Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Council Room => Topic started by: ete on January 17, 2013, 03:31:19 PM

Title: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 03:31:19 PM
Things to do around the wiki:

Skin
Some parts of http://code.google.com/p/smf-wiki/ (http://code.google.com/p/smf-wiki/) could be reused, but mediawiki 1.18 has a different skinning system, so probably not all.
Skin documentation (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skins).

CSS/pretty templates
Basically defining how tables should look and a few other things, keeping everything in the same style as the forum. Can be edited here (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Common.css).

Upload rest of datalinks
Other bits are more complex because a lot of the info we want is stored in alphax machine readably, so need to combine that with the descriptions.

Done:
(click to show/hide)
Title: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 03:51:41 PM
I'll lay out my ideas for the wiki here. If you disagree or have suggestions, then please let post.

Factions
One page for each faction, both custom and official. These pages would include:
The infobox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Esp261/sandbox3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Esp261/sandbox3) is a basic form, more will be added).
Categories (some automatically added by the infobox based on bonuses), allowing you to easily search for all sea based factions or all factions with positive Economy, for example.
A summary of the faction's playstyle and strategy.
A download link for that faction's files.
Graphics, like leaderheads, bases, icons, etc (long term).
For factions we're working on in the community faction balancing project, we'll store the text file as a subpage and allow people to fix various minor errors/add SMAX elements.

Datalinks
I should be able to mass-upload the upgraded datalinks with a bit of tedious text editing and some find/replaces once we've got the required extension. This'll give a huge set of pages, and we'll be able to watch them for changes which can then by included in the datalinks update for the games. This will be redundant with the incomplete datalinks which was being added to the official site here (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier%27s%20Alpha%20Centauri%20Technology.htm), but it shouldn't be extremely hard to replicate the features of that on a wiki, and it will allow for strategy sections/updates which would be almost impossible to maintain with the existing setup, and we'd be able to have more than Tech+Terrain (all the other sections seem to be non-functional).

Edit:
Our wiki: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 07:12:11 PM
It needs a option in forums to go to wiki and vice versa.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 07:17:11 PM
Sisko, for the option to link wiki back to forums, this is the way we did it when I was working on that crazy project. I am thinking the admin has to do it. I do not think bureuacrats or sysops can. (at least I did not see how to back then)
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 07:19:13 PM
Good point, but I think I can add the wiki one (iirc it's stored in a MediaWiki namespace page), lemme dig up the documentation..

Edit: Found it. I'll remove the Community Portal and Current Events from the nav bar too, since we're not going to be using them in the near future.

Edit2: Done.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 07:24:43 PM
Good point, but I think I can add the wiki one (iirc it's stored in a MediaWiki namespace page), lemme dig up the documentation..

Edit: Found it. I'll remove the Community Portal and Current Events from the nav bar too, since we're not going to be using them in the near future.

That may explain it why I never saw that option. Sysops did not have access to that page the way that old project was set up.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 07:35:30 PM
I've just imported a set of public domain help pages from MediaWiki.org so people unfamiliar with wikis will be able to pick up the basics: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:Contents (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:Contents)

Note that they won't display quite right until we get parser functions.

Edit: Did you guys ever get Stealthiswiki back up? It looks like a cool project, and there's still a load of archives around. Should be pretty straightforward to bring it back, depending on the form of the archive.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 07:40:43 PM
I will probably type a little in for you guys in a bit. I really enjoy writing good content.

Lately, though I seem to have caught this Eve Online bug pretty bad. I mean, so bad that I even think about it while working and have been on thier forums and have been living a virtual life as a militia member hoping to do orbital bombardments on DUST 514 infrantry on these planets and generally mining asteroids and blowing up Minmatar. MMOs sap my time.

Do not worry. I always come back for good 4x. I just like social games too.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 07:56:30 PM
Yeah.... this is going to take a bit. particularly if there is only 2-3 of us.

I suggest using ToC instead of the standard way wikis like Consevapedia or Rational Wiki or Encyclopedia Dramatica work. It will be easier to find our content.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 08:03:27 PM
hmm... maybe an example, because most wikis are not set up the way I am talking about.

Someone can always do a search from search box. BUT - since these are really only articles and stubs, we have an index. The project pictured was a rewrite of a book. Big articles would be listed as ToC. Difference is we have Concepts like the datalinks would be stubs that we would  link in the article.

edit... WOULD not would not..sheesh.. typing too fast
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 08:05:33 PM
Something worth figuring out soon: what copyright protection do we want to use for wiki pages? I'd be okay with most which allow reuse, to cover the possibility of this site going down and moving the content elsewhere to keep it going.

We'd use categories and the Concepts/Advanced Concepts/Techs/etc setup from datalinks all linked from the mainpage to make the content easy to find. Also, with the datalinks import the wiki would immediately become useful, then we'd (or I would at least) do some cleanup on the import, then we'd focus on factions for a while. It'd not requite THAT much extra content to make it a useful reference.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 08:12:03 PM
For articles, it may be a good idea just to give credit to the original author unless it is written in that article that he does not wish it to be shared.

I hear you about sites going down. STW went down long ago due to stupid drama. Fortunately one of the sysops managed to put in in dropbox to save for all time.

Good thing is, unless sisko and BU are building up nerdrage, I think the management of this site seem pretty with it and stable (Observation - not kissing up ..lol.) . If something turns different, we will deal with that as it comes.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 08:19:33 PM
Slightly different point but I'm against credits in the body of the text (since it's distracting and unnecessary, especially when a document may have multiple authors who've edited it different amounts. Keeping track of what merits main text attribution is not a sane use of energy.), but for imported documents the source should definitely be listed in the edit reason as credit.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 08:31:50 PM
I was talking about imported documents.

As far as wiki made articles that we make in house, no need to credit all authors. When you write something on a wiki, it becomes property of the wiki. You are basically donating it.

Trust me, there are some things I wrote on other projects thay I know I wrote 90 percent of. But, I can not take it back for any future person project because I would be plaigurizing myself. Niether could anyone else.

When I was editing, I did frown upon too many outside links. I di not like leading people to sites outside the wiki. I always told people to rewrite information contained in off site articles in thier own words. After all, what was the point in the wiki if we just linked to things off site? We should be the source folks go to and read.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: Green1 on January 17, 2013, 08:43:18 PM
I've just imported a set of public domain help pages from MediaWiki.org so people unfamiliar with wikis will be able to pick up the basics: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:Contents (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:Contents)

Note that they won't display quite right until we get parser functions.

Edit: Did you guys ever get Stealthiswiki back up? It looks like a cool project, and there's still a load of archives around. Should be pretty straightforward to bring it back, depending on the form of the archive.


We had trouble with finding someone willing to do the hosting. We also had tons of enemies waiting to DDOS us and spam attack us from Conservapeadia. Plus, I think Firsty is sitting on the domain and refuses to come off of it. r00t was also being a twerp. I only know that out of the 5 sysops only unidyne, myself, and Vovka were doing anything. Vov was supposed to, but never did. Sad.. that wiki had tons of information.

I am almost leary of talking too much about it here with this handle. All of the 5 admins and sysops get attacked wherever we go to this day.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 08:51:43 PM
Replying by PM then.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 17, 2013, 11:30:13 PM
For things which are clearly free to use (like Vel's guide, which he explicitly released into the public domain), edit history style crediting seems most appropriate. If things are less clearly marked, but probably okay, then different forms of attribution may work.

Also, I will be on low activity over the weekend. If Parser Functions (for templates and formulas) and/or Data Transfer (for datalinks) are up by the time I'm back, I'll get to work on those projects. Particularly looking forward to trying to make the faction rating formula sane.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 18, 2013, 12:39:30 AM
Yeah.. let me actually get in the system over there.

Templates are good. I think content is what we need. But the only way to do that is to start typing away.....

Do not worry about low activity. It takes a lot of time to develop content. The main thing is not to appear like a dead wiki. I would not expect the traffic of even, say, STW that got maybe a few thousand hits a day which is nothing compared to say, encyclopedia dramatica. We would pop open champagne at 50 because the subject matter we would cover is such a small niche.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: Green1 on January 18, 2013, 12:40:44 AM
Thanks... that will save AC2 some headaches. No need for BU or sisko to have to go through what some of us went through.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 22, 2013, 12:34:08 PM
Oh yeah... sisko.. we need a link from the forums to the wiki so if someone wants to help, they will not have to dig through old threads to know about this.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 22, 2013, 12:44:50 PM
Also, wiki will not let you upload files. Unless there is some setting I am missing.

Usually in wikimedia, it is supposed to be located under "toolbox".
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 22, 2013, 12:55:32 PM
A bit more research, sisko. In order to do that, you have to set $wgEnableUploads to true. Unfortunately, even if you give someone admin powers on a wiki, some things can only be done by the website admin :(

However, after that, we will not have to bother you unless we start getting hit by wiki spammers.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 22, 2013, 03:52:05 PM
However, after that, we will not have to bother you unless we start getting hit by wiki spammers.

There's actually quite a few setupy things for the wiki, some of which are essential. I've layed them out in the tech to do list. Uploads falls under general configuration of LocalSettings.php, which is pretty simple if you're vaguely familiar with it. I could send him a version with a load of tweaks, but it makes sense to configure it once extensions are in since most of them want some configuring.

I'm pretty experienced with mediawiki, created, ran and did a lot of other setting up for the Pokemon Online wiki (http://wiki.pokemon-online.eu/view/Main_Page) (with plenty of help from the community of course) until I left for various reasons I won't go into here. It's a 43000 member community and the wiki's got some pretty decent statistics (http://wiki.pokemon-online.eu/wiki/Special:Statistics), though activity dropped after I left.

sisko, I would like to work on this place, but I need the tools. If the required extensions are added (adding extensions is pretty simple), then I can do stuff. If you're willing to trust me with FTP access (you have my word that I will not touch anything outside the wiki unless you ask me to, and you should be able to give me FTP to only the wiki anyway) then I can implement all the extensions I need to make it useful and configure it. Right now it's missing the bundled extensions required for standard functionality, so most of the interesting things I want to do are impossible. Unlike a forum most of the settings are not accessible without LocalSettings.php and the extension files. If you or someone else is going to focus on setting this up that's fine, but it needs attention from someone able to configure and extend it technically, and I'm offering.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: testdummy653 on January 24, 2013, 03:52:01 AM
I would be willing to help out, just tell me what you need.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 24, 2013, 12:14:43 PM
More help is always appreciated! How familiar are you with wikis or HTML? The main initial areas of work will be data entry for adding custom factions, writing descriptions and strategies, and improving the datalinks (either mechanics testing or just fixing minor mistakes/issues with the import). Until we've got the two key extensions which enable those projects it'll be annoying to work on factions and the infobox will just display a bunch of error messages, and data transfer for datalinks, there's not that much to do, but once we're moving it'd be great to have another editor.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 24, 2013, 01:18:46 PM
Yeah... without those tools, it is kind of annoying to work on.

That is the reason I have not done much with it yet except put up an "under construction" page.

Wiki editing is not that hard as long as you can put together words into sentences that make sense. The HTML and formatting is a bit to get used to, but once you press edit and see how it is put together it is not too hard. The biggest trouble I had when learning was tables and image placement. But, right now, image uploads still need to be enabled.

One thing that helped me was to go to a big wiki like wikipedia, encyclopedia dramatica, or rational wiki and look at an article whose layout you like. Press edit, but do not make changes. That way you can see the arcans code they use. I would even copy/paste table code when I started then put in my own information.

Be glad this is a small wiki and will not need strict sources/ footnotes. That is a pain in the butt on the strict wikis.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 24, 2013, 01:43:22 PM
Okay, while we're waiting for the extensions to be added or access to add them, I've set up a free wiki here: http://ac2.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page (http://ac2.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page)

We can work on custom factions there since it has parser functions and other cool extensions, and I will move all the pages made there with edit history to our wiki with XML export/import when our wiki is ready. I'll make some example pages then you guys can help out once the format is standardized.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 24, 2013, 01:53:13 PM
Okay, while we're waiting for the extensions to be added or access to add them, I've set up a free wiki here: http://ac2.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page (http://ac2.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page)

We can work on custom factions there since it has parser functions and other cool extensions, and I will move all the pages made there with edit history to our wiki with XML export/import when our wiki is ready. I'll make some example pages then you guys can help out once the format is standardized.


Yeah... thanks.

Wikis are doomed a cobweb infested death if at least some of the folks that edit do not have the keys to do some of the things only a web admin can do. I have been there and have that tee shirt. Fortunately, once sisko has those things set up, we would not have to bug him again barring a persistant wiki spam attack where all he would have to do is plug in a new captcha or adjust permissions.

I will go over there and play around. I have some junk to do today, so it will be a bit. When we are ready, we can migrate over here.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on January 24, 2013, 02:32:35 PM
@ete: i'm swamped with RL issues and deadlines at the moment. we'll give you FTP access to the wiki folder. thank you for being patient with me.  :)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 24, 2013, 02:47:42 PM
Excellent :) and fair about real life, does tend to get in the way of all these fun projects.

Edit: I'll hold off adding factions to the other wiki and focus on getting our wiki set up (and do a little templating in the meantime), let me know when the account is set up :)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 25, 2013, 03:56:15 PM
I'm on low activity over the weekend, if there's an account by Monday I can start on it then.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on January 27, 2013, 10:54:45 AM
@ete: you have a ftp account now. details sent by email.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on January 27, 2013, 10:59:08 AM
Oh yeah... sisko.. we need a link from the forums to the wiki so if someone wants to help, they will not have to dig through old threads to know about this.
you can find the new 'Wiki' button on the main forum menu
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 27, 2013, 12:32:35 PM
Thank you very much. I'll start adding extensions/configuring this evening, probably do most tomorrow evening.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 28, 2013, 01:24:25 PM
Had a bit of permissions confusion (I have upload/delete/rename, but not overwrite), but am using sisko's suggested workaround and deleting/reuploading rather than overwriting. All the bundled extensions are enabled and should be functional with basic configuration.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on January 28, 2013, 01:27:14 PM
can't log in right now:
Quote
Fatal error: Call to undefined method WebRequest::getIP() in /home/alphacen/public_html/mediawiki/extensions/ConfirmEdit/Captcha.php on line 202
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 28, 2013, 01:43:05 PM
Ok, I'll see if I can track that down.

Edit: Should work now, I'll try some other configurations of confirmedit once the more important things are configured.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on January 28, 2013, 02:09:08 PM
confirmed. it's working now. ;b;
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 29, 2013, 10:02:04 AM
Prepared the datalinks concepts and advanced concepts for upload.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: sisko on January 29, 2013, 10:17:00 AM
Prepared the datalinks concepts and advanced concepts for upload.
;b;

..also, see email. ;)
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 29, 2013, 12:35:14 PM
Ok, Data Transfer in, I'll test uploading part of the datalinks and see if my formatting is right.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: sisko on January 29, 2013, 01:22:32 PM
Ok, Data Transfer in, I'll test uploading part of the datalinks and see if my formatting is right.
i can see it in orphaned pages. looks very good so far!  :ok:
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 29, 2013, 03:36:12 PM
Made some improvements to my formatting, uploading all of concepts/adv concepts. May take a while since it's creating a lot of pages.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 29, 2013, 10:05:17 PM
Okay, all those in. Took a while because of rate limits, I'll bypass those next time.
http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Advanced_concepts (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Advanced_concepts)
http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Concepts (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Concepts)

Take a look, see if there are any formatting errors.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on January 29, 2013, 10:28:42 PM
Also, we have a nice collection of extensions now: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Special:Version (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Special:Version) though not all are fully configured.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 29, 2013, 10:36:30 PM
Okay, something everyone can help with! Please populate this page with all AC abbreviations/acronyms: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Terminology (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Terminology)

They will be displayed as hover text the first time they appear on every page.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Green1 on January 29, 2013, 11:02:03 PM
Da
Okay, something everyone can help with! Please populate this page with all AC abbreviations/acronyms: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Terminology (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Terminology)

They will be displayed as hover text the first time they appear on every page.


Damn, ete.

You catch me when I am really busy.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 30, 2013, 10:14:08 AM
No rush.

Also: More configuration/extensions.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 30, 2013, 06:52:19 PM
Figuring out how to handle/integrate alphax data (particularly on technologies) is the next hurdle. Possible solutions:
Data pages (easy to change in all places at once (should not be required), easy to add, looks tidier for the editor, easy to draw on from other pages, uses more processing power long term, harder to make versions for mods)
Integrate them into the import as a infobox template (hard to propagate changes, more complex to import, looks messier for the editor, maybe easy to draw on from other pages (maybe better, but I'll have to set something up for it), uses less processing power, easy to use for mods)

Just trying to figure out which way to go. I wonder how much CPU strain should be a consideration? Data pages would increase the cost to the server of rebuilding pages on edit. Will probably try integrating them into the import, see how hard it is at least.

Also the html in wikitext interaction with tables/linebreaks is displaying subtly differently from how it does on Wikipedia. In a way which breaks my hack to make my big template work. So gotta figure out why that is and fix it, or find a way around it. Will probably ask on some irc channel if I don't get it soon.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on January 31, 2013, 06:28:29 AM
Quote
Just trying to figure out which way to go. I wonder how much CPU strain should be a consideration? Data pages would increase the cost to the server of rebuilding pages on edit. Will probably try integrating them into the import, see how hard it is at least.
we are on a VPS and this is current status:
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 31, 2013, 06:27:28 PM
Ok, so CPU is not a major concern for the time being. Still, I think I'll try and do it the hard way, mostly because it's more mod friendly.

Also! Finally got the factioninfobox template working, see the first faction: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Peacekeeping_Forces (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Peacekeeping_Forces)

Next is categories (I added a multi category search extension (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Special:MultiCategorySearch (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Special:MultiCategorySearch)), so we'll be able to do useful searches). Then maybe graphics? Annoying that .pcx is not supported by browsers.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2013, 08:47:00 PM
If you've got something that opens .pcx files, easy enough to resave as .jpg...
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 31, 2013, 09:15:45 PM
True, but doing that for each official+NN faction would be a bit of a timesink. I guess they need cropping anyway, ah well. Long term plans.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 31, 2013, 09:37:31 PM
And categories are mostly working. There will be loads of them to create, but I should be able to do a lot automatically.

Not totally sure how specific to make them, but that can be changed later.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on January 31, 2013, 11:53:50 PM
Four faction infoboxes in as examples. http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Factions (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Factions)

Anyone is free to help adding official or custom factions. There are still kinks in the templates and categorization, but they're all pretty straightforward and will be fixed when I get back from my usual weekend break.

It'd be handy to be able to spread out a bit with a wiki forum sometime next week, since a lot of people are more likely to join in and read the requests for help on a forum. And medium-long term ideally figure out some way to integrate wiki talk pages with the forum. I'll look into that.

Current plan:
Add official factions (vel's guide descriptions? they're free to use)
Tidy up faction infobox
Make all the faction categories so you can easily find what you want
Upload rest of the datalinks
Make mainpage useful
Remind Kilk about skinning documentation, try and get him to make it look more like the site (and maybe help with mainpage design)
Write a list of things everyone can help with

Then do a proper launch. Optional extras: Make the user bridge work, set up wiki forum, ???



What do you guys want on the wiki?


Also, thanks for the title whichever of you gave me it :)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 01, 2013, 10:58:05 AM
Made a quick sketch of my thoughts for the mainpage: http://www.lucidchart.com/invitations/accept/510b9f51-47bc-4760-be9f-4a650a000111 (http://www.lucidchart.com/invitations/accept/510b9f51-47bc-4760-be9f-4a650a000111)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on February 01, 2013, 11:04:09 AM
looks good to me.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 01, 2013, 11:43:35 AM
oh, and one more possible addition to the handy extras: tidy URLs. /wiki/Main_Page and /wiki/edit/Main_Page look a lot nicer than /mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page and /mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=edit. Will have to look into that, not sure if I can add them with FTP (edit: looks like I can, but it's probably best to rename the /mediawiki/ folder to /wiki/, which I can do but may mess with links you've added to other places), but I should be able to give you a set of rewrite rules to add. Are we on Apache?

Edit: Okay, documentation: http://pynej.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/mediawiki-tidy-urls.html (http://pynej.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/mediawiki-tidy-urls.html) http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL/Apache (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL/Apache)
If we're on Apache and mod_rewrite is on, I should be able to set the rest up. <3 tidy urls.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on February 01, 2013, 12:01:21 PM
i'm not a big fan of the pretty URLs. if you want them for the wiki, that's fine, but i won't make any changes to the forum URLs.
they do nothing for SEO and that's the only reason why i would take them into consideration.
the only wiki link added to the forum is the one in the main menu (at least for now) and i can change that anytime.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 01, 2013, 12:13:18 PM
I just like looking at them more and being able to write links to them quickly. That's fine about forums, so long as the wiki has them I'm happy. Also, found http://shorturls.redwerks.org/ (http://shorturls.redwerks.org/) which mostly automates it and works with FTP. I'll have a go at this sometime, but could you check that apache's mod_rewrite is on?
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: sisko on February 01, 2013, 12:26:38 PM
yep, i can confirm that rewrite is checked under Apache modules.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 01, 2013, 12:46:33 PM
Ok, thanks :). Also, mainpage has some progress: http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

And we've had our first spambot! I'll move making confirmedit and other anti spam features work up my priority list.
Title: Re: Wiki technical to-do list
Post by: ete on February 02, 2013, 08:46:08 PM
Updated opening post, and writing a to do list for the mainpage.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 03, 2013, 10:05:43 PM
Working on getting the "enabled techs" data from alphax, got it out with a few formulas and a bit of messing around: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhADYlhLMFj-dFhwLS1reXR3bWZqSjVfYWE4TUs4VFE&usp=sharing

So should be able to upload techs pretty soon.

Edit: Actually, to do this properly, I've gotta integrate info on EVERYTHING each tech enables, not just the techs it enables. This could take some time. Thankfully, all the other bits should be much more simple.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 04, 2013, 05:58:15 PM
Got an old version of confirmedit which seems to be compatible with our MW version (went with reCAPTCHA). Let me know if you have any issues setting up an account.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 04, 2013, 09:38:09 PM
Decided to focus on factions for a little while. Got the category framework in place for:
http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Factions_by_political_preferences (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Factions_by_political_preferences)
http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Factions_by_social_engineering (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Category:Factions_by_social_engineering)

Obviously not many factions there yet, but when we've got a good set... thoughts?

Also activated wiki subpages and set up stuff for text files, and changed jobrunrate so uploads should be 20 times faster.

And made short URLs work for reading pages at least. More improvements to come, but I like the look of them now :)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 05, 2013, 11:51:06 AM
Added a load more factions (25 total, the original 7 plus 18 custom) and their text files. Made templates for guidelines on editing text files. Many more improvements to factioninfobox. Added Vel's entry for the seven official factions.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 05, 2013, 05:32:53 PM
Ok, I'd like to move /mediawiki/ to /wiki/ which will be the base for our stable URL asap, since the longer we're on a URL which wants changing the more links to it there will be on the forums. I do not have permission to rename /mediawiki/, and at the same time $wgScriptPath = "/mediawiki"; needs to be changed to to $wgScriptPath = "/wiki"; in LocalSettings.php or things will break. Since the wiki is low traffic currently and I'm the main user, it'd be ok for sisko to just rename the folder and I'll handle the scriptpath change, or you could do both if you feel like it.

I'm *fairly* sure $wgScriptPath and .htaccess (which I've just disabled for now) are the only things which need changing for renaming the folder to work, but it's possible there's some other connection. Worst case, we'll have to move it back and try to figure out what went wrong, but it should work.

Edit: Reenabled .htaccess for use in the meantime, it'll also need mediawiki replaced with wiki in a few places, but it's short.

Edit2: Alternatively, giving me rename permission for the mediawiki directory would work fine.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 06, 2013, 03:37:06 PM
Over half of the NN factions and all of the official factions are in. http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/Category:Factions (http://alphacentauri2.info/mediawiki/Category:Factions) is starting to be pretty interesting, surprisingly no factions so far oppose thought control, though all other likes/dislikes are represented.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 08, 2013, 12:46:58 PM
56 factions in, 21 NN ones to go. Then probably focus on other things for a while, then all the other factions I've found links to. I'm low activity over the weekend, next week I'll write up a to do list with details for all the technical things I don't have access to (backup for user bridge, directory renaming, enabling file uploads, considering updating to newer MW version depending on bridge compatibility). Me and sisko should be able to work through them all in an hour or so, especially if we meet on IRC (which I won't be on over the weekend probably).
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 12, 2013, 12:45:57 AM
Progress:
All NN factions in.
Framework for the Ultimate Faction Pack is laid out.
Google Drive file embedder extension in (had to modify it to make it work with current URL structure), so the text files from the modpack can be viewed directly on pages.
Emailed sisko, hoping to meet up with him on irc sometime in the next few days and fix all the nagging little things I don't have access to sort out (uploads, stable url structure, backup for bridge, look into upgrading version).

weeeee
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 12, 2013, 01:00:44 AM
I'm working on making .pngs of all the main faction graphic files for display...
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 12, 2013, 01:09:46 AM
Indeed, then we'll be able to show people what the factions look like! And I'll make something to display them on faction pages tomorrow, then we can upload either via FTP and changing MW settings to allow direct urls of images, or by making the uploads directory writable and getting the MultiUpload extension working (probably switching to an old version compatible with our MW version).
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 12, 2013, 09:44:12 PM
Spoke to sisko on IRC, he moved /mediawiki/ to /wiki/ (and I fixed the things which depended on that), so the wiki can now be found here: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php)

We're meeting tomorrow to hopefully get through all the other things. IRC is actually active these days :).

I'll write up some things which would be useful to have, fix up the mainpage, then write a news post. Or maybe import more datalinks first.. oh the choices..
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: testdummy653 on February 13, 2013, 12:01:06 AM
Datalinks!
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 13, 2013, 12:07:07 AM
(http://alphacentauri2.info/MGalleryItem.php?id=496)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Matt the Czar on February 13, 2013, 12:15:08 AM
(http://alphacentauri2.info/MGalleryItem.php?id=496)


This looks great as a background, will look incredible as the wiki icon.

Let's blow the AC Wikia out of the water!
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 13, 2013, 12:21:11 AM
I'd be more interested in co-opting them than overcoming them...


We're chatting on irc right now - come join us.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 13, 2013, 01:14:04 AM
Sorry dummy, was already doing the news post before you posted :p. <3 the logo BU.

Wikia AC has not been edited since December. Perhaps some of the old editors from there will come over and help us, but it's unlikely there's much of a current community to co-operate with, or any reason that within a few weeks we won't be able to cover almost everything they've got (and without the huge number of errors, picking a couple of random faction pages: Yang is missing inefficiency immunity, Gaians have bonus: can use native units as police. almost all of their http://sidmeiersalphacentauri.wikia.com/wiki/Bugs (http://sidmeiersalphacentauri.wikia.com/wiki/Bugs) are not bugs, or wrong, or fixed). Still, looks like they've had a few good editors, and maybe we'll be able to attract them.

And yes, everyone should come join us on IRC sometime. It's almost a party there sometimes.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: JarlWolf on February 13, 2013, 08:36:35 AM
Question, will the AC wiki have information drawn from the various stories/books of AC as well, or purely drawn from the game and related sources?
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 13, 2013, 10:40:13 AM
I don't have the books and will personally focus on gameplay related information, but if you or someone else would like to put up story information (overview of the books, adding more background to faction and maybe leader pages) then that would be more than welcome, and I'll help with formatting/any templates you want.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 13, 2013, 07:22:55 PM
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Facilities (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Facilities) in


Talked to sisko for a while on IRC and we got the user bridge is working, took more messing about than I'd expected and does not yet allow wiki groups other than sysop, but that's fine for now. Basically, you now all have accounts on the wiki automatically if you have a forum account.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 13, 2013, 07:24:44 PM
 ;b;

We should work in the extra info on the official faction leaders from the Firaxis pages, maybe?
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 13, 2013, 07:32:17 PM
Yep. Not sure whether to have separate pages for official faction leaders or include their info on the faction pages yet, opinions?
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 13, 2013, 11:53:03 PM
MsUpload working, will will be able to mass add faction graphics soon :)
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 14, 2013, 12:12:31 AM
I have 83 .pcxs converted to .pgn for display so far...
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 14, 2013, 12:40:58 AM
*.png, and good job :)

And, I've figured out why resized images are not displaying properly. Full size images work fine, but we've gotta set something up for resizing.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 14, 2013, 11:54:07 AM
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php?title=ACWiki:To-do_list&curid=589&diff=1228&oldid=1192&rcid=1100 (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php?title=ACWiki:To-do_list&curid=589&diff=1228&oldid=1192&rcid=1100)

Is the issue that resized images don't show up (including images on their file pages)? Because if yes, my previous post is the issue. They'll work fine full size for now, I'll probably need to check some things with sisko (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Image_administration#Image_thumbnailing (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Image_administration#Image_thumbnailing) this stuff) before it'll work properly.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 14, 2013, 01:47:51 PM
Secret projects in: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Secret_Projects (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Secret_Projects) and improvements to the facilities template.
Title: Re: Wiki planning
Post by: ete on February 14, 2013, 04:55:35 PM
And social stuff
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Social_choices (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Social_choices)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Social_parameters (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Social_parameters)

Still to do for datalinks upload completion:
    Techs (everything enabled+blurbs+techlong+techshort)
    Default Units
    Chassis
    Reactors
    Weapons
    Armour
    Abilities
    Citizens

and I'm on low activity for ~4 days.
Title: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 19, 2013, 11:50:15 AM
We've moved on a long way since my last two topics, and it seems like a good time to start afresh. We've got a wiki (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Main_Page), it has a significant amount of useful content, it is technically set up pretty soundly (uploads, user bridge, nice urls) with plenty of fun extensions (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Version) and other cool things. I'd like to lay out my roadmap to making it vastly more awesome, and invite more of you to join in making it happen. Note that alongside each stage there's plenty of other tasks which everyone can help with (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/ACWiki:To-do_list), and some other things (such as HTML/skinning and graphics) will also hopefully happen alongside. Also technical stuff is not included in this roadmap, since we've got all the vital bits done.

Stage 1 - Creation (~75% done)
The first thing will be to seed content, upload the rest of the datalinks, prepare all the key templates. I've done a good portion of this already and will hopefully be able to finish up this week.

Stage 2 - Collection
Bringing together/mirroring various projects "under one roof". In this stage I'll upload the articles section (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=articles), the extra stuff added to the official AC pages, and after talking to the project leaders, hopefully the planetary datalinks, Altera Centauri, and others.

Stage 3 - Recruitment
Once the wiki has a significant amount to show and I've been working on it for a while longer, I'll feel comfortable approaching various experienced and skilled members of the general AC community. Encouraging them to continue and expand upon their projects and interests using the wiki's tools will make it vastly more useful, and bring the community together.
Examples:
Experienced MPers writing up guides and collecting material from posts they've made before
Comprehensive patchnotes available on the wiki, by the .exe editors
Contributors to the datalinks update picking up the project again using the wiki's diff engine to keep track of things, and recent changes to find possible improvements from other pages being edited

Stage 4 - Expansion
With the basics in place and a few highly capable people around to help out, we'll be able to tackle a few more ambitious projects (e.g. an improved all-in-one factionpack download, with all factions fixed and AI versions of each).
Title: Technical wishlist
Post by: ete on February 19, 2013, 11:50:24 AM
Mostly just notes for myself, will be moved to the on wiki to do list when they become less long term.

Improved talk page/forum synchronization.
Forum wikilink tags.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 20, 2013, 04:40:19 PM
Units in, and mainpage almost finished thanks to Kilkakon.

I've also got groups working with the user bridge and created a couple of them. Testdummy has been promoted to our first wiki moderator (access to most of the extra editing tools), and Kilkakon to our first designer (access to the wiki's CSS and JS sheets).
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on February 20, 2013, 05:11:28 PM
I've also got groups working with the user bridge and created a couple of them. Testdummy has been promoted to our first wiki moderator (access to most of the extra editing tools), and Kilkakon to our first designer (access to the wiki's CSS and JS sheets).
;b;
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 20, 2013, 09:35:24 PM
Chassis in: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Chassis (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Chassis)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 21, 2013, 12:13:45 AM
I've got the datalinks categorytree displaying (almost, the font size is too big) properly in the sidebar, now every page can link you to a large amount of our information :)

Thoughts on this one?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 21, 2013, 03:02:36 AM
Kilkakon's fixed up the mainpage more, I've put up a news post, there is now a lost eden namespace which Kilkakon is the moderator of.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 21, 2013, 01:33:06 PM
Weapons in.

And fixed up the social choices categorization stuff.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 22, 2013, 03:37:35 PM
Faction logos in. Imagemagick is awesome.

Note for self: FOR %G IN (*.png) DO convert %G -transparent #FF00FF -transparent #64109C batch\%G
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 23, 2013, 01:11:23 PM
Leaderinfobox done (maybe it should be below rather than to the left of the faction infobox? opinions?). Needs adding to 74 faction pages. Could someone else help with this one? I can explain if you have any questions. http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Nautilus_Pirates (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Nautilus_Pirates) is the example.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on February 23, 2013, 06:38:47 PM
Leaderinfobox done (maybe it should be below rather than to the left of the faction infobox? opinions?).
it looks very good where it is now. ;b;
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 24, 2013, 07:09:29 PM
Quote from: Darsnan (from pm)
You are more than welcome to move the Altera Centauri scenarios project to your wiki...
Cool, that's an amazing addition on the way :)

Have a few ideas of extra things the wiki format will allow too.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 25, 2013, 05:40:40 PM
Armor in.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 25, 2013, 06:44:33 PM
Abilities in. Two more and then techs should be the last of the datalinks.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 26, 2013, 12:51:54 AM
Terraforming in: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Terraforming (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Terraforming) and apparently specialist types don't get individual entries. No more excuses, I think technologies have to come next. Wish me luck.

After that, maybe more graphics for a while. A lot of things want graphics (units, weapons/modules, chassis, techs, terraforming, SPs, facilities, social parameters, bases for factions). And a few things could be tidied up more. Or maybe I'll jump into scenarios...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on February 26, 2013, 06:53:04 AM
Terraforming in: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Terraforming (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Terraforming) and apparently specialist types don't get individual entries. No more excuses, I think technologies have to come next. Wish me luck.

good luck to you! the mirroring of the official SMAC site is also stalled on the tech pages. :(
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: testdummy653 on February 26, 2013, 12:23:49 PM
Good luck ete!
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 27, 2013, 12:39:58 AM
Got 'em: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies)

Glad I split it in two and did a large chunk of the work a few weeks ago. Techs are a nightmare, this section required a few thousand manual copy/pastes.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: testdummy653 on February 27, 2013, 03:02:33 AM
Got 'em: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies)

Glad I split it in two and did a large chunk of the work a few weeks ago. Techs are a nightmare, this section required a few thousand manual copy/pastes.


Good work! :danc:
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Yitzi on February 27, 2013, 03:35:43 AM
Got 'em: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies)

Glad I split it in two and did a large chunk of the work a few weeks ago. Techs are a nightmare, this section required a few thousand manual copy/pastes.


You might also want to include, on each tech page, the "tier" (i.e. Discover 6 for Fusion, or Explore 4 for Ecological Engineering), and the number of techs involved in the beeline straight to it.  (A full "beeline calculator" would be even nicer, but would take added programming.)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on February 27, 2013, 06:25:44 AM
(A full "beeline calculator" would be even nicer, but would take added programming.)
there's a tool for that.

Got 'em: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Technologies)

Glad I split it in two and did a large chunk of the work a few weeks ago. Techs are a nightmare, this section required a few thousand manual copy/pastes.
:clap:
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 27, 2013, 01:14:06 PM
Beeline calculator would be.. very challenging using just MW templates. Adding the tier and minimum techs to reach the tech is a good idea, I'll set the template up to be able to do that now.

Edit: Done, and fixed a bug in the tlong template. I'll do a couple of example ones, then someone else can take over or I'll do it sometime.

And Yitzi, could you put up a page for your patch here: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Yitzi's_patch (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Yitzi's_patch) along the lines of http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Scient's_patch (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Scient's_patch) please?

Edit2: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php?title=Biogenetics&action=historysubmit&diff=2653&oldid=2490 (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php?title=Biogenetics&action=historysubmit&diff=2653&oldid=2490) is how to add Yitzi's suggestions, you can get the info from http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2774.0 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2774.0) and http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri/Technology_tree (http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri/Technology_tree)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 27, 2013, 05:20:49 PM
Got permission to use Nevill's annotated bug list! http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bug_list/Nevill%27s (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bug_list/Nevill%27s) this will help the bug tracking project immensely, though integrating it into the wiki fully will take some time and effort.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Yitzi on February 27, 2013, 05:47:16 PM
Got permission to use Nevill's annotated bug list! http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bug_list/Nevill%27s (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bug_list/Nevill%27s) this will help the bug tracking project immensely, though integrating it into the wiki fully will take some time and effort.


Also, with that many bugs, I won't be able to handle them all at once, so I figure that most of them will wait for when I start taking requests.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on February 27, 2013, 05:58:38 PM
Okay. Worth noting that a whole lot of them are unconfirmed/lacking saves/not necessarily bugs, so the number which would actually be practical to work on will be tiny compared to that list, so much more manageable (and could be reduced further with some prioritizing).

And thanks for putting your patchnotes up!
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 07, 2013, 06:25:16 PM
Bug template improved, bug namespace fixed.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 08, 2013, 01:27:04 PM
Copyrights (icon and page (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/ACWiki:Copyright)) set up, and sisko added a link to the wiki from the homepage.

Also updated mainpage asking for help porting bugs to the bug tracker.

And I'm out for the weekend.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: testdummy653 on March 08, 2013, 01:54:48 PM
I will be out most of this weekend and most of next week.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 11, 2013, 07:53:49 PM
Guv'ner went on an editing spree and will be heading the datalinks update project, he's now the wiki's third moderator. I've reviewed all his changes so far and made a few of my own.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: testdummy653 on March 11, 2013, 08:53:37 PM
Thanks! I checked this morning, and saw none... But then it exploded.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 11, 2013, 11:01:28 PM
Put http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bug_list/Bingmann (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Bug_list/Bingmann) up, did some organizing, needs more.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 12, 2013, 04:35:43 PM
A load of minor organizational improvements and http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Alphax.txt_editing (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Alphax.txt_editing) up (including a section commented out of the CGN version, and with numerous formatting improvements).
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 13, 2013, 01:03:17 PM
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Text_files (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Text_files) up.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on March 18, 2013, 06:48:01 PM
I'm going to be on low activity for a while, maybe several weeks. I'll respond to PMs still, but probably no major wiki work for a while.

Also set up: http://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Wiki (http://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Wiki)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on April 24, 2013, 06:29:27 PM
http://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Wiki (http://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Wiki) now does weekly automatic backups of all current pages.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Geo on April 24, 2013, 06:35:35 PM
http://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Wiki (http://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Wiki) now does weekly automatic backups of all current pages.


Not including spambot pages I hope?  ???
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on April 24, 2013, 10:42:19 PM
we have spambot pages? since when?

We had like one spambot, then I set up anti spam measures. And as far as I can see, nothing's got through.

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Log/delete (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Log/delete) You see that one page deleted right near the start with reason  ‎(our first spambot)? Nothing since then.

Wikis get spammed when the guys with configuration access get lazy. With a little effort, virtually all can't get in. Especially to this wiki where you can only edit via a SMF account.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Guv’ner on April 24, 2013, 11:14:08 PM
A good time to mention that my consolidation of the damage and repair articles is probably temporary. They didn't make sense as they were but probably need to be slit again before the first draft is finished.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: testdummy653 on April 25, 2013, 01:26:04 PM
we have spambot pages? since when?

We had like one spambot, then I set up anti spam measures. And as far as I can see, nothing's got through.

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Log/delete (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Log/delete) You see that one page deleted right near the start with reason  ‎(our first spambot)? Nothing since then.

Wikis get spammed when the guys with configuration access get lazy. With a little effort, virtually all can't get in. Especially to this wiki where you can only edit via a SMF account.


Make You Put It Off From Now, Overcome That Lustful Health Worries... LOL :D
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Geo on April 25, 2013, 04:30:40 PM
Wikis get spammed when the guys with configuration access get lazy. With a little effort, virtually all can't get in. Especially to this wiki where you can only edit via a SMF account.

Tell me about it. At another wiki I'm deleting two years spamming backlog. Once done (still have half a year to do), I intend to tell the admin the work that was done, and if he pretty please now would consider implenting a sign-up block and deleting all the marked spambot handles.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 03:44:17 AM
I went on a bit of a categorization/editing spree: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&limit=500&target=Ete (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&limit=500&target=Ete)

Now you can do things like:
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_facility (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_facility) (handy for if you're looking for something with a specific free facility)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability) (surprisingly underused, only two custom factions use it!)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_increased_max_base_size (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_increased_max_base_size)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_extra_Talents (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_extra_Talents)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_reduced_max_base_size (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_reduced_max_base_size)

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_by_social_engineering (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_by_social_engineering) and http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_by_political_preferences (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_by_political_preferences) have been improved, with Robust, Immunity, Impunity, and Penalty now being categorized, and it's now easier to compare how many factions support/are opposed to each SE setting (very few factions support Police State and Wealth while very few factions are opposed to Knowledge, Cybernetic, and Thought Control!).

Doing this has allowed me to find eight factions which are misusing Penalty on a things like Planet rather than things like Green.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 04, 2013, 03:57:43 AM
Excellent!

This is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when I proposed indexing the Network Node factions.  You've done a man's job, sir! ;b;
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 04:11:02 AM
Still a lot of factions to go before it's done, but good to have more or the structure ready. I should make it work like that for techs too... let's do that.

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_starting_technology (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_starting_technology)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_without_starting_technology (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_without_starting_technology)

Oh, yea, this post. Glad you appreciate it, I've found it a helpful resource even for just my own use.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to be able to search by in more detail? I can set this kind of categorization up for basically anything.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 04:49:55 AM
Also, made an almost full backup (edit history+all pages, everything important but images which I have on my comp and Google Drive already) of the wiki just in case.

Also, planning to update the software on monday, need sisko's access.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 11:46:11 AM
Actually.. I think I can update it. I'll make a backup in a different form first, and we're slightly behind the suggested PHP version, but it should be doable. Doing it now means I can use the existing text backup, which is annoying to create in the current version (but easy to create in the new version!) and means I've got time to configure it properly, after monday my activity will drop a bit for a while.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Geo on August 04, 2013, 11:57:07 AM
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability) (surprisingly underused, only two custom factions use it!)


Include these guys. ;)

Quote
^+2 POLICE and +1 PROBE: {Loyal citizens of a distinct culture}
^-2 GROWTH: {Accidents for the unattentive in a hostile environment and birth control}
^{May not use Free Market economic choice.}
^Free Deep Pressure Hull ability with discovery of necessary technology.
^Terraform Bonus: {Drowning your opponents is an option}
^Bases need Hab Complex to exceed size 4: {Small bases difficult to discover}
^Enhancements may be built in ocean and trench squares with the discovery of Advanced Ecological Engineering: {Trained for life at sea}
^Bonus mineral from ocean shelf squares: {Culture and technology adapted for the ocean}

ATM I'm thinking of giving a free seaformer to start with.


Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 04, 2013, 12:00:31 PM
I was originally thinking of having my Valhallans have Amphibious pods but I thought they'd be overpowered that way. Though you can add a faction to the free ability for Trance I think, my Machine Mandate has that off the bat if I recall.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Geo on August 04, 2013, 12:09:41 PM
A SMACX faction (IMO) needs something to have an edge in, to give it something unique if you will. For this one, it is the Power of Invisibily w/o Deep Radar around.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 12:13:06 PM
Geo: If they're in the set of files I have ready to or someone points me at a download link I will.

And right JarlWolf, that would have been pretty awesome imo. Very fitting and helpful.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 04:21:50 PM
Updating without being able to remotely unzip on my connection is apparently nightmarish and making a proper backup is awkward without more access, I'll wait for sisko.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 06:25:05 PM
Added eight more factions and fixed some issues with most of them. BU: Found a couple of wtfbroken factions to play against yours:
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Energists (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Energists)
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_New_British_Empire (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_New_British_Empire)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 04, 2013, 06:28:56 PM
The Feminine Union and the Texas faction have enough interest bonus to get ridiculously rich in a hurry; you might want to have a look at them, too.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 08:16:09 PM
Okay, I've finally got around to properly sorting through everything you sent me. Quite a lot of factions I've not seen before, excellent. Some duplicates with slight difference to resolve though, and that was quite chaotic :p managed to crash windows explorer from moving too many files around too quickly, that's a first.

A fair few factions have no graphics at all, want a list of them with the text files which go along with them to see if any look like things you'd want to attach some stuff to?


Also damn borg. How can there be so many of them...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 04, 2013, 08:29:11 PM
Over the years, there's been a lot of -how do I put this- fan creative interaction with each other's work.  Much art re-purposed for later projects, especially; I gather there weren't much in the way of art guys around in the early years of the game, or for quite a few years between NN and I. 

I don't have a good answer for you about multiple versions of the same custom faction, something I've contributed to a bit myself.  You could number versions, or pick a definitive version, which would certainly be less work - or do some of both, depending on how much revisions changed the faction, and whether the difference makes one clearly superior, or merely different.  A good example would be the Bree, which I gather was always popular, but, I think, different in the iteration Maniac included in SMAniaC, and I have no idea how different.

Untangling issues of giving proper credit for work is made tricky by all this, too. -Which is why I tend to nag artists to sign their work, and even why I include month and year of completion in my own work.

...

Why not post that needs-art list in a new thread in Modding, (as well as make a wiki page)?  Jarl, for instance, seems to be raring for new art projects.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 08:50:37 PM
I'm trying to avoid having multiple versions, and will be merging them wherever it is remotely possible (possibly taking bits of each version where that makes sense).. but sometimes I'm not sure which to go with.

hm, I think I'll make a set of templates to put on wiki pages about different art issues (e.g. reused bases, no art) which will categorize them automatically, and a thread with links to those categories?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 04, 2013, 08:59:32 PM
Sure, but you'll get a lot more help with the art the more that's in the thread, and not just at the links.  People are bad to not click on links...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 04, 2013, 09:53:49 PM
What you could also do is you just have spoilers or something to show alternate art for each faction/alternate designs.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 10:05:21 PM
@JarlWolf: So far the graphics have been either the same or one is clearly superior. The issue with the borg is that there's three very different takes on its faction power, plus some variants of flavor text. All with the same name and graphics.

@BU:Most of the time it'll be a case of "this thing is missing <important something>, can you fix it?", and it would be a whole lot easier to let it auto-update..
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 04, 2013, 10:08:47 PM
Sure, but my point still stands.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 10:13:08 PM
If there's something I particularly want to draw attention to I'll probably post it, but there's dozens of factions with default bases or entirely missing art.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 04, 2013, 10:15:43 PM
Then make dozens of posts.  I'm sorry, but that will get more art done.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 04, 2013, 10:30:33 PM
Yes: Give us the factions and people like me and BUncle will work our magic: I can't really give life to a faction if I don't know which ones are dead and vacant now can I?

Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 04, 2013, 11:56:49 PM
Okay, I went through and tagged all factions currently on wiki which lack base graphics: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_missing_base_graphics (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_missing_base_graphics)

Off the top of my head, none of those seems to fit particularly well into the AC universe, so I'm not going to pick any out as priorities, but if any take your fancy feel free to improve them.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 12:16:04 AM
The only problem with a fair number of these is they have no background on their actual ideology, backstory (if they even have one) and the like. (and its hard to made appropriate bases if I don't know their theme, some I can obviously guess but others its harder to.)

On my Crimson Comrades page I put in backstory/ what their actual ideal is, if we could do this for any factions it'd be a good idea. Even the actual original factions, if we put in their ideal and maybe some information of their backstory/background it'd be good.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 12:31:31 AM
Even if it's just dropping one of BU's existing unused bases in it's better than having a Spartan or PK base, but yea it would be nice to have them done properly. That would be good, and there are readmes with info on a fair few factions which I should add at some point.. okay, I'll do them all now.

Edit: Done. Most turned out to be how to install instructions, but a few have info now.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 01:01:46 AM
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_with_free_ability) (surprisingly underused, only two custom factions use it!)


Include these guys. ;)

Quote
^+2 POLICE and +1 PROBE: {Loyal citizens of a distinct culture}
^-2 GROWTH: {Accidents for the unattentive in a hostile environment and birth control}
^{May not use Free Market economic choice.}
^Free Deep Pressure Hull ability with discovery of necessary technology.
^Terraform Bonus: {Drowning your opponents is an option}
^Bases need Hab Complex to exceed size 4: {Small bases difficult to discover}
^Enhancements may be built in ocean and trench squares with the discovery of Advanced Ecological Engineering: {Trained for life at sea}
^Bonus mineral from ocean shelf squares: {Culture and technology adapted for the ocean}

ATM I'm thinking of giving a free seaformer to start with.


I think I have a different version of them already, without Deep Pressure Hull: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Atlanteans)

Download for your version?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 01:12:25 AM
The Atlanteans had those bases in the SMAniaC version. 

It might be a good idea for you to PM Maniac and direct his attention here, to pick his brain for what he can remember about what came from where for his factions and what the differences were from previous versions, and what-not.  I believe he did a lot of repurposing of art - I did upgrades of the art on many of them (and was pretty thorough in documenting changes in the .pcx credits).  He's also a Senior community member who's more than usually interested in custom factions, so he might be helpful beyond his own work...  He's a member here, and it's an opportunity to eliminate that much confusion.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Green1 on August 05, 2013, 01:15:37 AM
To be honest, Ete, some of the NN ones probably do need to die. But, there are some of them that are worth it.

Much of the life of a custom faction is how much we use it on the hard drive and in our game rotation. When I mean "we" I do not mean just me and my nuttiness, but how many other SP folks on AC2 or 'poly or even lurkers use it. I doubt seriously any of the custom factions will make it to the folks in Command Nexus. (Although I have posted over there about it) MP is rightfully a bit more anal than we are because of theirs is about competition and bragging rights. We SP folks do not like it, we just leave the game while they do not (that is - if they want to get into more MP games)

I will make it a point from here on out to put at least one custom faction in any AARs I do and it fits that theme. You are doing an enormous service by going the power game route as well which I approve of. But, at the end of the day, if a faction is not inspiring, it probably will not inspire someone to complete it for the sake of "completion". Who decides that? The alphax.txt of everyone on here.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 01:26:13 AM
Yes: For example, certain factions that seem to have a really weak idea (Looking at the nationalist factions of "The French/British/ whatever nation) style ones or factions based on celebrities are typically boring and horribly unfitting for SMAC/X. I wouldn't field those factions in my normal gameplay or an AAR: As none of the are really crazy or interesting.

Now, some of them did appeal to me. I'd like to know more about certain ones such as the COLLECTIVE, or Vanguard. Or the Cannabis league for that matter, that thing is hilarious.

Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 01:31:32 AM
I like joke factions - provided they're decently playable and the joke's funny.

The Cannibis League is actually in need of some fixing - the fungus-working bonuses don't work, or something like that.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 01:44:10 AM
Here it is:

Quote
I've noticed that the Cannibis League, a novelty faction that was one of the very first custom factions I tarted up the art for, doesn't get the fugus bonuses it's supposed to.  I don't think that's my doing, but I can't swear I haven't forgotten making some adjustment to get it to run at all, as I often did with old factions when I was starting out.  Here's the stats:

#CANNABIS
Cannabis League, The Stoned, Cannabis League, M, 2, Shaggy, M, -1, 0, 1, 1, 1,
  TECH, Ecology, TECH, Biogen, SOCIAL, +MORALE, FACILITY, 3, TALENT, 4, SOCIAL, -EFFIC, SOCIAL, --POLICE, SOCIAL, --PROBE, SOCIAL, ++PLANET,  FUNGNUTRIENT, 2, FUNGMINERALS, 1, FUNGENERGY, 1, IMMUNITY, MORALE, IMPUNITY, Green
  Economics, Green, PLANET

This is someone else's work, and the .txt files are not my thing.  Can anyone set me straight?
...I now recall that I probably did run it through Acedit, because I was playing SMAniaC, which shaves off a point from everyone's Planet rating, at the time I was working on it, and a green faction should have at least +1, or it's not a green faction and can't capture worms.  So I added a plus to Planet rating, and that may have had something to do with the problem...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 01:56:20 AM
I personally don't use any patches as of yet.
Yitzi's looks promising but I am not touching it until I do a thorough examination, and considering he is constantly updating it that examination won't come for a while.

Other then that, I like vanilla gameplay too much to convert to the other ones: All I'd really care for is smarter AI in terms of terraforming, but that's about it.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Green1 on August 05, 2013, 02:13:35 AM
I personally don't use any patches as of yet.
Yitzi's looks promising but I am not touching it until I do a thorough examination, and considering he is constantly updating it that examination won't come for a while.

Other then that, I like vanilla gameplay too much to convert to the other ones: All I'd really care for is smarter AI in terms of terraforming, but that's about it.


the patch you are looking for is Kyrub's SMAX patch PLUS

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=108 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=108)

It is what I use. It improves the terraform AI very noticeably. It includes bug fixes like the stockpile energy bug.

Unlike Yitzi's, it is much more stable (at least on my system) and does not mess with your alphax.txt.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 02:25:29 AM
mm.. not sure what to do with factions designed for modified games yet. I'll probably download SMAnaC and take a look soon, but should be able to figure out what changes have been made.

While I agree that many factions have ill fitting concepts and poor execution, I don't feel that any factions need to "die". The faction archive will include as many factions as are available, and track which parts of factions are missing. If the artists feel that finishing a faction by putting some bases in it is worth there time, that's cool. If they don't like the faction and don't want to bother, that's also fine. My role is to build and improve the archive (and hopefully encourage some other people to help out!), and my skills do not include graphics work so that's up to other people if they wish to improve things.

Yes, balance is not a huge deal for everyone, but I think sticking firmly to having a well balanced version of each approved faction is a good principle. I love fighting overpowered AI factions as much as anyone, but I'd like to get a chance to use some of them against standard power factions without just curbstomping them from the start. Having a set of factions MPers may approve of for use is an extra reason which may well be accepted by at least some, but the primary reason for wanting a balanced version is for SP human use or use as opponents for less skilled players.

And note that Yitzi's includes Kryub's.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 01:09:34 PM
Had a name conflict between Pretty Princesses's and the Planet Buster .FLC animation, so renamed the faction text files to "busters" from "buster"
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 01:15:26 PM
Yeah, that's something I should have addressed a long time ago. 

She's pretty OP by design, too, being made for a five year-old.  That's the only faction I've ever made from scratch all by myself.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 02:33:45 PM
After removing all duplicates (so many duplicates) I have another 63 factions which are not duplicates still to add from all that (Apolyton+BU's+Kilka's+civ.org+cgn), and that's not counting the ones which may still be in development on the forums (Jarl's, Sigma's, Reefa's, ariete's, Green1's, most of whom have a set of 7+), or the three Borg factions I've cut it down to so far. That's on top of the 85 custom factions which I've added to the wiki so far.

There are a LOT of factions guys.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 02:35:49 PM
Us faction makes are real bastards for that... sorry. Were like Irish Catholics using Viagra, we just don't know how to stop giving birth to the things.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Sigma on August 05, 2013, 02:51:26 PM
After removing all duplicates (so many duplicates) I have another 63 factions which are not duplicates still to add from all that (Apolyton+BU's+Kilka's+civ.org+cgn), and that's not counting the ones which may still be in development on the forums (Jarl's, Sigma's, Reefa's, ariete's, Green1's, most of whom have a set of 7+), or the three Borg factions I've cut it down to so far. That's on top of the 85 custom factions which I've added to the wiki so far.

There are a LOT of factions guys.
Haha okay so maybe we don't need to hold Faction making contests to expand our supply of these things.

I'll handle uploading my own custom factions once they're all done.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 02:54:18 PM
After removing all duplicates (so many duplicates) I have another 63 factions which are not duplicates still to add from all that (Apolyton+BU's+Kilka's+civ.org+cgn), and that's not counting the ones which may still be in development on the forums (Jarl's, Sigma's, Reefa's, ariete's, Green1's, most of whom have a set of 7+), or the three Borg factions I've cut it down to so far. That's on top of the 85 custom factions which I've added to the wiki so far.

There are a LOT of factions guys.
Haha okay so maybe we don't need to hold Faction making contests to expand our supply of these things.

I'll handle uploading my own custom factions once they're all done.

Nonsense! Complete utter nonsense!

We always need more.
MORE!
MORE!!!!!!!!!!

 ;lol

But yes, lets make it easier for Ete, the poor man probably has migraines from the amount of catalouging he does: I know I couldn't do your job Ete. I'd go insane(er) from it.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 02:57:21 PM
;b;

And a new faction drive is just good for raising interest in the community, and getting the word out.

But organizing what's available is super-important; probably a much higher priority.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:00:37 PM
Yeah, I'll probably punch in some factions for the wiki before I get up and leave my home today. That and make something to eat, im damned hungry  :mad:

Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 03:02:52 PM
I'm happy there's so many, it's just going to take a lot of hours to upload and check them all. And even though there's a lot, most have significant issues. I'm fixing some as I go (obviously accidental/non-functional bonuses, errors in the text file, non documented bonuses, etc) but that just slows me down. Glad to hear you guys are going to be helping by adding your own factions to the wiki (and keeping them updated hopefully).

Competitions to add more are still good, but let's include fixing existing factions in them.

Also, feedback on how this thing is organized would be great! What kinds of categories would you find useful? How could the layout of the faction infobox be improved? Do you see a way to improve the category structure?

Quote
But yes, lets make it easier for Ete, the poor man probably has migraines from the amount of catalouging he does: I know I couldn't do your job Ete. I'd go insane(er) from it.
I find organizing things like this to be a useful distraction from life quite often so I take on a lot of projects here and elsewhere, makes me feel useful and in this case I'd like to be able to use the finished product which helps motivation. Also <3 wikis. I've already found myself referring to the wiki datalinks consistently to check things.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:12:02 PM
As for feedback: We could have factions that featured in AAR's as a category, as well as ones with backstory to separate them from ones lacking of or in need of filling in for backstory.

Also, we could have ones that have active creators if thats possible: Some of the people who made these factions are no longer actively making factions, or even playing AC as far as I am aware. Having that sort of thing would help lurkers and other people able to contact or request factions. Also having a list of faction creators would be grand: and to make it even better, have a way they can be contacted, whether its providing an email address or a link to a forum they actively participate in.

Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 03:17:25 PM
Say ete, have you gone through the GotM team's work?  There's almost always a custom faction or two, most of them not unbalanced to fit the scenario.  I regret to point out that there's a second version of the alt. gender Spartans, BTW...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Sigma on August 05, 2013, 03:18:48 PM
You know what I think might actually be good? Making our Faction library more visible on the site and main page. As it stands to get to it you need to naviage through two Wiki pages, and that's assuming you know it's there. Maybe put a link to the wiki list right on the front page, and maybe another at the top bar next to GotM?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:20:03 PM
Or some sort of tab in the downloads section or somewhere where its like "Faction Archives."

So people can peruse and dabble in it with ease.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 03:25:03 PM
AARs: Can do that, hang on I'll set up some templates.

Backstory: Okay (probably via notice template), but need some guidelines on what counts as missing backstory because some are questionable.

Creators: Partially done already with http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_by_creator, (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Factions_by_creator,) and I'm adding a similar category for factions by artist. Separating by activity could be done, but I'm not sure about the category structure? Seems likely to confuse things or introduce a load of redundancy, though I could sort it so that active creators come up at the top? Or just have a page for active creators/artists which links to their factions? hmm.. or perhaps better would be Factions with active maintainer? That lets people adopt unfinished factions.

BU: I have not yet, I think I've got most of them from other sources but there probably are some I'm missing. On my to do list (or if someone wants to be really helpful and look through/send me a zip that would be good).

More visibility on the main site would be excellent.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:28:10 PM
Maybe even have pages for the creators themselves? I am sure there is some amongst us who would like to post some contact information/information about ourselves, so people get to know us a bit if they want to work with us/ task us with making something.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 03:31:26 PM
I find organizing things like this to be a useful distraction from life quite often so I take on a lot of projects here and elsewhere, makes me feel useful
Suddenly, I understand you a lot better.

You certainly are useful.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 03:45:42 PM
Maybe even have pages for the creators themselves? I am sure there is some amongst us who would like to post some contact information/information about ourselves, so people get to know us a bit if they want to work with us/ task us with making something.

Individual pages is possible, but probably having a single page with a list of creators and their details would be more useful. You could make a userpage here: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/User:JarlWolf (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/User:JarlWolf) and link to it from the list of authors though?

Also, AAR template ready, I added it to the CCs as an example: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Crimson_Comrades (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Crimson_Comrades)

I find organizing things like this to be a useful distraction from life quite often so I take on a lot of projects here and elsewhere, makes me feel useful
Suddenly, I understand you a lot better.

You certainly are useful.

Glad you feel that way.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Sigma on August 05, 2013, 03:50:05 PM
I wonder if there should be some kind of ranking system that we can sort factions by; not in terms of quality but in terms of design purposes. Certain factions like the AntiMind or most of Jarlwolf's factions are designed for high level play with fairly extreme faction options; whereas my set is designed to be approximately on the same level as the original SMAC seven.

It could be useful for someone searching for factions that will give them a beating, like the Comrades with their huge bonuses and relative lack of penalties or the Exterminatus, with their huge everything, or factions that are on a more level field, like my Technocrats.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:51:30 PM
A joke factions category is also an option too. As for the list of creators: thats what I meant. You can click their names for further details/links to other pages.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 03:56:22 PM
I wonder if there should be some kind of ranking system that we can sort factions by; not in terms of quality but in terms of design purposes. Certain factions like the AntiMind or most of Jarlwolf's factions are designed for high level play with fairly extreme faction options; whereas my set is designed to be approximately on the same level as the original SMAC seven.

It could be useful for someone searching for factions that will give them a beating, like the Comrades with their huge bonuses and relative lack of penalties or the Exterminatus, with their huge everything, or factions that are on a more level field, like my Technocrats.
Yep, that's vaguely my plan for the faction pack and the + symbol thing. Factions by default are uncategorized, and get a balance rating, number of + or -es, and category then are moved to the quality pile if they fit other criteria.

A joke factions category is also an option too. As for the list of creators: thats what I meant. You can click their names for further details/links to other pages.
Okay. Should jokes include things like the France faction or the Jedi faction? How about other factions which may not exactly be jokes, but just don't fit AC universe?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 03:57:57 PM
Hmm. Maybe ones where its just like, canon friendly and the opposite.

By joke factions I meant ones entirely meant for humour: for example the Cannabis league.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 04:01:44 PM
That should work well. Some borderline cases, but eh. We'll figure it out.

Also about the faction ranking thing, I was working on a massive faction ranking formula that takes everything into account (including stuff like the different SE settings at different stages of the game's interaction with faction bonuses).

sisko is on now and we're working on the software update, get ready for version 1.21! For you guys this probably won't change that much (actually, scratch that, we get to use the visualeditor. that thing is handy for people who don't know wiki markup.) but it'll let me do a load more cool things (yay modern extensions) and simplify some currently time consuming jobs.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2013, 04:15:03 PM
Yes, maybe a category like Exotic or Specialty for all those factions that aren't really about being good factions, but a special interest, including -unless they're really good- national factions, joke factions, and things like that.

"Special Interest Factions:"
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 04:26:49 PM
hm, how about:
Alpha Centauri factions (better name?)
Fiction based factions
Joke factions
Other factions
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 05, 2013, 04:31:59 PM
I'd propose:

Original Factons
Canon Friendly Factions
Special Interest Factions
Joke Factions


Or just rename AC factions to Original factions, and fiction based factions to canon friendly. (Fiction based factions in a work of fiction sounds odd.)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 04:50:58 PM
hm, that should work. I'll think about it a bit more.

Also, the wiki is quite broken currently because we're upgrading. It should be back shortly.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 08:23:38 PM
Still broken, uploading big thing directly over existing files because several things which should be possible are not working and other unexpected issues. Hopefully back online in a few hours. If you like watching errors change, feel free to refresh the main page, you'll see more errors than you ever knew existed.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 05, 2013, 08:55:08 PM
Back up but read only for now and still a bit broken.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 06, 2013, 01:30:50 AM
Should be all working now except logins. If you were already logged in, you should remain logged in, but don't log out until I fix it or you won't be able to get back on.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 06, 2013, 02:03:29 AM
tech to do list:
fix logins
assorted extensions
visualeditor
echo
SMW?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 06, 2013, 06:55:40 PM
Logins should work now, let me know if you're not automatically logged into the wiki or have any problems.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 06, 2013, 08:44:49 PM
Added a param for Thread, so now it's easy to link back to the thread you're working on a faction in.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 06, 2013, 09:43:51 PM
Up to 98 factions. Had a name conflict between two factions with a text file called Fascist (Jarl's and an old one), renamed the old one.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 07, 2013, 12:32:08 AM
105, and http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Insurgency (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Planet_Insurgency) is actually pretty interesting.. I'd like to play against that someday. Spartan special forces with camouflage and 75% atk bonus, but massive defensive penalty. Needs some tweaks but yea, interesting concept.

I probably won't be around much for a few days, but will read everything posted in this thread, the modding forum, and ToE+subforums when I return.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on August 07, 2013, 06:43:48 PM
ete, thanks for.. being you!  :)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 07, 2013, 09:02:30 PM
it's hard to avoid :p

glad to be appreciated :)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Sigma on August 07, 2013, 09:09:01 PM
Wow that is a lot of factions missing graphics.

Hey BU when I have some more free time I would be interesting in collaborating on giving these guys at least some rudimentary graphics. Could we set up like an assembly line to crank through these? I can do portraits and logos if you want bases and diplomacy.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 07, 2013, 09:16:37 PM
Bear in mind a lot of those without graphics actually have graphics, it's just that it's much easier for me to do one big bulk upload rather than upload them one by one. Factions which have an uploaded set of graphics which are massively lacking should be the main targets for now.

There are some without any graphics, but they're a minority. If you want to find out which before I get to the bulk upload feel free to browse my SMAX folder (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxADYlhLMFj-aFZST1lMZ1d1MGc&usp=sharing) which has all the custom factions I've put on wiki in it (and if you look in the unsorted factions folder, you can find the ones I've not yet added).
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 07, 2013, 09:24:12 PM
Wow that is a lot of factions missing graphics.

Hey BU when I have some more free time I would be interesting in collaborating on giving these guys at least some rudimentary graphics. Could we set up like an assembly line to crank through these? I can do portraits and logos if you want bases and diplomacy.
Start a thread in Modding, and let's rock.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 08, 2013, 12:46:39 AM
Could not sleep so I uploaded/checked/fixed another seven factions which brings the total to 112 down, 34 to go. I've developed much faster/more efficient ways of doing this than last time (batches of seven, do each stage for all of them, then next stage for all, etc) so it should take only about 4-5 hours to do the rest.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 08, 2013, 04:48:17 PM
Did most of another seven. This inactivity thing is pretty productive.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Petek on August 13, 2013, 01:04:28 PM
Hey ete,

Read your post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=506502) on CFC about the wiki. One thing that caught my eye was your comment about making backups:

Quote
Also, after hearing about the issues with a previous wiki which held much AC info and was lost, I've set it up so any user can make a full backup of content with just a few clicks using Special:Export, and have made recent backups myself.


Could you please provide more details about how to make a backup of the wiki? I assume that you were referring to the lost wiki on WPC, so it's good to have extra copies of the AC2 wiki. You mentioned upthread that you were storing backups of the wiki in the cloud. That's a good idea, but are those backups accessible to other forum admins (such as sisko and Buncle)? Perhaps AC2 should look into a more formal approach to backing up the wiki? I think there are free cloud backup services for relatively small databases.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 13, 2013, 01:42:29 PM
I've set http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual: (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:)$wgExportAllowAll to true on the wiki, which means that you can go to http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Export (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Special:Export) tick the export all pages box, untick the export only current version box, and export the full wiki in XML format. In that form it is trivial to restore all but the images to any mediawiki install, and I'll set up a good way to handle images soon (most I have stored in folders already, will likely back them up with a publicly accessible google drive folder). I encourage you and any other interested users to do this.

Backing up the actual wiki database is likely not worthwhile, everything of any value can be backed up in a more easily reusable form with the methods I've described. The only thing that would be lost even if AC2 went down entirely once I've finished the file backup is the user accounts, which are created automatically from forum accounts anyway. And I guess the configuration settings. I'll publish a recent set of localsettings with sensitive data (db passwords and stuff) edited out when I get home.

Also, I'll put my text backups as public on my google drive, just in case I'm not available.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 13, 2013, 09:53:23 PM
You know what I think might actually be good? Making our Faction library more visible on the site and main page. As it stands to get to it you need to naviage through two Wiki pages, and that's assuming you know it's there. Maybe put a link to the wiki list right on the front page, and maybe another at the top bar next to GotM?
The wiki's got a button at the top of every page and that great big hyperlinked logo in the right sidebar - there are limits on how much space can be made.  What if I put a link to the custom factions section in the OP of the Indexing the Network Node Factions thread, and stickied it?  That would do for modder convenience of access, wouldn't it?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: JarlWolf on August 14, 2013, 01:45:11 AM
That could work. We just need something to catch people's attention is all and easy access.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 14, 2013, 01:53:31 AM
Done.

I could always do a Custom Factions section version of the Wiki logo in the sidebar and change the hyperlink...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 14, 2013, 09:27:43 AM
Stickying the indexing the NN factions thread is good, though maybe I'd like to write a modding resources sticky linking to a load of wiki and other things to replace the sticky at some point. I'd rather keep the sidebar link pointing at the wiki main page not the custom factions bit.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 14, 2013, 01:21:58 PM
You do that - I'll hook you up with a sticky.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 20, 2013, 01:48:25 AM
Only 17 more factions to go (plus Jarl's and a few recent ones)!
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Sigma on August 20, 2013, 02:03:04 AM
Hey ete, I tried to upload a PNG of some faction graphics but the wiki gave me an error. Is something broke?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 20, 2013, 02:46:01 AM
Possible, tell me the error?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Sigma on August 22, 2013, 03:14:13 PM
Screenshot attached.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 22, 2013, 03:50:10 PM
Alright, I'll look into it. May wait a couple of days though, real life stuff.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 25, 2013, 03:52:56 PM
did another 7 factions. still need to look at uploads.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 26, 2013, 11:34:43 PM
Think I figured out the issue with uploads, PMed sisko to make the change needed since I don't have access.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 27, 2013, 01:50:22 AM
I think I found a faction which could beat the Scotsnoobs, at least if they started close: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Mindworms (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Mindworms)

They have a 3900% Psi modifier. Think about that for a moment.

Though maybe it hits a cap.


Also, all factions other than those under development are now on wiki. Factions under development will be added, but I'd like to see the faction developers familiarizing themselves with the wiki so they will keep it up to date, I don't mind uploading them and helping out but it'd be good for the wiki to stay updated if I am away.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Yitzi on August 27, 2013, 01:58:48 AM
I think I found a faction which could beat the Scotsnoobs, at least if they started close: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Mindworms (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/The_Mindworms)

They have a 3900% Psi modifier. Think about that for a moment.


I think I saw that once before, and what you're missing is that they have +3900% to psi combat, but -95% to offense and defense, so it comes out to 1/20 the strength in non-psi and twice the strength in psi.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 27, 2013, 02:13:30 AM
Ah, the standard combat multipliers work on Psi combat as well? I thought they were standard combat only for some reason.

In that case, it's a much less insanely broken faction.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 27, 2013, 02:22:13 AM
I'd like to see some playtesting anyway.

(I only did the art on the Scotsn00bs, after getting RMcD to do the theme and writing; the unbeatable stats were all by Russia4life...  I'm more invested in the SupaNewbs, for which I did make the first draft of the stats.)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Yitzi on August 27, 2013, 04:07:08 AM
Ah, the standard combat multipliers work on Psi combat as well? I thought they were standard combat only for some reason.

The fanatic bonus does not apply to psi combat, but the offense and defense modifiers do.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on August 27, 2013, 05:19:18 PM
I'd like to see some playtesting anyway.

(I only did the art on the Scotsn00bs, after getting RMcD to do the theme and writing; the unbeatable stats were all by Russia4life...  I'm more invested in the SupaNewbs, for which I did make the first draft of the stats.)
I may well throw them into a future game (Worms not the unbeatable factions, those will be a special challenge).

Ah, the standard combat multipliers work on Psi combat as well? I thought they were standard combat only for some reason.

The fanatic bonus does not apply to psi combat, but the offense and defense modifiers do.
Okay, I'll add that to the faction editing guide.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on April 30, 2014, 12:24:00 AM
Made a backup, download if you want.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on April 30, 2014, 07:43:41 PM
About the scenario repository, continuing from other thread: Forum threads may be nice for comments, but maybe a news item for each is excessive, and the wiki is a better place for the main info since it can be updated by non-staff and is much more easily sortable. Perhaps just do threads here for now and maybe have specific threads for featured tested scenarios once per week or something so people can keep up? And BU, to be clear, are you offering to help with the wiki repository? I've got time to set up the structure and categories+teach someone how to do the rest, but in the near future I do not have time to commit to actually inputting the data so unless you are offering or someone else steps up on that, building the templates is not going to be high on my to-do list.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 30, 2014, 07:58:59 PM
Hmm.  Public discussion it is...

I might find time when I've got everything posted.  Altera Centauri's a large, but finite scenario collection.

I'm interested in a Wiki component happening for all the reasons you posit, but first things first.

If I just go ahead and get it all this week, the news item flood will be over shortly and we can bump the important items from previously.  Those are automatic thread posts that happen when you post a file to Downloads.

Trust that I do know what I'm doing, man; this is part of getting our house in order before BE, and it's been put off for far too long.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on April 30, 2014, 08:08:20 PM
ah, right, that explains it. Perhaps worth temporarily turning that feature off if it's easy to switch on the admin CP though, save the news from being too buried. And yea, is good to be getting the scenarios moving over.

And fair enough on getting it on the forum first. Let me know if/when you're ready to do wiki stuff and I'll make templates/talk you through the bits you'l need.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 30, 2014, 08:15:21 PM
Okydoke.  Volunteers very welcome to step in, BTW.  My plate is never empty of things I don't have time to do when I'm feeling productive.  No refunds.

Please go ahead and get those template ready, if you like; volunteers may really happen.  Please, my people?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on April 30, 2014, 10:06:32 PM
Alright, I'll move it up my to-do list somewhat. We're moving to a new city tomorrow which may not have internet, so no promises about activity.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 12:30:45 AM
I've used this as an example for adding scenarios to the wiki: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/October_2003_CGN_Challenge (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/October_2003_CGN_Challenge)

Upload workflow:
1. Copy name of the scenario into the url after /wiki/, go to that page, click "edit this page"
2. Copy the scenarioinfobox template to the top of your edit box from http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Template:ScenarioInfoBox (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Template:ScenarioInfoBox)
3. Fill in the fields (leaving a field blank is okay)
4. Copy over the scenario description text and add linebreaks (wiki removes single linebreaks), make lists so each line starts with * or #.
5. Save page.

BU, could you make a page as an example so that if there's anything you'll get stuck on I can explain it now while I have internet?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 01, 2014, 01:15:43 AM
Okay.

Do not take too seriously when I say Jeeze; people will not let me get a head of steam up when I'm trying to get some tedious work done today.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 01, 2014, 01:17:24 AM
First I need to take a minute to make the folder publically visible, so that discussion thread link will work for everyone.

Edit: Done.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 01, 2014, 01:33:27 AM
Okydoke: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Apocalypse_Scenario (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Apocalypse_Scenario)  Looks the same to me...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 01:51:30 AM
Excellent :). Let me know if you want more parameters in the template (one to indicate alpha(x) changes or custom factions could be cool?) or something's confusing/broken.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 01, 2014, 02:03:53 AM
I didn't get it on the very first try, but it isn't brain surgery.  The three sisko posted all had difficulty levels added, but I don't know where he got that.  Possibly add an optional field for extra box-worthy comments?  I know a lot of custom factions and .txt modding is going to come up as we draw closer to the present.  sisko may have more ideas, and I may when I've got everything migrated.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 02:22:31 AM
I've added alpha, customfactions, and difficulty for now. Two possible extras: a param for player faction and for other factions included? They could possibly be used for cool things like a list of scenarios involving/from the point of view of each faction being automatically added to faction pages.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 01, 2014, 02:24:51 AM
I think that's an excellent idea. ;b;

There's also going to be a few with custom terrain graphics and the like - I was in on some.  Possibly a field for associated fanfic, if there's more than what's in the introduction/blurb - I was in on a good deal of that, too, and Darsnan increasingly liked to write a story to go along with as the years passed.  Pretty good stuff, too.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 02:29:13 AM
Okay, I'll make the params now. The clever stuff with factions will have to wait for another day, but should be totally doable when I have a while to play with it.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 02:42:11 AM
Done. I'll make the params do fancy stuff sometime (when I have net and time+there is a decent bunch of scenarios with faction info filled in).

Edit: BU you can track various things about the scenario project from here: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Scenarios (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:Scenarios)

e.g. you can get a list of scenarios which don't have factions listed, or ones without downloads, ect. Also see how many there are total.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: vv221 on May 01, 2014, 05:23:15 AM
Hi!

I haven't taken the time to go through all this thread yet (it's on the top of my TOREAD list), but I'm hopping here anyway to say that I'm volunteering for anything needed to improve/expand the Wiki.
A good Wiki is something I would have loved to have when I discovered Alpha Centauri…
(actually, I think I didn't even have an Internet connection at the time, but that's not the point)

Could you tell me what are the priorities at this time?

I'm not a native English speaker, so I may let let some strange phrasings and such behind me, but usually I try to be extra careful about it when writing on a Wiki.
(at least a lot more than when I'm writing on a board)

Oh, and did I tell you that I've awful lots of free time these days?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 04:12:16 PM
This is /very promising/ :). There's a few fairly simple but time consuming tasks that need doing:
Most custom factions are missing the http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Template:LeaderInfoBox (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Template:LeaderInfoBox) so adding that would be cool
Scenarios need uploading (I posted how to do this exactly on the previous page)

More involved tasks include hunting down all the cool things Yitzi and other .exe guys have found in the code (formulas, how various things work) and adding that information to appropriate pages. If you're not super comfortable with english I'd suggest making a post in each thread you find information in with a quote of the change you make to the wiki page to make sure you've got it right.

Trawling the web for more custom factions that have been missed would also be good, as would uploading the recent custom factions and making sure they're all on wiki properly (iirc Dio's are not uploaded at all, several of JarlWolf's are not on the wiki, and a couple of Sigma's are missing their text files).

Another useful thing would be searching for useful strategy articles and creating pages for them (include link back to original source for credit).

And at some point I'd like to add {{SMAX|stuff}} and {{SMAC|stuff}} tags so we can easily tell what's in which game.

If you're good with web design making the infoboxes look more pretty would be nice, and if you're really keen maybe even a modified skin for the wiki.

If you're good with technical things (or have time to learn) then making a way to turn wiki XML exports directly into datalnks entries would be awesome. This may help: http://superuser.com/questions/564623/how-can-i-perform-a-large-number-of-different-find-replaces/564733#564733 (http://superuser.com/questions/564623/how-can-i-perform-a-large-number-of-different-find-replaces/564733#564733) since I'm pretty sure a set of regex find/replaces should do the job.

Related to ^ it may make things much easier if links are formatted in a specific way across the datalinks part of the wiki. If you want to take a crack at that project, let me know and I'll explain more details.

Let me know if you need advise or help figuring out how to do stuff, and remember nothing you can do can break or really harm the wiki. Edit and try things, worst case you have to change back.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: vv221 on May 01, 2014, 04:33:55 PM
Most custom factions are missing the http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Template:LeaderInfoBox (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Template:LeaderInfoBox) so adding that would be cool

Okay, it seems to be a good thing to start familiarizing myself with the Wiki.

Quote from: ete
Scenarios need uploading (I posted how to do this exactly on the previous page)

Seems easy too, something I could do.

Quote from: ete
More involved tasks include hunting down all the cool things Yitzi and other .exe guys have found in the code (formulas, how various things work) and adding that information to appropriate pages.

I'm quite passionated with all this hacking stuff, should be a plesaure to work on it.

Quote from: ete
If you're not super comfortable with english I'd suggest making a post in each thread you find information in with a quote of the change you make to the wiki page to make sure you've got it right.

Oh, I've no real problem with understanding English, the risk is more about strange phrasings ;)
But on Wikis I try to stay quite formal, which is a good way to be understandable.

Quote from: ete
Trawling the web for more custom factions that have been missed would also be good, as would uploading the recent custom factions and making sure they're all on wiki properly (iirc Dio's are not uploaded at all, several of JarlWolf's are not on the wiki, and a couple of Sigma's are missing their text files).

Another useful thing would be searching for useful strategy articles and creating pages for them (include link back to original source for credit).

Another thing I should be capable of.

Quote from: ete
And at some point I'd like to add {{SMAX|stuff}} and {{SMAC|stuff}} tags so we can easily tell what's in which game.

I won't be able to create tags, but assigning them is something I can.

Quote from: ete
If you're good with web design making the infoboxes look more pretty would be nice, and if you're really keen maybe even a modified skin for the wiki.

Not my part: I don't know anything about web design ;)

Quote from: ete
If you're good with technical things (or have time to learn) then making a way to turn wiki XML exports directly into datalnks entries would be awesome. This may help: http://superuser.com/questions/564623/how-can-i-perform-a-large-number-of-different-find-replaces/564733#564733 (http://superuser.com/questions/564623/how-can-i-perform-a-large-number-of-different-find-replaces/564733#564733) since I'm pretty sure a set of regex find/replaces should do the job.

Related to ^ it may make things much easier if links are formatted in a specific way across the datalinks part of the wiki. If you want to take a crack at that project, let me know and I'll explain more details.

Hey, I don't even understand a word of what you're talking about :D
But I do have time to learn.

-----

But first things first: I'm going to spend a couple days wandering on the Wiki before editing anything.
I like to know my environment before doing any actual work.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on May 01, 2014, 04:59:01 PM
Sounds good! https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents) are useful places to look for editing help.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on October 07, 2014, 08:25:16 AM
CivBE is making planetfall on Oct.24th and i think a BE wiki tailored for AC fans would be a nice addition to our content.

@ete: a CivBE section inside the AC wiki? what do you think about it?

Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on October 13, 2014, 07:58:07 PM
No objection from me so long as the AC content is not made less accessible (specifically, links from the main page), but I'm not likely to be working on it in the short term.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 13, 2014, 08:06:03 PM
That's passing up a recruiting opportunity for the wiki...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on October 14, 2014, 02:51:26 PM
I'm willing to be around sometimes to answer questions and teach people, but I'm not particularly interested in committing a large amount of time to developing a wiki for a game I've never played.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on October 14, 2014, 03:02:37 PM
No objection from me so long as the AC content is not made less accessible (specifically, links from the main page),..
Right now we have links to the wiki from the main menu (under 'Resources'), from the forum index (right column), as well as from every page of the AC forums (also on the right column).

..but I'm not likely to be working on it in the short term.
I'm willing to be around sometimes to answer questions and teach people, but I'm not particularly interested in committing a large amount of time to developing a wiki for a game I've never played.
That's fair enough.
It will be hard to find someone with your wiki skills, but we need a volunteer to wikify our CivBE content.

Anyone?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on October 14, 2014, 03:25:07 PM
I meant the front page of the wiki, the expandable list of AC pages, that should stay.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: sisko on October 14, 2014, 05:07:19 PM
I meant the front page of the wiki, the expandable list of AC pages, that should stay.
Aww.. sorry. I misunderstood. The main page will remain almost the same, but we'll have to add at least a link to the CivBE Section.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: ete on October 14, 2014, 06:19:37 PM
No problem, and it's fine to add a decent section on BE to the main page with a bunch of links, just so long as we don't lose AC links in the process.
Title: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 26, 2016, 09:38:27 PM
When I was swapping the BE stuff back out recently, I wanted to add
(http://alphacentauri2.info/images/alpha%20centauri%202%20logo%20BlueWide3Round2.gif)
to the top of the wiki main page -if not every page- along with a line of text like "The Largest Alpha Centauri Community/Forum On The 'Net" centered underneath, all hyperlinked to the root index, of course -actually went to the main page and looked at it for a minute- but I'm not a fan of figuring out how to do stuff on wikis...

Let's make that happen, though - I never understood why ete didn't want the host labeled more prominently, as is only fair...  Branding really matters, darnit.

I've got some less-wide versions, if that one doesn't suit the layout...
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 27, 2016, 12:10:18 AM
Well, I poked around and did something on the main page - but I wish I could figure out how to get into the page template instead...
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: DrazharLn on April 27, 2016, 12:20:15 AM
Oh god. That looked awful. Font size reduced. I think the banner should probably go, too.

A good solution might be to have a smaller logo under the AC Wiki logo saying "AC2 Forum", or similar.
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 27, 2016, 12:28:17 AM
Aside from not having a version that would begin to fit, it's the same basic design as the square wiki logo in the top left corner, so they wouldn't look right together.

How about moving it up over everything and reducing the spacing between the logo and text to about 4pt., -none of which I can see how to do- and have it atop every page?  That's why I wanted to know how to get at the basic page template.  I pay to host that wiki, and don't see why it shouldn't promote the forum...  I'm not married to that particular logo and/or text, and I don't like it where it is, either; just, I feel strongly that content that takes space/bandwidth and doesn't grow the community is dead weight...

How about the bottom of every page, if atop would be too intrusive?
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: DrazharLn on April 27, 2016, 01:28:12 AM
The wiki is a popular and useful resource. I don't think it has to act as a big advert for the forum to justify its existence.

That said, it should also advertise the forum. I'll have a look at how to add a more prominent notice.

The wiki does need some work, though.  The datalinks stuff is well linked, but some of the other good pages aren't and some pages that should have plenty of links to our resources (strategy, modding) aren't up to scratch.
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 27, 2016, 02:23:29 AM
...All the cross-linking the traffic will bear.  That's just nothing but win in 10 different ways for EVERYone...

Should we move some posts into the wiki thread for further discussion as it comes up?  I can certainly create a new logo of some sort, if that's what you really think it needs - we could eliminate the text line that way with the right logo wording, the logo at the top of the page being designed to decorate the forum for people who already found it and presumably know a forum when they're in one...

I'm fine with people just finding and using the wiki for itself, after all - like content in Downloads, you take the traffic load, most of which just downloads and leaves, for the few who do have a look around, for the few of those who sign up, for the few of those who post.  That's what Downloads is for, from a community-building perspective.  I just don't want there to be people who've been using the wiki not. even. KNOWING. there was a forum.  That right there is a thing that makes me very unhappy -it's tail wagging the dog- and must not go on.
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: DrazharLn on April 27, 2016, 04:57:57 PM
Yes, this should probably go off to the wiki thread.

I've put a little ad on every page of the wiki. Have a look.
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 27, 2016, 05:01:51 PM
That's very nice.  I would think that's good enough to let wiki-heads know we exist, wouldn't you?

I'll dig up the right thread and do the split/merging this afternoon, if you don't want to.
Title: Re: Re: Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)
Post by: DrazharLn on April 27, 2016, 05:13:53 PM
I should hope it's enough.

I don't know how to split and merge. I'll go back to work and leave it to you :)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 02:21:46 AM
I made a few changes to the wiki. You can check them out with the recent changes tool.

Do you know whether the old strategy documents from apolyton were saved anywhere?

Also, do you know if that big, comprehensive strategy guide is saved anywhere? It was by Velcr-something or Vishniac, maybe.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 02:23:47 AM
Also, I thought we mirrored the SMAC academy. Maybe that was at the other place.

We should probably mirror it on AC2 or integrate it into the wiki.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 03:03:31 AM
I think I've heard mention of the 'old strategy documents from apolyton' before, but I don't recall knowing exactly what they are.

Vel's Strategy Guide, by Velocyrix is what you're thinking of.  V4, alleged to be the final edition, is in Downloads here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=91 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=91)

The academy stuff is surprisingly little, if I'm not mislead: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:CMN_Academy (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Category:CMN_Academy)  -You have access to the CMN folder at CGN, I believe, and can look around for links to information there, if you spot anything missing.

Dude; it's 3am, there - go to bed.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 03:19:19 AM
It does my heart good to see you and Photalysis‎ working up a storm on the wiki. ;b;
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 12:24:26 PM
re: academy

I was talking about the real SMAC Academy, mirrored here on CGN wiki: http://www.civgaming.net/wiki/index.php/The_SMAC_Academy (http://www.civgaming.net/wiki/index.php/The_SMAC_Academy)

We don't have much of that content, so I've just linked to CGN a few times.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 12:37:23 PM
Okydoke - I'd be happier if we mirrored more -I don't understand why buster (no relation) keeps paying to keep a closed site up and have concerns about that going on forever- but gotta link where the content is.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 01:34:14 PM
I agree that we should mirror the content for posterity, but I don't want to do the leg work. Maybe someone else will do it when they're bored.

I prefer to spend my AC2 time on the stuff other people can't do.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 01:37:51 PM
Well, you're the only one active who has the needed access and understands the material...

Maybe we could talk Mart into it and give him server access.  I certainly trust him enough.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 02:49:40 PM
Anyone could mirror the SMAC academy stuff from CGN. All they need to do is go to each page, view source and copy.

There might be a template to grab, too, but it's not going to be terribly difficult.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: photalysis on April 28, 2016, 03:10:05 PM
Hey, thought I'd leave a little input on the layout discussion.

Take a glance at this other wiki: http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Terraria_Wiki (http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Terraria_Wiki)

Although the host has more bandwidth to spare and it's more media rich overall, the associated forum is made very visible with only a bold link and some whitespace. Proper layout and formatting isn't to be underestimated, and can be done with only rudimentary knowledge of markup!

The sidebar is also worth examining for some ideas. Social media icons draw attention to the sidebar and suggest a community, a similar effect could be achieved by placing a smaller banner or square icon in that location. The news section also suggests something more than a static web page - activity, in other words. The right combination of minor details can be very effective.

But, the heart of the issue, is this: The sidebar is very "default." I, and likely other browsers, are conditioned to ignore this section as it's mostly for wiki editors. Some multimedia isn't a bad idea, but simply changing some wording and formatting on the sidebar will alert the user that it's "different" from a fresh-out-of-the-box wiki, and that there's extra links there. I'm not all that wiki savvy, but I'm sure there's freely available themes somewhere that can be used as a quick way to spruce things up. I may make some minor adjustments to the front page if I think of a particular improvement that's within my ability.

Oh, and... This is personal preference, but I think a dark color scheme would be very fitting for the wiki. I say that about everything though, hehe.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 03:15:49 PM
The forum has several dark themes - check the bottom of the right sidebar.

I wouldn't object at all to de-genericising the wiki sidebar, or whatever else.

Anyone could mirror the SMAC academy stuff from CGN. All they need to do is go to each page, view source and copy.

There might be a template to grab, too, but it's not going to be terribly difficult.
Of course.  But, well, it a matter of posting the pages I'm thinking of, which requires server access - unless there's some way to do that as part of the AC2 Wiki with regular access w/o entering stuff one line at a time and re-formatting.

-Mart said, though, a couple of months ago on this very subject, that there was a lot in need of updating...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 03:32:53 PM
They're wiki pages, all that needs to be done is copy the wiki source from one wiki and paste it as a new page on our wiki.

No server access required.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 03:37:23 PM
Okay; that certainly makes things easier.

I didn't realize they were wiki pages.  -So you think the formatting will carry over, colors and all, at least with the template?  They're not on the same software, are they?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 03:58:44 PM
It's the same software, mediawiki.

Might be a different version, but that doesn't matter.

Root page mirrored, as an example.

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/SMAC_Academy (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/SMAC_Academy)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 05:22:12 PM
Okay; that certainly looks right.  ;b;
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 28, 2016, 07:14:21 PM
Either I just don't get it (not unlikely, as I'm not much of a Wiki person), or the Wiki is awfully tedious to navigate..

I think what would help is:

started copying SAMC academy content from CGN..
2 Questions for that (as its easier to do it right away, rather then having to open each page again [yes I really don't get along with the navigation ;) I can only find the academy by going to recent changes.. tedious :D ]:

what to do with the CGN links? keep or eliminate or change to some AC2 links?
I think there should be some kind of a footer stating that the Content originally appeared / was taken from CGN
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 07:25:43 PM
I strongly agree with all of that.

Credit CGN, and wiki needs some sort of master index and generally more user-friendly/intuitive navigation.  I've never had a good time looking for anything on there, either.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 28, 2016, 08:43:03 PM
Done copying the academy, I removed the styles.. (did that in an edit, so if you want the colors back just revert a step or 2)

For BreadCrumbs this looks like it would do the job:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BreadCrumbs2 (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BreadCrumbs2)

The Wiki landing page somehow resembles this currently  ;troll

(http://images.grabhouse.com/urbancocktail/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rebloggy.gif)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 28, 2016, 08:54:03 PM
~~> There is just too much to look at and nothing is given any particular weight.

It would prob. help a lot to move the "Help out!" section under the "Resources", give more weight to both headings & to also add weight to each topic heading under Ressources (assuming that this is the main ToC? )

Also having a general ToC in the sidebar could help navigation (e.g. like the Datalinks)

..and to maybe go a bit easier on the border colors ;)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 08:55:46 PM
...I think we might want to prominently credit/link the source at CGN on the Academy index page, and make all other links to local (if mirrored) resources wherever we can.  It's good to bolster the rest of the community, but a little cutting our own throats to have external links we no longer need external - especially somewhere closed like CGN, which wouldn't benefit anyway...

I think I'll PM Petek and invite him in to point out/link resources unique to CFC - I'd do the SMACX person at Apolyton, but there hasn't been anyone in years...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 28, 2016, 09:07:39 PM
Sent.

I've no strong objection to someone fiddling 'round with things like border colors, dark...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 28, 2016, 09:30:04 PM
Navigation in wiki's works by categories and see also links, in its simplest form

Templates can help too.

@thedarkestcolours, brb, setting theme to kaleidoscope.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 28, 2016, 09:33:31 PM
ok, I shall lay hands on it. I guess its easy enough to revert any changes..  (http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/fighting/axe-murderer.gif)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 29, 2016, 12:43:32 AM
Did some changes.. Not really happy with it, but sleep is calling..
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: thedarkestcolors on April 29, 2016, 01:23:26 AM
Playing with the angle of the striped gradient produces some interesting results. E.g. 0 (less "disturbed") and 3 degrees (more "disturbed").

The datalinks and news section could need something to be done to them. Just not so sure what.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 29, 2016, 02:26:43 AM
My.  The difference is striking.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 29, 2016, 09:44:11 AM
Good job on the new style :)

I think the links in the boxes headers are probably a bit too easy to miss, though.

Will help out more when I have some downtime...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 29, 2016, 03:03:20 PM
Draz, it hits me that I don't think anyone has every done anything with The Planetary Datalinks subforum threads on the wiki, and someone should - they're dictionary entries, and I count 32 very short threads -w/o replies- defining SMACX jargon and common abbreviations.  Either they could be compiled alphabetized into a SMACX dictionary/terminology page, or -and I think this has more long-term wiki potential- 32 stubs (where there isn't a relevant page already) in a SMACX dictionary category.  Stubs might grow on us, and there'd at least be a brief entry, then, for each.

A lot of them quote Kelly Magnum's site, which is no longer with us, alas, so the backlinks would need to go.  I hid the forum in a reorganization to save space, but I'm not aware of ete getting around to doing something with all that stuff.  I believe I will temporarily move it here as a visible sub of Council Room in hopes one of our guys who've been so helpful lately will take action...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: photalysis on April 30, 2016, 04:24:01 AM
Wow; I'm impressed with the new main page. It's purty!

A small change, but a huge improvement :)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 30, 2016, 08:05:27 PM
...I'm thinking about this dark theme for the wiki stuff; have a look at the Front Page of the forum - that's the Firaxis AC Old School theme, a look based on the Official Firaxis AC pages (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier's%20Alpha%20Centauri.htm) we rescued when they were taken down and mirror.  It would be a.) resonant for the old-timers familiar with that site, and b.) I just like the look.  See also the SMAC theme for an alternative dark design.  Both are easy to check with the box at the bottom of the right sidebar.

I have no particular love of dark themes - but something based on the look of the game or the old Firaxis AC pages, would really suit, and get away from the generic wiki look.  -I can totally do some custom alterations to banners/art/buttons/etc. if anyone has a good idea...

On a related note, my Custom Factions pages (http://alphacentauri2.info/My%20Custom%20Factions/Custom%20Factions.htm) are done in the same Firaxis pages look, and full of resources we host - I prefer linking the page two iterations of the art-modding tutorials in Articles, 'cause that's directly part of the forum, and the page three art modding pre-done goodie files all link back to Downloads anyway, but just pointing out the pages are there, because resources.  (I keep meeting new people interested in custom factions who've been aware of those pages forever; it does very well for googling "custom factions" without even mentioning SMACX.)
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on May 01, 2016, 07:21:26 PM
On another topic, photalysis, your formula for eco damage is not equivalent with the old one on the talk page.

I don't know if the old one was right, anyway. If it came from one of the exe modders it's probably legit, otherwise I'd be skeptical.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on May 03, 2016, 01:48:44 AM
Complete rewrite of Modding page: http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Modding (http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Modding)

Including a brief history of the .EXE editing project.

I think we should consider changing the four big boxes on the home page to be big button links (or titles with category listing, maybe) to four high quality articles:

Modding
Strategy
Installation
Datalinks (note on stacking and other mechanics notes should move into there somewhere)

These articles serve as entry points to the rest of the content of the wiki and can be the heads of their own categories.

Thoughts?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 03, 2016, 01:58:19 AM
That sounds good...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 22, 2016, 09:32:39 PM
ete?  Take a look around the wiki while you're around?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Alpha Centauri Bear on March 31, 2021, 11:28:28 AM
Something wrong with the wiki?
It looses it skin. I see just a plain text on white page.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 31, 2021, 02:32:23 PM
That's not quite right, no.

Some user ought to take fixing that  up on as a project...
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: DrazharLn on April 04, 2021, 01:50:58 PM
I fixed the wiki CSS
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: MysticWind on July 15, 2022, 11:18:29 PM
I was trying to add links to third party sites but the anti-spam box doesn't seem to show up. Do I need to be in Chrome?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on July 16, 2022, 12:03:21 AM
Draz?
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: magic9mushroom on June 04, 2023, 07:16:20 AM
I was trying to add links to third party sites but the anti-spam box doesn't seem to show up. Do I need to be in Chrome?
Problem still exists. I just had the same issue of being asked to solve a CAPTCHA without being actually given the CAPTCHA.

(I didn't even add an external link; it misfired on a pre-existing one to the AC2 forum. This is possibly a big enough issue to consider disabling the CAPTCHA if there's no way to fix it.)

EDIT: in case it matters, I'm using Ungoogled Chromium.
Title: Re: The AC2 Wiki
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 04, 2023, 03:50:15 PM
Paging Draz.  Paging DrazharLn...
Templates: 1: Printpage (default).
Sub templates: 4: init, print_above, main, print_below.
Language files: 4: index+Modifications.english (default), TopicRating/.english (default), PortaMx/PortaMx.english (default), OharaYTEmbed.english (default).
Style sheets: 0: .
Files included: 31 - 840KB. (show)
Queries used: 17.

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