Creatures Directory

Well, the goodies finally arrived:

The Creatures Directory


What's that?

Post #1 of this thread is basically a link list to further creature threads.

Each of these threads contains a couple of posts supposed to display various data. The source of this data is EP Wiki and the trick is when the data gets updated on the wiki it will also be updated in the forum posts automatically. Depending on the 'job queue' of the wiki this can take a while but should not take longer than 24 hours, this is because the pages are chached to increase performance. But there's also an option to 'hard refresh' which will cause data to be updated immediately.


Why's that?

The major advantage of this method is the fact that the data on the forums is coming from a central source that can be edited cooperatively. Everyone can contribute, it doesn't need the original poster to keep everything up to date anymore. Also the design/structure is consistent across all posts, there are more design options available than natively on forums, basic calculations can be included, etc etc etc.


Restrictions?

Yes. Unfortunately links a leading to pages being displayed inside the boxes inside the forum posts when simply clicking them. You need to open the links in new tabs or windows to avoid this.

When following links to the wiki you are currently not logged in on the wiki. To edit pages you need to log in and then browse to the page you want to edit. That's cumbersome and hopefully will be changed soon.


So this is not done yet?

This is the first implementation of this kind, it's in test mode and will be further improved. Please have a look at the directory and let us know what you think. Any questions, suggestions, criticism, ... really appreciated.


And who's doing what?

The design and content of the boxes is managed on EP wiki. Technically actually anyone can make changes but formally it's up to NIF to decide what to display in what fashion. The threads and posts are completely under control of NIF.


Further questions/comments

For everything related to the Creature Directory you can post in this thread. For anything wiki-specific not related to the Creature Directory you can post in the EP Wiki forum section. For anything NIF-specific not related to the Creature Directory you can post hm... somewhere on NIF.

 

Post #1 of this thread is a ToC/Index of the Creatures Directory linking to the individual creature threads.

Post #2 of this thread is something different and not done yet. It will show an overview of creatures with a couple of very basic parameters automatically updated by the wiki and the links will lead to wiki pages.

The individual creature threads have several posts...
...to make them easier to maintain
...because 'chunking' of information should make it more accessible
...to enable the option to link to specific data (fx, the post with the missions)
...to be flexible for future changes

The structure right now is
#1 Basic profile, damage types
#2 Maturites
#3 Missions
#4 Locations (Spawns)
#5 Loot
#6 Globals
#7 reserved for additional/future stuff

"Additional/future stuff" could be
- events involving the creature
- instances containing the creature
- taming
- list of contributors
- images/videos
- textures and related info
- whatever MA is up to: riding, cockfights, livestock farming, genetic engineering

I think if you put all of that into just one post that post will be really crowded but we can test that as soon as more data has been added.

Right now many posts contain no data because the according wiki pages have not been created yet or are empty. It's a task for everyone to change that.

However, the whole thing is completey under control of NIF and EP wiki is just feeding data. Whatever the management or members of NIF decide to do with it will be done (if possible).

How about this one: http://nextislandforum.com/threads/portal-guardians.413/

 

looking good, I will do my best to get even more info in the wiki (if that is even possible :))

 

Well, there's a lot of data, hence a lot of clicking. What I thought of is direct links to specific data in the index (post #1 of this thread), like

• Brown Papoo
  • Maturities
  • Missions
  • Locations
  • ...
• Buccaneer Skeleton
  • Maturities
  • Missions
  • ...

That's a lot of work someone would need to do.

Drake King is not linked because it has no individual thread yet because I wasn't able to find any infomartion about it. Question is how adding/editing threads will be handled. The NextIslandForum account is a shared account every staff member can use. I'm not a staff member, I just helped out a little bit and I think it would be good to make this more of a NIF project. Maybe NIF needs another staff member or two?!?

Clicking links like "Add maturity" is probably the major crux of the whole project. Clicking links opens wiki pages inside the frame containing the link. In case of "Add maturity" you get the edit form on the wiki but you can't see that because it's black letters on black background... Unfortunately this cannot be changed, meaning the links only make sense if you open them in a new tab/window. It's definitely a little annoying but currently there's no reasonable way around it.

Headings for posts #4-#6 can be created by creating the according wiki pages and put a heading on them. I will look into it later/tomorrow. It might be even possible to enable freestyle editing of these pages, just not sure whether that would make sense since we are expecting to have options for editing this kind of data with forms in a few weeks.

 

Perhaps there will be a solution to this very soon :)

 

Oh well, yes, that's the reason why the individual frames don't have edit links. No matter what you do currently you end up in a dead end.

Let's see whether we can find a workaround.

 

Alrighty, #4 and #5 are showing headlines now. Additionally they can be edited free-style. For example Mutant Boar has a map for locations.

These are workarounds until the features to edit locations/loot are up and running.

Post #6 is not showing headlines yet- I thought it would not be necessary to have a workaround since we expect to have a final solution very soon. Just waiting for input from another major EU tool .

 

Please have a look at the Achelous and Arges Cyclops entries in post #1 of this thread, would that be a better solution? Which of the both?

 

Ok, I tried to apply the structure but not even half done and I ran into a 10000 characters/post limit...

The index seems to get quite big, vertically, lots of scrolling instead of clicking, lol, maybe a format like below would be better?

A Creature
◦ Profile ◦ Maturities ◦ Missions ◦ Locations ◦ Loot ◦ Globals

B Creature
 »Profile » Maturities » Missions  »Locations » Loot » Globals

C Creature
→Profile → Maturities → Missions →Locations → Loot → Globals


Oh, I understand that you all understand that this is work in progress. All feedback is more than welcome and it's much more your project than mine, I'm just executing. ;)

 

Alrighty,

added Drake King,
added links to individual posts,
reformated to C Creature setup,
added link to NI Creatures on EP,
added contributors box,
added further info to post #3.

And herewith I would like stop working on the forum part of the creatures directory and finally hand that over to NIF staff.

I think it's quite elaborated already and a good start.