Moguta Moguta

Calling all SoaSE modders - Modding Wiki needs contributors!

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Calling all SoaSE modders - Modding Wiki needs contributors!

from Sins Forums

The Sins modding scene is a dedicated one.  There are several total conversions that have made significant progress, a couple great graphic enhancers, and a few virtually-complete game overhauls.

However, one thing that struck me upon venturing into Sins modding is the seeming lack of a good information resource.  Obviously, there are a number of people out their with extensive knowledge on the subject.  But information seems spread out in a scattershot fashion among various threads, personal webpages, and internal development discussions.

I'd like to know what fellow modders think of the idea (borrowed from the TES4: Oblivion modding scene) of a Wiki dedicated to Sins modding.  This would hopefully create a resource for fledgling and experienced modders alike to reference specific & detailed information on modding Stardock's game.  Comments or suggestions, anyone?

The wiki is up and running, thanks to Carbon016!
http://sinsmodding.dreamhosters.com

Don't be shy, help out!  Contribute your modding knowledge for the benefit of the community!

modding
39,470 views 61 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top

Uploader works, now we can start making it look like a real wiki. :thumbsup:

 

Also, I might just be a wiki noob, but is there a way to list all of the articiles that have been created? It would be nice to see what we have and what we are missing at a glance if at all possible.

Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top

I am already managing admin on several big wikis so I have been instated as Manging Admin on the Wiki. 

Drag~ 

 

EDIT: GeoFan, yes infact there is already an automatically updating page for that... 

http://sinsmodding.dreamhosters.com/index.php?title=Special:AllPages

You can find many helpful pages at the special page index:

http://sinsmodding.dreamhosters.com/index.php?title=Special:SpecialPages

 

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Thoumsin, reply 25



Quoting Moguta,
reply 24
Thoumsin, thanks for your pledge to help out.  I had no idea that a Sins modding wiki was already in existance, and I'm glad that you don't seem put off by this new attempt.  As you say that wiki was mainly for the 7DS mod, hopefully one with a more general focus will draw broader contribution.


The 7ds wiki was not really a wiki for mod... i have simply copy tutorial who already exist on these forum... why ? Because the search function on these forum is a hell...

And seriously, i am happy with these new wiki... now, if someone ask me something, i will be able to put something in the wiki and send the guy with question to it... After one year, i become tired to repeat a lot of time the same think...

Mainly, i will contribute at the modeling level... it mean creating the model, segment it, optimize the UV and basic texturing... by example, recently, i have explain in the B5 mod topic on 7DS ( yes, 7DS is not only a mod but more a group of modder who help each other ) how to segment/UV, this based on a koobalt model... it cover almost everything for tec type of ship... but it is very heavy, 10 or 20 page of topic... maybe i will create a specific model for these wiki... from the begin to almost the end ( i have always problem with the XSI stage, i need a good tutorial about it )

Almost all mod have genious in their rank... some can make moving part with particule effect, some other can create fully original ability code, some are able to paint in a wonderfull way... time that people share their knowledge... for the benefice of all modders... hmmm, i forget these who are good at programming and who have give us lately a set of very good tools...

For example, other areas I'm imagining are documentation on the .entity format in general, further narrowed down to the various .entity types, with each parameter explained.  Each parameter hardly needs its own wiki page -- I wouldn't recommend it -- but certainly at least a sentence of description.

You will need some administrator for the wiki... these can create template page... by example, you can create a top list with link to other place on the page... a little like how i have made at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Planet_bonus ... or make a general page like at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Planets where group send to a new page ( in my example, only the sub page for the star type was made )...

Template are really needed... it will add some coherence in the wiki...a example of page not following the template at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Federation , and one following a template at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Rogue ... now, we cannot ask everybody to know the markup language for a wiki... so, you need a assistant who can receive the text and picture related to a topic from a modder and the job of these assistant will be to create a page who can be read in a easy way by wiki visitor...

In fact, your first job is to create your wiki team... and it is where i have fail on the 7DS wiki... a guy alone cannot make all the job needed...

 
End of Thoumsin's quote

In case it hasn't been noticed. I have added a description about most of the frigate entity in the Frigates discussion/talk page, since I don't have a clue on how to enter it on the actual page with the right layout. So if someone could add it to the page.

Reply #30 from Sins Forums Top

For those that have never written a Wiki page before, Like me, I just came across this.

http://mediawiki.fckeditor.net/

If you edit their Sandbox demo, then click  [Rich Editor] you get, as it says, a "WYSIWYG interface for MediaWiki". I couldn't find an offline one, but it's better than nothing. 

Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top

Thx drag, I just editted the frigates page because of some spelling errors I had in the text file.

Reply #32 from Sins Forums Top

np, and Carbon seems to have made a new tabletype, so expect to see that up soon.

Drag~

Reply #33 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks, dragonfir!  That "All Pages" link is buried pretty far in; I wouldn't have known about it unless you pointed it out.

Progress.  Woo. 
Nice job on the Abilities page!  :D

Also, Carbon: I noticed your pages about additive and non-additive folders.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think those concepts became outdated once Ironclad introduced .manifest files.  I know I only include the files I've changed in my mods, regardless of folder.

Reply #34 from Sins Forums Top

Updated frigate entity page.

Reply #35 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Moguta, reply 33


Also, Carbon: I noticed your pages about additive and non-additive folders.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think those concepts became outdated once Ironclad introduced .manifest files.  I know I only include the files I've changed in my mods, regardless of folder.
End of Moguta's quote

The wiki isn't going to cater exclusively toward those who mod for Entrenchment. They're concepts that don't apply to it, but they deserve to be there. Feel free to add a note or something about it, or I can just make a template for non-Entrenchment modding.

Might want to wait until I rehaul the frigate page's formatting to be in line with the Ability page as well for future stuff.

Reply #36 from Sins Forums Top

Any entity page should be displayed in the exact format you would see the entity in wordpad. Not in a bunch of boxes spreading the page out larger than it has to be.  Comments of what each line entry does can be next to the appropriete entrys. The way it looks right now may cause some confusion, and look daunting to newcomers. That is just my opinion. Old saying.. keep it simple.

Also pictures and files (If i missed something point it out). I plan on using many example pictures in any tutorials i re-write. I also plan on writing about some methods that i use to make a low poly ship look like a high poly ship. Along with texturing and UV mapping subjects. I am new to wiki editing so perhaps pointing me in the right direction there.

Reply #37 from Sins Forums Top

Carbon:

Apologies.  I had not realized that .manifest files were Entrenchment-specific.
Also, can you integrate a WYSIWYG wiki editor like what Terraziel linked above?  That would probably be extremely helpful for those who are unfamiliar with wiki formatting code.  I have to admit, even I am only familiar with the rudimentary basics.

Reply #39 from Sins Forums Top

Not bad at all

Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top

nice  :>

Reply #41 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting panzerdragoonorta, reply 38
I noticed that you dont have a logo yet... how about this?

End of panzerdragoonorta's quote

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to put a 1000px some image into the left corner of the wiki. I've chopped down the original Sins modding logo from the Tools pdf (couldn't find the transparent version) and will be uploading it pretty soon.

As for the WYSIWYG thing, sure, I can install that. I don't think it's too difficult to use wiki syntax but the bar at the top is pretty limited. As long as it doesn't end up causing a bunch of crazy uneditable syntax you got it.

Reply #42 from Sins Forums Top

Editor (click the "Use Full Editor" button on the edit page) and logo are both up.

Reply #45 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 36
Any entity page should be displayed in the exact format you would see the entity in wordpad. Not in a bunch of boxes spreading the page out larger than it has to be.  Comments of what each line entry does can be next to the appropriete entrys. The way it looks right now may cause some confusion, and look daunting to newcomers. That is just my opinion. Old saying.. keep it simple.
End of Major's quote

After editing the Frigate page a bit, I realized something.  There is no way to both document all of an entity's possibilities and keep the entity text looking as it would in an actual file.  I think the way Carbon is going about it on the Abilities page is indeed best.  If necessary, we could always add an example .entity file with comments too.

Quoting Major, reply 36
Also pictures and files (If i missed something point it out). I plan on using many example pictures in any tutorials i re-write. I also plan on writing about some methods that i use to make a low poly ship look like a high poly ship. Along with texturing and UV mapping subjects. I am new to wiki editing so perhaps pointing me in the right direction there.
End of Major's quote

There's an "Upload file" link on the left side of every wiki page, under "toolbox". 

Also, the newly-incoporated rich text editor should help you with wiki-formatting.  You should use the "Heading #" formats for your section titles & subtitles, so the wiki will auto-generate a Table of Contents based on those headers.  (See the Particle Forge page for an example.)

Reply #46 from Sins Forums Top

It's also ridiculously easy to use the template - after copypasting the header for the table, all you have to do is add:

{{Explanation
|text = thisistheentityfiletext
|effect = whatitdoes}}

for each section you want, rather than messing with all sorts of wikitable syntax.

Reply #47 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks, I'll likely end up using that rather than messing with tables and misc syntax.

Small thing: Oddly, the icon for offsite URLs seems to be missing, and the color is still a typical-link blue.

Reply #48 from Sins Forums Top

Not sure about the icon thing (perhaps the directory is CHMODded wrong) but I know what's wrong with the link color (didn't mess with the hex color for it), so I'll fix it.

Keep in mind the thing I'm using in that template does not span lines. <pre> does but it messes up a variety of things. So if you want to do a multi-line entry for the text line, you'll have to use <br />. Still, it's better than nothing.

Reply #49 from Sins Forums Top

The icon was there before the wiki was changed to its black/orange color scheme.  If you're not sure how to get that back, I guess keep it a different color so there's some way to differentiate between the wiki and offsite links.

And I wouldn't mind doing this if it weren't locked, but the main page seems in need of more links.  At least to general categories or something.  It might make it easier for potential contributors to find things to edit in the new, growing state of this thing.  Or is the objective to keep the main page linkless until the wiki gets to a certain point of content & organization?

Reply #50 from Sins Forums Top

It's more locked for procedural reasons. I'd prefer everything be a bit better organized first, but I'll unlock it for now.