Faction and era descriptions in help
Moderator: Forum Moderators
Faction and era descriptions in help
I was not active for few months, but just before that, in 1.7.0, I quickly introduced support for faction and era description in help (see the new section "Factions", only filled with pages when in MP, I must still fully hide it in SP). Then I forget about it 
.
So, it's probably very late with the approaching string freeze, but perhaps we can add some short faction's description for 1.8. The wiki seems to already have some material ( Factions ) but maybe the tone doesn't always fit well with the rest of the help. I suppose that a first simple version could just describe what types of units compose it (listed below with links in the help page). Since it's mainly for MP and is the help after all, possibly some basic strategic comments or tips (probably better to do like we do for units, with more style and less game rules stuff). Don't forget that hyperlinks to ability or units are supported.
Note that eras may have description too and they are two of them in mainline (and they may have different faction descriptions). Not sure what they are really, but I suppose that it's the same world at different time frames, so maybe add there some story about why these factions fight each other at that time. But such more advanced world's history writing is probably for after 1.8.
To add them in game just add a key "description=..." in [era] of [multiplayer_side] (for faction)
Of course, fancy UMC eras may also want to use this.
PS: I hope I not missed a discussion about this when I was away.
.So, it's probably very late with the approaching string freeze, but perhaps we can add some short faction's description for 1.8. The wiki seems to already have some material ( Factions ) but maybe the tone doesn't always fit well with the rest of the help. I suppose that a first simple version could just describe what types of units compose it (listed below with links in the help page). Since it's mainly for MP and is the help after all, possibly some basic strategic comments or tips (probably better to do like we do for units, with more style and less game rules stuff). Don't forget that hyperlinks to ability or units are supported.
Note that eras may have description too and they are two of them in mainline (and they may have different faction descriptions). Not sure what they are really, but I suppose that it's the same world at different time frames, so maybe add there some story about why these factions fight each other at that time. But such more advanced world's history writing is probably for after 1.8.
To add them in game just add a key "description=..." in [era] of [multiplayer_side] (for faction)
Of course, fancy UMC eras may also want to use this.
PS: I hope I not missed a discussion about this when I was away.
Re: Faction and era descriptions in help
To my knowledge, nobody has brought this up before. I'm sure it hasn't been discussed in the Writer's Forum, but the devs don't often deign to come here, so... *shrug* This is of course partly understandable since they're very busy people, but... for example, it would be nice to have a thread keeping writers posted on the latest news on the looming string freeze.
I personally don't have time to work on this project at the moment. It seems like a good idea, generally speaking. It would change my perception of the game - I'm don't usually think of multiplayer and campaigns being linked. That is, I usually think of default MP Era and Factions as existing outside the Wesnoth timeline... Intriguing. (It would certainly lend support to my niggling plan to make a TRoW UMC era...)
Please, if you end up finding someone to do this, encourage them to post their work here. The writers' forum is for developing writing, and it really bothers me when writing projects are announced in the forums by devs and then resolved on IRC, but no-one ever bothers to mention it here. There are people in the Writers' Forum; we care about what we do, whether we're trying contribute to mainline or just writing our own thing. We may not go on IRC. We may not use pastebin. (I happen to have done both.) I appreciate you posting here and hope that you'll continue to do so.
P.S. - the default eras are exactly the same; just that in one, you can recruit lvl 2 units.
---------------------
After some poking around, I think you're not gonna be able to post a strategy-guide-like description. How_to_play_Drakes and Drakes are both pages dealing with drake strategy, but you wouldn't really be able to boil it down to a reasonable length - especially since IIRC opening the help file pauses the game. Perhaps the wiki address could be included?
I personally don't have time to work on this project at the moment. It seems like a good idea, generally speaking. It would change my perception of the game - I'm don't usually think of multiplayer and campaigns being linked. That is, I usually think of default MP Era and Factions as existing outside the Wesnoth timeline... Intriguing. (It would certainly lend support to my niggling plan to make a TRoW UMC era...)
Please, if you end up finding someone to do this, encourage them to post their work here. The writers' forum is for developing writing, and it really bothers me when writing projects are announced in the forums by devs and then resolved on IRC, but no-one ever bothers to mention it here. There are people in the Writers' Forum; we care about what we do, whether we're trying contribute to mainline or just writing our own thing. We may not go on IRC. We may not use pastebin. (I happen to have done both.) I appreciate you posting here and hope that you'll continue to do so.
P.S. - the default eras are exactly the same; just that in one, you can recruit lvl 2 units.
---------------------
After some poking around, I think you're not gonna be able to post a strategy-guide-like description. How_to_play_Drakes and Drakes are both pages dealing with drake strategy, but you wouldn't really be able to boil it down to a reasonable length - especially since IIRC opening the help file pauses the game. Perhaps the wiki address could be included?
Re: Faction and era descriptions in help
lol, stupid me, I don't remember ever really noticed that (but I rarely play MP). I guess it simplify the task.melinath wrote: P.S. - the default eras are exactly the same; just that in one, you can recruit lvl 2 units.
And don't pay too much attention to my string freeze remark. I was out of the loop for some time and just got back recently. I remember that some devs wanted a shorter release cycle for 1.8, but a lot of things could have changed these plans. Not sure what is the current status, but I preferred mention that here, in case someone started to slowly write big descriptions.