TheKolWiki talk:Proposed Standards/archive

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Recipe Charts Discussion

Feel free to make these look better... I think we need some sort of reference to use when adding content, to ensure that the site has a uniform look. Obviously, as the title says, these are merely suggested formatting standards. --Snickles 11:14, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I think the table for item recipes looks ugly but i don't know what else to suggest... --yawgm8th 12:17, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like the table for the combinations (of course), but those colors have GOT to go. I think they're fugly on their own, but side by side it's just puke-tastic. Black and white is the way to go.--jin 12:44, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree about those pathetic colors, but I think some color differentiation might be good. Maybe just white and gray backgrounds? --Snickles 16:54, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Eh, poor explanation. Each tier of ingredients should be in a different color, I mean... Oops. --Snickles 16:56, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • You could perhaps add some slight gray to the background. Using matched pairs in the hex code. EEEEEE DDDDDD CCCCCC BBBBBB AAAAAA etc... Perhaps the top level could be entirely white, and the second one down could go to EEEEEE, and if it went on beyond that, keep making it a tad bit darker. Eventually, we'd have to switch the font color over to white though, because there wouldn't be enough differentiation in shades. --jin 22:11, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Yeah! That looks good! Great work! --jin 22:49, 10 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I like the current tables for item recipes with one exception: when there's a row with a blank space in it, it looks somewhat weird. I wonder if there's anything that can be done about that? In addition, I think for consistency's sake it's a good idea to actually code the first line of the table with background color FFFFFF (totally white), both for ease of editing and in case somebody's browser would naturally shade it differently.--Yiab 11:20, 16 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Why do the blanks spaces look weird? It's the same way things are done on VisualKoL, but here we don't have the same style sheet going on. Just means our borders and font look slightly different. I think putting anything IN those spots would make the charts rather confusing. --jin 11:38, 16 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree that putting things in those places would be confusing; I'm not suggesting that. The only reason they look weird to me is that the cell borders are half as thick around blank spaces, which just throws me off.--Yiab 13:36, 16 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Differentiating Between Recipe Types

  • It is now becoming apparent that there are more recipies that cross between the usual combos. For instance, the Unwound clockwork grapefruit recipie is supertinkering until you get the Clockwork endoskeleton, but then it's a cooking recipie to combine the endoskeleton with the grapefruit. Is there a better way to represent this? Maybe color coding the boxes? Cooking is blue, meatsmithing green, drinkmixing red, combining white, supertinkering yellow and jewelrymaking purple? Shading can still be used - it's a nice visual effect. --xcorvis 20:12, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Sample:
flange cog spring
flange spring sprocket
clockwork thingamajig spring sprocket clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
clockwork claws clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
clockwork endoskeleton grapefruit
unwound clockwork grapefruit
  • Possible, interesting... Let's pick some standardized colors, however. I'd say let's go with white/gray for combines, and use shades of green/cooking, blue/cocktailcrafting, red/meatsmithing and yellow/supertinkering.

Sample Colors

Thoughts on these color choices?
combinecookcocktailmeatsmithsupertinker
white green blue red yellow
white green blue red yellow
white green blue red yellow
white green blue red yellow
white green blue red yellow
white green blue red yellow

--jin 21:26, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Great colors, but I'd loose the first row - too light to tell what the color is. --xcorvis 09:17, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • On principle, I feel we should use some format that is easily extensible; using colors could get messy as other ways of combining are added. As it is, the above list leaves out pixel-combining, and we don't know yet what the new Seal Clubber skill will be. Not including pixel-combining isn't a big problem now, but what if next week a new recipe is implemented that lets us cocktail something using a pixel sword? (A cherry bob-omb, perhaps?) An extensible format may not be the prettiest, but as long as it's clean, it sure beats the headache of changing things later. -- TheArchivist 21:57, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • So what are you suggesting that would be 'extensible'? We can add more colors to the table as more types of creating things comes about. And just because a new type comes out doesn't mean we'd have to change how a wad of dough and a tomato make a plain pizza....--jin 22:47, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I think the color system is fairly extensable, but there are only a few more good colors that won't be confused with others. Orange, purple, teal. Colorblindness is also an issue, though relatively small for most. An alternate solution would be to include some kind of icon next to the row, to indicate what type of combining is done. A chef's hat for cooking, beer goggles for mixing, etc... Then it's just a matter of finding the right icon.--xcorvis 09:17, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I really like this idea. When I get a little time, I'll play around with this a bit and see if I can make a couple samples. -- TheArchivist 12:51, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Sample 1

flange cog spring
flange spring sprocket
Sprocket.gif clockwork thingamajig spring sprocket Sprocket.gif clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
Sprocket.gif clockwork claws Sprocket.gif clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
Sprocket.gif clockwork endoskeleton grapefruit
Chefhat.gif unwound clockwork grapefruit

Is there a way to make the image backgrounds match the table background? Anyway, the idea here is that the icon before a product indicates what you need to do to get that product. Then it is just a matter of finding the right icons. We could use meat paste for combining, chef's hat for cooking, martini glass for cocktailing, tenderizing hammer for smithing, and a cog for supertinkering. Maybe we could use the continuum transfunctioner for pixel combining. We could also add a little info on the pages of all those images explaining what they mean when used in recipes, so that someone who clicks on an icon in a recipe can get an explanation. -- TheArchivist 13:37, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • The images straight from Jick's servers have white backgrounds, but we could photoshop up the few we need for that and give them transparent backgrounds. It's what I do on the main site for all the images. That looks okay, except that an image in the place where you've put them makes me think that's the image FOR the item, because that's how items are listed. What if we could somehow align the image somewhere else in the cell? Far left would be good, but at least on the right side of the item name... And who's gonna go through and re-standardize all the pages to this system? (I'm really quite happy enough with the way things are now. Besides, we've already basically given away the recipes for everything, I assume the user/player is intelligent enough to decide what type of combination process to use, or at least to experiment if the first type doesn't work.) --jin 17:51, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • The re-standardization won't be that bad. Most are linked from the Recipes page, although that might need some changes. It'd be pretty quick to just hit them all and add a picture link. Most of them are all the same pic anyway. I think it would be a valuable addition to the site. I agree that the pic on the left side of the text makes me think it's the item picture. Is there a nice way to make the pic appear on the far left of the box while making the text stay in the center? One last option - when the last step in the recipe is different, break the recipe into two parts and have separate tables. Label recipe tables for their type. --xcorvis 18:35, 15 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Sample 2

  • Here's another sample for a slightly different idea:
Sprocket.gif flange cog spring
flange spring sprocket
Sprocket.gif clockwork thingamajig spring sprocket clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
Sprocket.gif clockwork claws clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
Chefhat.gif clockwork endoskeleton grapefruit
unwound clockwork grapefruit

It would be relatively easy to convert tables to this format, and recipes that only require one kind of combining don't even really need these symbols (though we could add them if we wanted to.) What do you guys think of this? -- TheArchivist 13:01, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Love it. --xcorvis 16:11, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Looks good to me! Go for it. Might want to make/copy those images to some filenames that make it more obvious what's going on. cooking.gif, supertinker.gif, etc. But that chart looks really good! --jin 18:07, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Thanks guys! Jin, that's a good idea. I'll do that and start dressing up some recipes :) -- TheArchivist 18:15, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Sample 3

As good as I think the above recipe format looks, it has a few bugs with it. I think that my creation of the recipe for the clockwork maid sums up most of those:

Sprocket.gif cog flange sprocket
flange spring sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket spring
Sprocket.gif clockwork widget flange spring clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket assembly cog empty meat tank meat stack
Sprocket.gif clockwork clockwise dome clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
Wad.gif cog and sprocket assembly full meat tank
Wad.gif clockwork sphere maiden wig meat engine frilly skirt
Wad.gif clockwork maid head meat maid body
Equals.gif clockwork maid

1) what do we do about those "extra space" entries, leave them white? the color of the row they're in? what about the borders sitting in the middle of nowhere?
2) things on the same row put together in different ways: do them like I did or some other way? --Yiab 15:50, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • The only thing that doesn't look good are the extra borders. It would seem might be able to fix that by putting multiple tables inside of one table, but I believe the /table command makes an automatic break. I'm sure that Jick will throw in some really obscure to make items in the future that will make it very difficult to use this format, but for now, it's rather good. --Maduin 16:50, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Just for clarity, there should also be a meat paste icon between maiden wig and meat engine. Otherwise it looks like a 4-item combine.--xcorvis 17:03, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree that we should put in the extra meat paste icon. I think it'll make the look a little more consistent, too. That table isn't the prettiest, but I think it's okay for now; clockwork maid is probably the most complex thing one can build that requires two different kinds of combining.
  • That would be pretty odd, it would mean we'd have to put that extra thing everywhere, not just where the differences are. Here's an example(--Yiab 17:23, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)):
  • I just think that if you've started the second column, you should bring it down as far as possible. But it doesn't really matter; I'd prefer tables to err more on the side of having fewer icons rather than more. That sample below is pretty hideous, after all :) -- TheArchivist 17:29, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • A problem with this table is that it extends off the page when using 1024x786 and below. -- Krazedout 01:20, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Although this is true, there are very few items that will require such large tables. The clockwork maid is the most complicated item to build thus far, which is why it was chosen for the sample. If combinations get any more complex than this one, we may have to re-think the way the recipe is displayed; ie. display it in parts. For now, though, it's only a minor inconvienence on a very small handful of items. --Aardvark 01:25, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Sample 4

Sprocket.gif cog flange sprocket
Sprocket.gif flange spring sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket spring
Sprocket.gif clockwork widget flange spring Sprocket.gif clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket assembly cog Wad.gif empty meat tank meat stack
Sprocket.gif clockwork clockwise dome clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
Wad.gif cog and sprocket assembly full meat tank
Wad.gif clockwork sphere maiden wig Wad.gif meat engine frilly skirt
Wad.gif clockwork maid head meat maid body
Equals.gif clockwork maid
Incidentally, when using icons in the tables, please use the "functional" names. The basic ones are combining.gif, cooking, smithing, ccrafting, and tinkering. Also, pcooking and scooking designate cooking that requires pastamastery and advanced saucecrafting, respectively; dccrafting designates advanced cocktailcrafting that a Disco Bandit must do; and tsmithing and ssmithing designate meatsmithing that requires armorcraftiness and super-advanced meatsmithing, respectively. By using these, someone can click on the icon in the table and find out what it means. Also, if we later decide to change icons, it will be much easier. -- TheArchivist 17:15, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I haven't used those yet mostly because I really don't think the sprocket should be used for normal combining - i.e. separate icons for supertinkering and combinations would be good.--Yiab 17:23, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • There are separate icons. Combining.gif is [[File:combining.gif]] and Tinkering.gif is [[File:tinkering.gif]]. -- TheArchivist 17:29, 17 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • All we need is a symbol for pixel, star and jewelery crafting, ne? What about items that can only be gotten by untinkering, like the bridge & dictionary? That's the only one I can think of, but yeah. Also, I don't know if "The Plunger" of Degrassi Knoll can combine items that you can't on your own. -- Maduin 19:14, 17 Jun 2005 {Central Daylight Time)
  • The plunger does the exact same thing as meat paste, without the use of meat paste. There aren't any recipes that he can do that a person can't do without help. The item to use for pixel combinations... hmm. Perhaps the Continuum Transfunctioner, or a green pixel. For star combo's, probably a star chart. Jewelery making, the pliers, of course, and untinkering... tricky. The rusty screwdriver, perhaps? -- Aardvark
  • Colorpix.gif green pixel Transfunc.gif Continuum Transfunctioner Starchart.gif star chart Pliers.gif jewelry-making pliers Screwdrive.gif rusty screwdriver
  • Just had another thought. Rather than use a seperate image for untinkering, why not simply copy the recipe from the complete item? It's fast, easy, and shows clearly where the item comes from; it will be bolded whereas the other items will link to their respective pages.--Aardvark 23:09, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm of the opinion that we should make use of the pipe in images to create ALT tags, so that a mouseover would not simply show the image url. In this case, it would make it so that a mouseover on the recipe symbol would state what type of recipe it was. As in Supertinkering Thoughts? -- Aardvark
  • How about a simiplistic template for each Template:supertinker would be something like [[File:sprocket.gif|supertinker]] and to put it on the page, all you'd have to do is {{supertinker}} Might make it even easier than having to remember filenames, even. Flange.gif --jin 23:57, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Wonderful idea! Makes it THAT much easier.--Aardvark 00:05, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Seperate Question: should different images be used to point out cooking recipes involving class-specific skills? For instance, on the page for Gnocchetti di Nietzsche, the author is using a seperate image for pastamancery and for saucemastery. It looks all oogly, because the images are too large, but should a seperate image be used at all? --Aardvark 00:39, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I think it makes sense. Some items anyone can cook, others require a skill. Same for cocktailcrafting. Those images should be cropped to remove their white.. However, they are still a little larger than I would like for them. I don't think it hurts to resize those images for the sake of conserving space. This makes me question: Should all craft icons on the wiki conform to the same size? Combine and Supertinker are 30x30, and that looks fine. --Maduin 2:26, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I believe that they should conform to their KoL sizes. Those particular images were edited before upload, and made larger.--Aardvark 02:27, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Eh... But they're not there to preserve data about KoL, as in show a picture from it; rather, to inform the reader. The small charts look nice and are easy on the eyes, the big gifs stretch the chart out. I think it hinders for unnecessary reasons. --Maduin 2:31, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Yes, I'm aware of that. It looked like the bigger ones had been editted; as it turns out, they're just the tattoo images. I fixed 'em. TheArchivist, if you prefer the old ones, your welcome to revert.Aardvark 02:48, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

What image is standard for cocktailcrafing recipes and meatsmithing recipes, or have we even decided on one yet? eggnog and other pages need help! --Aardvark 02:20, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Combining - combining.gif, cooking - cooking.gif, meat smithing - smithing.gif, cocktail crafting - ccrafting.gif, super tinkering - tinkering.gif, pastamancery cooking - pcooking.gif, sauceror cooking - scooking.gif, advanced cocktailcrafting - dccrafting.gif, armorcraftiness - tsmithing.gif, super-advanced meatsmithing - ssmithing.gif. Just as TheArchivist said. Got it? Good. --Maduin 2:31, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Guys, don't forget that most of the existing item tables have the cellpadding attribute set. This will cause ugly borders around some of the icons. To fix it, set the background color of the icon's cell to white (style="background-color: #FFFFFF"). Obviously, simply removing the cellpadding attribute is easier, but that makes the text look kinda cramped. Actually, I, or someone else, should just add it to the template, before too many of the tables are changed. --Snickles 02:00, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


  • I don't really like the unfinished look of the upper right hand corners. If you can't get rid of those ugly/wierd empty spaces, maybe it'd be better to finish off the table, so they have their own colors?
Sprocket.gif cog flange sprocket
Sprocket.gif flange spring sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket spring
Sprocket.gif clockwork widget flange spring Sprocket.gif clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket assembly cog Wad.gif empty meat tank meat stack
Sprocket.gif clockwork clockwise dome clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
Wad.gif cog and sprocket assembly full meat tank
Wad.gif clockwork sphere maiden wig Wad.gif meat engine frilly skirt
Wad.gif clockwork maid head meat maid body
Equals.gif clockwork maid


or you could leave 'em white

Sprocket.gif cog flange sprocket
Sprocket.gif flange spring sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket spring
Sprocket.gif clockwork widget flange spring Sprocket.gif clockwork doohickey cog sprocket
Wad.gif sprocket assembly cog Wad.gif empty meat tank meat stack
Sprocket.gif clockwork clockwise dome clockwork counterclockwise dome clockwork key
Wad.gif cog and sprocket assembly full meat tank
Wad.gif clockwork sphere maiden wig Wad.gif meat engine frilly skirt
Wad.gif clockwork maid head meat maid body
Equals.gif clockwork maid

--Broccolisoup 06:52, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Sample 5

As per --jin's suggestion, I've created a few templates to assist with recipes, etc. Well, a bit more than a few. Using them will help us to stay standardized; if we change our mind on the images to use, mouseovers, etc, we can simply edit the template. Plus, it's slightly easier to do.
Basic Recipe Types

Special skills

Other

Thoughts? Comments? --Aardvark 05:42, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • This shows me for not looking before I make them based off using the same verb tense. For now, I may as well leave the smith, ccraft, pcook, scook, dccraft, tsmith and ssmith templates as alternatives. Oh, and I always found it strange how we use the meat paste and smithing hammer, but not the oven and cocktailcrafting kit. Perhaps those would be better for the basic cooking and cocktailcrafting? --Agent Lex 07:24, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • These look really good, guys! It'll be exciting to see all our pages now more visually identified with these in our charts! Verb tense might prove to be an issue, and I myself am bad at remembering what something is called when it doesn't fit in with a pattern. Maybe we could list both 'options' on the tense that have been created? Also, I'm unclear as to what dcrafting, tsmithing, and ssmithing are referring to. pcooking I assume is Pastamastery and scooking is Saucecrafting... But those other three special skills lave me confused. I've been very myst-based in the past and never messed with any of the musc or moxie special abilities much. Enlighten me? --jin 09:05, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Dcrafting is Advanced Cocktailcrafting (DB), tsmithing is Armorcraftiness (TT), and ssmithing is Super-Advanced Meatsmithing (SC). You can quickly mouse over the image if you are unsure what it represents.


  • It's not a matter of being able to tell what they are when looking at them, it's a matter of not remembering what each is when typing it in on the pages. Although, I've performed exactly 0 of said changes, if I were to do them I bet I'd forget what those are/were. --jin 16:14, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Ah. I see your point. Would it be easier to name them {{turtle}}, {{clubber}}, {{pasta}}, {{sauce}}, and {{disco}}? With minor effort, I could rename them and re-point the pages currently using them--Aardvark 20:43, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Perhaps {{advcocktail}}, {{armorcraft}}, {{supersmith}} or something based on the names of the skills? Because these days you don't have to be a certain class to do it. Of course, {{turtle}} and {{clubber}} are pretty easy to remember. So I don't care too much, just one of the more recent listings rather than what they are now. You pick, something simple. --jin 21:40, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Fixed. Now using {{pasta}}, {{sauce}}, {{advcocktail}}, {{armorcraft}}, and {{supersmith}} Editing pages using the template.--Aardvark 21:54, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I love the work that's been done in my absence :) The templates are a great idea, especially since I often forget to do alt text for my images. -- TheArchivist 23:33, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm thinking of modifying the template to include <td style="background-color: #FFFFFF">. The only problem, is it will be a pain in the ass to correct all of the pages. It will make future edits and additions easier, though. Thoughts?--Aardvark 17:29, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Never mind. I tested that with the pixel template, and it just doesn't work. <td> without a table is despised, even in templates. --Aardvark 19:29, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Bold, or Link?

Are we going to waffle back and forth over whether the final row in the recipe chart should be simply bolded, or a link to itself? That's the second or third time tonight it's been changed. --jin 00:06, 11 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Putting a link to the page the link is already on just bolds the text, it doesn't wikilink it. See, the following is double-bracketed: Talk:Proposed Standards. So it's the same either way on the recipe pages themselves. --Poopsmithers 00:31, 11 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I think it's simpler to link it to itself, and since the effect is the same, we might as well. Also, if someone cuts and pastes a recipe (as I often do) and then adds to it on another page, it'll already be a link. So, bracket link the final row instead of bolding it. Even if it IS a link to the same page it's on. --jin 00:37, 11 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Standard template for Items?

Perhaps we need some sort of standardized format for items to be entered in. Right now, they're in all sorts of different ways; for example, look at Carob chunks and then Cast and then Hemp backpack.--Atlantima 10:21, 14 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Those were probably put up by three different users. I like the centered image with the name like hemp backpack has going on. And the Uses, Recipe, and Drop Location sections should be standard with anything that would have those sections. Some items (although very few) are entirely useless and wouldnt' have a uses section. Some don't drop anywhere, but are created somehow. And some would not have a recipe at all because they're not combinations. I would suggest: a centered image, the name of the item, description, Drop Location, Recipe, Uses (in that order), any additional miscellaneous sections, then the category definitions. One thing that bothers me, however, is the ganking of bandwidth from Jick by linking directly to his images. I know some folks did that before upload was enabled, but I think we should try to avoid it and maybe go back and change the ones that are already there. We all know the Kingdom is slow enough without us trying to waste bandwidth from an external site. --jin 10:56, 14 May 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

When displaying a list of uses, is it better to use a bullet, or not to? It is my opinion that they make the page look neater, but that's just me. For instance, on the lime page, there are eight uses listed, using bullets. That's an extreme example, of course. But even for items with one use, such as spectral pickle, would it look better as:
Uses:

Or simply:
ghost pickle on a stick
--Aardvark 01:09, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Personally, I favor bullets. --Snickles 01:13, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm entirely indifferent to the matter. Bullets don't make it any easier or harder to read, but it does make the code a bit simpler without all the <BR> tags and/or blank lines. --jin 09:06, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

In completely unrelated news, I created a template for item headers. Just 'cause I got tired of typing in all that code, all the time: {{Itemheader|image=image.gif|item=name of item}}

Example:

spicy bean burrito
spicy bean burrito

Thoughts? Additions? --Aardvark 13:56, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


I've noticed that some pages, such as that of Sneaky Pete's key have a subsection for "Related Items". Most don't. Should that subsection not be there? --Aardvark 22:14, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • It's a legitimate section. Some items need extra notation, others don't. As long as it's done in a fashion that's similar to other stuff, it's fine by me. My $0.02. --jin 22:25, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Item Effects

I'd like to propose an "effects" entry for usable items. For example, Tomato should have Effect: +1 Adventure. This could go in a single line right after sell price or at the top of the "Uses" section. Thoughts before I start madly editing pages?  :) - Turias 17:44, 12 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Not sure I'd call it an 'effect'... There's already a thing called an 'effect' and it's not the same thing as gaining adventures. Perhaps you could do 'adventures gained: 1' 'stats gained: 3 moxie'... How's that sound? --jin 18:34, 12 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
    • How about "Use: +1 Adventure". It makes sense because you click on "Use" to get the benefit, plus, then we can abstract it out to other items such as maps, fireworks, etc. - Turias 22:32, 12 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Makes sense. There's kind of an 'established' standard on a Use(s) section, though. Maybe Results: +1 Adventure? --jin 18:52, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • For food and booze at least, I'd suggest presenting the fullness/adventures/muscle/mysticality/moxie/whatever information in a template. —Yendor 00:44, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Good idea. Someone feel like making us a template? --jin 00:54, 14 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree that effects should be in a template. I think some of us are trying to present the items as they appear in the little window that pops up in-game with the item description and I think that looks great. -- kyrasantae 14 Jun 2005 01:45 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Okay, here's a template. This one's for food; you can adapt it for booze or other items. —Yendor 20:46, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

{{Food|full=4|adv=3 to 12|mus=gain no|mys=gain 10|mox=gain no|text=text here}}

text here

AdventuresYou gain 3 to 12 Adventures.

You gain no Strengthliness.
You gain 10 Mysteriousness.
You gain no Chutzpah.

(You gain 4 Fullness.)

(quickly edited to work with the new template --Agent Lex 22:32, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time))
  • Quickly added the food template to abominable snowcone to see if it looks good. And it looks good in-context to me at least. --Agent Lex 21:05, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • That's a nice looking template, but I'd like to propose a different way to handle food/booze information. I've been tying the information in with the eat message, to mimic the game. So I end up with something like this:
You eat the stir-fried asparagus with asparagusto.
Hourglass.gif You gain 1-5 Adventures.

You gain 3-5 Strengthliness.
You gain 2-5 Mysticality.
(You gain 1 Fullness.)

I think that's a cuter way to do it without really losing any functionality. I think it's important to have a standard look, so I'll use Yendor's template if people prefer it, but I'd like to hear some opinons first. -- TheArchivist 21:14, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Both of those 'work' and convey the same information, but I prefer TheArchivist's version. However, it should be turned into a template page so the same line of code that creates the table would instead create the listed version. Or, perhaps one template would make the game-like listed version, and follow it up with a table... --jin 22:09, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Only problem with that is, not all foods gain you stats, and some make you lose stats. So we end up with lines like "You gain 0 Smarm" or "You gain -12 Beefiness". I'm not sure there's an easy way around that. —Yendor 22:21, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Only way I can think of getting around that is to make the mus/mys/mox field inputs something like "gain 5" so your template would have "You mox Smarm" (braces around mox omitted). That works for zero gains too, as in "You gain no Smarm". Of course, that doesn't account for Hell Ramen, the only food in the game that gives you Meat, or the other effects which would certainly look strange on those items without any if they were added to the template, but that can be put in manually I guess. I'll quickly update the template with what I see as a good version and change the snowcone appropriately, see what people think. (EDIT: Done) --Agent Lex 22:26, 16 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


  • I've gone and added the template onto the standards, since it's easily changable if we decide against it. Just for completeness, and people who don't read the discussion page.
  • I was looking over The_Gnomish_Micromicrobrewery when I noted that someone had edited the adventure range for IPA to 3-9, when I've only observed 3-8 in pretty extensive boozing. I suspect that the editor in question may be a Blender, explaining the discrepancy, but this poses a potentially larger issue as more Wiki contributors ascend as Blenders/Opossums. Should there be a disclaimer in the standards warning people to remember to subtract one if their sign requires? --GreenArmadillo

Spoiler Space

First off, thanks to Snickles for templatizing my spoiler space box not 10 minutes after I put it in the sandbox :)
What I want to ask everyone is, would you prefer the box to have mouseover reveal or not have mouseover reveal (once I actually write the former)? Also, when would be the most appropriate times to use and not use the spoiler box? --Fryguy9 17:10, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • The entire site needs to be inside a huge spoiler box, dontcha think?  :P It doesn't matter to me about spoiler tags, because I want to see them anyways. But I imagine for folks who don't want to see spoilers, it's easier to avoid them when they do NOT show on mouseover. ctrl-a does wonders for displaying entire pages of spoiler tags. --jin 17:12, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • This would probably be a major feature request, but if it were possible to have an option added to the preferences to control the display of spoiler boxes--by default and for people who aren't logged in, displaying the black spoiler box without showing on mouseover, but with an option to instead display the contents of the spoiler box unobscured always. Araltaln 18:28, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Adventure Text

Coming across an adventure text on this wiki (I Prefer Pi), I noted that it ONLY included that adventure text, and no other data. Adding links from the items would look tacky, so I added a sub-section, related topics:

Before I mess around with any other pages, I'd like some thoughts on whether or not this is a good idea, or other propositions for standardizing such pages.--Aardvark 00:02, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Subsection = yuk! :P lemon, lime, and papaya should be linked in the you acquire an item line. And most pages that have the adventure text have "Occurs at: The Palindome" sort of line at the bottom. We should standardize that last line part. They should also all get put into the new category Category:Adventure that I created a few days back. These adventure texts have all mostly been added in the last week since I edited the adventure template to automagically create teh titles of the adventures as links where I wanted the spoilery text of them. We do need a system. That subsection though is unneccessary, I believe. Link (and bold) the items as they drop, and list the area at the bottom, and put them all in Category:Adventure. As an example, Corpse in the Copse looks good. --jin 00:10, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Doesn't it seem that adding "You gain 12 Strenth. You gain 4 Mysticality. You gain 5 Smarm." is kind of pointless considering the randomness of distribution, difference in possible monster levels, and the change in dominant stat caused by change of class? I think it would make a LOT more sense just to put the range of total stat gains given by a monster. "You gain 18 - 22 stat points". That would actually be much more useful, applicable, and accurate.--Broccolisoup 02:14, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree. I also am of the opinion that any "you hit for x damage" or "you missed the monster" or "fumble" messages are kinda pointless in monster descriptions. But yes, a range is better, for stat gains or for meat. --Aardvark 02:12, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

When filling in the adventure text, the Proposed standards document says "include all of the battle descriptions; first the ones where the monster misses, then the ones where it hits." Does that really mean we should write: 

Miss one
Miss two 
Hit one 
Hit two

I think it makes more sense as: 

Miss one
Hit one 
Miss two 
Hit two

Second, how many onomatopoeias should we include, if any? And which ones?
-- Einstein9073 04:07, 26 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Oh, you mean the "biff, pow, socko"? I think three is reasonable, and I like it better in color. It makes it easier to distinguish the hit text from the miss text that way. But that's just me. --Aardvark 04:42, 26 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Standards for Usable Items & Combat Items

I was thinking that Usable Items (currently 169 items) should have a section dedicated to describing what happens when that item is used. Currently, this is sometime in a Notes section, sometimes in an Effect section, sometime in a Use Message section, sometimes in a Produces section, sometimes in a Uses section, sometimes in no section, and often there is no description at all.

Perhaps a good section description would be When Used From Inventory.

Similarly, Combat Items (45 items, with some overlap with the 169 Usable Items) are in the same state of disorder and could benefit from standardization. Perhaps a dedicated When Used In Combat section is indicated.

Thoughts? --Gymnosophist 01:27, 30 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


  • Sounds like we just need to come up with a standard name for the section to put it in. How about just When Used? Then we could use the same section name regardless of what type of use it requires.... I think there are a few items that can be used both from inventory and from combat, and we'll have to distinguish there somehow. Maybe put little headings underneath the when used secion that read in combat and from inventory. --jin 10:11, 30 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Is this finalized and ready to be put in the proposed standards? As it is now, it's just a proposed proposed standard.  :)
If so, the meat vortex would probably be a good example.
--Gymnosophist 02:15, 9 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Gee, it seems deserted in here sometimes. Does anyone have any further comment on this? If not, I'll move this to the Proposed Standards in a day or so. --Gymnosophist 16:20, 18 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Enchantments

Simple question: centered or not? I've been centering them, since they're centered on the actual item description page, and I've noticed at least one person uncentering them. I don't see a standard on it, so I thought I'd clear up confusion if we decided one way or the other. --Agent Lex 14:16, 27 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


I'm at least 1 of those uncentered people!  :) The centered style is faithful to KOL item display standards, but I find that the left justified style looks cleaner and is more readable - it unites all item data on the left side. --Gymnosophist 00:59, 28 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I prefer centering, myself; I believe the display looks better that way. Either way, we do need to come to a consensus on it.--Aardvark 01:04, 28 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Hmmm, we still need that consensus. Jin, Snickles, anybody! Is anyone out there?  :) --Gymnosophist 22:45, 29 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Sorry... Didn't notice the new discussion bits in here with all the other stuff. Yeah, go with centering. I prefer to stay with what the Kingdom does, when it's something the Kingdom does. --jin 22:47, 29 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I much prefer not centered, even though the Kingdom does it. The fact is, whenever the enchantments are visible in the Kingdom pages, they're in additional windows and so you never get the effect of centered things being far away from left-justified things, but you do get that effect on a page like this one.--Yiab 06:04, 8 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I run Mozilla on a maximized window. When it opens an item description, it is in a maximized tab for me. I don't think it's a big deal to have it "far away". You're just not used to seeing it that way. You could always make this window smaller to get the same effect.  :P --jin 10:56, 8 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Campground Items

  • I've split up the Chef into two pages: chef-in-the-box (original page) and Chef-in-the-box (Campground) (new page). I've only done the one Campground item, because I wanted to get feedback on this approach before proceeding further. Some particulars on what's been done:
  • Sorry, what exactly is the point of having two pages instead of one? The [x]-in-the-box items can't be used for anything until they're installed at your campground, so having pages that describe the un-campgrounded versions seems rather pointless. Same for the dwellings. If this is intended for disambiguation purposes, I don't see that there's anything ambiguous about having all the info for these items on one page. -- Old Ned 06:10, 13 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Well, one reason is that we need two pages in order to be consistant with the treatment of same-name skills/effects and familiar hatchlings/familiars. But a much stronger argument than consistancy is the fact that they are two separate things. A Cottage in your inventory is an item, not a location. Similarly, the Cottage in your Campground is a location and not an item. Both the item version and the location version have their own distinct image, charactistics, and linkage scheme. One important reason for having a page for the item version (aside from the fact that every item in the game gets a page) is to show the recipe to build the item. Generally speaking, it's just a bad idea to consolidate different but related things. Shall we, say, combine bat guano and guano coffee cup into a single page? Mmmm, I don't think so. --Gymnosophist 09:32, 13 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • You've got a point about the images being different, but the bat guano/guano cup example is not comparable -- they are different items with different names. Skills and effects can have the same names but are still qualitatively different things, as are the hatchlings and familiars, but to me the Cottage in the campground is still the same Cottage I had in my inventory; I've just placed it on the ground. So they're not different things, to me anyway. Organizationally, one "Cottage" page that lists the recipe to build it and says what it does when installed in your campground seems perfectly straightforward and logical. I guess I just don't see the necessity of splitting it up. Anybody who looks up "Cottage" is probably going to want all the information that's available, not just one aspect or the other, won't they?
    Basically, I think the operating principle behind changing some aspect of a page's organization should be "Will this change increase or decrease confusion?" I find splitting different aspects of a single object onto different pages to be more confusing, not less. Perhaps others disagree. -- Old Ned 06:01, 14 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Yeah, the guano cup was kind of a crappy example.  :~) While I completely agree with you that all changes should be guided by the goal of maximizing utility, I do disagree that, taken as a whole, the split increases confusion. Probably the primary reason for my thinking has to do with their separate natures as an item and as a location. Items and locations have completely different linkage schemes. Before I started making these changes, the campground was listed in the Locations page, but none of it's constituent elements were listed. This seemed wrong to me. All campground furnishings should be listed on the location page. But I couldn't add [x]-in-the-boxs, etc. to the location list as they are not locations. To me, this approach would inflict more confusion than does the split. And again, the split approach very much hews to our standard practices. Another example of the consistancy of the split approach is the similarity of treatment of the Cottage (Campground) to The Ground. Perhaps adding additional information to the Notes section of the Cottage would make the split approach more palatable? --Gymnosophist 02:49, 15 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • So, why bother users with having to go through two pages for information that can be placed on just one page? Surfing the 'Net is made easier with the least amount of mouse-clicks as possible. 'The Campground' (+subsequent item links) is already in the Locations category. Why bother with seperate (Campground) links for xx-in-the-box items and separate (Campground) links for the different Housing options? Really, it's just the in-game pics that change. As for the characteristics of each, you can just put "After installed at your campsite...", then what each object does. Like a "before you use it from your inventory" and a "after you use it from your inventory" kind of split for each item. You need an example? Check out Meat maid, Clockwork maid, Meat golem, and/or Spooky scarecrow to see what I'm talking about. Looking at the Locations category, why is "The" added to locations that do NOT have "The" in their title in the actual Kingdom? Like, The Orcish Frat House. In the Kingdom, it appears only as Orcish Frat House. Also, why are some "The" titled locations not listed under "T"? The Hippy Store actually starts with "The" in the Kingdom, but it's listed under "H" in the Locations category. --MrPresident
  • MrPresident, welcome to the Act First, Ask Permission Later club. You know, the way we do things here is to achieve concensus and then act upon that concensus. Instead, you chose to ignore both this discussion and the discussion in Talk:Certificate of Participation (which was prompted by concern about your changes) and do things your own way. When you finally did get around to participating in the discussion, you not only managed to completely miss the nuances of the discussion, but you managed to introduce a completely irrelevent topic. I checked out your examples. They look like crap. --Gymnosophist 21:35, 16 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Gymnosophist - Oh, stop it, you're making my eyes welt up with tears! So, what you're saying is you're sad that I didn't do it your way. Well, we're all different. Me and Old Ned don't agree with your "split a single subject into two pages" concept 'cause it's just too darn cumbersome! Come on! Two different pages for the same subject? Yeah, I made changes I thought would help users find information more smoothly. I didn't ask for your permission or concensus. Why should I, you're not an admin. If you were, you'd act with more tact than you did above. Hell, I just went through a whole box of tissue!  ;-DMrPresident
  • Alright, boys. Both of you to a corner. It's a wiki. For a game. It really just isn't important enough to fight over. With that said, precedent (and my personal preference) is for each KoL entity to have a dedicated page. No disrespect to those who think differently, but that is the way we've handled similar situations in the past, and that is how I cast my vote on the subject. --Snickles 00:06, 17 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Oh no, I'm in a round room and I don't know what to do!!  :~) --Gymnosophist 00:15, 17 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Snickles - Thank you for your understanding! You wrote that "each KoL entity to have a dedicated page". Page, not pages. I say Amen to that! I don't know why Jimnofist thinks two pages are necessary for just one subject. I mean, look at the Cert.of Participation. I still only see one page for that baby, and the page makes sense. Just like Meat maid, Clockwork maid, Meat golem, and Spooky scarecrow. Okay, time for sleep. Thanks again, Snickles, for your time. Now I understand why some are admins and some are not.  ;-) MrPresident
  • Gymnosophist is a much better editor than I, as well as having a great sense of style. So, thanks for the flattery. But. By "entity," I mean that EVERY "entity" is entitled to a page. Meat Maid (item) is not the same as Meat Maid (campground). They are two different "entities." It might not be the best way to organize data, but it is consistent with the rest of the wiki, and that's important. Also, I doubt that people will need to reference the campground items often enough for the extra click to get annoying. So, just to be clear: I support splitting up campground item pages into an item page and a campground page. --Snickles 08:56, 17 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Snickles - Well, thanks again for clarifying things for me. I hope other users learn from your example of patience and understanding, not to mention your taking time to explain the Wiki system. Insulting users really doesn't make for good progress, and I'm really glad you didn't do so. Your tact has helped me want to get involved more and be on the same "page" as you (no pun intended). Later today, I'll split the other campground items into two. By the way, earlier I asked about the Locations category (accessible from the Main Page) and locations listed with "The" in their title. Would you mind reading my questions above and explaining that to me? Thank you.--MrPresident
  • "The" should be omitted when sorting anything alphabetically. In the case of The Orcish Frat House, someone should apparently be slapped. If you don't know this already, to change the sort order of a category, write the category flag like this: [[Category:Rock Bands|Rolling Stones, The]]. This will place the full text (The Rolling Stones), but it will be sorted as if it were "Rolling Stones, The." The trailing "The" is actually unneeded... I just do it out of habit and a sense of completeness.
  • Part of the problem that led to such a misunderstanding is the system we have here. We have maybe ten or so editors that have contributed the overwhelming majority of the work, and participate in discussion and debate on various wiki issues. When someone arrives, and we see them editing pages and going against the majority opinion, it can be a little grating. Don't take comments personally; minor conflict is going to happen on a wiki. --Snickles 09:34, 17 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Snickles - I was cruising around the Kingdom this morning and was surprised at how many locations do have "The" before their title. I also took a look at the Locations category again. Entryway and Orchish Frat House are both listed with "The" in their title, but in the Kingdom they don't have it. Okay, okay, I won't mention it anymore. By the way, I didn't take Gymbo's comments personally. I just thought it was in extremely bad taste and didn't give me an impression that he/she has "a great sense of style" at all.--MrPresident
  • Wow, I'm amazed at all the discussion that's gone on while I was busy with Real Life™. I've been persuaded that the two-page approach seems to make more sense organizationally, so I drop my objections. (To be honest, I think at least part of my objection was because I was a bit disgruntled that Gymnosophist went ahead and made the changes when nobody else had replied yet...) -- Old Ned 19:11, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Old Ned, In point of fact, I was actively soliciting user feedback. I did one example and asked for feedback, waited a week (which is like donkey's years in Wiki time), did a few more and again asked for feedback, which finally came almost two weeks later. Getting feedback can be like pulling teeth around here sometimes (as I think you yourself have seen). Finally, not to toot my own horn or anything, but after having done literally thousands of edits, I feel like I have a pretty keen sense of the Visual KoL Wiki style (and have in fact been made a Wiki admin since you were last here). But the bottom line is that we're all working to make the Wiki great. So, thanks for that. --Gymnosophist 22:09, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I've moved Shagies comments to their proper section. --Gymnosophist 15:33, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
There have been some recent changes to have some items (such as the cheap toaster show up as locations (Category:Locations). Given the existing (and quite useful) Category:Campground Items, which should be the standard? Personaly, I find the campground items more sensible - the campground itself is a location as are the places outside. Saying that the familiar-grow terrarium is a location as is the toaster seems a bit silly. --Shagie 15:15, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • As you can see, this has been a much discussed and now fully decided issue. All three active Wiki admins have agreed that the split item/location approach is the approach that should be used. I'm only now getting around to finishing up the split process. On the Category:Locations, when I get done setting up the campground locations, I'll be proposing that we phase this out in favor of still more useful The Campground page. --Gymnosophist 15:33, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Items

Bought Items

When an item is available for purchase at a location (i.e. The Market) can we add how much meat it costs or is that considered a spoiler? --Wierd Ali 13:42, 4 Oct 2005 (MDT)

See The Market --JRSiebz 13:44, 4 Oct 2005 (MDT)
  • Isn't everything here a spoiler? Or more often than not anyways.... --jin 07:40, 26 Oct 2005 (MDT)

Drop Location vs. Notes

When an item does not drop ingame, but rather is obtaine by using a different item, I personally feel that this information should be placed under "Notes", although I've seen a few people add it under "Drop Location" instead. What should be the norm? --Aardvark 03:28, 8 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I would say that it should be put in an "Obtained From" section - this is consistant with the Effects approach. --Gymnosophist 01:57, 9 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm belatedly retracting my "Obtained From" suggestion. The Notes section has grown on me.  :) --Gymnosophist 20:07, 17 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I think it would be nice if the items had a link directly to the monster/s that drop it, maybe along with the drop location. It's mainly ease of navigation I suggest this for. If I know an item but not the monster that drops it, I have to first go to the location, then look through a list of all possible adventures there to find the monster that drops it. (I know the location should be enough, but I like to know things)--Gorgolok 10:15, 17 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I meant to respond to this earlier, but things got away from me. I like the idea, but there are a few items that are dropped by 3,4, or even 5 monsters all in the same area. It might make things too crowded. What if we listed up to 2 (or maybe up to 3) monsters, but if there were 3 or more (or maybe 4 or more) monsters, we would just say something like "(various monsters)" instead of the full list? --Gymnosophist 00:58, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I would like to see, under the adventure locations pages, that the item drops information is accurate. For example, under "Completely Different Spider," the location shows that "spider web" drops. In the actual fight text, though, it is apparent that multiple webs can drop. Could this be reflected in the locations page? --Barnaby36 21:08, 28 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • These pages should always match up, but there are probably a few missed things here and there. I fixed the spider, but if you see a mismatch, either fix it (if you know for certain what is correct), or put up a needs work template. --Gymnosophist 00:58, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Table of Contents

Another thought. I can't think of any items that would EVER need a ToC. I can add the __NOTOC__ command into the item header template to ALWAYS prevent loading of the table of contents on pages using the template, but wanted to check to make sure that I wouldn't mess anyone up by doing so. --Aardvark 03:31, 8 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I notice nobody ever commented on this, and the itemheader template still doesn't have this. I think that's a fine idea -- I can't see why any items would ever need a ToC, either. -- Old Ned 01:44, 2 Oct 2005 (MDT)
  • Added. This may cause some lag while the pages recache to reflect the change, but things should be back to normal shortly. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 02:02, 2 Oct 2005 (MDT)

Collected By

I have started (re)noticing people putting "Collected by XXXXX" in the Notes section of some items. Personally, I think this is an indirect way of begging and that what someone collects should stick to being put in a players profile page, rather than cluttering up the item pages. I can picture items with lists and lists of names under them, especially things like toast, which for someone reason everybody and their mothers collect. Also see some points made on this issue in Talk:Bloody beer last month. So.. what are your thoughts? --JRSiebz 04:11, 10 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Well... I only added the things I collect because I notice that (almost) no one else collects them, and the items are all related to my name. When I started KoL I didn't know these items existed, and when some people started sending them to me I just started a collection... And my thoughts are that items with tons of collectors shouldn't be collected at all if they're useful items, or just very common. --Papaya 04:19, 10 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I'm loathing it (and not in a good way!). This stuff should be on the player's profile page. But, if we feel that we absolutely must track this sort of thing, then maybe an acceptable compromise would be to create a separate Collections page, rather than cluttering up the item pages.
  • Another thing I loathe (August 10 - World Loathing Day) is The Subtle Knife's store section. It's worse than useless. This isn't the place to peddle outdated lists of overpriced crap. That's what advertising is for! This should be unilaterally nipped in the bud. --Gymnosophist 10:43, 10 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree about the "Store" section. It doesn't belong here, and it's pretty much unreadable anyway since s/he doesn't use any <br> tags. -- Old Ned 18:40, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Full agreement on the "Collected by" tags. They need to be limited to player pages. --Snickles 14:02, 10 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • While I agree that there is no need to keep track of which players are collecting which items, people might find it useful to keep track of which players are buying which items. Thoughts? -- Baltar 20:40, 10 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I fully agree with Baltar: 'Collected by' seems like an advertise, while we *may* accept 'Bought By' links, in the interest of new players who want to make some quick money.-- Worthstream 05:12, 19 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I disagree. Something like this is always going to favour individuals. People who don't use the Wiki will most likely not get on these lists, thereby missing out on the opportunity for (what amounts to) free advertising.--Gorgolok 11:10, 19 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Well, we're already doing some free advertising for collectors in the little box in the left-hand pane on every page, just above the PayPal link. But people can ignore that pretty easily while they're focusing on the text. Having the ads actually in the text is going a bit too far. I think both "Collect by" and "Bought by" should not be allowed. -- Old Ned 18:40, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Playing with an idea seen on Wikipedia, what about facilitating players to modify their own pages and the coresponding category for collectors. I've tossed an example on my page and it uses Template:User collector (based off of a template for languages - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ajnewbold for an example of its use. Given the proper place to present and collect the information it could be helpful. (If not, admin types feel free to clean up the associated pages) --Shagie 21:39, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • The whole concept of tracking collections has been, at best, only begrudgingly accepted. We have set up a Item Collectors page, but it's pretty low profile. The template appearance is nice, but the category is problematic for a couple of reasons.
  1. Having categories directly on User pages is apparently something of a no-no, for reasons that I can't really explain.
  2. We're trying to keep a lid on new categories (see Talk:Proposed Standards#Funky Categories and Metastructure).
  3. We're currently debating decreasing support of collectors, not increasing it.

So, could I ask you to remove the category from your template (and I'll delete it later, barring further developments). Maybe put in a link to Item Collectors if you like. Thanks. P.S. - you're doing some pretty snazzy things, and I'm looking forward to seeing the next thing you do! --Gymnosophist 22:38, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I don't care much for the category, the template probably should be renamed from Template:User collector to Template:Collector. Cateogories on user pages, bad, categories on player pages, ok. If we keep the category, it probably should be pluraled as Category:Collectors. The only non-plural categories here are Category:Player and Category:Adventure, which would be a project to say the least.--JRSiebz 02:07, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • My two meat stacks... The wikis that tend to be the most successful are those that have a thriving community behind them. As collectors are part of the KoL community (and encouraged to the extent that there is a display case and the hall of records with collections) it would help the wiki's community to support them to some degree. I certainly agree that the collectors in the notes section is an eyesore and poorly placed. However, providing a template and category for them should help establish an accepted way to have this information - just as a house with a toy room tends to be cleaner because toys have their designated place, so would the wiki. --Shagie 15:44, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like the template. Not sure I'm so hot about the category. Not sure I'm so hot about Item Collectors either, though. If we nuke the Item Collectors page, I won't object to a category. Probably better that way. <rant>As for user pages... I seriously wish all of our vanity non-notables with 0 contributions would use the user namespace for their "im soo cool" pages. And of course, not categorize it.</rant>--Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 06:20, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)

Trophies

We don't have a standard example for trophy pages. Anyone think we should just make a template? And we need a agreement on the name for the emerging Trophy Maker text section. --JRSiebz 15:18, 15 Sep 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Linking

One thing I've come across and I'd like people's opinions about is linking withing descriptions of items. For instance, I just added a picture to blue pixel potion, and MP is linked in the description. I thought that was kind of silly, but didn't change it. Even sillier, I added a picture to something earlier that had Meat linked in the autosell price. I'm somewhat of the opinion that we shouldn't bother linking basic terms like MP and Meat in most descriptions. What do others think? -- TheArchivist 19:21, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I agree. It's pretty silly to even CONSIDER trying to link every item to things like meat. It's downright absurd. Everything has the term in it's description, or nearly everything. Those are terms that anyone visiting this site should already know. --jin 19:26, 13 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


I think you're on to something, TheArchivist. I'd fully support the support of that template. The other one just looks so drab.

  • I think I've cleaned out most of the superfluous meat/booze/food/MP/HP links. --Gymnosophist 16:09, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Zapping

Depending on the number of zappable items it might not be a bad idea to think about how recipes should be displayed. Do recipes go into Zapping and/or will they be included with the individual items? In case of the latter, will item descriptions get a subheader "Zaps into" or will there be a recipe graphic with the wand?

  • Both places sounds good to me. For individual items, we can put the zapping information (either text or a mini zap table with a wand icon) in either the Notes section or perhaps a new Zapping section. In the zapping page, we could have a master list of zap triplets (assuming that they are in fact triplets). Before we get too far with this, we might want to nail down if zapping transmutes things in a fixed order and what differance, if any, the wand type makes. --Gymnosophist 15:33, 20 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • The thread in the KoL Forums has established that zapping does not go in a fixed order; it's random as to which of the other set members you get. More than one person reported zapping item A to item B, and then back to item A on the next zap instead of item C. I also get the impression that many things don't zap at all, so I think a master list in one place would be easier to maintain than notes on every individual item. Maybe the items that do zap could just have a link to the zapping page for details. -- Old Ned 18:47, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I believe the proper way to handle zapping on the Wiki is to set up 'zap class' templates. Thus 'barbed wire fence' and 'white picket fence' would be part of the same zap class as would 'tamarind flavored gum' and 'pickle flavored gum'. This would look much the same as Template:saucepan does. --Shagie 19:41, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
I've tossed up Template:ZAP_brownie as an example of what this should look like. --Shagie 19:51, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Replying to both Old Ned and Shagie, yes, the randomness seems to be confirmed. I set up a master list for testing purposes which is linked to from the zapping page, and yes, many things don't zap. There's still lots of testing to be done, but I think we're at the point that we can start talking about the structure and layout of zapping data on a per item basis. I think that a master list approach is too cumbersome and too user-unfriendly an approach and that we should instead have a Zapping section on every item page. If an item is in a zapping group, then there would be some sort of template, otherwise, just a short note saying that the item can't be zapped. On the zapping template itself, some thoughts on the Template:ZAP_brownie example:
  1. The slash icon should be on the left to be consistant with current usage (see the Herb brownies recipe for example).
  2. The color is nice, but perhaps it should be subtler so as not to dominate the page (all our item pages are just black and white).
  3. I'm not sure if using a single zapping template or using many zapping templates, one for each zap group, is the better approach. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.
Thoughts? --Gymnosophist 23:56, 29 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Several good points...
  1. Slash icon moved
  2. The inital colors used were the toccolours class which is used for the table of contents on a page with a steel blue name. I've changed this to a white background with a #EEEEEE area for the zapping type and a slightly darker (and quite subtle) border.
  3. Sylisticaly, it should be multiple templates - one for each zap group. If you try to put everything in one, you'll have the cumbersome problem again. Technicaly, it should probably be N+1 templates for N zap groups. The other template would be a template generating template so that style changes to all the templates can be done at once. I'll see if I can hack that properly. Might need some admin type cleanup afterwards.
--Shagie 02:02, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like it. I especially like the approach that lets you implement style changes with a single change. Great job! Lets see what other feedback we get. --Gymnosophist 08:01, 30 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like it as well. Very useful, ESPECIALLY with the new DoD Rings class. None of those can be obtained any other way... As for the meta template... err, not so hot. If I were to make a change to Template:ZAP tgen, Template:ZAP basic burrito would fail to update with the change, until I (or someone else) ran a purge command on it. Which kinda defeats the point of it. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 06:13, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)
  • In related news, I really don't think that outfits should have zapping templates. They should instead have an outfit template, maybe something like this (also below) --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 08:46, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)
  • I've tweaked the template slightly, replacing the comma delimiters with a more Wiki-standard pipes, made it left aligned (like recipes), and also renamed the zap templates to ZAP in order to conform with existing template naming conventions. Let's rollout the ZAP templates into live use (but hold off on outfits). If an item can be zapped, let's make a Zapping section towards the bottom (like Enchanted bean burrito). If an item can't be zapped, we probably don't need a zap section, just put a note in the note section (like 100-Watt bulb).
On outfits, I think I disagree that they shouldn't have a zapping template. We need to be consistent. But maybe we could incorporate an outfit tattoo into the zapping template.
  • I do like Shagie's idea, which uses the same style as the zapping template, but incorporates the outfit symbol rather than the wand. My idea about using outfit templates that float to the right of the page isn't such a hot one, however... it looks HORRIBLE and doesn't really fit with our current style. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 22:47, 2 Oct 2005 (MDT)


Zapping Template Example 1


{{ZAP basic burrito}}

Outfit Template Example 1

{{User:Aardvark/Sandbox}} Oh, goodness. Text wraps around this thing a bit too neatly. Sorry bout 'that. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 08:47, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)

How about... {{ZAP_yendorian}} These are easy to make with the zap_tgen template. --Shagie 11:27, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)

  • True, and it looks good, too. Still, I think a specific outfit template might be better, and could impart more specific data. Although mine is REALLY ugly right now... One thing that could be a concern about regular zap templates is the fact that ring of aggravate monster will have not one, but TWO zap templates on it, if this format is adapted. Of course, we can always live with that. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 11:30, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)
  • Take two... using box_tgen to show the image. Considering making a version of zap_tgen for outfit_tgen to do the dress up image and the tattoo...
Nethackcostume.gif Yendorian Finery - [{{fullurle:Template:{{{name}}}|action=edit}} edit]
cornuthaum, vorpal blade, ring of aggravate monster

--Shagie 11:44, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)

  • It looks really nice. For some reason, I'm think that a right-float infobox would be ideal, but that looks great too. Meta-templates, however (templates called from templates), although they have the advantage in making standardization easier, do have some issues. Mainly, they can create problems with caching, additional server hits, and a handful of other problems. It's great for standardization early on, but eventually, it will be beneficial to change the templates so as NOT to call each other. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 12:00, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)
  • As long as the templates are cleanly written its not a signficant issue for meta-templates. Additionaly, while I like this color scheme it is still up in the air. Meta templates alow the entire system to be changed cleanly. Just don't nest them too deeply or try to call one template and have an argument as another template. As to float right, while I like it it does not appear to be an accepted standard on this wiki (trying to keep the feel of the top part of the page as similar to the game as possible). A float right template might clash with the item pages. --Shagie 12:14, 30 Sep 2005 (MDT)

Images

  • One problem I've noticed is that the filename "lime.gif" is used twice, once for the saber-toothed lime monster and once for the lime item. I can only suggest that one of them be renamed stlime.gif or something. --Agent Lex 19:10, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Another problem: the image wa.gif won't upload, since the filename (excluding extension) has to be at least three characters long. I'll rename it wa1.gif for now. --Agent Lex 21:51, 18 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • It seems that the filename dolphin.gif is also in use by an adventure image. I have renamed it to vtrinket.gif --Aardvark 04:13, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Chest.gif is also used twice. I have renamed it to item_chest.gif. --Aardvark 06:11, 19 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • For bugbears: bugbear.gif is the animated tattoo. If you want the static bugbear image, use haiku2.gif. The casino pack of cards image is cards.gif. If you need an adventure image, use cards_.gif. --Hubert rawlinson 08:23, 23 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Both the Adventure Luminosity and the item inexplicably glowing rock use glowrock.gif for their image. The adventure has been renamed to adv_glowrock.gif. --Einstein9073 01:49, 30 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Monster HP?

I've noticed that monster HP is not shown when looking at any of the area pages. Seeing that the adventure template is a bit restrictive, since it's used for all adventures, another method has to be found if we want to list out the HP of the different monsters on pages like The Sleazy Back Alley. Any comments or thoughts on this, or is leaving monster hp to the individual adventure pages more effective? -- Krazedout 06:12, 21 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I wasn't even aware we were listing monster HP. It's impossible to get an accurate number, for one, and for two, I haven't seen it listed on either the location page or the adventure page. It might be something worth adding, but we won't be able to do any better than estimate. --Aardvark 06:31, 21 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Well, I was thinking of using a detective skull for determining the HP. I read from subjunctive KoL that it's margin of error is only 5 HP, which would serve for most cases. The problem comes when monsters scaled according to level comes into the picture. -- Krazedout 09:14, 21 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Perhaps we should keep a running record of monster hp on the discussion page of each monster, until the true range is determined. I'd consider that information very valuable. In addition, I think we need to come up with a way of measuring monster offensive capability. Perhaps THM0? ;) --Snickles 22:26, 28 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I've started collecting some monster HP statistics. I'm fighting barehanded against monsters at the Knoll and dealing 1-2 damage per hit, making it easy to determine how many hitpoints the monsters have. So far, it seems that monsters at the Knoll have a single hitpoint value; perhaps at later areas where the stat gains vary, the hitpoints vary too. I'll start posting hitpoint values on the discussion pages for each monster. -- TheArchivist 23:02, 29 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm doing the same. Even if one is not fighting bare-handed, it is possible to narrow down the range of hp to a single value.That does require a lot of fights, tough. It would be easy to get that amount of info through collaboration, and we could get that by starting to post hp on the main monster page.I suppose that, until it is'n approved as a standard, discussion page should do.Worthstream 05:24, 25 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • A detective skull and/or clockwork detective skull might be of help. They're not exact, but they're pretty damned close. --jin 23:06, 29 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • By using a lot of fights we could get the exact number of hp, so the detective skull wouldn't be necessary. Worthstream 05:24, 25 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Snickles' idea is a good one. Supposedly, monster HP is a fixed number, so if you add the damage you do to a monster, you can get a range of numbers for mmonster HP (its HP is equal or lower than the total damage you did to the monster, but higher than the damage you did up till the penultimate turn. So if a bunch of us record these numbers and write them in each monster's discussion page, we should get a low margin of error in not too much time. But if we do this, we shouldn't record numbers when we're using items that boost monster level - I guess that boosts their HP too. --pcentella 8:15, 11 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm using an annoying pitchfork to boost moster's level, and i've not noticed any hp change on Knob's elite guard. They have 30hp at their level, and 30hp 5 levels higher.Worthstream 05:27, 25 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Along this line of thinking, check out this post from the KoL forum; it has some general information about how monster damage is calculated. Although other posts indicate that the information is only partially correct, the information is still valuable. --Snickles 17:16, 14 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Do we have a standard yet? I've been collecting data and have The Hole In The Sky at 149-150 HP each, which I would guess is 150. And since both the Hole and the Knoll seem to have uniform HP levels, can we assume all locations have uniform HP per monster? Or at least locations rhyming with Knoll? In this case, putting the HP in the location would be more concise. But, there's probably an exception. Also, I made this not a sub-topic of Images. --Eis271828 14:38, 3 Oct 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Equipment Listings

I've been looking at the equipment listings (... by power) and think that some more separation needs to be done.

I suggest giving items that are unique backgrounds of Pale Weak Red; items that no longer drop or are otherwise restricted in quantity backgrounds of Pale Dull Orange; and items requiring extraordinary effort or outside intervention backgrounds of Pale Dull Yellow. Further, the previous alternating background is now confusing; I recommend sticking with the very pale gray. See example below.

(I'm not emotionally invested in the colors; just the idea.) (Either this, or removing non-dropping items into a separate list. Or creating new lists with just items currently available.) --Einstein9073 04:27, 4 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Ack! I'm not against differentiation, but... unh-uh. Perhaps we could come up with some sort of icon for those purposes, but these colors clash, are confusing, and generally oogly. It might look better using differing grays, much like the recipes table, but I think it would still get confusing. --Aardvark 06:55, 4 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I agree, these colors are horrid. And the proposed system for them is rather superficial. We could perhaps make the backgrounds different for items that don't drop, and get rid of the alternating thing. Maybe a black background and white font on items that are not drops? I changed some of the table above... What do you think of THOSE colors?--jin 08:28, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like the concept, but I'm still not too keen on the colors. The black background in particular makes the linked text unreadable. I'm in favor of a subtler palate - white for standard stuff with shades of gray for rare stuff (and yes, get rid of the alternating colors - it makes it a nightmare to edit). I actually have a lot more trouble with the classification scheme than I do with the color scheme. Some thoughts:
    • Custom Items, bug blades and other stuff you could never ever hope to get gets the darkest shade.
    • Ultra rares and, I guess, Mafia prizes are a shade lighter.
    • Not so rare stuff is the lightest. But I'm not sure what should be treated as a not-so-rare. Should Mr. A. familiars be not-so-rares? They're kinda pricey, especially the older ones. Crimbo stuff goes for almost as much as a hypnodisk - should it be treated like Ultra rares? And Mr. A itself - a not-so-rare? What about the spooky hockey mask, going for "only" 500K - a not-so-rare?
    • And there are plenty of deimplemented items that are almost dirt cheap - Ent Cider, kneecapping stick, etc. Maybe a forth shade for these?
  • Again, I really like the idea, but the devil's in the details. Maybe a single shade of grey that is used for every flavor of rare? Or maybe use a set of icons? --Gymnosophist 16:53, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I'm in favor of using a set of icons. Neat, and easy to read. It might be a decent idea to alternate colors for stylistic reasons, but not for data reasons. Something like Example 2, below. Again, however, that's more of a style preference, and not anything of import.--Aardvark 17:58, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like the idea of icons - I think that might be most intuitive. It'd be easy if we create a template. Howver, I think items you cannot (or can no longer) earn (Custom items, Time Juice, Mob Penguin Cell Phones) should be in the darkest color (or icon) and items you can only earn through extraordinary effort (Mr. A., Bugfinder, Radio KoL, Ultra Rares) be in a middle shade (or icon).

Further, I think if we use shades of gray, the shades need to be sufficiently far apart to differentiate them. #FFF is too close to #EEE or #DDD to be immediately obvious. #FFF, #CCC, #999, #666, #333, #000 - Web-safe grays. --Einstein9073 19:21, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • The more I think about it, the more I like the icons and the less I like the gray shade scheme. Depending on how finegrained the classification scheme is, we could easily outstrip the number of available gray shades. Whereas for icons, there's no reason that we couldn't use colors. --Gymnosophist 19:55, 5 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Okay, how about this: Anything that will not drop during gameplay is given a dark background. (#999) Items that do are given a white background. (#FFF) (And maybe a medium background for ultra-rares, or not. Whatever.) For those items that do not drop, an icon could be added explaining why. --Einstein9073 20:01, 6 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I really don't feel that backgrounds should be used to impart data AT ALL. I'm not against an icon, in a seperate column, which classifies the item, but using backgrounds for any purpose besides a stylistic one isn't a really good idea, in my opinion. It just doesn't look right. --Aardvark 20:09, 6 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

To see that really ugly first draft, read the history.

Equipment Listings, Example 2

NamePowerRequirementsNotes
Bigger Bugfinder Blade20085 muscleAll Attributes +9
Awarded to people who find a lot of bugs, or major ones
fetus-smashing club20085 muscleCustom Item
Bugfinder Blade18075 muscleAll Attributes +7
Awarded to people who find a few bugs
steaming evil18075 muscle+3 Fire Damage
+3 Stench Damage
+3 Spooky Damage
Only 13 of these exist

Equipment Listings, Example 3

NamePowerRequirementsNotes
Bigger Bugfinder Blade20085 muscleGives +1 Adventure
fetus-smashing club20085 muscleCustom Item
steaming evil18075 muscle+3 Fire Damage
+3 Stench Damage
+3 Spooky Damage
Only 13 of these exist
Totally Gay Claymore16969 muscleCustom Item
star crossbow16567 moxieMoxie +8
Radio Free Foil15060 musclePart of the Radio Free Regalia outfit
Intrinsic effect: Shiny Happy Weapon
Radio KoL contest prize

I think whatever is decided there needs to be an item type of Unique (i.e. things that you can only earn once in a game).

Standards for Effects

I'm thinking that we should really consider a standard for effects, perhaps roughly based on way we lay out items. Perhaps something like Example 1, below. --Aardvark 20:58, 20 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • The thing is that in the game, effects are displayed in a different way to items, like Example 2 below (I haven't linked the effect name because it's not bolded, so a self-link wouldn't be needed). The Effect and Obtained From sections shouldn't change, though. --Agent Lex 08:37, 23 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I've created a template ('cuz I love templates) to layout most of the page according to Example 2, below. 

{{effect|name=name|image=image.gif|desc=effect description|effect=Effect}}

This template does not include the "Obtained From" section, however, because it would lead to a bulky, unwieldy template. That portion should be added into the page body. --Aardvark 19:14, 6 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • It's been suggested (via a rather irrating direct edit on the main page, rather than through a discussion/consensus) that the duration of the effect be placed in the Effect subjection. I disagree, because with several effects, the duration differs with the source. See Example 2 below, where the effect can come from one of four different sources, and all four give different durations. --Aardvark 22:48, 8 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Mea culpa, I edited precipitantly. I ran into something where I thought it was blindingly obvious that a small fix was needed, but didn’t consider the situation where there were some effects with multiple sources and durations. I remembered that there had been some discussion on effects, but I didn’t think that it had any bearing on this. Had I checked the discussion page, I would seen the example with the multiple sources and known not to make that change. Maybe the more complex example should be shown on the standards page? Just a thought, not an excuse.
But as long as we’re on the subject, the current format is dissonance-inducing in the case of a single source – maybe the duration should be in the Effect section if there’s only one source but in the Obtained From section if there are multiple sources? But it’s not something I feel strongly about.
I leave it in your more than capable hands as I’m leaving for a poorly timed vacation to London tomorrow… :) --Gymnosophist 01:53, 9 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
You do have a good point, but I personally feel it's better just to always have it in one standard location. It would seem odd to have it in the obtained from section for some effects, and the effects section for others. --Aardvark 03:46, 9 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Example 1

Sleepy.gif
Sleepy

You are very sleepy. Your muscles feel weak.

Example 2

Sleepy
Sleepy.gif

You are very sleepy. Your muscles feel weak.

Effect

-30% muscle

Obtained From

Drink Effects

There doesn't seem to be a template for drink effects. I was thinking something like:

{{Drink|text=You lift the box of wine over your head and open the spigot. Guzzlage ensues.|adv=3|drunk=3|mus=gain no|mys=gain no|mox=gain no}}

It would be the same as the standard food template, just with drunkenness instead of fullness. Is that okay? I don't know how to make templates. --Flyingcamel 8:30, 1 July 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


  • Looks fine to me. You just have to go edit the file Template:Drink and make it look right with some {{variables}} in it. Then use the code you've got going on there to use it. --jin 17:44, 1 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Agh, as I was looking at the ice-cold beer page I discovered there is a template after all. It's the exact same as mine except with "Booze" instead of "Drink," and a slot for MP gains. I'll switch stuff over to that template, put Template:Drink up for deletion, and put the Booze template on the top Standards page for future reference. Unless you all prefer the no-MP version? --Flyingcamel 18:03, 1 July 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I prefer the no-MP version, myself. It's my view that few enough drinks give MP that it is fairly worthless to include it in the template; that information should be added in addition to the template, not as part of the template. However, it's easier to switch to the template that is being used with greater frequency, we can always edit from there. --Aardvark 20:06, 1 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Indeed. I've removed the MP slot from the Booze template, and corrected all four drink pages where any template at all was used :) --Flyingcamel 03:45, 2 July 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

When Used/Eaten/Drunk Inconsistency

Currently the standards are "When Used", "Eat Effects", and "Drink Effects", shouldn't it be "Use Effects", "Eat Effects", and "Drink Effects" or "When Used", "When Eaten", "When Drunk"... I think when drunk is the drink equiv. of eaten, past tenses are ate and drank. I prefer the latter with the whens. Assuming we can hammer down drink/drank/drunk ;-) --JRSiebz 22:48, 28 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • If any English majors and/or grammar natzis are out there, here are the verb conjugation tables for eat and drink. I still can't tell you what pluperfect is ;-) or which one we want.--JRSiebz 22:59, 28 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I kinda like When Et!  :~) Actually, I like the "When Used", "When Eaten", "When Drunk", but I'm not sure if this is good plu or not (I'm more of a style/organization nazi! ;~) ).
  • "When Used", "When Eaten", and "When Drunk" are perfectly consistent and correct just like that. No need to obsess about what tense that is. -- Old Ned 02:14, 6 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • On a tangent, one thing thats always bothered me is how to show the results of "eating" beverages like the hippy herbal tea - do you eat it or drink it? Nothing seems quite right here. --Gymnosophist 15:19, 29 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Category:Beverages are wierd like that, yeah you drink them, but they add fullness, so technically they act as if they are Category:Food... it must be jick's fault. I guess bevs could have their own template instead of using the food or booze templates. I think most drinks restore HP or MP and give effects, but don't really gives any stats ;-) --JRSiebz 19:48, 29 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I know that hippy herbal tea gives Mysticality and Ent cider gives Moxie, so I think beverages are essentially identical to other food items. I see no reason why we can't use the regular food template for beverages, especially since the template name is invisible to anyone looking at the page. On the other hand, if you're worried about the header for these items, what about changing it to "When Consumed" for both food and beverages? After all, KoL calls 'em "consumables"... -- Baltar 19:49, 30 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • That sounds like a good solution. The regular food template is good because beverages act exactly like food, but a "When Drunk" or "Drink Effects" header for beverages would cause confusion, because people would think they're booze. Booze can still keep the "When Drunk" or "Drink Effects" header. --Pcentella 19:16, 31 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • So what makes Jumbo Dr. Lucifers a beverage, but not, say, Mountain Stream soda? Is the beverage category currently considered complete, or is it still missing items?
    Assuming there's a straightforward answer to those questions, the suggestion sounds good to me. My understanding of the suggestion at this point is: for food and non-booze beverages, use the food template and "When Consumed", and for booze use the booze template and "When Drunk", right? This approach would almost have to use the "When xxxx" format; the main thing about the "xxxx Effects" format is that the xxxx was replaced by the link name for that item: "eat", "drink", or "use", which would still be confusing for beverages. "Consume Effects" wouldn't fit since none of them have a "consume" link. -- Old Ned 02:14, 6 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • "What makes Jumbo Dr. Lucifers a beverage, but not, say, Mountain Stream soda?" Jick does, if you open up the in-game item description windows, Jumbo Dr. Lucifer is of type beverage and Mountain Stream soda is of type combat / usable item. Beverages are considered food because they add fullness like all food does. Usable items do not ever add fullness, though some may be spleentacular."Is the beverage category currently considered complete", well there are only like 6 items in KoL that are of item type beverage. Many other drinks are just usable items. I guess it's easy to confuse what is considered a beverage in real life, and an item of type beverage in KoL. Also, beverages are listed in the food part of the consumables page of the inventory, not in booze, or in usable items like the soda.--JRSiebz 03:07, 6 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Aha. Okay, fair enough. How do others feel about the proposal as it stands, then? -- Old Ned 21:07, 8 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I've been following the discussion with interest but haven't chimed in until now because the "When Consumed" option hasn't, well, consumed me. But I guess it's the best solution, so I'll vote for the food/beverages get "When Consumed" and booze gets "When Drunk" approach. --Gymnosophist 00:33, 12 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Enhanced Booze Template

What I don't like about the current booze template is that it shows the stat lines for all three stats (Muscle/Myst/Moxie), even if a particular drink only gives you one or two stats (or none at all). Using a technique I stole borrowed from the {{acquire}} template, I've created a new booze template that allows you to hide the zero-stat lines, called {{booze2}} for lack of a better name (suggestions welcome). It looks the same as the current booze template, except that the first three arguments after the template name are positional arguments (in Muscle, Myst, Moxie order) that should have either the value 1 (to display the line corresponding to that stat) or 2 (not to display it).

I've put several examples in the Sandbox; see what you all think. If you like it, the Eat template could be enhanced this way as well. -- Old Ned 21:07, 8 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

So nobody has any opinion on the new booze template? Or has it just been quiet here lately? -- Old Ned 21:55, 11 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • I like it - very slick! I'd like to see it and a new food template used instead of the current templates. --Gymnosophist 00:19, 12 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Thanks. With that encouragement, I've created a similar food template called, most originally, {{food2}}. (Again, if anyone has suggestions for better names, feel free to mention them.) I converted the Sandbox's olive stir fry example to the new template; check it out. -- Old Ned 06:01, 14 Aug 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Funky Categories and Metastructure

I've noticed that people want to create categories for all sorts of things that don't really deserve a category. Things such as axes, or clan warfare items, or the like. A much better way to group things of that sort is to create a template for the items. If it is a small group (say, less than 10), this shouldn't be a problem, and is makes navigation easier. --Snickles 17:03, 24 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • Exactly. ;) --Snickles 22:26, 24 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I love the tiny plastic template, but I'm not so fond of some of the other navigation templates that are in use. Probably the ones that I feel most keenly about are the ones like the Clubs template. This these just duplicates links that are already present in the articles - the seal-clubbing club already links to the Bjorn's Hammer which in turn already links back to the seal-clubbing club. We just don't need a navigation template here. Also, unlike the tiny plastic template, it looks stylistically askew and out of place. As to the viewpoint that clubs need/deserve some sort of list or table or navigation template or something, let me note that this catagory has absolutly no meaning or relevance in gameplay and that Jick is hap-hazard in correctly catagorizating items (for example, the pixel sword and the ridiculously huge sword aren't catagorized as swords). Much of the same is true for the Accordian, Ax, Saucepan and Umbrella templates. They're just not needed. If we absolutely must keep some sort of record of this sort of thing, make an Obscure Lists page or something of the like.
OK, a couple more things. Mushrooms - well, maybe, but still, why? A better approach might be to have a link in a See Also section that points to the Mushroom Strategy page. This is probably what a potential clicker is really interested in anyhow. I think that the Custom Items, Containers and Hardcore rewards are also better served by a See Also section containing a link to a master reference page.
Anyhow, my feeling is that the navigational templates, while nifty, can also be stylistically jarring and excessively used. The use of a See Also section is cleaner and more flexable. And if it's really important enough to have axes linked together, then axes should be important enough to have their own page describing axes, a page that can be linked to.--Gymnosophist 03:32, 9 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I overlooked your comments until today. I agree that, much like categories, navigational templates can be overused. The axe one (Now I'll have to go back and make sure that I didn't create it! ;) is a good example, containing only two items. However, I find it useful to have related items linked together somehow. If I need some type of accordion, it is handy to be able to switch back and forth between them quickly. Or, when mushroom farming, it might be useful to quickly see the differences between the mushrooms.
  • I disagree with the assertion that anything worthy of a template would be better served by a distinct page. If we assume that a group of items that have some distinct property in common, such as staves, ought to be recognized as part of a group, but don't necessarily require additional information or commentary, a template is, IMO, the best way to go about recognizing that grouping. However, in some cases, such as custom items, a new page is far better than a navigational template, mostly due to the additional information (both useful and merely interesting) that should be included in such a listing. --Snickles 17:53, 15 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • And I just got back from vacation last night, so there wasn't any rush in responding. You're right that it can be useful to have some sort of linkage between related items, but from my perspective, "related" is a relative thing. When the degree of "relatedness" is weak, and especially when the meaningfulness of the relationship is weak, then I would argue that a template should not be used. I think that this is clearly the case with the Clubs, Axes, Saucepans and Umbrellas templates, and marginally less so with the Accordions template. There is simply no benefit to linking these items. You might as well have a template for masks or gloves or who-knows-what. It's all just useless clutter. Parenthetically, I would note that we don't always use the weapon type consistantly - the Rubber axe is included in the Axes template even though it is not explicitly an ax, whereas there are some weapons (like the ridiculously huge sword) that are not included in what would seem to be their appropriate catagory/template. This underscores just how meaningless these weapon subgroupings are.
  • I'm going to go ahead and break up my response... Although it makes it look weird, it might be easier to follow. Despite my earlier defense, I'll concede that the weapon template groupings are pretty meaningless, as there is no relationship between the items EXCEPT that they happen to be of the same type.
  • With mushrooms, there is clearly a stronger relationship, but I'm still not convinced that a template is the most helpful approach to adopt. By clicking on another mushroom, you find out the information for that mushroom, but how much does that really help you? It's much more likely that a link to the Mushroom Fields Strategy would be helpful (and if you're really interested, you can click through to other mushrooms from the strategy page). Further, there are plenty of things that could be considered to have meaningful relationships but that are not currently linked (like fruit, scrolls, etc.), but it would be much more helpful to be pointed to a master scroll page where you can learn all about scrolls than it would be to browse individual scrolls and picking up information piecemeal. Going back to the mushrooms, it's worth noting how inaccessible the strategy page currently is.
  • Well, for one thing, the mushroom strategy page is not a "master" mushroom page. If it were, and was more useful a navigational aid than the current template, I'd have no problem removing the template. Mushrooms have some sense of order to them (3 sets of 3, 3 mushrooms for each statistic, all can be turned into wine), whereas fruits are a varied group. Some can be used to make drinks, some are reagent potion ingredients, some can be used in foods. I don't see a reason to group them as a whole. Similarly with scrolls... There is no connection between the various scrolls.
  • I don't think that I went so far as to catagorically say that anything worthy of a template would be better served by a distinct page, but I do think that it's often true. On the staves example, I'm a little ambivalent, but I mostly feel that it's opening a Pandora's Box here. If we transition staves from a catagory to a template, then why stop there? Almost anything that's currently a catagory could be recast to a template: hermit items, cooking ingrediants, hats, effects, basics, etc. It would amount to a drastic restructuring of the entire Wiki (as well as being a stylistic abomination). On the other hand, I'm not entirely thrilled with staves being a catagory. It's better than being a template, but perhaps not as good as eliminating the Staves catagory, making a staves list that's a member of the Weapons catagory, and changing all the individual stave weapons to be in the Weapons catagory and also to add a See Also pointer to the staves list. But then again, perhaps it's easier just to let sleeping staves lie. --Gymnosophist 16:16, 18 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I might have overstated myself in my earlier edit; my apologies. The Pandora's Box analogy goes both ways; if we allow hermit items to be a category, why not axes, staves, characters who collect can lids, etc. I think that I feel the same way about categories as you do about navigational templates; for example, I can't, for the life of me, understand why we have a category for hermit items. The items should be recognized on their pages as hermity items, and linked to from the hermit's page. I don't understand the utility of such a category. Using a navigational template for hermit items would be similarly pointless.
  • I think that my navigational template fanaticism is mostly derived from my hatred for inane categories. I'm also not a fan of the "See Also" method, for reasons that I am not fully aware of. Anyway, just to finish up: I won't be offended if you (or others) disregard the navigational templates; I'm under no misconception that I know the best way to get things done. --Snickles 00:50, 19 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • PS: Axe and accordion weapons were included in the appropriate weapons/ranged weapons catagory whereas the club, saucepan and umbrella weapons were not. I've changed the club, saucepan and umbrella weapons so that they are in the weapons catagory. --Gymnosophist 23:06, 18 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Category Talk

  • I'd been in the process of trying to formulate some broader thoughts on catagories and generalized structure, when the wave of new weapon types broke. I guess we'll have to revisit the weapon types. Still, it's certainly been a fruitful discussion so far and I'd like to continue and expand it. Accordingly, I've added Metastructure to the title of this section to reflect the increased scope of the topic.
  • On mushrooms, I think that you're right that the Mushroom Fields Strategy page isn't really a master mushroom page and that the template has value. But I'd still like to somehow increase the accessability of the page. You're also right on the fruit and scrolls. They really don't deserve any special treatment - they were just hastily chosen examples.
  • On Hermit Items, I wholeheartedly agree with you as to the pointlessness of the catagory (and other inane catagories as well). I'd love to kill the catagory. My only reservation is that I'm not sure what catagory the hermit items should then be put into. I don't have any solutions at the moment, but I'm working towards an analysis of catagory usage which may be of help here. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. --Gymnosophist 15:33, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I think the hermit items should be in the Category:NPC Buy category. When I set up that category, it was with the intention of having all the items that could be purchased in one way or another together in one spot. However, so much has changed lately, and I've done so little of it, that I don't know if it exists any more or not... --jin 22:06, 23 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I don't think we need a category for just hermit items, because you can get the same effect by going to the The Hermitage page.--Atlantima 19:38, 7 Sep 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Categories are proving to not be the most useful method of organizing data for a game. Some categories (Adventures, Players) are basically useless, due to the huge number of entries. Others, such as Hermit Items are basically useless, because, well, they serve no function beyond that of the hermit himself. (unsigned)
  • I'm leaning towards a strictly top-level category heirarchy, with additional categories being formed ONLY if there is a compelling reason. For instance, having a list of ranged weapons is useful, because they are functionally different. Would this be better accomplished by a category or by some other method? I don't know. With all of the other options available to us, I don't foresee categories being THE major method of wiki navigation. --Snickles 18:27, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I again agree with you here. I'll put on my thinking cap on this anon. --Gymnosophist 07:38, 21 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • As it can be read in this forum post, HotStuff writes that the change to weapon classes "is preliminary work for the long-promised new Seal Clubber skill". I think we'll have to wait until that's out to know the real importance of each weapon class. --Pcentella 18:47, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Ah, thanks for pointing that post out. I'm usually on top of HotStuff's posts, but not this time. --Snickles 18:58, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • Just to get an idea of the shape of the the new weapon types, I've put together a breakdown of weapon subtypes. There are 17 subtypes with 2 subtypes having ranged and nonranged members (club and slingshot). Here's the subtype list along with the weapon count for each subtype:
  • 2 accordion (ranged)
  • 5 axe
  • 2 banjo (ranged)
  • 15 club (1 ranged)
  • 9 crossbow (ranged)
  • 1 evil
  • 5 knife
  • 4 polearm
  • 2 saucepan
  • 2 slingshot (1 ranged)
  • 5 spear
  • 15 staff
  • 25 sword
  • 2 umbrella
  • 9 utensil
  • 1 wand
  • 6 whip
--Gymnosophist 07:38, 21 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • /me is baffled by how there is a ranged club and a slingshot which is not a ranged weapon. --JRSiebz 22:23, 28 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • That's the can of maces (which makes sense as a ranged club), and the Turtleslinger (which should be ranged according to logic, but isn't, because it's the epic weapon of Turtle Tamers, and those don't usually like ranged weapons :-) ). --Pcentella 19:08, 31 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • As the wiki progresses, I'm observing that categories are becoming more and more useless. I like to have them as a secondary means of navigation, and would certainly object if they were removed, but I feel that actual data shouldn't be on category pages, and people shouldn't be redirected or referred to category pages. That information should be readily obtainable in the main article namespace. Which is why I'e redirected hats, shirts, pants, weapons, and ranged weapons to their respective "sorted by power" pages rather than the category. The main namespace is better suited to navigation and data than the category namespace, and I think that this is becoming more and more clear as the wiki continues to improve. --Aardvark (Talk | Contribs) 00:52, 2 Oct 2005 (MDT)

Comprehensive Effect Tables

  • I've been slowly building up a series of articles that attempt to cover all the possible consequences of effects, skills, equipment, etc (see forum discussion for some additional background). Each article lists all the possible ways that a particular "effect" (such as Combat Initiative, MP Increasers, Muscle Modifiers, etc.) can be attained. So far I've done about three quarters of the "effects" and am pretty happy with the individual articles and the way that the sources link to them using a See Also section. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to get rid of such catagories such Category:Muscle Modifiers. Also to be eliminated would be all the Accessories by effect articles. There are a couple of things I'd particularly like to get some feedback on:
  • The top level organization is pretty horrible. The Category:Effects of Effects was just a initial organizing tool, but it needs to be improved. At a minimum, some sort of name change and/or better introductory text is in order. I'd also like to increase accessability to the top level (and maybe also to some of the individual articles).
  • Even though Jinya has, in a general sort of way, bought off on the approach, it has felt like something of a stealth project. I'd like to again invite feedback and see if anyone has any comments or concerns.
  • I'd like to add a feature that, for each "effect", details what gear/buffs/familiars, etc. will give you the maximum possible gain for that "effect" (for example, maximum possible Meat from Monsters. I'm not sure if I should try to shoehorn this into the existing articles or make these as separate pages. I'd also like to do several different variants of these - a supermaximum version that includes custom items and mafia prize items, along with one (or more) more achievable variants. --Gymnosophist 15:33, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I like this idea. I think good variants to include would be the theoretical maximum, using customs, etc., the achievable maximum, using all available items, and some type of "common" maximum, which would have some sort of guidelines; not including FOTMs, for instance. Retrospectively, there might be too little difference between these, depending on what variable we are accounting for; perhaps two high end variants will suffice. --Snickles 14:56, 22 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Site Map

  • I'd like to explore the possible implementation of some sort of site map or master table of contents. There's a lot of rich content here, some of which is featured on the front page, but other content can be more difficult to find. Some implementations of a site map/TOC should improve general accessability as well as obviating the need for various catagories. I don't have any specific ideas at this point, but I thought it was worth bringing up. --Gymnosophist 15:33, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
  • I spent about half an hour typing up various proposals, and they all were lacking. A site map is a good start, but I think we need more ways to integrate that framework into the wiki pages, and I haven't been able to come up with a good way to do that. --Snickles 18:55, 20 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)


We are in DEFINITE need of a front page overhaul. I had intentions of working on this a week or so ago, but it's been a busy month for me. Any suggestions are QUITE welcome, even if they're lacking in portions. As a team, maybe we can come up with something that'll work for everyone. However, this discussion page is INSANE in its proportions lately, so I'd suggest any lengthy issues be taken up on the forums. --jin 22:08, 23 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Example: Mushrooms

Mushrooms
cool | flaming | frozen | knob | knoll | pointy | spooky | stinky |warm

Table of Contents

A number of small pages are beginning to show up with tables of contents. I think this is an unneeded use of space in cases where the page fits entirely within one or two screens. You can use the command __NOTOC__ to prevent the automatic TOC from being created (Which happens after a page has 4 headings). --Snickles 16:40, 24 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Proposed monster battle layout

I'd like to see a better layout for monster battles. Some of them just don't seem to make sense. As I've pointed out elsewhere, I don't really see the point of adding "You hit for x damage, or "You win the fight!", as this text is the same across the board. And the hit/miss text is hard to distinguish at times. I propose laying out pages as in example 1, below. Note the self-link in the header, and the use of color (red) in the hit text. --Aardvark 22:40, 30 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

  • What do you think of putting a larger space between the basic sections, like in irate mariachi? I like it because it's easier to read and find information in if everything doesn't run together.
  • I like that idea, myself. It has a better layout. --Aardvark 01:12, 4 Jul 2005 (Central Daylight Time)
What would the self-link do? Wouldn't it just refresh the page you're already viewing?

--Flyingcamel 02:26, 3 July 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

Suggestion: What about using generic terms to replace randomly-generated text? For example: "It pokes you in the <part>" or "You gain 4

Substat templates?

Currently, the various combat pages use the {{part}} template to insert a random body part. It would be nice to have something similar for substat gains so it fills in a random substat name (i.e. for Muscle, randomly pick one of the Muscle Substat names). However, the "random body part name" functionality seems to be hardcoded into the wiki (by using special markup tags), so substat macros would need something similar. --Quietust 01:02, 19 March 2006 (CST)

  • The body part selector is a custom extension that Alpaca wrote for us. It would probably be possible to easily adapt that one to make substat templates... Anyone else got the energy for this, or should I set aside time to go through it? --jin 02:55, 19 March 2006 (CST)
    • I'd be willing to update a reasonable number of the relevant pages (most of which are non-combat adventures - consumables already use the food/booze templates, so they can be updated all at once). What should the templates be named? {{muscle}}+{{mysticality}}+{{moxie}}, or something else? --Quietust 16:25, 19 March 2006 (CST)
      • But only muscle has alternate/rotating names, mysticaliy and moxie don't. Well anymore. i think mysticality used to but was removed becuase a longer/shorter word wold change the width of the character pane, and people were complaining of it "jumping around", and being a different width each time it reloaded. Seems lkike a lot of work for one stat, plus on pages, muscle would end up looking more important than mys or mox. --JRSiebz (☎|§|‡) 22:18, 19 March 2006 (CST)
        • I'm not talking about "Muscle", "Mysticality", and "Moxie" - I'm talking about "Beefiness/Strongness/Fortitude/Muscleboundness/Strengthliness", "Wizardliness/Magicalness/Enchantedness/Mysteriousness", and "Cheek/Chutzpah/Roguishness/Smarm/Sarcasm", as they appear (randomized) in stat gain/loss messages. --Quietust 22:35, 20 March 2006 (CST)
          • Is there still any interest in adding this? I've been holding off since there was no consensus (or even any suggestions at all!) on what template names to use, but I'm still willing to go through and make all of the necessary edits in all of the adventure/item pages. --Quietust 17:06, 15 April 2006 (CDT)
            • I've gone ahead and started on this. All of the moxie substat names have been replaced (except for those in the Food2 and Booze2 templates, which will have to be updated manually), and I'll handle the muscle and mysticality substat names in a while. --Quietust 23:34, 16 April 2006 (CDT)
              • I like it - great job. You're amazingly industrious! --Gymnosophist 23:39, 16 April 2006 (CDT)
                • ...and the substitutions are complete. Now all that remains is for Jinya (or whoever is the admin) to create custom tags to insert the random substat names and add them to the Muscle/Mysticality/Moxie and Food2/Booze2 templates, and it'll be done! --Quietust 00:12, 17 April 2006 (CDT)
  • Okay, if you'll explain to me what you mean by custom tags... Are you looking for a wiki extension that'll randomly select one of the terms and output that? I can work on that tomorrow, if I get confirmation that that is what needs to be done....--jin 03:50, 17 April 2006 (CDT)
    • Yes, that's exactly what's needed. It'll basically be done the same as the <bodypart></bodypart> tags used in the {{part}} template. --Quietust 08:17, 17 April 2006 (CDT)
      • Okay, I've done that. Just waiting on a CF admin to put the file in place, which should happen soon. When it does, <substat></substat> should pull an entirely random substat. <substat>mys</substat> will give you a random myst substat, and <substat>mus</substat> a random muscle substat, and <substat>mox</substat> a random moxie substat. I had it link to the same place the templates were already linking to, so I hope that was right. Let me know if I need to edit where it links to. --jin 13:31, 17 April 2006 (CDT)
        • The random name selection is working nicely, and I've dropped them into the corresponding templates. Just two problems remain: 1. They all try to link to "wiki/Advancement" instead of the proper URLs for Muscle Substat, Mysticality Substat, and Moxie Substat. 2. Apparently, it's "Muscleboundness", not "Muscleboundedness" - the Muscle Substat page had it wrong. --Quietust 18:03, 17 April 2006 (CDT)
  • I fixed up the linkaging, and fixed the typo. The new file should be up some time soon. --jin 19:31, 17 April 2006 (CDT)
    • The links are pointing to the right page names, but they're still broken - they attempt to link to "/wiki/pagename", while they should link to "/thekolwiki/index.php/pagename". --Quietust 09:37, 19 April 2006 (CDT)
      • Throwing a link in here so I can refer to it when looking at this stuff, rather than hunting down a page with it on it. Chutzpah Strengthliness Mysteriousness Strongness Now, I'll see about getting the url "right" this time. I'd been testing on the old copy of the wiki still running on thraeryn.org, and coldfront has changed up the URLs to the point that things don't quite work the same. --jin 11:49, 19 April 2006 (CDT)

For the equipment, perhaps you should add the powders/nuggets/wads that you might get by Pulverizing it. - Moo 6:25pm 13/7

Impending Market RSS Feeds

I am in the process (75% done) of re-writing the marketplace code for Coldfront to streamline it and make it usable by the wiki as well. Each tradeable item will have its own RSS feed with market data, much like the collection RSS feeds. Before I jump into including it on pages like I did with collection data, and then having everyone complain and bitch about the formatting I chose.... I'd like some suggestions/examples of how you'd like to see it out there. The RSS feed will contain: item name, mean (average) price, median (middle) price, mode (most) price, highest price, lowest price, and quantity sold. There will be RSS feeds which cover the last hour, the last day, and maybe the lifetime market data.

I'm open to suggestions. Specifically:

  • Are there any other pieces of market data you think would be beneficial?
  • How/where should this be displayed on item pages?

--jin 00:21, 21 April 2006 (CDT)

  • Very, very cool! I imagine that the data will need to be presented in a textual manner as apposed to a graphical approach, or am I wrong in this? If we had graphical, it would open up more options than does the textual, but even textual is good. Assuming that its textual, probably the 24 hour mode price along with the volume would be the most meaningful short term data. Maybe the 24 hour high/low as well - can you do a percentage calculation to indicate volatility? BTW, does "last day" mean the last 24 hours, or just the current day since midnight? Lifetime market data would be very interesting to have - I'd like to see, for example, how a benchmark item like the Mr. A has fared, although the presentation of the data might be difficult. I'm curious - does Coldfront have direct access to Jick's Mall data, or is the data collected by monitering the mall in-game in some fashion? It's a little early to talk specific formatting issues, but I think I'd like to see something in the same general style as the collections, and perhaps located just above the collections. --Gymnosophist 01:21, 21 April 2006 (CDT)
    • Coldfront downloads the latest changes to the market database directly from Jick's database every 15 minutes. I will be working on some graphical representations, but not right away. I have to get the textual stuff working better first, then I can play around with data. When I say the last day, I mean the 24 hour period which ENDED with the last rollover. Those stats will be generated during the rollover period (if I get my way on setting the cronjob). The interval data is what I feel might be most applicable on the wiki, because it is REALLY current information. But based on a wide enough spread of time, that it's indicative of the current state of the market. For us, I really could write an extension which compares the interval with the last day's data and displays it somehow.... I have some percentage calculation going on right now, but it's not stored with the rest of the data. If you can justify as to why that should be included in the saved data, I'll consider it. I could easily enough throw it into the RSS feed anyways.... If we want it. Any other questions? Once I get an idea for what specific info we want to display for each item, I can work on some preliminary formatting for the wiki....--jin 01:52, 21 April 2006 (CDT)
    • It would be nice if an unformated price could be accessed for Talk:Farming_Strategy#Cost-effectiveness_Script (straight up number, no commas every three digits). Either that or the ability to have the job done by the script mentioned to be done on the wiki instead.--Dehstil 18:53, 24 May 2006 (CDT)
    • As a side note, what do you plan to do about page cacheing? TheKolWiki seems to be satisfied with cacheing a page for weeks as long as the page is not edited. This could produce extremely out of date market data.--SomeStranger (Talk | Contribs) 19:01, 24 May 2006 (CDT)
      • Is there a way to reset the cache on a cronjob? A null edit would update pages, but is probably not preferred (I would hope the wiki isn't smart enough to recognize an edit hasn't actually changed anything.) On the other hand keeping it cached does prevent the server from dropping to its knees performance-wise. As an alternative, each time market data is updated, the date could be put next to it (in a formatted version)--Dehstil 19:07, 24 May 2006 (CDT)

Common abbreviation redirection

  • I thought that it would be a good idea to create redirection pages for common abbreviations, such as those found on the Acronyms Page. I would be happy to start this trend by setting up redirections from that page. Does anyone have any thoughts? --Sors 16:11, 10 July 2006 (CDT)
    • As I was unanswered on Talk:Acronyms, I say yes, they should all be redirects. When doing it though, if the redirect is capitalized, link to the capitalized page and etc as I did with npzr and NPZR. (Hatchling pages are typically lowercase while familiar pages are uppercase.)--Dehstil (t|c) 16:25, 10 July 2006 (CDT)
  • OK, I've written redirects for almost everything in the Acronyms Page. On a few of them, there were more than one possibility; in these cases I have taken a guess at which should be most likley. I think I sorted all the familiars as per Dehstil's guidelines, but I had some weird trouble with BFV and Bfv. It may be a good idea now to place a note at the top of the acronyms page, saying something along the lines of "If you insert an acronym/abbreviation on this page, please create a redirect page from your acronym/abbreviation to it's full length name." --Sors 14:08, 11 July 2006 (CDT)
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