Your wishlist & features requests for VPUniverse?

[Dazz]

Hello Everyone,

First off... No, I am not dead. While I haven't been very busy on the frontend of things... I have been VERY busy behind the scenes. At this time I do not have anything to show to the public, but hopefully soon.  

I really need to get some feedback from the community on direction for VPUniverse. What I'm working on currently is a HUGE undertaking and very overwhelming, but it's coming along. I have most of the basic framework done and several sub-systems created to convert/import existing data. With nearly 40k files, 200k posts, reviews, tutorials, etc... I need to make sure that nothing is being left out. If anything the current site will be put into an archive mode until we are assured that nothing has been lost. 

Ignore everything that we have here on VPU or on any other hobby related site today, VPF, VPSpreadsheet, etc. Almost as if you were looking at the hobby from a totally clean slate.

Members - 
What would your ideal system for virtual pinball content look like?
Community Features? - I feel that since multiple sites, Discord, Facebook Groups, etc. that the community has been fractured for a while. What could be done to bring back a healthy community atmosphere? What features would keep you coming back for more?
Download Features? Content?
Tournaments? Ladder system? - I want to hear from those who run tournaments. What do you currently use? What software is involved?
Possible tournaments with LIVE scoring updates?
Better Scorbit integration into the site?

Creators -
What do you Expect from VPU?
What specific features would you like to see?
What do you think we absolutely need?
What can wd do to help make our creators feel rewarded for your creations?
Reviews System Features? - I know we have issues sometimes with how our current reviews system is. Sometimes reviews gets mixed up with users comments, tech issues, etc. To help alleviate this, I've already created a new reviews system for the new platform. There is a clear distinction between a Review and a Comment. Also, a verified Download (possibly verified Played)

Anyway, I have some surprises up my sleeves that I hope everyone will like and enjoy.

[Tikimaster]

I miss: "How can we help Beginners to come in? 🙂

[Guenther]

I'd like to have the content more connected. For example if I see a nice backglass I'd like to have a link to the table available or the other way round. 

Or go to a table and have a link to the wheels, to the backglass, to the dmd and so on.

[Dazz]

1 hour ago, Tikimaster said:

I miss: "How can we help Beginners to come in? 🙂

I'm not quite sure that I follow...
 

1 hour ago, Guenther said:

I'd like to have the content more connected. For example if I see a nice backglass I'd like to have a link to the table available or the other way round. 

Or go to a table and have a link to the wheels, to the backglass, to the dmd and so on.

Good suggestion, but I have something even better that is currently in the works.

[LunatechFringe]

Honestly, I prefer the way this site is laid out compared to others within our community. However, I have a few thoughts and suggestions.

• When it comes to creator profiles, having their content easily accessible from their profile would save time from running searches for them.
  • Currently, I only see Activity and Images on creator profiles.
  • Activity is the extended way of getting to the content. Content should be separate.
     
• With the way the current site is, I LOVE having the feature to let me know when content has been updated to a newer version via email.
   
• Downloads tend to feel cumbersome when multiple files are involved, especially when you're not sure if the content is current or not.
  • A way to group all of them into one zipped download would be useful.
  • Time-stamping or listing the version information next to a download would be beneficial.
  • Downloads should probably take less screen real estate.
  • The possibility of implementing checkboxes next to the files you need and being able to download them as one zip would be a suggestion.
     
• Tournament support would be a great idea.
  • The tournaments I've participated in locally use matchyplay.events.
  • Better Scorbit integration is a great idea. Allowing Scorbit to update information to this site as a way of maintaining a leaderboard would be excellent.
     
• How about a known issues and workaround informational section for each table or PuP Pack?
  • Although I'm not the biggest supporter of AI, it could be used to pull information from comments.

• Another idea would be a section for improving your overall pinball skills.

I hope this input helps.

[DJOMaverick]

I'd love better integration of competitions...  Discovering PinEmHi dramatically increased my interest, but it feels criminally underutilized.  Live scores for tournaments based on that would be awesome.  Would be interesting if table downloads linked to current high scores for that table, or pulled data from there to display top 5-10 in a box.  Would likewise be great if the community could agree to bake support for it natively into original tables, so that it wasn't limited to the faithful who can go plug it into the table script after the fact.

[rkader]

I think there's a lack of ONE place where anyone new or looking for help can go and find a solution. 
Discord is now probably, a huge fountain of knowledge, lost amidst a gazillion posts. YT videos spread and apart. setup VPX? link upon link upon link, probaly many now creating more problems than they solve because they're not updated (YT is even worse).

Huge opportunity here to curate material in a way that's easy to update as things get updated. It would be a huge tutorial basically but in ONE place.
Not all has to be text. An image is worth a thousand words. we just need links to download stuff

[Dazz]

Thanks for the feedback. Please see my comments in red below!
 

19 hours ago, LunatechFringe said:

Honestly, I prefer the way this site is laid out compared to others within our community. However, I have a few thoughts and suggestions.

• When it comes to creator profiles, having their content easily accessible from their profile would save time from running searches for them.
  • Currently, I only see Activity and Images on creator profiles.
  • Activity is the extended way of getting to the content. Content should be separate.
  • With the way the current site is, I LOVE having the feature to let me know when content has been updated to a newer version via email.

Seeing creators and their contents will be 100 times easier. You will be able to follow individual creators (when posting updates, threads, new content, etc), individual content (such as if a table is updated), and more... I haven't gotten to building the follow system yet, but it will be as robust as possible. Email notifications should be possible as well.

• Downloads tend to feel cumbersome when multiple files are involved, especially when you're not sure if the content is current or not.
  • A way to group all of them into one zipped download would be useful.
  • Time-stamping or listing the version information next to a download would be beneficial.
  • Downloads should probably take less screen real estate.
  • The possibility of implementing checkboxes next to the files you need and being able to download them as one zip would be a suggestion.

The downloads system will be completely different than what everyone is currently use to in this hobby. A new experience.

• Tournament support would be a great idea.
  • The tournaments I've participated in locally use matchyplay.events. - I've used matchplay.events for our real tournaments. Not sure how, or if, I could integrate with the site. Not sure if they have an API where I can pull/post data to. I'll have to do a little research on that side of it. 
  • Better Scorbit integration is a great idea. Allowing Scorbit to update information to this site as a way of maintaining a leaderboard would be excellent. - Scorbit does have an API, but I don't know what all it can do yet.

• How about a known issues and workaround informational section for each table or PuP Pack? - The new system automatically builds a forum/discussion for each individual table/file. It automatically gives the content creator mod/admin rights on the discussions so they can monitor and respond. In the content creator portal, creators will be able to see all of their files, manage files, view/manage their discussions, view & reply directly to reviews.
  • Although I'm not the biggest supporter of AI, it could be used to pull information from comments. - If it weren't for AI, I wouldn't be doing much of this. However, plugging into an LLM for something like this could be really expensive in API cost. I'll take a look into it to see how this could be done and what overall costs would be.

• Another idea would be a section for improving your overall pinball skills. - Each game listing has a Tutorials section. Gameplay videos, links to sites that have strategies, etc.

I hope this input helps.

Screenshot of **IN WORK** Tutorials section for Twilight Zone:

 

3 hours ago, DJOMaverick said:

I'd love better integration of competitions...  Discovering PinEmHi dramatically increased my interest, but it feels criminally underutilized.  Live scores for tournaments based on that would be awesome.  Would be interesting if table downloads linked to current high scores for that table, or pulled data from there to display top 5-10 in a box.  Would likewise be great if the community could agree to bake support for it natively into original tables, so that it wasn't limited to the faithful who can go plug it into the table script after the fact. - It's been a really long long time since I looked, or used, PinEmHi. Not sure what would need to be done to incorporate it into the site. I'll need to dig more into it. Last I looked into it, it was just local and didn't have any online scoring.

 

 

2 hours ago, rkader said:

I think there's a lack of ONE place where anyone new or looking for help can go and find a solution. 
Discord is now probably, a huge fountain of knowledge, lost amidst a gazillion posts. YT videos spread and apart. setup VPX? link upon link upon link, probaly many now creating more problems than they solve because they're not updated (YT is even worse). - Yeah, I really can't stand Discord when it comes to this. It's great for instant communication, but everything gets lost and search doesn't work that well.

Huge opportunity here to curate material in a way that's easy to update as things get updated. It would be a huge tutorial basically but in ONE place.
Not all has to be text. An image is worth a thousand words. we just need links to download stuff

I'm hoping with this system I can help make both the new user and the experienced users experiences much more streamlined. 

 

[DJOMaverick]

2 hours ago, Dazz said:

Last I looked into it, it was just local and didn't have any online scoring.

It's definitely got an online leaderboard on the pinemhi site.  There is a client that automatically uploads player one score upon table close, though it can be periodically temperamental.

 

I think the misconception comes from Popper using the tool to just create local high score tables?

[brightav4444]

A list on each download page showing the file name, that way we don’t need to download a file to see its name. 
An indicator showing that I have already downloaded the table. The write a review function seems inaccurate.

a way to filter out table makers, so I can say I don’t want to see tables from xyz table maker

[Dazz]

17 hours ago, DJOMaverick said:

It's definitely got an online leaderboard on the pinemhi site.  There is a client that automatically uploads player one score upon table close, though it can be periodically temperamental. 

 

I think the misconception comes from Popper using the tool to just create local high score tables? - I'll definitely re-visit and see how we can incorporate it into the new site.

 

16 hours ago, brightav4444 said:

A list on each download page showing the file name, that way we don’t need to download a file to see its name.  - The new download system is completely different. 
An indicator showing that I have already downloaded the table. - This should be possible with this new system, but I haven't gotten that far yet. 
The write a review function seems inaccurate. - Not sure what you mean exactly, but I've re-written the review system. I uses a completely new system and a couple different calculations.

a way to filter out table makers, so I can say I don’t want to see tables from xyz table maker - This will definitely be possible with our new follow system.  Not started development yet, but it's on the very long to-do list.

Keep the suggestions and feedback coming! 

[Clevecavs23]

I would definitely love to see some kind of tournament or high score integration (beyond what you currently have).  I spend the majority of my time on the World of Virtual Pinball, Elite World of virtual pinball and Vpin hub all because of the weekly tournaments.  Personally, as of now, WOVP is the gold standard when it comes to competition.  Live scoring, it's own phone app, seemless Vpin studio integration with basically 2 click scoring submissions make it approachable for beginners and experienced players. As a result I participate in that group far more than any other group.  I love VPU and am thankul for all of your hard work in making an incredible site but would see myself partipating more in the forums if there was some tournament or high score areas that were easy to access for all.  

 

Beyond that, it seems that the download areas could be a bit better organized as I sometimes just find myself a bit lost trying to find what I'm looking for.  In particular the vast amount of alternative media you have here that isn't listed on VPS.  While I can usually find what I'm looking for, the process is a bit more cumbersome.

 

Keep up the great work and I look forward to what you will do to make the site even better than it already is.

 

 

[Supergibson]

First of all, this site is pretty great already but since you want feedback, here are a few things from me. I'll post again if I think of more.

 

For creators:

 

- A single place to upload files with categories like VPX, FP, MOD, Reskin, Original, Backglass, etc.  as opposed to multiple forums. This would also make it easier for users as they could go to the one place and then filter by platform, type, release date, etc.

- A way to link or associate download with multiple VPU users. Specific example, if someone was to look for things that I created, it would be great if Bourne Identity tables showed up even though they were uploaded on the Super Tilted account. This would apply well to other groups like VPW or VPXPinballWizards.

- Create more interaction between creators and players. Host some live events or streams to "get to know your creators". Could be fun.

For users:

- Less places to look for things. Make it easier to find. The search functions is actually pretty good but still.

- A more dynamic front landing page and a streamlined Forums page (the current one is like scrolling through a huge table of contents).

- Linkage between downloads (but looks like you said you are already working on something for this above)

- Credits page/section for downloads so that we don't have to populate that in the description.

- User Help Request for downloads more clearly marked so that we can stop troubleshooting in the comments section. Maybe have it alongside of Reviews/Comments. Nobody really uses the "Get support" button and it gets confusing when people use both that (which links to the forum post) and the comments.

- I know if was already mentioned but "Getting started" with VPin section. This one in the form of a Forum for sure. Make it clear that it's ok to ask a question even if someone has asked the same question a million times. There's too much content out there and some of it no longer relevant as versions have evolved. Let's support our players by giving them a safe space to ask anything. No stupid questions.

 

 

 

 

[Dazz]

See my reply's in red below.

Keep in mind... We currently use a commercial CMS system, Invision Community. Most, actually ALL, current sites use a forum based system... that's all we really had at the time.  This new system could possibly change the way we do things in this hobby... 
 

3 hours ago, Supergibson said:

First of all, this site is pretty great already but since you want feedback, here are a few things from me. I'll post again if I think of more.

 

For creators: - I'm going to be building a full Creator Portal. When a file is uploaded, the system automatically creates a discussion area for that file and makes the submitter the mod of that discussion. Creators will be able to see all their files stats, including views, downloads, reviews, comments and more in a single dashboard like view. From there creators will be able to respond directly to reviews, comments directly from the portal and not have to jump from file to file to see data.  

- A single place to upload files with categories like VPX, FP, MOD, Reskin, Original, Backglass, etc.  as opposed to multiple forums. This would also make it easier for users as they could go to the one place and then filter by platform, type, release date, etc. - I haven't yet started building the creators area, yet. Uploading into the new system will be clear and much easier. 

- A way to link or associate download with multiple VPU users. Specific example, if someone was to look for things that I created, it would be great if Bourne Identity tables showed up even though they were uploaded on the Super Tilted account. This would apply well to other groups like VPW or VPXPinballWizards. - Basically a team feature. Assign users to the team and people on that team will be able to access the creator portal and see the teams dashboard.  Again, something I haven't started working on yet, but is planned.

- Create more interaction between creators and players. Host some live events or streams to "get to know your creators". Could be fun. - I am not a community organizer... I suck at social media. If someone wants to organize and put stuff together like this, then I'll do what I can to help.  

For users:
- Less places to look for things. Make it easier to find. The search functions is actually pretty good but still. - Even easier than you imagine... 

- A more dynamic front landing page and a streamlined Forums page (the current one is like scrolling through a huge table of contents). - Yea, I hate the current system... That's why I'm building just about EVERYTHING from the ground up.

- Linkage between downloads (but looks like you said you are already working on something for this above) - This is part of the core system. Every single file gets associated to a game (if it's a game related file, like wheel image, B2s, etc). From there the system is able to pull every table, b2s, wheel image, etc. that relates to that specific game. 

- Credits page/section for downloads so that we don't have to populate that in the description. - See screenshot below.

- User Help Request for downloads more clearly marked so that we can stop troubleshooting in the comments section. Maybe have it alongside of Reviews/Comments. Nobody really uses the "Get support" button and it gets confusing when people use both that (which links to the forum post) and the comments. - New system has a clear distinction between Support/Comments and Reviews.

- I know if was already mentioned but "Getting started" with VPin section. This one in the form of a Forum for sure. Make it clear that it's ok to ask a question even if someone has asked the same question a million times. There's too much content out there and some of it no longer relevant as versions have evolved. Let's support our players by giving them a safe space to ask anything. No stupid questions. - This is a difficult one to design/build around... People are people. We can guide them only as far as they want to be led.  I'm debating if I want to import our current/existing forums into the new system... Or do we start the new system fresh? 

[Supergibson]

13 hours ago, Dazz said:

See my reply's in red below.

Keep in mind... We currently use a commercial CMS system, Invision Community. Most, actually ALL, current sites use a forum based system... that's all we really had at the time.  This new system could possibly change the way we do things in this hobby... 
 

Awesome. Thanks for all the answers.

 

As for the forum import, I would suggest starting from scratch for the new site and building it up as you go based on needs/requests. That being said, the current forum has a ton of useful stuff in it so I would think some way of archiving it, as-is but read-only, would probably be a good idea.

 

Looking forward to seeing this new site. Lots of interesting ideas. If you need beta-testers, I'd be happy to help.

 

Cheers!

[Dazz]

22 minutes ago, Supergibson said:

Awesome. Thanks for all the answers.

 

As for the forum import, I would suggest starting from scratch for the new site and building it up as you go based on needs/requests. That being said, the current forum has a ton of useful stuff in it so I would think some way of archiving it, as-is but read-only, would probably be a good idea.

 

Looking forward to seeing this new site. Lots of interesting ideas. If you need beta-testers, I'd be happy to help.

 

Cheers!

Check out the VPU discord. I just posed the Game Level page layout. Looking to get some feedback on that.