Wiki / Manual

[Cyrus]

just triggered off again by a new guy coming in #bushtarion being refered to the wiki so he could learn the ropes, he soon gave up

obviously people should be more patient than 5 minutes and jsut giving up but this is where i come from.

the wiki doesnt have the same interface as bushtarion and doesnt feel like its part of the game, i think that the manual should be brought back, maybe even copying all the info from the wiki and incorporating it into the bushtarion layout

no new player wants to join a game and leave the website to learn it.

just thought id see what the majority thought

vote wiki if you like the new wiki

vote manual if you would like to see a manual with all the stuff from wiki(basically an updated manual)

 

[f0xx]

Wiki is awful, if I ever have to learn a game from wiki, I would never even bother. I have nothing more to say.

 

[timtadams]

I voted manual. It was all i ever used. It was so convenient. It is set out pretty darn well, especially the units/tech pages. I use em all the time.

In fact i never really wanted the manual to go. I think some of the manual just needed to be updated, apart from that it was perfect.

The good thing about the manual is that it includes the information needed to play the game but not all the finer details/description ect that the wiki includes.

-TimA

 

[BlackWolf]

Wiki is not that bad really. It works on some things very well.
But in comparison to manual that was made on bushtarion ingame layout... No way! Going around on wiki is VERY hard! I have not yet understood what kind of idiot that guy was who made whole wiki layout as it doesnt have any kind of intelligence and user friendlyness in it. For example if you are on wiki trying to find some exact page even knowing what you are looking is next to impossible.

Only option to use wiki is to go around it here and there and then stumble up on some useful information. While on old manual information were logically on same place as it was ingame. I must say that adding manual to wiki was done pretty well, so in the end it must be my own stupidity to not understand why we even need wiki.

In the end, I think what ever is/was done was the best way of making things systematical, either wiki or manual not both.

 

[Weeble]

The idea behind the wiki was that it would be a community project - Azzer wouldn't be the only one updating it (as he was with the manual).

I must say though, the current menu structure is a little counter-intuitive. I'll see what I can do about modifying it so that it's similar to the old Manual layout - would that be slightly easier to use if that was the case?

If not, can anyone think of ways the wiki can be modifed to make it more user friendly? (And please don't say "convert it back to the manual"!)

 

[BlackWolf]

I have no idea how to make it better and commenting on that old manual thing is very hard before we see what it looks like, I dont think wiki actually suits for such needs even slightly by its structure. It is like putting 10 page manual to 100 part encyclopedia.

What I try to mean is that whole structure of wiki is made for insane amounts of info, and its structure has made is so stiff that it doesnt work on smaller cases. Instead I think that if it all is about community and stuff, then Azzer sure could have coded wiki like adding system to manual. Instead of making manual to be inserted to wiki.

 

[Cyrus]

making a wiki style manual same style as bushtarion where possibly bushtarion helpers can help azzer modify that manual?

im with blackwolf, to understand how to actually start off you need to talk to new players like babies if ya like, someone posted in #bushtarion today a portion of the how to start wiki page and there's stuff like "possible starting strategies" i mean cmon, new players would look at that and go, "okay then lads bedtime" there needs to be 1 starting strategy page that has the basics on, then another with 'more dynamic starting strategies' then you can involved buying selling seeds to speed up production etc. there basically needs to be different levels for new players

i hope that made sense, if it didnt ill try reword it

 

[Dimitar]

wiki is confusing..

PS: I hit the wrong button and voted for wiki

 

[TheNamelessWonder]

A manual is preferable to a wiki. The manual needed updates, but that's simple enough. I just don't see any good reason to merge the manual with the Wiki.

 

[Alcibiades]

Manual: So long as you keep 'up to date' with the updates, and don't let it build up until it's one massive behemoth of an update to get it accurate I don't think having a manual would be a big problem. Or make the Wiki appear in a more 'manual-esque' format. I just don't like Wikipedia when i'm genuinely trying to FIND a specific piece of information, it's great to read about something, wander along, read about something else randomly tied to the previous info. It doesn't seem to me to be a good place to put a manual.

 

[Dakbrew]

the Wiki is not up to date for Age 5

 

[cutter]

If someone can make the wiki more user friendly, then keep it, otherwise the manual is much better for beginners. Once you've played a couple rounds, you can find what you need either way.

 

[BlackWolf]

I think we are forced to go on what we got for now. So I think we should aim to get current wiki to work, or divide tasks of getting manual up to date so it can be added back.

Either way just posting here how manual is better isnt going to change anything.

 

[Cyrus]

well yes it will, if enough people are finding the wiki difficult azzer would im sure revert back to the mnaual and update it if this will get more players, he's not stupid, he will please as many as possible, ive not seen anyone really fighting the corner of the wiki, because it just doesnt cut it.

its an heartache trying to navigate for experienced players, so what does that tell you? lol.

 

[flameharvester]

Ill spend some time over the next few days fixing up the wiki, I hope my vast experince with wikis will help make it a better tool to use

 

[Ridiculous_Lee]

The manual outdated trumps the wiki updated. There needs to be some kind of manual that mimics a bushtarion page, only when you click on each link on the left it takes you to a guide of that page. Wouldn't be that much to write. For instance on the development page you have a quick rundown of the routes and a link to the tech trees, and maybe under an advanced title you explain the dev multiplier.

 

[pinpower]

Is there anyway to change the layout of the wiki (or manual content page at least) to mimic the layout of Bushtarion?

If that could be done the wiki would be great, as everything would be under 1 roof (like toys r us! ) and the manual would be far easier to navigate.

x

 

[f0xx]

I have seen wiki for other games like TribalWars where it mimics the layout of the game 100%, but since in bushtarion we have different color schemes, I am not sure it can be done.

 

[pinpower]

well, it would just be the default (although IMO it should be the old white one) colour scheme...but if the links are in roughly the same place (down the left hand side) then i think it would work wonders for the easy of navigation.
x

 

[Azzer]

Pinpower - there's two ways to do a manual. One that simply tells you what each page is & does. One that tells you the concepts of a game.

The old manual told you the concepts, not the pages (though there was a single page within the manual.... that very briefly listed every page in the game and gave a couple of lines of text to say what each page was about/for).

I'd be happy to re-make a new manual akin to the old one, going along the concepts line - but the way I want it done is I want people to go through the wiki manual as it is now, update it, check it for errors, see if there's any new sections that need adding to it - post them up here or send me a PM or another Wiki sysop who's active a PM about it - get that all up to date... then I can make a manual that simply either replicates that data, or if I can find a nice way to "parse" wiki-codes (eg "===" is a menu item or whatever) loads the data in directly from the appropriate Wiki article tables (so an update in the wiki = automatic update in the game manual).