StrategyWiki talk:Move lists project

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Character pages (again)

Hi y'all...

I think we all agree that the current character page layout is not perfect. I admit that it is a lot better than the previous one, but I still think it could be better. Since there's been a little discussion over the last days I've tried to come up with a compromise to adress the topices that came up.

If you have some time please check out Sandbox/AOFTest. So far, only the Ryo character page is active (and on that page only the AOF game specific page works), but I think you'll get the idea.

With this system, we could link all characters on every appearances to Companyname/Characters/Charactername. This page has all the games that character appeared in as a header, so that you can easily jump back to the game where you came from. If the user is (for example) only interested in Ryo's AOF storyline, there's a direct link to the series specific sub-page, where we keep all the moves and Fight order and Costumes and so on (those are basicly the sub pages that exist at gamename/characters/Charactername right now).
This System allows us to create our own subpage system (as we need them), so that (for example) a character that appears in KOF98,KOF99 and KOF 2003 doesn't need three separate pages anymore with very little information on each page (as it is right now); but characters such as Kyo, that appear in every KOF game and have 3 very different storylines or movesets throughout the series, can get devided pages for Orochi, NESTS and Ash saga. It would also help in that we only have to write the basic data once at one single place (since the basic Character Information usually stays the same for all appearances).

I know that I'm completely mis-using Header Nav, but as I said it's just an example, the real pages should get their own header nav type.

keep up the great work :)
--Bmuig 06:01, 20 January 2008 (CST)(talk)

Improvements to the Fighting Game Guide Layout

Original post updated by WretchedSpawn 19:23, 21 January 2008 (CST)

Hi all. I've been working to improve the organization and navigation for fighting game guides and I've created a sample page for Street Fighter II at Sandbox/SF2Test.

Some of the problems with the current organization of the fighting game guides as I see it are:

1. Content that the StrategyWiki Guide tells us should go in the Getting Started section is instead getting dumped on the Walkthrough page and the walkthrough links in the TOC and continue box are simply being renamed to How to Play. I'm assuming that this first came into practice because the Walkthrough section is a mandatory part of the header, there's usually no reason to have a walkthrough in a fighting game, and authors didn't want the dead Walkthrough links showing up in their headers so they started using Walkthrough like a Getting Started page. Not only is this inconsistent with guides in other genres, but the Walkthrough still shows up in the header except that now it has 2 different names on the same page, both Walkthrough and How to Play.
2. Custom headers aren't being utilized enough throughout StrategyWiki. Using the custom header field to add links to the key sections of a guide makes navigation a lot easier and it's also more aesthetically pleasing (at least to my eyes) since there's less white space in the header.
3. The current method of putting links to all the games in a series underneath the How to Play heading implies that they are links to How to Play pages for those specific games and not links to the game's main pages.

I've made the following deviations from the current standard fighting game layout:

• Moved the contents of the Walkthrough page to the Getting Started page where they should be.
• Changed the How to Play links into Getting Started links which is more inline with the rest of SW.
• Added links to the Getting Started, Characters, and Secrets and Codes sections to the page headers.
• Added Controls, How to Play, and Walkthrough underneath the Getting Started section in the TOC.
• Moved the list of different games in the series out from under How to Play and instead put them under the heading Games in this Series in the TOC.

All of the major sections exist and I've added Chun-Li's page so you can get a feel for navigating all sections of the guide using the updated header and TOC. The views expressed in this post are entirely my own so please let me know what your thoughts are on this issue. --WretchedSpawn 23:50, 20 January 2008 (CST)

Firstly, I'll give a disclaimer that I haven't been following this conversation closely, and I'm not really a fighting game guide person, so I apologise if I'm wildly incorrect here. My first thought is that you're using the |num parameter of {{Header Nav}} on pages which shouldn't have it (such as Chun-Li's character page) — it's for the main page of a guide only, as it includes the guide in the correct guide completion category. Secondly, why can't you use the normal HN, have all the contents of the Walkthrough in the Getting Started section where they should be, and then write a little walkthrough on how to start a game for the Walkthrough section, similarly to what's proposed here. Such a section could cover any options there are for new games, as well as perhaps advising on some good opening moves, or character combinations. (It's here that my lack of knowledge of fighting games lets me down; I apologise if this is completely wrong.) The bottom line is that I'd really rather the Walkthrough page is kept for a guide, due to standardisation concerns, as well as the fact that in future external sites like abxy may depend on each game guide having a "Walkthrough" page in a pre-determined location. If there really isn't any content that could go on a walkthrough page, then it could exist but redirect to something like the characters page. --DrBob (talk) 00:55, 21 January 2008 (CST)

The num thing was a typo. I was copying and pasting headers and not paying attention to what I was doing. It has been fixed. All the more reason to "replace all such usages of |custom with functionality in {{Header Nav}} to transclude a standard page per-guide (if it exists) which would provide the custom links."

By exist do you mean that there could just be a walkthrough page that wasn't linked to anywhere in the guide and just said "Hello World" on it? Or does the walkthrough actually need to be in the header? If there absolutely has to be a link to it is there anyway we could hide that link? Having two names for links to the same page is messy and confusing and not a good solution. Having a link named Walkthrough that points to something which definitely is not a walkthrough is messy and confusing. Broadening the definition of a "walkthrough" beyond what is reasonable is inconsistent and confusing and also not a good solution. Though I realize this is a very hotly contested issue that's not going to be decided here, and nor should it be. --WretchedSpawn 01:31, 21 January 2008 (CST)

Preferably, we'd continue using the current {{Header Nav}} (although possibly with some modifications) for all guides, and it would continue to have the Walkthrough link. I realise that having the walkthrough redirect to something else and then having another link to that page is horrible, and that's why I want to explore every possible bit of content which could be put on the walkthrough page. Obviously, you can't walk someone through a complete fight, but perhaps (if my previous suggestions are rubbish), a short walkthrough could be written to introduce them to the basics of fighting, and some simple tactics/responses to the opposition's tactics? Such a page could be used in multiple guides, and I think would qualify as a walkthrough. As you say, broadening the "definition" of a walkthrough isn't good, but since we don't have a proper definition of one yet (for any genre), I think we could at least think about it. :-) (It really is time someone wrote some guide layout guidelines for the different genres, as well as definitions of what a walkthrough actually is. Probably going to be me later on.) --DrBob (talk) 01:45, 21 January 2008 (CST)

Ok. The page is back to using the standard header as it seems that using an alternate isn't really feasible. I've created a Sandbox/SF2Test/Header page that contains the default header for all of the pages except main (main's excluded due to its use of the num field). It then just gets transcluded on the pages that need it. This makes using and modifying a custom header very simple and seems a fairly elegant solution.

Since it seems that the walkthrough section is here to stay maybe it's about time we decided just what exactly should go in a walkthrough for a fighting game guide? Tips and tricks? General strategies? Strategies for defeating the game's bosses? These might be better served by having their own Tips and Tricks and Strategies sections but maybe putting this info in the walkthrough is an acceptable solution? --WretchedSpawn 14:09, 21 January 2008 (CST)

WS, you've illuminated to me the fact that this problem is systemic throughout the site, with regards to a couple of genres of games, not just Fighting. So I added my thoughts on the Community Issues page about some alternate header navs that might be more suitable for a minority of games that belong to a genre that isn't compatible with the notion of a Walkthrough. I think if we manage to settle this issue somewhat, than the discussion of what the contents of a fighting game should contain might be more easily discussed afterwards. Just my thoughts. Feel free to weigh in on the CI page. Procyon (Talk) 14:33, 21 January 2008 (CST)

Template:Samurai Shodown/TOC

To start this off from a slightly different angle (I'll eventually get to the rest of the discussion....hate coming to the party late :() Anywayz, I'm not too sure where the rest of this discussion is, so I'll just start a new one (and hopefully we can centralize it here). I'd like to get rid of the Template:Samurai Shodown/TOC page. It's mildly redundant, somewhat unnecessary, but mainly non-standard (I love teh standardz!). It's too late for me to think clearly right now, so I'm not going to go too much into reasoning (some has been brought up elsewhere), but please bring up any major concerns and I'll try to address them. -- Prod (Talk) 00:00, 14 February 2008 (CST)

New Command List table designs

I'm starting this discussion off to keep a record of changes proposed by Ganj which I think are exceptionally well done, and propose that we full adopt. My evolution for the command lists were to take them from plain text and wikify them into tables. Ganj's evolution goes far beyond this, using table cell colors to visually denote the type of move being listed, as well as providing space for the original Japanese name and notes concerning the various moves. I have taken the liberty of creating templates designed after Ganj's (continually evolving) prototype tables (Template:Command Header, Template:Command List, Template:Command Footer) and have created the following system:

Move Name	Commands	Notes
Level 1 Throws		This cell's note can be blocked by the portrait in Firefox unfortunately.
Level 2 Command Attacks	+
Level 3 Special Moves	+	Probably the most common level for all games.
Level 4 Focus Attacks	+	Alternative uses for this level are moves that use some part of a power meter, but not all of it (e.g. SFA Alpha Counters)
Level 5 Super Combos	+
Level 6 Ultra Combos	+	Alternate uses for this level are SNK Desperation moves and Capcom Super Combos that require MAX level

Lingering issues that need to be dealt with before adopting this change:

• Let Ganj finish prototyping the design, and incorporate his changes into the respective templates.
• Make "note" an optional parameter (easy enough to do.)
• Do we want to hardcode the relative widths of the columns? (pro: lines up the columns on pages nicely, con: may not suit all fighters equally, especially those with very long commands.)
• What to do about the portrait blocking the notes in the first row? I would like to keep the portrait incorporated in the table somehow, I'm just not sure how.
  • Update: I just discovered that in Firefox 3, the behavior is identical to IE7, so it's sort of fixed (in that it doesn't block the notes) and sort of broken (it floats above the table)...
• Managing to transform all of the existing move lists into command tables. Can this be botted? The biggest problem is that the move lists broke the input up into two parts (move and button), whereas this table uses a single input column.
• Will this transformation potentially fix the terrible loading problems we have with SFA3, or will it make the problem worse?
• Also, in the process of updating all the tables, properly add Category:Character move lists and Category:Game move lists to all pages that are missing it (there are many).

Discuss :) Procyon (Talk) 16:53, 24 June 2008 (CDT)

Hello one-and-all, I'm Ganj. I guess I should say hello, at least once. I'm glad to be on-board this project...It's really cool. So...I just wanted to give an update. Just a minor tweak or two, I hope you all like it. I'll continue to give a play-by-play. But in the meantime, check it out. Ganj 17:52, 24 June 2008 (CDT)