1) Mark GIF format, as you proposed, can be done easily but makes doing the graphics AND the coding much harder. State of the art is 16-bit, which looks in nearly all cases like truecolor (24 bit). While 16-bit does NOT necessarily look better (mind you, e.g. AoE is done using a 256 color palette!), it is MUCH harder to get nice resut within these limits, believe me. I strongly suggest to use TGA or TIF (truecolor) to not have the confinements. As was already stated, this is a project getting real in one year (minimum), so we really shouldn#t resort to yesterday's graphical standers...

2) I read your comment concerning the Clash web site. Please tell me what the current amount of traffic is - as a professional web designer, I'd certainly have some means of organizing some web space. I just need the following information:

a) how much space do you have?
b) how big is your traffic allowance / your actual traffic?
c) What do you pay by now?

Btw. about the web page: Maybe that's where we should start, regarding graphics - it's an excellent playground for design studies, and the site could use some cleanup, anyway. If you want, you can send me a (tree) structure of the site as it SHOULD be and I'll do the coding, ok? I have the feeling that an attractive, streamlined and easy to use web site (all which, I'm afraid, doesn't apply right now - sorry ) could do much to further our goals, spread the word and get info around - don't you agree?

1) I'm not really up on all the image handling capabilities of java, esp of 1.2 (also called java2). Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can answer your questions soon on the TGA or TIF questions. If nobody does I'll look into it.

2a) Space available is 10M of which I've used about 4M
b)260M is the current thruput limit. At this month's average rate so far, I would hit about 500M by the month end.
c) There is no fee. The page space and bandwidth comes in a package with my cable provider's ISP service. Unfortunately they seem completely inflexible about going beyond these limits.

I'll try to get some basic info on the site to you in the near future... Unfortunately, I'm scheduled for almost the entire day today, and want to put some thought into this before I send anything.

No need to hurry - right now I can offer 10 more MB, 1 GB traffic FOR FREE for a limited time (but at least 1/2 year), so the imminent problem should be solved, I think. What's more, that server can run generic CGI code no prob.

Just tell me if you'd like to use that offer and, if so, how the site should be done.

I really think that a well-structured (web site) information base is what the project needs more than anything else right now.

Thanks much for the offer. I'm sending a dump of the directory with my web stuff. When you get it set up if you can post the new address here I'll change over some links on Apolyton. That will at least take care of the immediate problem.

When I get some time we can talk about the mods to the site. Maybe by wednesday evening my time I'll have had a chance to think...

Thanks again,

Mark

Expect the mirror site to be up in about 12 hours; URL will be

home.akademie.de/~DToussaint/clash/

Again: No need to hurry. Better do it good than fast (THAT much I have learned from Activision )

Erm... must correct me - is online in 5 minutes

Thanks so much I have updated most of the links... Now I just need a way to make my ISP pay for its offences