I've found a few possibles with a little googling, but am not sure which they're using.give me the links. i'm not aware of any public release of their wiki plug-in.
.., if that's cool with you guys?of course it's cool! we need more people like you, ete. ;b;
I used to be a sysop of a wiki site. One of the things you really have to watch for is that wikis tend to attract twenty tons of spam. Wiki spammers are far worse and more persistant than forum spammers because most wikis are more liberal about links. Wikimedia anti-spam tools are in my opinion much weaker. The only reason the large wikis get away with it (ie: wikipedia, rational wiki, conservapaedia, ED) is merely the sheer number of editors watching the pages day and night with auto-protect buttons ready. More link-tos = better SEO for what ever rip off spam site, so they do have motivation.I created and ran a fairly large wiki for over a year. Mediawiki has plenty of effective anti-spam measures (regex black/white lists for urls, a load of different capachas on edit or registration, and really easy ways to delete any spam), and should easily be configureable to use the forum's spam resistance (make the drone usergroup unable to edit, only a spambot which was able to spam on forum can spam there). Some wikis do not make best use of the anti spam tools available, which does, unsurprisingly, lead to spam problems. I can advise on (or, with access, help configure) ways to prevent almost all spam. Limiting to people who request permission is a totally unnecessary hurdle for editors and administrative burden.
I would suggest if you do put a wiki up, you limit the ability to edit to folks who request permission.
Plus, sisko is right. Wikimedia requires it's own maintainence on top of your forum.
I used to be a sysop of a wiki site. One of the things you really have to watch for is that wikis tend to attract twenty tons of spam. Wiki spammers are far worse and more persistant than forum spammers because most wikis are more liberal about links. Wikimedia anti-spam tools are in my opinion much weaker. The only reason the large wikis get away with it (ie: wikipedia, rational wiki, conservapaedia, ED) is merely the sheer number of editors watching the pages day and night with auto-protect buttons ready. More link-tos = better SEO for what ever rip off spam site, so they do have motivation.I created and ran a fairly large wiki for over a year. Mediawiki has plenty of effective anti-spam measures (regex black/white lists for urls, a load of different capachas on edit or registration, and really easy ways to delete any spam), and should easily be configureable to use the forum's spam resistance (make the drone usergroup unable to edit, only a spambot which was able to spam on forum can spam there). Some wikis do not make best use of the anti spam tools available, which does, unsurprisingly, lead to spam problems. I can advise on (or, with access, help configure) ways to prevent almost all spam. Limiting to people who request permission is a totally unnecessary hurdle for editors and administrative burden.
I would suggest if you do put a wiki up, you limit the ability to edit to folks who request permission.
Plus, sisko is right. Wikimedia requires it's own maintainence on top of your forum.
Just found a link to http://alphacentauri.us/fac-tool/rate.htm. (http://alphacentauri.us/fac-tool/rate.htm.)
Yea, wiki's without someone around to handle the tech stuff (installing and configuring extensions mostly) tend to fall into disrepair.
It would be excellent to have an active editor who already knows their way around mediawiki like you around from the start. Some ideas beyond custom/official faction profiles I've been thinking over:
With not huge effort (a few regex find/replaces to sort out links, maybe manually setting up titles), I should be able to get the modified datalinks into a format we can mass import into the wiki automatically. That'll give us a good base, even if it will still need some work.
I found that Vel's guide was released into public domain, so we could use parts of that if we wanted to. But if there are people willing to write specifically for the wiki (faction descriptions, etc) that would be cool.
sisko, I'm going to be fairly inactive for some time around christmas, but if you can get it running (even with no extensions/styling) by the 11th-12th I should have a few days to focus on setting it up.
Just found a link to http://alphacentauri.us/fac-tool/rate.htm. (http://alphacentauri.us/fac-tool/rate.htm.)
Link doesn't work. Fixed link (http://alphacentauri.us/fac-tool/rate.htm). (You put the period inside the hyperlink, which of course makes it not work.)
And scout copters are at least somewhat useful. Robust economy is literally useless.
I'd be interested in seeing a fixed version, as it might give some ideas as to what needs balancing among social engineering. I know that industry is too powerful (I presume primarily due to crawlers, with a tendency toward small bases (and thus a need for a lot of facilities) causing substantial effects on that front as well.)
I have looked at a few game wikis. One of the problems I found is it is really hard on some of the smaller ones to actually get to the info you need. Now, if it is a gigantic game with thousands of link-to pages like Wowwiki, yeah, you ca do it like wikipedia.
However, for a smaller niche deal like this would be I think the front page should be like a Table of Contents-like structure. Under each anchor article you would have sub articles dealing with that topic. For example, you have a main Miriam page in ToC which would give all the canon info about Miriam. Under that though, series of all the articles we could find (or write) from strategy with Miriam to even commentaries on Miriam. Of course, lets not be dicks and DO give the original source and credit if it is not our own.
Network Node factions would be the same way with comments on completeness, ridiculousness, and what theme it falls under.
Wow it is genuinely surreal to see this thread here, given that I used to post on Network Node and recognize about half a dozen factions on the wiki as my work, even ridiculous stuff like the Yeerk Empire and Ninth Generation. What a blast from the past.
The Ninth Generation (my god those were some ridiculous base names)
The Children's Alliance (lol)
I note as an aside that I bumped this thread in preference to a lot of custom faction talk going OT in the AC2 Wiki thread.
Here http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1252.0 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1252.0) attached to the last post, is an alt. official faction art set I did for a new Muslim who wanted to get right with the 'no graven images' thing. That's the SMAC factions, intended to be run with unaltered .txts and this art replacing the standard - the leaderheads are replaced with designs. I suppose this would be right for extra-observant orthodox Jews for exactly the same reason.
(Now, a certain hater/bigot of my acquaintance badmouthed me behind my back for humoring a "crazy" person {and because he thinks Muslims aren't a lot better than Nazis}. -And I say screw that noise! Millions of followers of the Prophet out there, millions of hardcore Jews, some of whom wouldn't dream of playing with the standard version of SMAC(X) because of the pictures of people in it - and there's something wrong with me wanting to make SMAC available to more people? Shut the heck up, fool.)
What caused me to think of this is that one of those community faction projects I was talking about was a Latin American faction, and another was Scottish. I did some art for the former, and you know what? I'd really like it if that one got completed; there's a continent plus worth of people in the Spanish world - and some of them can get by in English well enough that I'd like to recruit them into our community. (The same reason we have folders here en Español and en Français.)
We were talking about how to index, a bit teeny bit dismissively, some national factions this morning in the Wiki thread; and I do want to point out that just maybe, the Canadian faction and the Finnish faction might have an appeal to certain demographics. If you don't believe me, google Lt. Uhura, Martin Luther King, and Whoopie Goldberg together; King was right that what Nichols was doing was important, and what it meant to Whoopie as a child bears him out. National factions can matter in the same way for the same reasons, which is worthwhile enough by itself, but also make for potential recruiting bait.
So, there's that...
hm, but I'm not sure how it would fit into the category structure, would they be listed as separate factions? I'd think a link from the wiki pages to a download would be more useful to those who want that kind of modification, do they particularly need to see the png version first?Yes they do, inherent to the nature of the thing. [mildly] I think if you even consider any artless .txt factions for including for a second, excluding .txt-less art is a gross insult to my side of the street.
Agreed about just the seven other factions slot available. it'd still be quite a goody set - you have a bias for monsters, though...
On your remarks about categorizing/indexing - seemed like every third faction circa 2000 on Apolyton was a terraformer faction, no kidding.
And I'd just like speak up for a funny category. One of my very first custom factions was tarting up an old pothead faction with Gaian bases and Shaggy in as leader.
Terraforming Faction
I'd like to play a "terraforming faction" as envisioned below. Has anyone already made one and if so, is it downloadable? If not, can you help me finish this one:
The leader is formerly the Chief Geologist of the mission. Though an accomplished natural scientist, he has an engineering background as well, and a keen interest in fine arts. For some reason, I see him as a Frenchman.
"Frenchie" styles himself a "Sculptor of Worlds" or the "Architect of the Planet" and has a very definite vision of what Chiron should be made into. He sees his work as an artistic enterprise though also of tremendous practical importance. He is joined by people who share his vision, as well as "can-do" engineering types up for the challenge, and people with a pioneering attitude who want his help making the planet as inhabitable and bountiful as possible.
Obviously, this faction gets a PLANET penalty (-2). But I think "Frenchie" should have the option of gaining respect for the native landscape/lifeforms and integrating them into his grand design (i.e., Green Economics is not a forbidden choice).
The bonuses are harder to figure. I could justify a bonus for almost anything except ECONOMY and PROBE: +1 MORALE (hardy pioneering spirit); +1/+2 SUPPORT (for all the former units); +1 INDUSTRY (experienced in utilizing byproducts of terraforming and/or squeezing extra out of natural resources); +1 RESEARCH (natural science background and interest); +1 GROWTH (need more people to tame the land).
My current thinking is +1 RESEARCH and +1 MORALE. Bonuses to GROWTH and INDUSTRY would then be a matter of social engineering, such as Demo/Planned. SUPPORT would be reflected in an immunity to the penalty from Demo or perhaps the total immunity like the Hive has with efficiency.
Starting technology = Centauri Ecology. A second tech (a la SMAC-X factions), if any, would either be Biogenics (recycling tanks), Info Systems (computer modeling of geologic/climactic conditions), or perhaps most appropriately, Applied Physics (remember the Mining Laser?)
Starts with a free former unit, maybe a Mining Laser.
Maybe gets a free Recycling Tanks with every base.
Gets the Terraforming Bonus (half-price for raise/lower terrain). Better if it got the abilities of the Weather Paradigm right away but this doesn't appear to be possible with the Faction Editor.
Any suggestions on completing this faction or where to download a similar faction?
There already is a Terraforming faction out there, see http://www.sidgames.com/ac/filesdb/descript.cfm?ID=307 but that shouldn't stop you from making your own.
WOW, come back for a visit and looks like Omega had almost the exact same idea I had as far as factions are concerned
I made one that is almost idealogically identical to what he discribes, If you are interested it can be dled at http://members.xoom.com/acchiron (it's a zoom site so you will have to type the link in manually) It is in the dl section under terraforming faction.
It's a SMACX faction
All Customs graphics and blurbs (am sorta proud of it, lord knows I spend enough hours fine tuning it :P) It even seems to have that little 'gothic, dark' feel of most the pre-packaged factions
basically it gets
-2 Planet
+1 Industry
a free former
a free mining laser
Free Super former and fugisidal tanks when you develop the appropiete techs
reduced terriforming cost
Free Geosynchronous Survey Pods in every city
20% hurry bonus (this is removed in my most recent version, wasa bit too much, although the dl still contains it, you can edit it out)
Can't run Green
No preferred SE setting
Some design notes:
The AI can play this faction fairly well (a big plus)
This faction can both pop boom and run free market (a huge bonus I underestimated in the beta versions of this faction!)
-2 planet is a real penelty
early game hard to attack natives, you can lose fight with them!
Seems to be harder to sucessfully move through fungus
Pollution in mid- and late-game can be a MAJOR problem (especially since no Green)
Psi combat not a great option, as you never get a good planet rating
Goodies from fungus squares? yeah right :P
Free recycling tanks in ealry Beta versions leads me to believe that a faction must have A HUGE amount of negitives to offset this!!
With no preferred SE setting.. the AI tend to play this faction as a builder (which it was ment to be) and tends to help keep it from SOME Vendettas. As a result it builds lots of infrastructure, of the 'standard' factions (the only faction I have seen surpass it in infrastructure is the Drones)
Can really put out some tech if left alone
Over all this is a fun faction to play (yeah like I'm not biased :P)
It may still be a little on the strong side, but if so.. not but by a hair (It don't overwhelm other AI controled factions)
And this - there's nothing actually done besides collecting what I could find of the NN site, latest version, and thinking about how to implement. This isn't actually super high on my To-Do list. I'm all for it in the abstract, but not so much for wanting to right away.