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Suspected vandal/sockpuppet
I just went onto Recent Changes and discovered a guy who named himself HAIRLESS FURBALL WITH TWO FUCKING SHITS. The intolerable username can only mean two things: he is only here to vandalize (which is pretty obvious, and he just did by filling his page with inappropriate garbage) and he might be a sockpuppet of previous vandals/one previous vandal. I may be wrong about the accusation/suspicion of sockpuppetry, but again, his behavior is extremely similar to those of previous vandals. Might wanna investigate the situation.
Not to mention, the IP address 70.213.4.54 was also involved in this, which I suspect as his IP address, given the similar behaviors. John "Soap" MacTavish 09:25, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
StrategyWiki
I must let you know that I absolutely love this wiki and just being here in general. I personally think it's a very good site for people to come and visit whenever they want to learn any tips, secrets, and strategy in case they're ever stuck at one part of a video game. I'm still currently getting used to the wiki. John "Soap" MacTavish 22:48, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
Any other active admins/bureaucrats?
How come nowadays, you seem to be the sole sysop/bureaucrat in charge? There were Prod and Zaiqukaj active not too long ago, but at the moment, they don't seem to be available; there was even Sigma 7 at one point on October when he blocked a user named Safe Zone Strategy Review, but again, like with said admins, he's not available at the moment. What's up with that? John "Soap" MacTavish 06:29, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
A little help for Barbarian II
My memory isn't working. Category:Barbarian II: Axe of Rage is a lesser duplicate of Barbarian II: Axe of Rage. Can that be deleted or does it need a history merge first? I'm not remembering how to do that and wouldn't delete something unless 100% certain. Advice or help would be appreciated. --Zaiqukaj (talk) 21:19, 9 January 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks for taking a look at this and the response help the other day. I don't have as gentle a touch as you do so it was a relief you got to it first. The content is really random but I have all my art and plushes on cascadiacryptids.tumblr.com/. Retro game aesthetics are so fun. Later on I want to make more fanart of older games. Please note I might disappear for a week on vacation. It isn't clear if where I'm going will have reliable internet access or not. --Zaiqukaj (talk) 19:15, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
Rollback
When am I allowed to do a request for rollback? I'm aware that I've only been here for about 2 weeks, but I'm just wondering. John "Soap" MacTavish 09:34, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
Completion stage
What is the number for the final completion stage of a game guide on StrategyWiki? John "Soap" MacTavish 06:56, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
- I checked into it. 4 seems valid, but 5 refers to featured articles. Do guides have to be featured to be in a completed state? John "Soap" MacTavish 07:06, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
Template advice
Hi Procyon, thanks for your welcome back message. I decided to try writing up an Act of Aggression guide just...because, I suppose. I ultimately want to describe unit costs with an inline image: something like 10
. Is there a way I can incorporate this either with the template Template:AoA Unit so I don't have to write it in a few hundred times? Also is there a way to make a template for it working inline as above, but without referring to the icon image every time? --Arrow Windwhistler (talk) 00:45, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
- I guess for inline, the first option works. I was hoping to have the icon and then the number. I think that's what you're asking? Also in the event you don't mind going a little further with it then the three resource icons I have are credits, aluminum, rare earth, and power. I named them all the same thing (AOA CreditsIcon, etc.) --Arrow Windwhistler (talk) 01:51, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
- P.S: You might want to consider co-opting that template for future resource-based requirements in other games?
- Okay go for game-specific then. --Arrow Windwhistler (talk) 03:03, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
- Ohh okay I didn't know the syntax for variables and stuff. Thanks again for your help --Arrow Windwhistler (talk) 03:19, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
- Okay go for game-specific then. --Arrow Windwhistler (talk) 03:03, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
I planned to clean it up tomorrow or anyway soon. I did put the {cleanup} template. In my opinion, there are loads of sections made of two lines and four images: not enough text, too many images (I wonder if you were thinking of that contributor when you wrote me about someone who over-details every single step in a game).
I am going to merge the small sections and remove many images (I could temporarily put the discarded images in the Discussion page or something). Trust in my summarizing powers! :D I'd like to make the Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons guides as two mirror guides. --Abacos (talk) 15:10, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
- Administrator, me? That would be an honor! It feels almost ironic if I think about our first contact. But it means I definitely changed since my beginning. Let me just check what are the extra duties of an administrator, and then I give you my final answer. For now, thanks a lot! --Abacos (talk) 10:09, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
Just two more images to be deleted. I just saw that if I become an administrator, I could have deleted the 111 images by myself (after discussion). Very well, I accept the promotion with pleasure. --Abacos (talk) 08:16, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
Sorry, I had some urgent business to take care these days (wedding preparations). I am filling the administrator form now. Next week I can start taking care of the Final Fantasy 2 bestiary. --Abacos (talk) 09:37, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Skin
Out of curiosity, which skin do you use for StrategyWiki? I use Vector, which is the one used on Wikipedia. John "Soap" MacTavish 23:21, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
Image Naming
I realized I might have messed up on properly naming two images. I typed the acronym of the game as smb64ds instead of SM64DS. I'm not sure how I can fix this or delete and reupload this. What should I do? Antwan (talk) 11:52, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
Thank you
Thank you for the "Administratorship"! --Abacos (talk) 10:24, 11 February 2016 (UTC)
Thank you
I'm still trying to learn the tricks of the trade here. Hopefully I'll figure it out eventually. Thanks for your feedback. -- MatthewLM90 (talk) 13:39, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
Before I get started.
Before I get started, on the Pikmin 3 page, im trying to upload a image from Pikipedia, with the most recent box art, but I can't do that. So can ya'll edit the user category to upload images from a URL so I can update it with the latest info. Thanks! Princess Peach (talk) 04:09, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
Hello Procyon! Thanks for the help!
And yeah, I think I'm starting to get the hang of things now...hopefully. I've been working on the Table of Contents further (on the actual correct page), so if I may ask a question...I'm guessing you'll want me to get rid of most of the little subsections, like Somnia Castle (III), right?
Fionordequester (talk) 08:24, 3 June 2016 (UTC)
I worked some more on the Table of Contents; I wanted to clarify one thing.
If you look at it, you'll notice that I actually have a lot of the story bosses listed in their own separate sub-section instead of being included with the pages that cover the dungeons leading to them. This is for two reasons...
1) I figured it would make it easier for readers to locate and find whatever bosses they are having trouble with. After all, all some players need is a bit of help fighting the boss (in fact, the final boss is notoriously difficult for many beginners to Dragon Quest VI).
2) The bosses are complicated enough, I think, to warrant their own page. Instead of dumping a whole table listing their attack patterns, their stats, how to beat them, and everything like that at the very end of what would already be a fairly long page, I figured it would be better to simply let them have their own page.
So, that's why I made the decision to give them their own sub-sections, in-spite of that increasing the height of the table of contents even more. Could you please tell me what you think about that? I'm rather curious; and yes, I DID look at the Dragon Warrior II and III guides you mentioned! Those gave me a good idea of how to condense what I had before :) !
Fionordequester (talk) 10:07, 3 June 2016 (UTC)
RE: Copyright violation
Yes, I do have permission.
Evidence: 
DestinyBattle (talk) 18:00, 3 June 2016 (UTC)
Thank you for your help as always; I would like to explain my decision behind the "Goals of this Walkthrough" though.
Note that this is IN NO WAY me telling you that "I am right, and you are wrong". In fact, I knew that I was going to be making some mistakes as I went and worked on this site, so I greatly appreciate the help of you and the other mods. And you've helped me while being so NICE about it; that's greatly appreciated!
Now, with that said, I wanted to explain the reasoning behind that page. If I do that, I'm thinking maybe the both of us could figure out a more effective way of accomplishing what I was trying to accomplish with that page.
So then, maybe this is just projecting myself onto other people, but I have a very hard time finding a good, quality walkthrough for any of the games I like. That's why I wrote that section; it was made specifically to reassure anyone as jaded as me that, yes, this IS going to be a good resource for them to use.
This is important to me for this reason; I find that many of the so called "Walkthroughs" I find on Youtube and on Gamefaqs are haphazardly made. The uploaders oftentimes spend little to no time looking up more efficient ways of tackling the games they play; instead, they simply beat the game the way they're used to beating the game, without taking the time to consider whether or not their way is actually the best way of doing it.
That's why I made that page; I remember looking at this walkthrough once on Gamefaqs...
http://www.gamefaqs.com/n64/197771-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time/faqs/44785
And I looked at the Author's Pledge, and thought "wow...that guy actually cared SO much about his work, that he made an entire pledge!" That was part of what initially sold me on that guide, so I was hoping to find some way of stirring those kinds of feelings in the reader.
Thank you so much for reading!
I just posted a page in the Sandcastle; would you like to look it over?
Here it is! I'm excited!
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/StrategyWiki:Sandbox#Murdaw.27s_Keep
One Other Question: Does This Map Conform to Your Site's Regulations?
http://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/5/52/Weaver%27s_Peak.png
Just out of curiosity.
RE: Responses
Thank you so much for your help Pro! You're a PRO at helping people! I especially liked your 4th point here...
Lastly, please bare in mind that you are guilty of doing the same thing you accuse other guide authors of doing: writing about how to beat the game the way you're used to beating the game, only in your case, you're not taking the time to consider why the reader is consulting the guide. Yes, some players will want to know, and be grateful for, an explanation about the best way to do it. But many players consult a guide only when they need help, and by that time, they have probably strayed far from the most optimized path through the game.
I actually did partially consider this; that's why I made that big deal about how my party would spend much of the game being much weaker than a casual player's party in the deleted "Goals of this Walkthrough" page.
But, there is still more that I can do to address the above problem. For example, when I was talking about how to use Stat Seeds, I should've mentioned that it wasn't THAT big of a deal. For anyone reading that section, I should've said something like "if you have already gotten really far in the game, and have gone in a different diretion from what I recommend, it's not a big deal; the boosts from the seeds are not critical enough to be worth getting upset about".
Thanks again for your help!
What to do about the Walkthrough section?
First of all, you are right in saying that removing my ego from the writing has been tough; I'm not used to having to follow someone else's rules when writing my stuff. I'm not bitter about that though; I knew that I was going to have to make some adjustments the moment I came to this site, and it's my responsibility to follow the rules.
That said, what do you think I should do for the "Walkthrough" section? Part of the reason I put the Special Thanks there was because the Main Page linked to it. However, since the page did not exist, there wasn't a convenient way to get to the actually Walkthrough portions that I was working on.
Do you have an idea of what I should probably put there? Maybe some disclaimers about how there are multiple ways to play the game other than what's suggested in the guide, and that the strategies listed within will still be helpful even if you haven't followed it from beginning to end?
Do We Have to Ask Permission to Use Maps from Japanese Websites?
There is an extreme lack of good maps for the DS version of DQ6. Literally the only semi_decent one I've found so far (at least, for the town of Haggleton), is this one...
http://dq-gh.com/dq6/image/town2ds.gif
But, as you can see, it's in Japanese. Now, I MIGHT still be able to ask for permission, since I'm just barely fluent enough to possibly accomplish that...but obviously, not everyone's going to know Japanese. So I'm wondering "what's the policy on that?".
Thank you so much! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Fionordequester (talk • contribs) .
Thank you so much for your help as always, as well as the tips!
I do know how to use an image editor, thankfully. I don't wish to use it for actual in-game screenshots, because I don't believe in pirating ROMs of games that aren't already long out-of-print. However, I CAN edit the map to remove the Japanese text and replace it with English text.
Thank you so much! Fionordequester (talk) 19:17, 6 June 2016 (UTC)
Just Realized What Was Up with the "Unused Images".
It seems to me as though I've been marking them incorrectly up until now. Instead of doing...
I've been doing it as this instead...
I thought only the latter line was necessary, which made it so that the pages I uploaded would not show up on the section of the Wiki devoted to Dragon Quest VI images. Sorry for the slip-up! Fionordequester (talk) 04:48, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
- All images should be in Category:Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation images so that they're associated with the guide. They should also be in Maps, or Screenshots, or one of the other "descriptive" categories that tells what type of picture it is. -- Prod (talk) 05:31, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
RE: Why does the Chapter 5 Title keep changing?
I'm sorry; I did not mean to cause you any inconvenience. I was trying to find a title that I was satisfied with, that's why. But, I just thought of one I liked, so you needn't worry anymore. Have a nice day! Fionordequester (talk) 01:06, 9 June 2016 (UTC)
RE: Request to Change Chapter Titles
My pleasure! Fionordequester (talk) 01:06, 9 June 2016 (UTC)
Thank you so much for all your guidance Procyon.
I can't tell you how much it has meant to me. Thank you so much, and have a nice day! Fionordequester (talk) 01:06, 9 June 2016 (UTC)
How do you mark a page that's still under construction?
I'm heading to bed immediatley after I send this, but I haven't completed the "Optional PowerUps (Remakes Only)" page I'm working on. So rather than saving it on a separate document, I opted to save what I had. I thought of including a "this page is a stub and needs to be expanded" marker, but I didn't think that was entirely appropriate in this case. Instead I included a Level 2 Headline that says...
PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Something tells me that this is not correct procedure though; what should I do? Thanks again! Fionordequester (talk) 17:33, 10 June 2016 (UTC)
BTW, how do you think I'm doing on giving the player options?
Everything you said in regards to me being guilty about only stating the best way to beat the game has stuck with me. But, on the other hand, I'm still working on the very beginning of the game, where there truthfully AREN'T that many options that are not obviously in-efficient. There's only one very minor tweak I can think of that I can make tomorrow, but other than that, well...
I'm just curious what you think so far, since it seems like you've been following what I've wrote ;) . Fionordequester (talk) 17:33, 10 June 2016 (UTC)
I made a video showcasing one of the hardest boss fights in DQ6; can I link to it?
I know that Strategy Wiki doesn't seem to like having extra links if it can be helped, but this particular boss is arguably the 3rd hardest boss in the entire game. The video is on my Youtube channel btb, here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvAeHJ6DmNc
Thank you so much! Fionordequester (talk) 00:59, 20 June 2016 (UTC)
Re: Youtube Videos
I did actually search the site, though I really am sorry for having disappointed you. I just want to explain what exactly I did, if that is ok. First, I used the Help link, which took me here...
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/StrategyWiki:Guide
After that, I saw that there was a dedicated section that talked about External Links
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/StrategyWiki:Guide/External_links
It seemed as though it talked about the proper procedure for linking to videos (which seemed to say "don't use videos in a pointless way; we don't have as much quality control over them, so use them only if really needed"), so I just did what it said. It doesn't seem as though you've made whatever edit you have in mind yet, so, what exactly is the proper procedure then?
EDIT: Actually, I went ahead and fixed it on my own...but I must emphasize, I truly did not even consider that there might be a dedicated template for Youtube videos. After looking at the External Links page, I typed "External Links" into the search bar to see how they're formatted, and found this page...
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_San_Andreas/External_Links
From there, I just imitated the formatting there. Hopefully this helps explain the reasoning behind my dunder headed move.
I read everything you said. I will use that Preview button and fix those Pages.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to tackle that Bestiary, but...I'll find a way. I'll check the site for tables I could use, test different things out...see what I can make out of it. Thank you so much!