Phase 2 Update: Management Applied New Upgrades!

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3 years ago

Hello Miners, Andrew here with another update for you regarding the current progress of our Phase 2 work for Karl.gg.

We hope you've been enjoying the product thus far, and we really appreciate the continued support from you all.

What has been added?

  • Preview Page Enhancements:
    • Tooltips -- see the Title and Description of selected mods & OC's when browsing loadouts
    • Guide Field -- added an expanded guide field with full markdown support to allow you to explain the in's & out's of your Loadout. Good content so far from you all!
  • Patch Management
    • We implemented a Patch Management feature, which displays a banner on Loadouts with data that may be outdated.
      • We have an internal way of checking this, but basically: Karl.gg will always use the latest data from the latest patch. Any loadouts made prior to our system being updated will be tagged as "potentially outdated"
  • Advanced Statistics View
    • This is the feature we are most excited about thus far!
    • This now integrates Meatshield's Advanced Statistics into the site in an effective way, which we hope can drive value to the community
    • You will now see an "Advanced Statistics" button on the loadout preview page for Primary and Secondary weapons. This will take you to a landing page with a lot more detailed statistics, which you may be familiar with if you've been using MeatShield's tool
    • See an example page here: https://karl.gg/asv/14/CCBAA2
    • Note, this is just our first iteration of this feature, and we already have a few enhancements planned for it so stay tuned!
    • As always, please let us know if you see any issues by pinging us on our Discord

What is next?

As you may remember from my previous post, there are several other features planned in Phase 2. Now that we've accomplished our "Top Priority" items, we can start to move into some other nice-to-have features for this phase.

Main focus for the next big implementation:

  • Content Hub for Karl.gg: This is an adjustment of the scope for our previous "Curated Loadouts" feature. We want to implement a full-scale Content Hub, which will be a jumping-off point for all types of DRG content -- not exclusively loadouts.
    • The first iteration of this feature will have curated loadouts as well, but that's not the only focus
    • Included in the Content Hub will be a set of pages which allow you to explore all kinds of detail about mods, OC's, etc. and how they are being used in loadouts on our site. Additionally, we will tie this into further content as this feature matures

After that...

  • Public API: This is our next priority after the content hub, and it will actually be even more expansive once we implement the content hub. Stay tuned for further details as we get closer to implementing this
  • Comments for Loadouts: This has the potential to just be brought forward sooner rather than later, but for now it sits as a lower priority item in our backlog
  • Further Loadout Builder Enhancements: Once we have a solid base with the content hub, we will direct some of our attention to this suite of enhancements as well

A Call to Arms!

Additionally, we are seeking a Graphic Designer to join our team. If you wish to help out on Karl from a Graphic Design perspective (or you know someone), message Andrew on our Discord. We will connect further and see about integrating you to the team. Come help drive the next phase of Karl's progression!

A quick note about Karl's Longevity

Some of you may have noticed a "buy me a coffee" widget recently, and now a few ads here and there on the site. Don't worry, we haven't been hacked, this is intentional. We are running some trials to see how these features fare with you -- our userbase -- as we hope to improve the overall quality of Karl.gg. We want to invest in some high-quality tools that add a lot of value, but we need to ensure we can afford these from a sustainability perspective. Thus, we are testing out how ads perform on the site to see if this is even a feasible route. Feel free to block them, or flame us on Discord -- seriously though, constructive feedback is welcome!

Just to reiterate: this is about sustaining & massively improving Karl.gg for the long-term. None of this money goes into our pockets -- we are using a joint account to pay for our infrastructure enhancements only.

In Conclusion...

Overall we have been ecstatic to see such a strong community form around the site, and we are so excited for the future. We hope these new features add value to your experience, and we look forward to hearing your feedback as we continue to progress.

From myself and the entire Karl.gg team, have a safe & happy Holiday season!

For Karl!