World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King [3.7.x]

WRATH IS COMING!!!

It's been a very long time since I have released anything on vB.org and felt I should do something again for the crew here. This time, it's a style that I've recently finished for my World of Warcraft Guild for the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion release.

Unfortunately, I'm not the best on downsizing images so the style is abit big, therefore I cannot simply attach the download to this post. The download link will be at the bottom of the thread here, it is hosted on my own server that I also host my guild's website on, I know that's probably not a huge consolation for those afraid of maliciousness on the web, but it's the best I can do for you guys right now.

Assistance Requested:
Because of my lack of graphics downsizing ability I've provided the buildfiles in PNG format so that someone better than me can make the graphics work better and keep the transparencies looking good can post the fixt files, if you choose to do this I would be greatly appreciative. As it is it's close to 4 megs downloaded when the site is first loaded. If the users are using a cache on their browsers and you have your board set to not force an image reload then the hit won't be too bad, but it's still pretty heavy, so feel free to adjust the images so that the hit won't be as bad. If someone can get the images to be smaller filesize and still keep a good appearance with the style I am willing to negotiate a donation for the use of the fixed images.

What's Provided:
The theme backgrounds and CSS stylings are provided, along with the buildfiles. I have also provided dark matte vb original icons, and modified buttons that fit the theme. All of these are provided in a quick access folder that resides under the images directory so that there is no mixup with your other styles.

Very simple installation:

1. Upload all the folders and their contents within the "Upload" directory to your forums directory keeping the tree intact.
2. Login to your AdminCP and upload a new style and import the Wrath-style.xml from the archive.
3. Load your forums and change the style to "Wrath".

Done.

Misc. Information:
This style is compatible with VbAdvanced CMPS, see attached images.

I would suggest that if you have made any template changes in another style that you want to keep to make this style a child of the style with the template changes.

I have tested this on 3 boards, however you use this style at your own risk. Support is will not be given as I simply do not have the time anymore, I am releasing this to the community at large because I feel there might be a want for it prior to Wrath of the Lich King Releasing.

This style was designed for a screen resolution of 1024x768 or better, and is only compatible with CSS 2.0 compliant browsers such as Firefox 3 or IE 7. I recommend using Firefox personally. This style will not render properly (the two arthas images and the page footer (the ice block) will not show up at all) if using an older browser, but it will not break the forums for those users that are behind the standards in the tests I have done thus far.

If you find a problem with the style where it will not validate, I will do my best to fix and update, but that's as far as my support of this style goes as it validates for XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS 2.1 on my boards and again, I simply don't have the time to dedicate to full support of the style for everyone.

As folks requested PSD format for the build files I have included both PNG and PSD format files for those that want them. When exporting to the final format make sure to export as a PNG and keep the same file names. I have split the archives so that you only download what you want.

[jim6763nva]

Awesome looking style! Thanks for taking the time to put this together
:up:

[Cloudrunner]

Glad you like it, I see you put it to good use already . If you use PNG32 for the logo I've found that the transparencies look much better, also if you matte it with black or dark grey you'll lose the white jaggies.

How'd the install go?

[mrwuss]

What Font/Layer style (Blending Options) is used in your logo? With them being in png format and not in psd, figuring it out is sorta tough :O

The install was easy, everything is working just great! Only adjustment I have made so far was bringing the forum table inside of the side graphics. Roughly 70% instead of 90% was enough.

[jim6763nva]

Originally Posted by Cloudrunner

Glad you like it, I see you put it to good use already . If you use PNG32 for the logo I've found that the transparencies look much better, also if you matte it with black or dark grey you'll lose the white jaggies.

Yes I did. ...and thanks for the suggestion! I was wondering, is there any way you could post or include buttons for the "Thanks" and "Top Poster" addons? I think the Top Poster addon has a "Nominate" button.

Originally Posted by Cloudrunner

How'd the install go?

It was very smooth. I found that adding the site url in front of the paths to the images to fully qualify them keeps them from breaking. The only real issues I have had were mostly on my end with the thing you mentioned about the jaggies and missing buttons from addons I have installed.

Thanks again for posting this skin. I'm very pleased with it.

Jim

PS. I see you're from Fredericksburg! Good to see we are neighbors. Feel free to stop by TalkVirginia anytime.

[Cloudrunner]

Originally Posted by mrwuss

What Font/Layer style (Blending Options) is used in your logo? With them being in png format and not in psd, figuring it out is sorta tough :O

The install was easy, everything is working just great! Only adjustment I have made so far was bringing the forum table inside of the side graphics. Roughly 70% instead of 90% was enough.

The font is Morpheus, common font for WoW related items and is in the free domain, pop Google you'll find it. I'll provide it in the update though. The PNGs were done in Fireworks as I find that FW is much better for web graphics than Photoshop. That and I cannot stand the PS layout personally. There are two different versions for the PNGs, one in the "buildfile" folder that is the fully layered and setup images, and the ones in the main theme directory. The ones in the theme directory are flattened bitmaps that use PNG to keep the high transparency effects but lose the layering which adds to filesize.

Originally Posted by jim6763nva

Yes I did. ...and thanks for the suggestion! I was wondering, is there any way you could post or include buttons for the "Thanks" and "Top Poster" addons? I think the Top Poster addon has a "Nominate" button.

You can via the "button.png" file in the "buildfiles" folder included in the archive. Just unlock and copy one of the other text layers and paste it then change the text.

Originally Posted by jim6763nva

It was very smooth. I found that adding the site url in front of the paths to the images to fully qualify them keeps them from breaking. The only real issues I have had were mostly on my end with the thing you mentioned about the jaggies and missing buttons from addons I have installed.

Excellent, love it when an install runs fairly smooth. I did notice on your site that the vBexperience was having issues for you. The "level" folder needs to be copied from your main "misc" folder to the one located within the "styles/wrath/misc" folder for the images to work, that should fix your postbit.

Originally Posted by jim6763nva

Thanks again for posting this skin. I'm very pleased with it.

Jim

PS. I see you're from Fredericksburg! Good to see we are neighbors. Feel free to stop by TalkVirginia anytime.

I'll check it out, and I've actually moved again down to Williamsburg, just haven't updated my profile here .

Question to the rest of the crew, would it seriously be better for you guys to have the buildfiles in PSD format instead of PNG? If so I'll repackage the buildfiles to be in PSD format.

[AuroraStorm]

That is absolutely stunning...

[dreads]

all i can say is..
S I C K


nice work

[jim6763nva]

Originally Posted by Cloudrunner

Question to the rest of the crew, would it seriously be better for you guys to have the buildfiles in PSD format instead of PNG? If so I'll repackage the buildfiles to be in PSD format.

I've been trying to learn Photoshop, so PSD would work well for me. I knew Fireworks several moons ago.

Btw, My guildies love the new skin!

Jim

[mrwuss]

Originally Posted by Cloudrunner

Question to the rest of the crew, would it seriously be better for you guys to have the buildfiles in PSD format instead of PNG? If so I'll repackage the buildfiles to be in PSD format.

I would love you forever!!