OniGalore:Current events: Difference between revisions

OniGalore:Current events (view source)

Revision as of 22:43, 21 September 2008

6,529 bytes added , 21 September 2008

my proposal

Iritscen

Bureaucrats, Interface administrators, Suppressors, Administrators

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+===Organizing the modding side of the wiki===
+I'd like to throw a general blueprint out there and see if there's any in agreement, or at least any who disagree. It concerns what we're doing with our modding-related articles on the wiki, which is generally One Big Mess right now. The basic principle behind these changes is simple: "groups things logically; present information clearly".
+Proposal for organizing things:<br>
+*first half of [[Modding Oni]] becomes [[History of Oni modding]] -- this part has very little to do with the second part, when you think about it
+*second half of [[Modding Oni]] is made into a page that gathers general ideas for modding, not in connection with the Edition, something like [[Modding brainstorms]] or whatever, where we can all add ideas; if some of these ideas are already decided on for inclusion in the AE, well, then, they should be in one of the two places in the next bullet point
+*current and planned/in-progress features of the Edition are already listed on the [[Anniversary Edition]] page, or in greater detail on the pages grouped under [[:Category:AE To-do]], so we leave them alone
+*at some point, the Edition needs to document all the changes it makes, not in an informal list like "Basic features", "Coming soon enough", but in a carefully maintained page like what Loser has done beautifully [[AE:Combat system|here]] (frankly, that page right there is a lot of the work done already, the overall AE documentation would just explain a few other things and link to that page for the rest)
+*the WIP tutorials that paradox is writing will need a place, and there's other tutorials lurking out there too, some unfinished; let's start a [[:Category:Tutorials]] to group them together
+*specific tutorials simply get placed at root level on the wiki with obvious names, not like this: [[AE:Importing_weapon_models]]; there's no reason for that page to be under the AE prefix (requiring the use of .oni files is not a good enough reason); take off the prefix, though, and you've got a good example in how to name tutorial pages
+*put all WIP mods under [[:Category:Modding projects]]
+*either delete [[AE:ONK]] or replace it with a historical blurb citing its accomplishments before it was superceded by the AE, but either way, move it out of the AE prefix; if it's not deleted, leave it in the "Outdated modding projects" category; in any case, move the page's links to mods that were produced by the ONK to a their own pages, and integrate them with the categorization system discussed in the next point
+*gradually bring wiki documentation of finished mods into synch with the [http://mods.oni2.net Mod Depot]; because the Depot is strictly categorized, it makes more sense to start there and copy that structure to here; as we see files get added there, we add pages here, or for smaller mods add them to one combinatory page, and link back to the actual files on the Depot for download
+*the Main Page's "For Modders" section will guide the reader's approach to modding; it will look like this:
+:*Intro to modding -- a short explanation of where to start if someone is totally new so they know whether they should start by reading a tutorial, or browsing a database, etc.
+:*Tutorials -- a link to [[:Category:Tutorials]]; these include the yet-to-be-finished BSL tutorials that are currently under the BSL prefix
+:*OBD Database
+:*BSL Database -- of course we can provide a link to the BSL tutorials from here, but those pages should be in the same domain as the other tutorials
+:*The Mods
+::*By Platform
+::**Mac OS -- this is a link to a category like [[:Category:Mac-compatible mods]]
+::**Windows -- this is a link to a category like [[:Category:Windows-compatible mods]]
+::*By Mod Type
+::**... -- you get the idea if you've seen the Depot; since a mod's page can have more than one category, mods can be categorized by Platform as well as Mod Type, as well as Install Method if desired and we just link to those mods in their different groupings using this submenu-style structure
+:*History of modding -- link to what's currently the first part of the Modding Oni page
+*write an interlocking (interlinking!) page for OBD (called something like [[Overview of file types]]) that explains in plain English what each file does; this puts it all in one place, unlike putting summaries at the top of each page so that a newbie has to follow each file type link to that page to read about the file type; for the format would be something like:
+:"==QXRF== The QXRF type is for tracking the hats the characters are wearing; hat geometries are stored in <span style="color:#0000ff">VPRW</span> files. At level-load, Oni scans the QXRF array and loads the VPRWs. Then, it textures them with the hat textures stored in <span style="color:#0000ff">BINA/LDWF</span> and applies them using the UV maps in that BINA resource that are in the <span style="color:#0000ff">FLSJ</span> format." -- each four-letter type links to an subheading on the <u>same page</u> that explains that type more fully but without any technical details; until this is done, the hard work performed in reverse-engineering these files is shadowed in obscurity for newbies because of the lack of plain English in the OBD pages
+*move [[OBD:BIP]] out of that prefix, it's as much BSL-related as OBD-related and, anyway, it's a project page; we should keep the OBD and BSL spaces for just documenting information
+*add to [[AE:Weapons]] (which still has the ONK image branded on it) any items on [[AE:New weapons]] that have definitely been adopted for the AE; the rest should then be moved to a more logical root-level name -- either a combinatory page like [[Weapons mods]] or their own separate pages -- since they are not part of the AE; they can be browsed there as candidates for the AE, but since they're not part of it, why leave them in that namespace?
+If you're thinking, "Yeah, but who's going to do all this?", don't. Don't let the list intimidate you. Many of these steps are quick and easy; others can be chipped away at, over time. Certainly I will do what I can to pitch in when it comes to the areas of the wiki I understand. And if everyone contributes in the area they understand, we'll each gradually come to a better grasp of all the content that's on the wiki; right now, a lot of content is lurking in corners, like [[AE:Patching|this little gem]], and is just begging to have something done with it that reflects where we are in 2008. --[[User:Iritscen|Iritscen]] 00:43, 22 September 2008 (CEST)
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