OniGalore:Current events

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Revision as of 20:13, 19 May 2017 by Iritscen (talk | contribs) (→‎General wiki work: adding mention of categorizing character images too; giving samples of decent class articles)
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WIKI WORK IS FUN!
Penny Arcade - EvilCorp Too.png
ENOUGH FOR A JOKE OR TWO
THEN IT GETS BORING
If you're not familiar with wikis, see OniGalore:About. If you're not confident about editing a wiki, see Help:Editing.

These are only suggestions, although some are more obviously needed than others. Whatever in this list looks interesting to you, feel free to tackle it, even if you only have a little time here and there. However, if you are leaving a project half-done until you can resume it, please note that under the item in this list.

Thanks for whatever you can do to contribute.

General wiki work

  • Look at the list of flagged articles and see if there's anything you can help out with. There are a number of articles which need to be updated or finished.
  • Just browse Special:Wantedpages, and pick an interesting topic to write about!
  • Images hosted on other domains should be localized (uploaded to this wiki, and the external links changed to point to our local copies) to protect against the external sites going down. As a secondary priority we should also copy over images that are currently hosted on other subdomains of oni2.net; though these are less likely to go away, there is no way for the subdomain owner to know whether their images are being linked to.
  • Review external links looking for pages and files that have gone down, and replace them with Internet Archive links or alternatives. Though it would need to be heavily adapted in order to actually function on our wiki, Wikipedia uses InternetArchiveBot to automatically replace dead URLs with snapshots from the Archive that come from the time period the URL was added. Going back in time like that prevents a later snapshot from being pulled which might just be a 404 page. We might be able to learn some tricks from IABot's code, or the MediaWiki API that it employs (e.g., it seems that MW can return the revision that certain content was added to a page).
  • Categorize our images of the different enemy classes and characters into the appropriate sub-categories of Category:Factions and Category:Characters. The classes that still need pictures to be categorized under them are the Syndicate's Strikers, Elite Strikers, and Tankers, and the TCTF's Cops, Troopers, SWAT Troopers, Black Ops and SWAT Black Ops, and under the WCG category we need to tag pictures of Mercenary Snipers, Thugs, Civilians, Scientists, and Security Guards.
  • Most of the classes also have no articles about them, such as Elite Striker, Mercenary Sniper, TCTF Trooper, TCTF SWAT Trooper, TCTF Black Ops, TCTF SWAT Black Ops, Scientist, Civilian, and Security Guard. These should be modeled on the existing articles in the Factions category, like Fury and TCTF Cop.

PlayStation 2 port

The community has always tended to overlook the PlayStation 2 port of the game, for fairly obvious reasons -- it doesn't play as well, and it's impractical to mod a disc-based console game. Nevertheless, we ought to have a page like PS2 Oni vs. PC Oni, modeled on Windows Oni vs. Mac Oni, which explains the differences in PS2 Oni from Win/Mac Oni. We should also devote at least a tiny amount of research to the contents of the game data. Might some unexpected resources be in there? First we need to know how to read the game data. Based on a cursory examination, resources were moved around and re-packed, but one would expect that the basic binary format of the tags has not changed. Thus, it would be nice to have a page like OBD:PS2 that gives at least a high-level view of the binary data (e.g., how the .dat files are now packed).

Improving the documentation

Modding introduction

Modding Oni has a number of notes on it about parts that need to be filled in.

BSL tutorial(s)

A project to document the built-in BSL commands is underway. This will replace the BSL:Functions and BSL:Variables pages with a more organized and natural system:

  1. A single, master list of all functions and variables at BSL:List of built-in commands ("BSL:List" is a shortcut that redirects there). No longer will we have to browse two pages at once when we're trying to find a command but don't remember if it's a variable or function. The list is sortable by name, group, kind (function or variable), and platform availability, but does not contain any other info on the commands. It's just intended as a quick reference. You can click the group name for any command to go to the grouped page that discusses it in the context of related commands.
  2. Grouped pages which discuss all the functions/variables related to a certain task. This is where the detailed coverage of commands will be found. See BSL:AI activity for an example.
  3. Each command will also have its own page, so typing in the name of that command, e.g. "ai2_active", in the Go/Search box will take you to a page that allows you to either edit the basic information about that command or to visit its group's page.

The master list, the grouped pages, and the individual command pages are all dynamically interlinked (the system is explained here). When I am done porting all commands to the new templates and creating all the grouped pages, BSL:List will automatically be completed, and the BSL:Functions and BSL:Variables pages will be replaced by messages that direct the reader to BSL:List and to the instructions for using functions/variables on BSL:Manual.

I regret that the complex nature of the documentation system probably makes it feel difficult to contribute to, but it actually isn't as complicated as it seems, so if you would like to contribute, just let me know about any questions you have. --Iritscen (talk) 23:59, 11 May 2017 (CEST)

Progress report: 40/504 commands, 7/38 groups done.

XML tutorial(s)

See the category for articles that need finishing.

Oni 2 and beyond...

Some fans use the wiki to write sequels, prequels, interquels (what may have happened to Konoko in the time gaps between the original chapters, e.g., between Chapter 12 and Chapter 13) or even paraquels (e.g., what was happening on the Syndicate side during Oni?). You can then list your work HERE. Just be aware of the rights issues attendant with posting fan fics here. Also, plagiarism is not nice, but "Oni 2" can still be influenced by anime/cyberpunk/other references. See HERE to review the influences so far, elaborate on them some more, or point out new ones.