a member to just upload all their images into a single album, that adversely affects other members' ease of focusing on specific subjects when browsing images. By confining individual albums to individual subjects, you enhance members' browsing experience. Since members can move their images, it's relatively easy to create individual albums for specific subjects and then move images around in their albums. Correct Category As mentioned above, placing an album in the correct category helps members to focus their time on their desired subject matter. If someone wants to look at images of Necrons, they should be able to find those images in the Necrons category (which falls under the Xenos category). When an album is created, it defaults to the Miscellaneous category. While it's very easy to select the appropriate category, many members ignore this step. As a result, (a) the Miscellaneous category is filled with albums that should be in other categories, and (b) people searching for albums/images of specific subjects have to search through both the category for that subject (e.g., Blood Angels, Orks, Adeptus Titanicus) and the Miscellaneous category. And on that note, if you think that the categories need to be adjusted, we are always open to suggestions. We don't want to have too large of a list (which would make things unwieldy), but we definitely want a selection of categories that allows for sufficient granularity and specificity. The + SUGGESTION BOX + is always a good place for this, but you are also free to post your suggestion(s) as replies to this topic (for as long as this topic remains on the front page of this forum). Your assistance is appreciated.

I don't recall any official Chapters whose Chapter badge has been portrayed or described as being similar to the one in question. At this point, I suspect that it was either (a) something they came up with to show a little variety, and/or (b) a clever way to have some Chapter that might someday be called the "Warhammers" or something like that. There is the Hammers of Retribution Chapter, but their Chapter badge is unknown. For now, I would just chalk this up as GW showing without prescribing.

Locking this now. You know the deal: Please create a separate topic for each release/group of closely related releases so we can have a focused discussion for each. I'll go through and move posts in here to the newly-created topics once I'm done dealing with some admin work.

Yes, it has been affecting everyone.

Since the game is in the wild now, the topic has been moved to the + OTHER GAMES + forum.

There is a combination of things going on. While our Techmarine, @WrathOfTheLion can provide more technically correct information, here's a rough roundup as I understand things. The main culprit is that the daily backups are taking up inordinate resources - far more than they should. While we have these scheduled for lower use times (relatively speaking), they are still taking far too long. We're looking at ways to reduce the strain they're causing, which may include reducing some of the achievements (the counting of achievements for each member appears to be a significant factor). The database and php also need to be fixed. We are also planning for an update to Invision 5.0. One of the things we need to do for that is improved hosting - our current servers aren't sufficient for Invision 5.0. So we're exploring whether or not to continue with self-hosting, albeit on improved servers, or switching to a cloud-based hosting service.

We've observed that Monday is typically the worst day.

That's not their original color scheme, though. That was from the 3rd edition Index Astartes article, and that was the only time they were depicted in the dark scheme, even in other images of them during that edition. Their original color scheme(s): (click it to see it larger)

Note that I split Adeptekon's query off from the Skins of the B&C topic (which was obsolete and has been removed). For those of you who may be wondering what the heck @Adeptekon is asking about (I had to search for it )... Note that what follows may be incomplete as I don't use any customized settings. There may be more effects that the various options described below have and some experimentation might yield interesting outcomes. The Customizer allows members to customize the theme to their liking. The effects are limited to whatever variations are allowed in the theme itself, so some of the options may appear to have no impact if the theme is so limited. The first option is for a member to use either the default background image for the theme or to cycle through random backgrounds. The latter option will depend upon whether or not there is a stable of backgrounds to choose from. Since we don't have any additional backgrounds, selecting "Random" won't have any noticeable effect. Fluid width? definitely has an effect if you select it. The default for the theme is a fixed content width, with the background image appearing on either side of the content, the amount of background image showing depending upon the size/resolution of your display. If you select the Fluid width? option, you'll see the content stretch across the entire width of your display area, assuming your display area is larger than the default maximum. Larger font-size for posts? will increase the font size of text that is left at the default font size (i.e., the member submitting the text content doesn't select a specific size). For example, if you select this option right now, most of this post text should increase in size whereas this section will not because I've set it to a specific size (14). This is especially useful for those of us whose eyes don't work as well as they used to. Sticky author panel? only appears to work in the Gallery feature (though it may work in other areas that I haven't checked yet). If you select this option, when you are looking at an album and scroll down, the author panel (baseball card) for the album will stick at the top while you control to scroll through the images in that album. Sticky sidebar? also appears to work only in the Gallery feature, though it will stick the sidebar (normally on the far right side) while you scroll down through the images. If you place the cursor over the sidebar and scroll, the sidebar will scroll (along with the images in the album). Selecting this option also works on the sidebar in other features, though it only sticks the sidebar for a little vertical scrolling then continues to scroll the sidebar. Flip sidebar? flips the sidebar from the right side of the content to the left side.

The link has been added to the Adeptus Astartes Rules category.

We've been looking at a number of things that will [hopefully] improve the site usability (in addition to the much-needed improved hosting solution, database fix, php fix, and software upgrade). While the more technical things are beyond my knuckle-dragging intellect (hence the need for sacristans techmarines (see below) and other technical experts), there are some things that I can effect. There are two areas that @Gillyfish and I have been looking at. One of them is still in development, but one area where we developed a solution and ran it by the rest of the staff was in the groups (or teams/roles - terminology depends upon which specific setting is being looked at ). The following changes were put into effect yesterday: The ++ MODERATI ++ group has been renamed ++ CHAPLAIN ++. The original + LIBRARIAN + group was removed and the ++ CHIEF LIBRARIAN ++ group was renamed ++ LIBRARIAN ++. The ++ LIBRARIAN ++ group responsibility was expanded from just the Articles feature to include the Blogs, Downloads, and Gallery features. The ++ SACRISTAN ++ group has been renamed ++ TECHMARINE ++. The +++ ADMINISTRATI +++ group has been renamed +++ ADMINISTRATOR +++. The ++ EMERITI ++ group has been renamed ++ EMERITUS ++. The team icons of all staff groups (+++ ADMINISTRATOR +++, ++ CHAPLAIN ++, ++ LIBRARIAN ++, ++ TECHMARINE ++, and ++ EMERITUS ++) have had the servitude studs increased in size. The team icon of the ++ CHAPLAIN ++ group has had the crux replaced by a gold crozius arcanum. The team icon of the ++ LIBRARIAN ++ group has had the book increased in height and horns added. The team icon of the ++ TECHMARINE ++ group has had an augmetic eye added. The team icon of the + FRATER DOMUS + group has had a single large servitude stud added. The achievement badges for the staff groups have been updated to roughly match the updated team icons. First, since our original plan for the Articles feature didn't pan out, we got rid of the old + LIBRARIAN + group and changed the ++ CHIEF LIBRARIAN ++ group to simply ++ LIBRARIAN ++. We also expanded their sphere of responsibility to include the Blogs, Downloads, and Gallery features; and they shared core responsibilities in common with the (former) ++ MODERATI ++ group, which is primarily (but not solely) focused on the Forums feature. In practice, many people include the librarians when referring to the "moderati." To avoid confusion, one might refer to both groups as "staff," but that then becomes complicated when distinguishing between the rules-enforcing staff (which also includes the administrators) and the non-rules enforcing staff (the sacristans techmarines). With two groups being identifiable as moderati, it was necessary to change the ++ MODERATI ++ group's name. In this, we returned to the site's Space Marine roots. While the moderators have often been likened to the Inquisition in the past, it seemed much more thematic to use chaplains as the model for that group. The updates to the icons for those teams seemed intuitive. If you look at the Staff Directory, you'll see that these two groups are both considered to be moderati. Changing the ++ SACRISTAN ++ group name to ++ TECHMARINE ++ followed the same logic. When we originally conceived that group, I was leaning towards the latter name. However, discussion with our sole sacristan (at that time) resulted in the former name, which is similar to a techmarine, but which comes from the Imperial Knights faction. Updating the group name to ++ TECHMARINE ++ allowed for all three of the main staff groups to have recognizable group names with strong associations to their responsibilities and the community's original Space Marine theme (and our Legio mascot). As the chaplains and librarians had their team icons updated to more closely align with the imagery, adding the augmetic eye to the techmarines was a no-brainer. We considered making the icon more closely match the machina opus, but the split black/white cog and the additional cables didn't work well at the 39 x 39 pixel display size, so only the augmetic eye was added. For the administrators and emeriti, we changed the group names from the plural to the singular. The reason for this is that using the plural form doesn't make sense in each member's "baseball card." The baseball card is the mini-profile that identifies the member who submitted the content (post, image, blog entry, etc.), providing basic information about that member. To illustrate, here is my baseball card: My display name appears at the top. Below that is my profile photo (or avatar), with my rank icon appearing in the lower left corner. Below that is the primary group to which I belong. Below that is the corresponding team icon. When a member has identified their preferred pronouns (I have not), those will appear immediately below their team icon. Members of the staff have their personal titles appearing below their team icons. Finally, the member's post count (or an approximation when they have a high post count) will appear at the bottom of the baseball card. While the plural words (okay, the pseudo-Latin versions we use) make sense when referring to the group, they might be a little confusing in the context of the baseball cards. I am an administrator, and when one is referring to both me and @Gillyfish, it makes sense to refer to us as either "administrators" or, in our pseudo-Latin, "administrati." If you see +++ ADMINISTRATI +++ below my profile photo, however, it looks I'm indicating that I am the administrati, referring to myself using the royal "we" as it were. Likewise with the emeriti - each individually is an "emeritus" while two or more can be referred to as the "emeriti." That plural form just seemed a bit awkward. Switching to the singular just makes more sense when looking at the baseball cards, especially for newer members who might not have caught on to the little bits of theming that we incorporate into our community's culture. For those who don't know, the emeriti are former staff members - members of the community who have served in one or more of the staff roles but who have since "retired." Many remain active within the community and it is very important to recognize their contributions to the community - all staff members are volunteers and the time and effort they devote to the community is time and effort that they sacrifice from more enjoyable aspects of the hobby. All staff members enjoy a bespoke title, but since they have retired, they no longer retain the permissions and authority they enjoyed while actively serving in a staff role. Each has earned the badge(s) for the staff position(s) in which they served. When we first switched to the skull-based team icons (from the icons that were based on the force organization chart), the concept was that current and former staff members would be identified by the red X. The exception to this was the sacristans, who were technical experts but who had no rules enforcement role. When a sacristan techmarine retired (and we currently have one retired sacristan techmarine), then, it wouldn't be appropriate for their team icon to include the red X. Neither the Frater Domus group nor the Frater Novus group (which came later) included any servitude studs on their team icons. We realized that the red X merely indicated rules enforcement authority and that staff membership was really indicated by the servitude studs. In this, the decision was made to remove the red X from the team icon of the emeriti. The problem with the servitude studs, however, was that they were barely visible. The skull icons were shrunk down from a larger image and the servitude studs appeared as single-pixel dots when shrunk. The result would have been that the team icon of the emeriti was barely distinguishable from that of the Frater Domus and Frater Novus members, and that didn't seem to be adequate recognition of their contributions. So we decided to further modify the team icons by increasing the size of the servitude studs from a single pixel to 4 x 4 pixels (actually 6 x 6 when the shading is counted). This makes them much more visible. In addition, we decided to add a single servitude stud to the team icon of the + FRATER DOMUS + group, distinguishing that group from the + FRATER NOVUS + group. It should be noted that we also have a Librarian achievement badge for those members who served in the old (pre-2014) Librarium. These members worked in a different manner, having no rules-enforcement authority, so they have retained the original badge without the red X or horns to distinguish them from the current (moderator) librarians. Some members may be wondering why we didn't switch the +++ ADMINISTRATI +++ group name to something more representative of the Adeptus Astartes. In short, it's because we don't want to be self-aggrandizing (I know some of you may snort at that ). If we used +++ HIGH LORD +++ or +++ CHAPTER MASTER +++ or +++ GREAT CAPTAIN +++ (the latter working best with the Legio them) or something else, we'd seem a bit poncy. In this, we felt it was far better to stick with a group name that clearly indicates our role at the site. The basic progression for the team icons is: Skull > 1 servitude stud (Frater Domus) > 2 servitude studs (staff) > other elements* depending on role + red X (for a rules enforcement role) * The other elements are thematically associated with the group name. So here are the new group names, their corresponding team icons, and the corresponding achievement badges for the staff groups (each image displays at 20 x 20 pixels, click on the images to see the full-size versions): +++ ADMINISTRATOR +++ ++ CHAPLAIN ++ (moderator) ++ LIBRARIAN ++ (moderator) ++ TECHMARINE ++ ++ EMERITUS ++ + FRATER DOMUS + + FRATER NOVUS + + UNSANCTIONED + You'll only see this when a member's account has been deleted by their request, with their display name replaced by "GUEST" (or sometimes "GUEST [account name]"). Their content remains so that other members' achievements (reactions) and content (quotes/replies) aren't affected by deletion. Actual guests (i.e., unregistered members) are not able to submit content. + RENUNCIATUS + You'll only see this when a member has requested that their account be deleted, and they'll remain in this group for 30 days, after which the account will be deleted and their content will appear as if they are in the + UNSANCTIONED + group. + EXCOMMUNICATUS + (no team icon) These are [former] members who have been permanently banned from the community for misbehavior.