Talk:Item

Page naming
Item names in the game are made up of several components. For armor:


 * Modifier (e.g. Prodigy, Titan)
 * Armor type (e.g. Motor Assist Armor)
 * Location (e.g. Boots, Gloves)
 * Mark (e.g. v2, v5)

And for weapons:


 * Modifier (e.g. Prodigy, Titan)
 * Damage type (e.g. Laser)
 * Weapon type (e.g. Chaingun)

We currently have a separate page for modifiers. This is good, otherwise we'd have an explosion in permutations. We should somehow make this more obvious in editing policy, as we still have a lot of links including the modifier.

But more important is how to handle the other two. That is, which of the following should we use?  
 * Prodigy Motor Assist Armor Boots
 * Prodigy Motor Assist Armor Boots
 * Prodigy Laser Chaingun
 * Prodigy Laser Chaingun

- Dashiva 11:36, 12 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Weapons: We have already many [[Laser Rifle ]] pages, but they doesn't contain almost any useful information. We can make them better by adding information about what monsters are best handled by such weapon/damagetype combination and where to find such weapon (vendor for basic types/list of quests with such rewards/...). Linking to  [[Laser Rifle ]] will also solve problem with Flamethrower vs. Virulent Disperser
 * Armor: On the other side I'm not sure about usefulness of having [[Motor Assist Armor Boots ]],  [[Graviton Armor Boots ]] and  [[Stealth Armor Boots ]] . They are always boots just adding different bonus to the user based on the armor type (but same for all the armor parts).
 * I suggest creating special templates for weapons Icon/Weapon and armor Icon/Armor that will handle the links and also add appropriate icon. This way we will be able to change the links format in the future on just one place. Parameter proposal:
 * - I want to allow to set the mark/version of the armor to get the correct icon.
 * → Zarevak 02:40, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
 * → Zarevak 02:40, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * For the sake of completeness, I'd split Laser and Rifle as well. We can translate deviating base names using the #switch parserfunction, and if we decide not to, reassembling is trivial. Otherwise agreed on your proposal. - Dashiva 10:50, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * How can we do the split/join on the parameters level?
 * - from what you say, it should somehow produce: [[Image:Flamethrower.png|24px|Flamethrower]] Prodigy Flamethrower (links to all 3)
 * Another problem is with Ice vs. Cryogenic
 * - from what you say, it should produce: [[Image:Cryogenic Disperser.png|24px|Cryogenic Disperser]] Prodigy Cryogenic Disperser
 * I've also seen two staffs in the game: Staff vs Kinetic Staff - both were in the store at the same vendor, but I think, this is bug.
 * Armor has no problems:
 * - should produce: [[Image:Item0143.png|24px|Motor Assist Armor Boots]] Prodigy Motor Assist Armor Boots
 * → Zarevak 12:59, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I was thinking to do it the other way around. The template use should be, , etc. We can then link each parameter and translate flame->fire, cryogenic->ice, etc, or even better, simply add redirects for the alternate names. If we want to link element/weapon combinations, we simply use parameters 2 and 3 as a single link. This approach also saves work for the editors, since they don't have to know about the canonical names for elements and weapon types. - Dashiva 17:42, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I think we can mark this as closed now, with Icon/Weapon and Icon/Armor. The remaining part is advertising them so they actually get used. However, we still need to decide on the actual level of detail to include (particularily item color has become important), so continue at Template talk:Mission. - Dashiva 03:43, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Modification schematics
Also, while we're on this subject - the new item rewards in quest deal with item "modifications" cubes. What particular format are we looking for here when inputing the information for the tag? Adeptus 15:24, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * The non-weapon, non-armor, non-tool rewards are a bit up in the air. Especially schematics are tricky, because they don't have proper icons as such, they use a base icon with the schematic grid as an overlay. Pending a proper policy decision, I'm using the following:


 *   -
 *   -
 *   -


 * And so forth. Basically, use the common name for icon and full name for link text. - Dashiva 17:51, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * About a month ago I've tried to create the Schematic icon template:
 *   -


 *   -


 * But it doesn't work correctly yet
 * If anybody wants to finish/create the template feel free to reuse my code.
 * I don't even know if it is good idea to use two layers of images or combine all the schematic images offline and upload them under the name of the schematic/modification.
 * → Zarevak 22:23, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * What parts of it are broken? I see it links to Blueprint.png instead of the base image, but anything else? - Dashiva 22:42, 13 December 2007 (UTC)


 * They are not able to be used inline or in the lists. That's the reason the images are on second line below the syntax example. When I tried to use them in the bulleted list, Mediawiki first ended the list by &lt;/UL&gt; then added two &lt;/DD&gt; used for double paragraph indention (created by "::" wiki markup) and then used the Blueprint HTML code... Also any text written after the Blueprint gets wrapped to new line...
 * Try using this code:

Grenade
 * Grenade
 * Grenade
 * → Zarevak 03:19, 14 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Let's see then.


 * Apples Bananas
 * Apples Bananas
 * Apples Bananas
 * Apples Bananas
 * Apples Bananas
 * Apples Bananas


 * (Saving page to compare in different browsers.) - Dashiva 10:26, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Looks fine in IE and Opera, but Firefox messes up the vertical alignment of the blueprint image. Not quite ready for production yet. I don't think uploading premerged images is a the way to go, the game doesn't do it after all. - Dashiva 10:32, 14 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Good work on fixing the inline problem in User:Dashiva/Template/Schematic. Something is still wrong - it works in IE7, but not in Opera 9.23 or Firefox 2.0.0.11:


 * → Zarevak 18:16, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm... Not good to handle this with CSS and div tags. I'd say we go for a much easier approach, a script that merges the two images server side; a php script using gdlib is one way. It will store a copy of the image that was generated, so it only needs to be done once to reduce load. - Mekwall 00:12, 10 January 2008 (UTC)