HTL Turns Seven Today (January 28, 2006)

[ChrisReid]

Today is Holding The Line's seven year anniversary! The exciting HTL story weaves back and forth over more than two hundred chapters set in the Prophecy timeframe. To celebrate their birthday, the team behind the online novel is launching a new website at holdingtheline.net. The site isn't just an archive of HTL fiction however. Almost a hundred various WC Aces stories are now available there. Here's Coordinator Raptor with more.

This last year has been a quiet one for HTL chapters, both because the writers have been hard at work on the big finale, and because there's been a lot of work being done behind the scenes on Holding The Line Dot Net. As promised earlier, the site is being unveiled here at the CIC as a small
gesture of appreciation for everything the CIC has done for us over the years. We came very close to losing our online archives a few years ago, and if it hadn't been for the kind offer to host our
stories at Solsector, many HTL chapters might have been lost for good. In addition, being able to display new chapters at the CIC has allowed us to reach a much bigger audience than we could previously. It's been a great partnership, and one we look forward to continuing as we wrap up HTL.

Holding The Line Dot Net is first and foremost a fiction archive. In addition to all 207 published HTL chapters, the site contains approximately a hundred other Aces Club chapters, many of which have
not been online for several years or at all. We aim to expand both sections in the coming months and also add non-Aces fiction. The ultimate goal is to create the largest and most diverse WC fiction collection in our community. If you're a WC writer with a story you would like to see displayed on our site, we'd love to hear from you.

The site also contains an art gallery that showcases the ships and fighters that have taken part in the story, along with logos, banners, wallpapers and other artwork. This is another section that we plan to expand over the next few months, with the aim being to create a database that other WC fans can make use of in creating their own web pages and projects. If you are an artist who would like to contribute artwork to the gallery, please drop us a line.

The site also has its own forum, with boards for discussing HTL and the site, the Aces Club, and general WC matters. If you would like to chat, point out any teething troubles with the site, or swap links, then please stop by the forum. Registration is required for most sections of the forum, but it's a pretty painless process. Be warned that the CIC's own Death with be moderating, though. ;-)

Last, but most certainly not least, I would like say a huge thank you to Nikolay "Cyberion" Ivliev. Cyberion has created much of the original artwork on the site and has been a pleasure to work with. Keep an eye out for more of his great artwork and renderings to be featured on the site in the next few months.

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Original update published on January 28, 2006

 

[Death]

The site also has its own forum, with boards for discussing HTL and the site, the Aces Club, and general WC matters. If you would like to chat, point out any teething troubles with the site, or swap links, then please stop by the forum. Registration is required for most sections of the forum, but it's a pretty painless process. Be warned that the CIC's own Death with be moderating, though. ;-)

*dramatic chord*

 

[criticalmass]

Congratulations, folks - that looks like a very neat site, and a much needed one too - I've always known that there are a lot of stories out there, but I was either not persistent or not clever enough to hunt them all up..

The design looks great (even if I don't see all of it at once on my tiny 1024x768 laptop screen), the structure is logical, the texts are easily readable, and the extra features are promising (another reference library?)..

So, my best wishes for the continuing work on the project!

 

[Raptor]

Hey all, Raptor here

The site width does seem to be a common problem. I must admit set out the size layout to take advantage of 17 and 19 inch monitors. I'll be talking with the designer to see what we can do to make things easier on smaller screens, especially for the intro pages.

For the main site, a usefull trick I found when viewing it with my laptop was to centre the "book", since all the text is there. That makes reading a story a lot easier than scrolling side to side.

The refernce library is designed to provide background information for readers, both those new to the story and old timers looking for extra information. The sections will be:

Friends And Allies- Information on the factions that are the "good guys", Confed, Border Worlds, Tanfen and the Assembly.

Potential Enemies- The antagonists in the story, Nephilim, Cult Of Sivar, and a neo-Black Lance group called the Movement.

Key Battlegroups- Profiles of the main fighting groups in the story, such Battlegroup Valkyrie

Human Warcraft- Profile, images and stats on the Confed and Border Worlds ships and fighters

Alien Warcraft- same for the Nephilim, and hopefully for the Kilrathi as well.

Aces Chronology- the timeline used by the Aces Club, which has some differances from the standard WC timeline, mainly extra events. Our last storyline, King Of The Mountain, did a lot to merge the two as the time of WC, and we hope do the same in the wind up of HTL.

PS: If anyone has any issues with the site or suggestions for new content, could they please post them here, at the site's forum, or send them to me by E-mail? The site is going to be continously updated and expanded, and I'll be in touch with the developer about any suggestions.

Best, Raptor