Documentation on the Wiki

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[grayman]

If you're suggesting we double-check your work, you'll need to list what you change/add.

[Springheel]

Yes, before you make modifications to existing articles, you should probably check here first. There are plenty of articles with outdated information, but it might also be that way for a specific reason.

[RPGista]

Something I could suggest would be to look around and, either through work done on actual missions or through participation on the forums, identify people who might have specific knowledge that they could share (but not have the time or energy to actually go through the proccess of writting an article/tutorial about it) - aproach them and seek their input on creating articles you yourself might think would be valuable for mappers. A notable exception is Obsttorte, who has done a lot of work on implementing features and then documenting them for everyone else.

 

Stuff that comes to mind:

 

- Special effects and scripted scenes = Mortem Desino (The Creeps), Fidcal, Sotha; There's a very good article on conversations done by Grayman but its meant for cutscenes, and I dont think anyone but coders know you can use them to perform live scripted scenes in the maps.

 

- Architecture using patches = RPGista (In Remembrance of Him); Hehe, I'll never writte this one.

 

- Optimization and urban design = Baddcog made some really useful tutorial maps regarding visportals in big urban areas, he had several posts on the topic like maybe an year ago. Never made it to an article far as I know.

 

- Tweaking core gameplay features = Grayman, Springheel, Serpentine? How to tweak AI's detailed characterstics (there are several variables you can tweak in Dark Radiant that are not explained, or very roughly). How to go beyond what is available there, like tweaking a character as to make him a master swordsman, with a melee level above elite; or how to make that special spider faster, and making it deal more damage than usual; how to increase the player's own values, speed, damage dealt, air supply, for an specific FM, etc...

 

- Conversations = Shadowhide made a cool tutorial map with different kinds of conversations, even one you interact with (which I used myself).

 

- Simple scripted actions = Shadowhide also made a tutorial with examples of simple stuff you can do with scritps to create opportunities for interaction inside the maps.

 

- Indexing or Isolating useful tips = there are several bits of information spread around articles (let alone in the forums, but lets not deal with that) that could be indexed not to get lost inside something more generic, or even have its text cut and made into a new, independent article.

 

its not the most fun of jobs, writting for the wiki, but it can save lives...

Edited November 1, 2013 by RPGista

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[Springheel]

(integrated all the "added in version X" texts. A normal user would probably not care about exacly when a specific feature was made when reading the "manual")

 

Correcting outdated info is fine, but removing accurate information should be avoided. A user who doesn't care about when a feature was added doesn't have to pay attention to it, but some people might be interested in how the mod evolved.

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[Springheel]

If you think it reads better being integrated into the rest of the text, feel free, but the version info could be left in parenthesis.

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[grayman]

As a developer, I'm also interested in being able to review which revision a feature first appeared in, so historical comments to that effect should remain in some form. I don't want to have to dig into change logs to find this information.

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[grayman]

Excellent. Thanks.

[Lux]

Honestly I think that if it pertains to information that new users are reading the most recent information should be listed first with past updates succeeding the most current entry.

 

Having to look through a list of things that are no longer accurate and then realizing the last thing is the one that applies currently is annoying for people that don't care about a features "progression".

 

Admittedly, I like to read them all because if I encounter a new bug with a feature I can possibly reason why its occurring based on past iterations but we're not all like that and its nice to have the best answers first without the back story.

 

Just my two cents.

Edited November 1, 2013 by Lux

[Springheel]

Having to look through a list of things that are no longer accurate and then realizing the last thing is the one that applies currently is annoying for people that don't care about a features "progression".

 

That doesn't apply to the page we're discussing.

[Springheel]

Also: The red text is better saved for "DO THIS OR YOUR HD WILL BE ERASED" kind of situations

 

Actually, I just remembered specifically why I put the version numbers in there, and why it was in red. It's so that people who have played earlier versions of TDM can quickly find out what might be different than they remember. if you read the gameplay guide when TDM 1.4 was released, you don't want to have to read all the way through it again when you update to 2.0--you want to be able to quickly scan it and find out what works differently. The format it was in originally is ideal for that purpose.

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[Deadlove]

The engine name is idTech4.

 

Same engine introduced with DOOM 3.

 

QUAKE 4, WOLFENSTEIN, PREY and other games are built on, TDM can technically be considered another one of those games since it's a total conversion + standalone now.

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender

[Lavender]

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Edited March 11, 2019 by Lavender