Shadowbringers, the new expansion for FFXIV is coming 28th of June (early access) and with it I’m going to change a few things on one of my websites, FFXIVHUNT.com
Biggest change is that I will remove the trackers
Quite a few people will probably think that’s a crazy thing to do and the downfall of the site. But looking at how little it is being used now, it is only logical to close it. Let me just give you a few examples:
- Most servers have only 1 or 2 kills reported per month, nowhere nearly enough to trigger the algorithm that would acknowledge the kill being counted
- Some servers didn’t get a kill reported for over two years!
- Any additional services I once created (like guildworks) are no longer active and the open API could be targeted to mess with the data
- Maintaining the current trackers needs a lot of manual work from my end because of poor software planning 😛 (only myself to blame here)
Additionally you may noticed I never bothered to add Stormblood hunts.
This is simply because the database in the back did not allow me to add more hunts. It was never designed to hold that many hunts. If I wanted to add Stormblood and Shadowbringer, I have to overhaul the whole system anyway.
And that I will do and will kill the trackers with it as well.
There are even more geeky topics that not everybody would understand. Like that IPv6 accesses are causing quite some trouble or the fact that I updated to a newer PHP version when I changed hoster and this now also makes the site slower because its code isn’t optimised for the new PHP version etc.
But what will the site be good for afterwards?
FFXIVHUNT.com will change into mostly a pure information site.
- I will display information about ALL the hunts (S, A an B-Ranks!) such as spawn conditions and spawn locations!
- Moon Cycle
- Weather Cycle (will be tricky and maybe not live at release but is planned!)
- Treasure Map Locations
- And planed are also tiny simple tools like Cactpot Ticket evaluator or generator
So the site will become simpler yet more informative than ever 😀
When will happen what?
So I am working on the new version of the site already right now. Content planning is almost done, database is being build up as you read this and the UI/UX is also in the work.
I want to release the site before Shadowbringers hits so I can add newly discovered hunts right from the get go. So currently I am aiming at early June to go live with the first draft and gather feedback from you lot.
So lots of work for me to do but it’s actually less work than keeping the site running as it is XD
