Wiki Spring Cleaning

I propose we as a community have a Wiki Spring Cleaning for the official OHRRPGCE wiki. There are lots of outdated articles, and many new articles should be added. For example, the F.A.Q. does not mention questions like What are Slices? and What are Zones? some of the newer features added in recent memory. I also believe the FAQ could be better organized.

Disclaimer: I would personally see about adding pages about Slices, but I admit, I haven't yet used this feature and am not the best to write such a page. I have only used Zones with controlling NPC movement and not using scripting, so again someone with more experience should write these articles.

What does everybody think? If we each take an article, it can get done really fast and the official Wiki will have the most updated information based on our personal experience with the new features, and obsolete articles removed.

The wiki is honestly bloated, it's hard to navigate, it's irritating having to question how long ago each thing was written, and it doesn't sell the engine very well.

The links on the main page need to be reorganized, then most of the pages need to be stripped down to the necessary facts, or completely rewritten. I don't mean to offend anyone involved. I've signed up on the wiki to suggest some changes on the talk page there.

We started on doing this around Alectormancy +1's release last year, I do believe. BMR seemed to be doing most of the work on it, but I dunno.

---

dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

BMR was indeed, but then he ran into some real-life stuff and never got back to it. Though he thinks that he should probably get off his slime and get back to work on it. The only page he regularly maintains now is the free graphics page, and even that's a complete mess right now that needs some work.

---

Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

In the spirit of spring cleaning, I added "What are Slices?" to the FAQ, and made it a redirection to the "Slice Tutorial" article.

A massive cleanup is too much work for any one person, but I think if we all tinker with it just a little bit, we can make it better.

And I agree that it is a bit cluttered. Obsolete stuff should be marked as {{Obsolete}} or in the worst cases, deleted, and there are plenty of cases where information is redundant or not-well-cross-referenced.

BMR pledges to fix up a page a day. He shall post what he has done on this thread each day. If he doesn't, someone slap him.



And I should really stop talking in the the third person, even though my sig says I'm allowed to. But yeah, I'll get back to work on the wiki, and I'll fix up a page a day. Or at least do some cleaning up of the wiki each day. I'll make a bullet-point list of all the things I've done by the end of the day here, that way you can all mock and torment me for failing to do my civic duty, heh.

Cheers.

---

Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

That's one of the issues I have with the wiki. Who are we keeping the obsolete stuff there for? If it's old get rid of it, or at least move it all to a page for obsolete features or something.

The best thing I can contribute would be my random-tutorial videos. I only have critical hits as a video for now, but people should totally make requests and I'll do them.


But, you know, I MAY actually go and do those basics videos I was talking about a while ago. I'm due to getting free time soon since final exams end next monday, so I'll be free until next semester/I get a job (like anyone's going to hire limpy ol' me).

But I encourage special things to be stated for me to do tutorials of. Whether it be special moves, or special actions, or even neat little tricks. I don't know everything, but I know a lot and like to share what I know.

Plus, I can make tutorial videos pertaining to certain wiki sections. Heck, if the OHR wants to make their own private video account somewhere, I'd gladly contribute videos.
Well, until that time, I'll just do whatevs. REQUEST ME!

---

dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

Yes, when you find an obsolete page and mark it with {{Obsolete}} you should also use the "What Links Here?" link in the right-hand panel to located any pages that reference the obsolete article and remove those references.

...but I guess the argument for deleting obsolete stuff completely is to prevent it from showing up in searches...

I guess we can just delete obsolete things unless there is a really good reason to keep it around, and if something gets deleted that should not have been, it is easy to retrieve it from the wiki's history.

What I said above about the "What Links Here?" still applies. If you delete an obsolete article, you should also clean up links that point to it.

I guess there's the issue of having nothing whatsoever to link to if the obsolete pages are gone though...

I'm going to work on updating this page: http://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/Main_Menu

I've already pulled a bunch of images to add, but I'm banned for being a spambot.

I wanted to suggest a reorganization for the links, I'll post this to the discussion page on the wiki when I'm unbanned,

I want to change some of the names, add a couple of links, and reorganize them under 3 different categories (instead of having everything under navigation).

Here was my idea:

Project Info
-------------
-(Take out main page... most sites don't have it since it's taken for granted you can just click an image at the top to go there)
-About (rename the project info page)
-News
-Screenshots
-Downloads
-Source Code

Resources
-----------

-Getting Started (the F.A.Q. page renamed, since it is a good place to start)
-Tutorials (the HOWTO page renamed)
-Custom Editor (this page? http://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/Main_Menu)
-Plotscripting - Put plotscripting links, articles, tutorials here
-Documentation

Community
-------------
Slime Salad
Castle Paradox
Other Links (rename community)
Contributing

This certainly isn't perfect, but I think a change like this would make the site a lot easier to navigate, which along with making all the articles current would make this a great resource. What do you think?

That is strange! I checked the logs, and I can only see it blocking you once, before I added you to the Not Evil list. I'll send you a PM about fixing it.

I'm rather glad I brought this up, it's already sounding like the Wiki is going to be awesome again. I still use the wiki as a reference point for a large number of features and to learn how certain things work. Sometimes I am not entirely sure if it's current or not. As the engine evolves, so do it's features.

Maybe at some point in the future, I'll see about writing a starters guide, which shows how to use the most basic features to make a full game. Since I am currently creating a game which uses no plotscripting, I can share some good information for new people.

For example What are Tags for? explains it like a definition, but doesn't apply it to any specific scenario. There is a vast amount of uses for a tag, and new people may not fully understand the principal behind them.

Such a guide would basically go through the creation of a super simple short game with a beginning and an end. It will explain how a tag can be used to create quests, interactive objects, and other useful stuff. It will explain the creation of essential items, such as a main weapon, an attack, and a cure potion. Explain how to build and place a shop with new weapons, armor, and the cure potion.

This type of guide will introduce someone new to the engine to it's various concepts, and show them how each menu's building block is used to create a short, but fully playable game. It would be really nice if this could be a community effort too. A more advanced guide could introduce basic plotscripting and how to make a simple intro, and basic cut scenes.

Ultimately, the guides will serve as a way to get people interested in the engine, even if they don't want to download anything yet. They can easily read the guide and see screenshots of various things being done. What I'm saying by this, is that everybody learns differently. Some like to have a "For dummies" book, a guide, or a tutorial. Others play around and learn that way, and some even sit down and read 1lb technical manuals. The wiki currently feels like a 1lb technical manual, lots of jargon, and some examples, but no complete guide for a game from start to end.

I know there is a HOWTO.txt, but doesn't explain the building of a complete game, it's much more technical. It doesn't explain the creation of an entire game and how various events can be handled. People wanting to make their own RPG are more than likely RPG gamers. Some of them aren't going to have programming skills or understand what the heck a boolean is. Heck, some of them might not even know that an NPC is actually referring to a towns-person! The HOWTO chapter names will be very cryptic to someone who doesn't understand the terms. The guide will explain how these terms relate to an real-world RPG, such as explaining why a SNES RPG would use a TAG, and explain the role of an NPC, and that it can also be more than a towns person.

All I'm saying by this, is that if there was a guide for building a complete, but short game, more people might be interested in looking into it further. Once they see how a game is built and how relatively simple it is, I'm sure they'll continue using the engine.

Edit: Just realized that most articles in the new HOWTO are unfinished, lots are chapters are utterly empty.

BMR's Wiki Log: May 08, 2013 2248h



Today, I cleaned up the Free Sprites page. As it was hosting more than just sprites, I renamed it to the Community Graphics Resources page.

Rather than having everything on one page (which got real messy, real fast) I have moved all the graphics to separate pages. If you want free sprites, you click the link the the free sprites. For tilemaps, the same.

I believe I have fixed all of the links that led to the old Free Sprites page (which is now being used to host just the sprites) but if any are still remaining, please notify me and I'll fix them.


BMR out.

---

Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

Nice work BMR! I actually noticed this when I was grabbing sprites to make some screenshots with. It's definitely a big improvement.

James, MadCacti, and I came up with an agreeable way to organize the sidebar. I just changed the links on the mainpage to be consistent with the sidebar.

James took out the Mainmenu page since CUSTOM has more current information for all of that (although I still feel like we could get some use out of it)

I think I wanna take a crack at the tutorial page, but I definitely will need help and some oversight to make sure I don't get anything wrong or miss things

TUTORIAL/DOCUMENTATION CONTEST