StrategyWiki:Staff lounge/2008/March

Master of Orion II guide structure
I have a fair idea of the structure and order of topics that I think would be most helpful to people who are not experienced players (i.e. newbies or gamers who want to know whether MOO II is work the effort of acquring, installing and learning). But previous discussions (at "Community issues") showed that what I have in mind is unusual StrategyWiki and may require some finessing of technical issues. So I'm sketching out my thoughts here (a) for review generally; (b) for advice on how best to implement the resulting structure.

What I have in mind is:
 * Master of Orion II. Since this is a very short page, I'd place "Game Overview" here except that the first page has built-in navigation stuff that conflicts with such a long "essay".
 * "Game Overview". Currently at Master of Orion II/Getting Started, but I don't think that's the right title for the content. The Game Overview should be the 2nd page (a) for the benefit of gamers who want to know whether MOO II is work the effort of acquring, installing and learning; (b) to give newbies an overview before diving into details.
 * "Getting Started"
 * Master of Orion II/Installation
 * "Beginning a game". Currently the last section of "Getting Started", but it seems odd to present this material before "Installation". Also "Beginning a game" should be expanded to cover starting a multi-player game over the Internet. "Beginning a game" should also advise readers to read "Race Design" first, as this is an important and complex aspect of strategy but the relevant decisions are made during game start-up.
 * "Strategy Guide"
 * "Victory Conditions". Short enough, but has to be stated.
 * "Race Design"
 * "The Options". Review of the selectable racial advantages / disadvantages, race design points and possibly the built-in races (all partially covered in the existing Master of Orion II/Races).
 * "Designing Effective Races". Production-oriented vs research-oriented races; "Creative" races. Which race picks are good / bad value. Which combinations work well together. This is a big topic, may well have to be sub-paged.
 * "Research Strategy". General points.
 * "Research Strategy for non-Creative races". Complex and important, because the most-used custom races are non-Creative.
 * "Research Strategy for Creative races". IMO the optimal strategy for Creative races is usually different, but how different depends on the other race design picks chosen.
 * "Managing your Economy". How to use each type of planet; population = power (with some variations depending on picks chosen); how to grow your population quickly; building efficiently (pollution prevents all-out building of newly-researched items, unless your Race is Tolerant); using Androids effectively.
 * "Ship Design". MOO II offers a lot of options, and a well-designed ship can beat 2-3 poorly-designed ships (often more) of the same size and tech level; beams vs missiles; a few big ships vs many small ships; effective use of special systems; the "control frigate"; adjusting designs and research depending on what the enemy throws at you; re-fitting (upgrading) ships.
 * "Blockades". Can hurt an economy badly; use 1 small, cheap ship if you don't intend to fight, just to blockade; what to do if you're blockaded, with sub-sections for Lithovores and non-Lithovores.
 * "Combat Tactics". See The Orion Nebula Forum for examples. How to beat the monsters that guard the most desirable systems.
 * "Capture or Destroy Enemy Colonies?" Capturing is more expensive and there's a risk that the captured colonists will revolt, but: it extends your ships' range; you may get a free tech if you capture a big colony; the captured colonists eventually make a useful contribution; captured colonists are extra population, helps to win Galactic Coucil votes (or avoid defeat in them).
 * Diplomacy. Only applies to single-player games as usually banned in online multi-player - except for espionage!

You'll notice that some standard page titles are not included:
 * "Walkthrough" is inappropriate for MOO II because there are no predefined missions / levels. I know the set-up of StrategyWiki requires that there be a "Walkthrough" page but it can be redirected to "Strategy Guide" and omitted from the TOC.
 * "Controls" is not really appropriate for MOO II (or most TBS games) because there are many very different screens, each with its own set of controls; so for example I'd cover the Race Design screen's controls in the "Race Design" part of "Strategy Guide, and the Combat Map's controls in "Combat Tactics".
 * No "Units" page because you design your own ships. Philcha 17:26, 1 March 2008 (CST)
 * There's no problem with most of the stuff you brought up, and it just distracts from what you're trying to bring up (TLDR anyone...that stuff should just be on the MOO talk page). Here's what I see as a summary: What's so wrong with renaming Strategy Guide to Walkthrough?  No biggie about Units and Controls, they're just suggestions.  Why can't Game Overview be renamed to Getting Started? -- Prod (Talk) 17:45, 1 March 2008 (CST)
 * After seeing some of the pages created, this guide seems like it could follow something along the lines of Dominions 3. -- Prod (Talk) 10:32, 2 March 2008 (CST)

GTA2
Since GTA2 is lacking a walkthrough, I could do the first level (including tokens) in some time. Should I just write it and set links to this thread with the maps or ask for permission to use it locally here (which someone with an account there would have to do)? (I'd prefer those of Lukaso, by the way). Anyone willing to create a GTA2 start page? (Yes, I'm still too lazy for everything, that's why only first level, sorry). --Proto 16:06, 3 March 2008 (CST)
 * If at all possible, the maps should be here and without any watermarks/author info on the map itself (putting said info on the image page). -- 16:38, 3 March 2008 (CST)
 * Ok, that's the case with his maps. Now someone would have to contact him (and ask for higher quality, too). --Prototype 17:15, 3 March 2008 (CST)
 * I've created the main page for you, mostly just a copy from wikipedia. Add some links to the table of contents and add whatever information you want to.  Happy Editing :). -- Prod (Talk) 18:56, 3 March 2008 (CST)
 * Thanks! Sorry, I need to sound like a lawyer now: To keep the requirements of GFDL a local copy is necessary and the author list also must be copied (maybe to a talk- or subpage). --Prototype 19:58, 3 March 2008 (CST)
 * I dunno about a local copy, but clear copies of all previous versions (and contributors) are available (on wikipedia, which is mentioned in the edit history). -- Prod (Talk) 20:09, 3 March 2008 (CST)

A few questions
I wanted to add a cheats and secrets section to Pikmin 2, but the table of contents is locked. Why? Also, is there a certain place where I can request certain things to be added or expanded? Is there a page that lists all the tags I can add to articles (such as stub, expand and so on) ?RobJ1981 14:28, 6 March 2008 (CST)
 * The table of contents is actually located at Pikmin 2/Table of Contents. As for requesting expansion, we don't really have a location for that apart from Requested guides.  We really let people work on whatever they want, and don't push people to work on anything specific.  However, if you work on something, others might see the activity and add what they know as well. For your other question, check out Category:Header box templates. -- Prod (Talk) 14:35, 6 March 2008 (CST)
 * Fixed your link to the category, Prod. Hope you don't mind.-- Duke  Ruckley Talk 17:53, 6 March 2008 (CST)

Registering at ABXY
I saw that CI was moved to abxy, and so tried to register there, but after hitting the "submit" button on the page it just moved me back to the "Terms and Conditions" or whatever page. I tried it multiple times and it does the same thing. What should I do? Baejung92 13:23, 8 March 2008 (CST)
 * Do you have cookies allowed and JavaScript enabled? You may also need to temporarily disable the cookie-blocking functions of your security software (e.g. ZoneAlarm), or ideally add the site to their exceptions lists. You could also try registering from http://forums.abxy.org, although that's less likely to fix it. GarrettTalk 14:13, 8 March 2008 (CST)
 * Yes and yes to both questions... I was pretty sure I didn't have any cookie-blocking enabled. But I tried this with IE7 instead of Firefox, and because the "Register" link at the top of the page wasn't there on IE, I used the link near the bottom and it worked this time. Bizarre, but I don't know. Baejung92 17:15, 8 March 2008 (CST)